Whit Dickey has been an understated but sturdy and vital figure on New York City’s Downtown scene for the last 30 years.

Some current notables from Chicago’s progressive music scene got together and formed 85bears, named after the town’s the most celebrated football team.

David Philips and Abel Boquera’s ‘The Duo Sessions’ EP is a pocket-sized collection that finds a couple of really good musicians and pals having fun.

Brian Landrus can do it all like a boss: compose, arrange, plays reeds and confidently lead a group of big dogs. ‘For Now’ is all the proof you need of that.

There’s no indecision on Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp’s ‘Amalgam,’ because they don’t need time to figure out their next move. It’s instantly understood.

There’s so much ingenuity and telepathy on Tatsuya Nakatani and Shane Parish’s ‘Interactivity,’ it’s easy to forget this is merely an acoustic guitar and some percussion.

There are so many unaccompanied piano records from Matthew Shipp, it’s fair to wonder if it just gets redundant after a while. But they don’t.

Think of ‘Joy’ by Electric Simcha as Jewish party music for the punk set.

Here is the premiere of György Ligeti’s “Fanfares,” as performed by Brian Krock’s Big Heart Machine jazz orchestra.

Here is the premiere of the song “Root” by jazz pianist Christina Galisatus.