Now on its ninth album ‘Sleeping Cat,’ Natsuki Tamura’s Gato Libre has never really been about jazz; it’s folk music with an open mind.

‘Sensitive’ documents the gig where Tim Berne’s Hardcell unit got started, as well as Berne’s fruitful association with keyboardist Craig Taborn.

Paul de Jong has gumption of cellist Tom Cora, while Harrison Bankhead boasts the savvy of Charles Mingus. It’s all spontaneously on display on ‘Freedom.’

Think of ‘Joy’ by Electric Simcha as Jewish party music for the punk set.

Here is the premiere of György Ligeti’s “Fanfares,” as performed by Brian Krock’s Big Heart Machine jazz orchestra.

Bassist and producer Paul Bryan’s ‘Cri$sel Gems’ is a very consistently satisfying set of retro-fusion tracks.

Matt Mayhall went for an instinctual approach on ‘Fanatics,’ took a few chances and with the right guys to assist him, emerges triumphal.

It’s always a good indication that the music is working the way the artists intend for it to work when you struggle to pigeonhole it but can easily get a firm grasp of its emotional impact. Syrinx Effect ‘s ‘A Sky You Could Strike A Match On’ does just that.

Jeff Beck himself hadn’t been able to replicate the grit and immediacy of the funk/rock/jazz classic ‘Blow By Blow’ but Butcher Brown’s ‘The Healer’ comes close.

This nifty little sax/guitar/drums combo applies a rock poise and an electrified sonic din to avant-jazz structures.