Uncommonly fresh and quietly inventive, Inward Looking Outward breathes new life into the venerable ol’ piano trio without having to step outside to achieve that. A rare achievement, to be sure.

Played with grace, fire and the knowledge of how much of both to deliver.

Every song finds a different way to soothe, groove and satisfy the soul. Blades and his badassed organ trio never seem to run out of ideas.

Earlier this year, outlier saxophonist Johnny Butler made an EP titled Raise It Up, pulling most everything from the pantry and throwing it into a logic board-laden blender. You May Also Like: Sam Butler – Raise Your Hands! (2015)

The late Muddy Waters is in the blood, soul and heart of Mud Morganfield.

This improvised music supergroup is truly a democratic musical commune.

Does a song have to be repetitive and elementary to work? MoeTar says: No.

“Got 2 Be Groovin'” is another calling card tune from smooth jazz sax master Euge Groove, destined to delight his fans.

Unpredictability and real passion characterizes ‘The Darkseid Recital’ as a whole, just as it did for Jones’ and Shipp’s amazing ‘Cosmic Lieder’, but those things are magnified from doing it from the stage. That’s the perfect way to follow up on that earlier, acclaimed duet.

ree-form jazz doesn’t need to go on for mind-numbingly lengths if the musicians know what they’re doing. The Sputnik Trio have this all figured out.