Ben Monder, Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey are superb jazz musicians but for the live improv set ‘Live At The 55 Bar,’ they were clearly reaching for something beyond the bounds of jazz or any other genre.

The Fabulous Red Diesel’s ‘Queensbury House Sessions’ is an uplifting, musically diverse and well-produced album with a tight ensemble and wonderful vocals.

The two long pieces of ‘inSOMNIA’ could be regarded as jazz symphonies, but Tim Berne applies his small-ensemble principles to them and we discover just how utterly scalable his ideas truly are.

This is one of those massive losses in both the jazz and piano worlds. It’s simply impossible to even summarize Chick Corea’s impact.

Ivo Perelman and Nate Wooley convened for a sessions that produced ten, distinct improvisations called ‘Polarity.’ With only one person with whom to interact, each regard this tete-a-tete as a whole different ball game, and they go for it.

Tony Malaby’s ‘Turnpike Diaries Volume 1’ features these seasoned masters stretching out under an expressway over two long jams as few can do in such a coordinated way, each able to sense what the song is headed and react with infallible instincts.

Saxophonist Richard Elliot represents the best of smooth jazz: fluency on his horn, catchy melodies and tight production values.

It’s not just a preponderance of fresh ideas that makes Russ Lossing’s album ‘Metamorphism’ work so well; they are ideas that fit right with the people chosen to carry them out.

Michael Gregory Jackson’s ‘Frequency Equilibrium Koan’ is a communion of loft jazz musicians who weren’t just among the best of their time, but of *all* time.

The piano/vibraphones duo isn’t exactly a new concept, but Satoko Fujii and Taiko Saito take that concept to places it’s never been before. The exotic places they visit make ‘Beyond’ a trip well worth taking.