“Short Visit” was David Sanborn’s early hat tip to his sometimes-employer Gil Evans, but it wouldn’t be his last.

Spin-offs usually aren’t as successful as the original thing. That axiom never applies to Ivo Perelman projects, though, and for ‘Duologues 1-Turning Point,’ a peak performing Perelman gets Tom Rainey’s best.

Jeff Oster, Vin Downes and Tom Eaton prove with ‘Seven Conversations’ that ambient or New Age music doesn’t have to be planned to be good.

For ‘Adityahridayam 321,’ David Torn is leveraging technology and musicianship in the service of impulsive creativity like no one else can.

Like a fingerprint or snowflake, Ivo Perelman’s and Matthew Shipp’s ‘Magical Incantation’ is unique within a collection of other unique tie-ups even if the basic approaches are similar.

Emphasizing a loosely-structured, open approach, the Tomeka Reid Quartet builds on the success of the prior two outings with ‘3+3.’

The Claudio Scolari Project raises the stakes for ‘Opera 8,’ an especially adventurous effort from a band for which adventure is their calling card.

Everything on Nick Millevoi’s meditative ‘Moon Pulses’ points to conceiving a single idea and a single-minded determination to bring that idea to fruition.

Now out in complete, remastered and legal form, ‘Poppin’ in Paris: Live at L’Olympia 1972′ should serve to get Cannonball Adderley’s final era the attention it deserves.

For the Christian Marien Quartett, the new album ‘How Long Is Now’ means not just living in the current moment, but thriving and getting full enjoyment from it.