Henry Threadgill’s creative light burns as bright as it ever did, and ‘Poof’ from his long-running Zooid ensemble is proof of why he is still earning accolades.

It’s easy to use electronic wizardry these days but that’s not the same as handmade music. Will Ackerman, Jeff Oster and Tom Eaton drive the point home on ‘Brothers.’

The highly individual trumpet of Steph Richards and the interesting twists heard on “Zephyr” set the pattern for the rest of the upcoming adventurous album of the same name.

An expertly performed live version of the opus “Aja” is an advance single from the upcoming concert album ‘Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live!’

Sometimes you want jazz that makes you think and other times you just want that jazz to party and get down. The Nils Landgren Funk Unit takes care of the latter end of the spectrum with their recent release ‘Funk Is My Religion.’

With a prepared piano, Satoko Fujii once again makes “music that no one has ever heard before.”

Clearly the guys of The Kevin Brady Electric Quartet are very comfortable playing together, and the immediacy and unity heard on “Airbourne” proves it.

ElectroBluesSociety and Boo Boo Davis make the perfect combination: the former supplies the groove and the latter brings the grit.

L.A. is a big, diverse jazz scene where it’s tough to stand out but newcomer drummer Atticus Reynolds has quickly done just that with ‘Towers,’ bringing loads of chops and musical creativity to bear on his first record as an Angeleno.

Matthew Shipp and William Parker’s ‘Re-Union’ is a set of improv pieces that reveals the true extent of unity of purpose and direction that comes from more than three decades of playing together in nearly every imaginable setting.