Sometimes you want great chops and sometimes you just want good time music. Scary Goldings’ ‘IV’ has got both covered.

Steely Dan’s “Hey Nineteen” has aged reasonably well. Unfortunately, the live versions are now missing two critical elements that Walter Becker provided.

On Burnt Belief’s ‘Mutual Isolation,’ the music takes another step forward in the band’s progression with a relative ‘back to basics’ approach. That’s all due to the limitless creativity and musicianship of Colin Edwin and Jon Durant.

Once, the Robert Lamm-sung “Free at Last” might have had something to do with freedom’s fight, since he was the fierce political heart of Chicago. Not now.

The deeply underrated Nancy Wilson nails the sense of hopeful anxiety that surrounds Dec. 31 every year.

‘Smoke Sessions’ is one of Nicholas Payton’s standouts because in paying homage to some of his idols, Payton does so in an offhand manner that reveals his own inimitable musical personality.

Arnold M discusses the debut album from Karate School Dropout, a fun blend of new wave, dreampop, techno and shoegaze.

The versatile Richard Turgeon’s “Seven Stories” shows he not only has the ambition to dive headlong into uncharted waters, but succeeds when doing so.

Every Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber project was treated as a major work by the late Greg Tate, and with ‘Angels Over Oakanda,’ he leaves intact his legacy of leading a band of boundless imagination and chops.

‘Bluesiana II’ arrived 30 years ago missing a key figure from the band’s all-star lineup in the recently deceased Art Blakey. I didn’t have high hopes.