Now on its ninth album ‘Sleeping Cat,’ Natsuki Tamura’s Gato Libre has never really been about jazz; it’s folk music with an open mind.

With the inspired assortment of musicians backing bandleader Mike Rivard, Club d’Elf’s ‘You Never Know’ sounds like the go-to world fusion album of 2022.

Like the cello trailblazers before him, George Crotty shows us the vast potential of his instrument, and he applies that potential globally while making it sound great for his Trio’s second album ‘Chronotope.’

The new and stimulating all-woman collective Esthesis Quartet has quickly established a signature sound that’s as pleasing as it is intrepid.

Kirk Knuffke has long been called a rising-star cornet player but ‘Gravity Without Airs’ is not the work of an ascending artist but a completely developed musician.

Nick Millevoi and Rob Stabinsky are plenty capable of making serious music but Grassy Sound is about them having fun.

‘Don’t Know’ is the Claudio Scolari Project’s third album in as many years, as the improvisational, familial quartet continues a roll that they don’t seem to want to slow down.

Whit Dickey’s deep trust in his bandmates and himself was greatly rewarded for his highly improvisational quartet outing ‘Astral Long Form: Staircase in Space.’

Here is the streaming premiere of “Spider Season,” the dauntless title track from bassist Nick Dunston’s upcoming second album of the same name.

‘Shine Thru’ presents Dan Schnelle as not just a fine drummer but a complete artist who already has it all figured out.