‘What Happened There?’ has much unpredictable, provocative and instinctual playing from the first encounter between Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura, two of Japan’s foremost musical firebrands.

There’s too much artful turmoil here to contain on one disc, and that’s why Tim Berne’s ‘Yikes Too’ is a double-disc delight.

Microtonal jazz has been explored for a while, but with ‘Hemlocks, Peacocks,’ Will Mason finds innovative ways to scale its limitless potential.

Fred Phillips’ look back at the Best of 2024 in metal and hard rock includes albums from Judas Priest, Bruce Dickinson, Kittie, Sebastian Bach and others.

Roscoe Mitchell leads a new trio/quartet using his decades-old ideas with a new freshness and proving with ‘One Head Four People’ that his approach still stands in the vanguard of jazz.

Cheer-Accident’s ‘Vacate’ is an “easy listening” record from an art rock band that deserves close listening.

Fifty years on, Patrice Rushen’s ‘Prelusion’ continues to be more than some artifact of its time, it’s the auspicious introduction of a precocious, enormous talent

The moments are long on ‘Chrononaux’ but there aren’t any dull ones. Camila Nebbia, Dietrich Eichmann, John Hughes and Jeff Arnal are just too dialed into each other for that to happen.

Jazz is supposed to be the music of discovery, and ‘Wood Blues’ captures the free jazz quartet [ahmed] in the very act of discovery.

Jon Anderson, Reza Khan, Crosby Stills Nash and Young and others appear on Ross Boissoneau’s Best of 2024 list, along with some he missed along the way.