Adam Hopkins is one of the few talents with the vision to make jazz directed at the current and future generations, not the past ones.

Fifty years ago, Herbie Hancock paused to have a little cartoon-related fun. And when Herbie is having fun, his listeners usually are, too.

This best of 2018 list for hard rock and metal is capped by one mammoth record that made the whole year worth it.

A direct outgrowth of George Colligan’s work as an educator, Other Barry sounds like a bunch of PhD professors of funky rock-jazz.

Steve Kuhn just doing his regular jazz trio thing with Joey Baron and Steve Swallow – as they do on ‘To and From the Heart’ – is always exceptionally good.

Tiger Hatchery’s ‘Breathing In the Walls’ proves that you don’t have to find an alternative to jazz to get your yah-yah’s out.

Preston Frazier’s jazz-focused survey of Best of 2018 albums includes Mark Wade, Chris Carver, Peter Erskine and Stanley Clarke, among others.

The upheaval seen in Washington and elsewhere since 2016 has amped up the political awareness of a lot of people, and Dave Douglas is no exception.

Chad Taylor’s first solo album shows you stuff you won’t hear on all the numerous, critically acclaimed projects he became involved with.

The freewheeling ‘Lebroba’ is a solid entry in Andrew Cyrille’s lengthy catalog, and could be considered a solid entry in the catalogs of Wadada Leo Smith and Bill Frisell, too.