A restless, progressive artist through the last 50 years, Terje Rypdal shows he can still pack large ideas into a small band within the tighter confines of a studio.

Butcher Brown’s fusion / R&B / funk / punk alchemy doesn’t brow beat you into submission. Instead, seductive grooves and confident musicianship do that job.

No matter how free or straight it’s played, ‘The Unidentifiable’ is always eloquent, audacious and artful. The Matthew Shipp Trio continues to set the standard for the modern jazz trio of our time.

Released 10 years ago today, ‘Bachman and Turner’ was a Bachman-Turner Overdrive comeback in every way except the album title.

Takuya Kuroda already located the sweet spot where funk, jazz, hip-hop and R&B intersect. Now he’s amping up the studio creativity with ‘Fly Moon Die Soon.’

The Rolling Stones accomplished something 15 years ago today that hadn’t happened in a quarter century: They put out a good record.

Anna Webber builds a talented band around an idea from years earlier, and her deeper dive into that idea is well justified, judging from this galvanized performance.

Sameer Gupta and Ben Tyree make music that’s direct and sometimes abrasive but also easy to absorb because they mesh so well together.

Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura always have something new to say in part because they are so open to allowing new musical personalities to disrupt an existing chemistry.

Bob James’ ‘Once Upon a Time’ helps to complete our understanding of an artist far more adventurous than his popular works come close to suggesting.