Preston Frazier’s Best of 2014 in jazz and fusion, including the Breithaupt Brothers, Simon Phillips, Oz Noy, Bobby Broom and Miguel Zenon.

By fully accommodating Stomu Takeishi while remaining true to themselves, Mole is renewed and nowhere close to running out of steam.

With ‘All Purpose Music,’ the Virginia-based soul-funk-jazz quartet Butcher Brown shows why Nicholas Payton is so fired up about this band.

‘Crimen Sonoro’ is a muscular, multicultural fusion jazz from the funky, metal/jazz/hip-hop/mariachi sextet out of Mexico.

‘Red’ establishes Rik Wright’s Fundamental Forces as a hard-to-categorize jazz force to be reckoned with.

Here is a review of ‘The Process’ by Bill Laswell, Chad Smith and Jon Batiste, a meeting of the minds of master musicians who hadn’t previously met.

Here’s a review of ‘Bridges of Souls,’ a tasteful fusion excursion from Hungarian drum ace Ferenc Nemeth and Hugarian guitar ace Attila Laszlo.

Powered by the garage jazz-rock songs of Gregory Howe and Matt Montgomery with the brash saxophone stylings of Kamasi Washington, Throttle Elevator Music is back with a second helping.

We review ‘Blues and Daily News’ by Ross Hammond and Grant Calvin Weston, a creative guitar/drums improv record.

‘Etymology’ by Burnt Belief, featuring Porcupine Tree’s Colin Edwin and Jon Durant, is as good as you can get with downtempo music.