Focusing on the instrumental elements of David Bowie’s Berlin era allows Dylan Howe to brilliantly elaborate on those familiar themes.

Markus James, Deerhoof, Dave Liebman, Don Pullen and Arild Anderson are included in S. Victor Aaron’s Top Unreviewed Records of 2014.

Here is a review of Wayne Krantz’s cool fusion jazz rendition of MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.”

Bryan Murray’s nutty but endearing hip hop/jazz hybrid ‘Balto!’ is a homegrown concoction worth checking out.

Studio or live, ECM or ACT record label, it’s that same, damned good Manu Katché music.

S. Victor Aaron picks the best of 2014’s fusion jazz, including Nels Cline Singers, Jaco Pastorius, Elizabeth Shepherd and others.

Preston Frazier’s Best of 2014 in jazz and fusion, including the Breithaupt Brothers, Simon Phillips, Oz Noy, Bobby Broom and Miguel Zenon.

By fully accommodating Stomu Takeishi while remaining true to themselves, Mole is renewed and nowhere close to running out of steam.

With ‘All Purpose Music,’ the Virginia-based soul-funk-jazz quartet Butcher Brown shows why Nicholas Payton is so fired up about this band.

‘Crimen Sonoro’ is a muscular, multicultural fusion jazz from the funky, metal/jazz/hip-hop/mariachi sextet out of Mexico.