Christmas is a joyful time of the year but there’s melancholy running through Lydia Salnikova’s heartfelt yuletide song “Christmas Means a Different Thing This Year.”

For ‘Dusk and Dawn,’ the Rich Halley 4 deliver attitude and panache missing from much of jazz while respecting everything about the idiom that made it great.

Vazesh’s ‘Tapestry’ is the peacefully assured world vibe salve for a more volatile and uncertain world.

Regardless of what one might think of the political messages of Devin Gray, his musical messages on ‘Melt All Guns II’ are undeniably mighty.

Through the thirteen short tracks of ‘Variations,’ Daivd Cain takes us through a safari of sounds and styles, tied together by a single theme.

Will Galison’s “Every Child Loved” is a heartfelt song that underscores this harmonica virtuoso’s flair as a singer-songwriter.

‘Good Intentions’ is an astonishing start from a saxophonist and composer still absorbing the more daring sides of jazz, because Alden Hellmuth is not interested in biding her time before putting her own imprint on the music form.

On ‘Breaking the Shell,’ Bill Frisell, Andrew Cyrille & Kit Downes get to expand their home base of creatively improvised music using the stately yet otherworldly sounds of the pipe organ.

When Brandon Seabrook does a solo banjo and guitar project as he did with ‘Object of Unknown Function,’ there’s even more of his uniqueness to ponder, appreciate and – yes – enjoy.

‘The Data’ is some of Matthew Shipp’s most heartfelt and ardent of his solo piano albums, informed with a lifetime of jazz and classical studies behind it.