The Music of Tim Green from Boat Safety Films on Vimeo. We’ve chatted up the winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk saxophone competition a lot, and Jon Irabagon has managed to insert himself into a lot of vital jazz albums since his big win. You know, the guy who came in second isn’t so shabby, either.

Flush with beauty and mystery, “Elusive Butterfly” by Bob Lind remains one of the greatest tunes ever to inhabit the airwaves. The track reached #5 on the charts, both in America and Europe, making an instant star out of literate singer/songwriter, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland.

Some artists begin their recording career as a leader rather tepidly, playing it safe with stable, derivative styles and often performing other people’s songs before stretching out, taking chances and establishing their own identities on later records.

Members of Baltimore improv music combo Turn Around Norman have been around a lot of jazz greatness: Tim Berne, Michael Formanek, Craig Taborn, Gerald Cleaver, Dave Douglas and Darcy James Argue are but a few of the big shots members in this ensemble have performed and recorded with.

Cathy Jean’s In the Remains darts out with an attitude that’s both confessional and confrontational. She can be equal parts check-me-out and get-the-heck-out.

Vibraphonist Warren Wolf is very, very talented, something he might have been aware of when he titled a past release Incredible Jazz Vibes, with a cover which looks conspicuously like Wes Montgomery’s for The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery.

One was a teenaged hippie hobo who once toiled at an organic farm in Maui, the other a finance grunt for a white-collar firm. But a shared desire to create and play music brought Kenny Liner and Cris Jacobs together from polar opposite worlds to form The Bridge.