Whatever expectations you can make about a new Nels Cline Singers release, ‘Share the Wealth’ exceeds them all.

Progressive music has moved in the direction suggested long ago by ‘Junk Magic’ but as Craig Taborn revisits these ideas, it’s clear they remain unique in an increasingly crowded field.

OM have been at the forefront of improvised music for almost 50 years, and ‘It’s About Time’ shows they’re still doing it as well as ever.

A restless, progressive artist through the last 50 years, Terje Rypdal shows he can still pack large ideas into a small band within the tighter confines of a studio.

Butcher Brown’s fusion / R&B / funk / punk alchemy doesn’t brow beat you into submission. Instead, seductive grooves and confident musicianship do that job.

Takuya Kuroda already located the sweet spot where funk, jazz, hip-hop and R&B intersect. Now he’s amping up the studio creativity with ‘Fly Moon Die Soon.’

‘Live at the Baked Potato’ shows that you can’t keep a good band down. But does this edition of Soft Machine stand up to what went before?

Sameer Gupta and Ben Tyree make music that’s direct and sometimes abrasive but also easy to absorb because they mesh so well together.

The refreshingly direct, melodic and consistently satisfying ‘Unify’ should put Adam Miller on any guitar enthusiast’s radar screen.

Trevor Rabin, Nir Felder, Judith Owen are part of the latest edition of Five for the Road, an occasional look at music that’s been in my car lately.