Initially, Cath Roberts only intended to expand Sloth Racket to 10 members for a jazz festival appearance, then Favourite Animals became a new band.

At a young seventy-six years old, Jerry Granelli still pushes forward even when his muse beckons him back, as it does for the Bill Frisell/Robben Ford reunion ‘Dance Hall.’

Fiona Ross’ new album builds on her previous material, while demonstrating the maturation of talent this musical hand grenade has let loose.

Dan Blacksberg’s ‘Radiant Others’ is a fresh, nontraditional take on traditional melodies that happens to be Jewish in origin. You don’t need to be an ethnomusicologist to enjoy this one.

Rez Abbasi and his potent Invocation band have demonstrated with ‘Unfiltered Universe’ that creativity and originality is more than just ideas and knowledge, it’s about vision.

‘Protocol 4’ is another example of how Simon Phillips never rests on his laurels.

Jason Stein’s ‘Lucille!’ is another fun-filled jazz history lesson on the connection between Charlie Parker and Ornette Coleman.

On ‘Live In Baltimore,’ drummer Jeff Cosgrove doesn’t disrupt Ivo Perelman’s and Matthew Shipp’s simpatico; he enhances it.

DuBois’s desire to blur the lines between creative jazz, chamber music and folk forms is a quest others before him have taken on, but the challenge of putting it all together both coherently and provocatively is where many have fallen short. Not so with ‘Autumn Wind,’ it excels at that.

‘I Called Him Morgan’ is a compelling, up-close documentary chronicling of the self-destructive lifestyle of jazz prodigy Lee Morgan.