An instrumentalist of the highest order, Michael Bisio is underrated as a leader and composer. ‘MBefore’ is but the latest instance where he excels in those areas as well.

Michael Formanek Drome Trio’s ‘Were We Where We Were’ is a gratifying listen, whether the person beholding it realizes that these songs are musical palindromes or not.

Ivo Perelman and his all-star saxophone cohorts have rewritten the rules of the saxophone quartet with ‘(D)IVO.’

Andrew Boudreau puts the jazz world on notice his first time out with a thoughtful, fully realized quartet delight.

For anyone who’s had their fill of the sea shanty craze, don’t quit it until you’ve had a chance to hear Shane Parish’s evocative take on these nautical songs. You don’t even have to like sea shanties to really enjoy ‘Liverpool.’

Tomas Fujiwara’s twin trios double the chops and double the fun with the welcome Triple Double followup, ‘March.’

Extraordinary music usually results when extraordinary musicians like Nels Cline and Ben Monder step out of their comfort zones and put themselves in challenging situations that gives them no other out but to lean on their innate sense of creativity.

FISHBLOT’s ‘small talk’ culls together music from Danny Fisher-Lochhead / Ryan Blotnick sessions that is easily relatable but impossible to categorize.

Steely Dan closes the ‘Northeast Corridor’ live album with a genteel performance of a blues-jazz song Joe Williams made famous.

With ‘Oddly Enough,’ Gordon Grdina’s own stringed-based expedition into the works of one of current jazz’s most esoteric composers sheds yet more light on the character, shape and genius contained in these scores.