Matthew Shipp returns to his trio, using a common setup to make music that’s uncommonly advanced and stimulating.

Here is S. Victor Aaron’s Best of 2018 list for modern and mainstream jazz releases.

Not everyone is cut out to take on such an ambitious project but one look at Michael Leonhart’s background makes it undeniably clear that he could.

The freewheeling ‘Lebroba’ is a solid entry in Andrew Cyrille’s lengthy catalog, and could be considered a solid entry in the catalogs of Wadada Leo Smith and Bill Frisell, too.

The big accomplishment of the first ‘Dirigo Rataplan’ was in Devin Gray’s insight in conceptualizing ways to get the most out of his fellow musicians and himself. That’s the same kind of brilliance found on ‘Dirigo Rataplan II.’

Kind Folk is a new jazz supergroup that lives up to the promise its first time out, with ‘Why Not.’

The return of Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore with ‘After Caroline’ is a welcome one because these guys don’t slouch for a second in taking on Stein’s challenging material.

The long-forgotten ‘Both Directions at Once, The Lost Album’ is nonetheless as gratifying as many other John Coltrane albums from the Impulse! era; indeed, it holds its own against the entire, history-making discography.

The all-originals ‘Ours’ and all-covers ‘Theirs’ are both bulls eyes from Thumbscrew and a strong way to persuade the quality label Cuneiform to not give up the fight.

David Ake puts decades of experience behind ‘Humanities,’ creating what will certainly be one of the best mainstream jazz releases of the year.