‘My Mom’s Getting a Horse’ by Mike Keneally and Scott Schorr’s MFTJ is feel good music for the thinking man/woman.

In uncertain times like these, it’s nice to have the comfort of knowing that Tom Tallitsch is going to deliver on a near-annual basis that kind of jazz that made you fall in love with jazz in the first place. That’s the ‘Message’ in this music.

The Ivo Perelman Trio’s ‘Garden of Jewels’ is a feast of ear food delivered with passion, fearlessness and a unity of purpose.

Here is the video premiere of “Look For the Union Label” by Theo Bleckmann & The Westerlies.

It’s clear that The Lickerish Quartet didn’t front-load their release schedule with killer and follow it up with filler, because the high quality remains steady for this melodic rock delight, ‘Threesome Vol. 2.’

Where Ivo Perelman is involved, there is always a surprise contained in every moment. Add two like-minded musicians like Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris playing dissimilar instruments on ‘Shamanism,’ and the level of surprise and thrill are tripled.

Like their previous five long players, Throttle Elevator Music redefines rock-jazz by blending a different kind of rock with a different kind of jazz. It’s organically pure spiritual joy.

There were two discoveries with ‘Science Friction +size’: When a quartet discovered new possibilities with a trumpeter, and when Tim Berne scraped a shiny disc off the floor.

It’s amazing how the tight musical partnership of Natsuki Tamura and Satoko Fujii is able to embrace just one more musician and build a set of performances that fully represents the talents of all three. With drummer Ramon Lopez, ‘Mantle’ musical democracy at its finest.

‘Threads’ is the kind of opening statement that usually takes several tries to nail down, but the Caterpillar Quartet blends a variety of styles to make ostensibly jazz that’s often hard to neatly categorize when you dig deep into these songs.