With Ches Smith’s recently-earned reputation comes higher expectations, and his upcoming ‘Laugh Ash’ lives up to it with another ambitious project that’s not a mere repeat of what he’s done before.

In the end, the Sunny Five’s ‘Candid’ is a jam record but in this case, the jams expose just how scary talented this assemblage truly is.

With ‘Connection,’ Marc Ribot and his rabble-rouser super trio Ceramic Dog are back leading the hell raising contingent of loud, improvised music.

Michael Formanek is once again leading a high-powered quartet, and ‘As Things Do’ is as fresh, thoughtful and vigorous as anything he’s ever done.

The the music of ‘MYSTIC’ by the expanded Sun of Goldfinger ensemble The Sunny Four lives entirely in the moment while justifying multiple moments re-hearing it.

Here are a pair of streaming premieres of songs from Matt Mitchell’s upcoming piano/drums double-disc album ‘Oblong Aplomb.’

Getting it right instead of getting it sooner paid off handsomely for Trevor Dunn and his Trio-Convulsant on ‘Séances.’

Tim Berne’s Decay quartet was good enough to beg the question of why hadn’t they made a record from their time together. Now, that question needn’t be asked anymore.

Sun of Goldfinger’s ‘OZMIR’ is strangely enchanting even as it challenges you, and the only thing more astonishing is that such fully developed pieces of depth, mystery and just damned fine playing can be cooked up so quickly.

The disparate artistry of Will Bernard comes into sharper focus on ‘Pond Life’ because he pulls all those threads together into one tidy package.