‘Threads’ is the kind of opening statement that usually takes several tries to nail down, but the Caterpillar Quartet blends a variety of styles to make ostensibly jazz that’s often hard to neatly categorize when you dig deep into these songs.

Thankfully ESP-Disk made the call to get out to the world Owl Xounds Exploding Galaxy’s ‘The Coalescence,’ a valuable relic from an audacious NYC Downtown band that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Giancarlo Romani’s ‘Naif’ has nine original compositions, and they create nine paintings of different emotions, life experiences and ideas.

Dave Douglas never stops looking for new ways of getting his message out, and ‘Marching Music’ is music with a purpose that also widens Douglas’ already expansive palette.

Mat Walerian’s latest Okuden project is his most ambitious yet and when you understand the sweeping, cutting-edge careers of his sidemen, you see an artist whose ambitions matches theirs.

A meeting of artists who do not impose any rules on themselves is bound to produce music that dares to be dazzling in ways not previously heard, and that’s just what ‘Dust of Light/Ears Drawing Sounds’ by Ivo Perelman and Pascal Marzan delivers.

A global pandemic hasn’t quelled the creative fire of Ikue Mori, Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura, and their long-distance collaboration ‘Prickly Pear Cactus’ doesn’t sound at all like musicians trying to just ‘make do.’

Preston Frazier’s Best of 2020 Jazz list includes Wayne Escoffery, Gary Husband and Markus Reuter, Nick Finzer and Wolfgang Muthspiel, among others.

Individually and collectively, Tim Berne’s Hardcell trio was amazing and the live souvenir ‘The Cosmos’ confirms that.

‘Streets of Philadelphia’ might ostensibly be about a certain American city, but it speaks more to the boundless talent and imagination of outsider guitarist and composer Nick Millevoi.