James Brandon Lewis’ quartet albums showcase other sides of his advanced artistry and that heavyweight band. ‘Transfiguration’ is jazz soul music of the highest order.

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.

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.

‘Oceans And’ intrigues because it’s a meld of sounds that don’t normally go together, and delights because it goes together so well in the hands of Tim Berne, Aurora Nealand and Hank Roberts.

On ‘Seriana Promethea,’ David Murray, Brad Jones and Hamid Drake swagger their way through seven Murray originals and one really cool cover with relaxed confidence.

As ‘One More, Please’ makes evident, Tim Berne and Matt Mitchell can keep their collaboration going for a long time because their collaboration never moves beyond the discovery phase.

Gregg Belisle-Chi has mastered Berne’s idiosyncratic language and on ‘Mars’ he helps to place some of those brilliant puzzle pieces together alongside the creator.

James Brandon Lewis typically alters his approach from album to album but with his forceful new quartet, the second go-around ‘Code of Being’ is not a bad idea at all.

There’s a lot of appealing melodicism built into harmolodics, and the ‘Broken Shadows’ quartet of Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Reid Anderson and Dave King succeed in driving that point home.

This is obviously not music for all tastes but if you know about Fred Frith and Ikue Mori, then you know how good they are at making noise; for ‘A Mountain Doesn’t Know It’s Tall’ they make beautiful noise together.