‘First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate’ includes 33 songs, both mirroring Funkadelic’s 33 years away and creating an almost exhaustively comprehensive return.

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.

With D’Angelo’s pertinent message, color-blurring harmonics and a total lack of slickness, ‘Black Messiah’ is a worthy successor to ‘Voodoo.’

‘The Signal’ is bold, personal and completely lucid audio art from Elizabeth Shepherd. It wouldn’t be overstating it at all to assert that this is the most important vocal jazz record of 2014.

“Simon Says” is a freaky, funky mix of Glenn Miller and Ice-T.