It’s easy to use electronic wizardry these days but that’s not the same as handmade music. Will Ackerman, Jeff Oster and Tom Eaton drive the point home on ‘Brothers.’

An expertly performed live version of the opus “Aja” is an advance single from the upcoming concert album ‘Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live!’

Sometimes you want jazz that makes you think and other times you just want that jazz to party and get down. The Nils Landgren Funk Unit takes care of the latter end of the spectrum with their recent release ‘Funk Is My Religion.’

With a prepared piano, Satoko Fujii once again makes “music that no one has ever heard before.”

While the energy of prior MTO records might be dialed back a bit, Steven Bernstein’s ‘Tinctures In Times’ is every bit as adventurous and emotionally weighty as before.

Clearly the guys of The Kevin Brady Electric Quartet are very comfortable playing together, and the immediacy and unity heard on “Airbourne” proves it.

‘5’ is a “new” set of old recordings by Tim Berne’s Bloodcount featuring the special sauce that guitarist Marc Ducret added to this supergroup quartet from the ’90s.

‘Attention Spam’ is a reminder that the special makeup of Tim Berne’s Bloodcount made the music itself special and this latest output is a precious capture from those short few years the ensemble was active.

ElectroBluesSociety and Boo Boo Davis make the perfect combination: the former supplies the groove and the latter brings the grit.

L.A. is a big, diverse jazz scene where it’s tough to stand out but newcomer drummer Atticus Reynolds has quickly done just that with ‘Towers,’ bringing loads of chops and musical creativity to bear on his first record as an Angeleno.