There were two discoveries with ‘Science Friction +size’: When a quartet discovered new possibilities with a trumpeter, and when Tim Berne scraped a shiny disc off the floor.

It’s amazing how the tight musical partnership of Natsuki Tamura and Satoko Fujii is able to embrace just one more musician and build a set of performances that fully represents the talents of all three. With drummer Ramon Lopez, ‘Mantle’ musical democracy at its finest.

‘Threads’ is the kind of opening statement that usually takes several tries to nail down, but the Caterpillar Quartet blends a variety of styles to make ostensibly jazz that’s often hard to neatly categorize when you dig deep into these songs.

Thankfully ESP-Disk made the call to get out to the world Owl Xounds Exploding Galaxy’s ‘The Coalescence,’ a valuable relic from an audacious NYC Downtown band that shouldn’t be forgotten.

‘Anemone’ by the Andrew Barker + Jon Irabagon Duo is sax-and-drums improvisation at its most impulsive and connective.

We already knew that Chris Potter is good, but know we now know that he’s good even he has to do everything by himself.

Dave Douglas never stops looking for new ways of getting his message out, and ‘Marching Music’ is music with a purpose that also widens Douglas’ already expansive palette.

‘Natural Selection’ is an advancement of bold, rock-oriented ideas drummer Dan Weiss first put forward a couple of years ago and justifies his decision to keep going down this path.

Mat Walerian’s latest Okuden project is his most ambitious yet and when you understand the sweeping, cutting-edge careers of his sidemen, you see an artist whose ambitions matches theirs.

The wicked brews that Crazy Doberman concocts are crazy good; ”Illusory Expansion’ is hard to define but very easy to like.