Even the most forward-thinking musicians dig simply constructed chorales. Ben Goldberg is another one who does, but for ‘Everything Happens To Be.,’ he also digs deeper.

The highly distinctive musical personalities of Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek and Tomas Fujiwara and their superhuman telepathy are the only ingredients that carry over from one Thumbscrew album to the next. ‘Never Is Enough’ is full of new daring feats by this amazing trio.

We’ve known for a long time that Susan Alcorn is an amazing pedal steel guitarist. With ‘Pedernal,’ we now know that she is an amazing all-around artist, too.

A new horn section, deeper experimentation and the presence of Robert Wyatt make this a significant progression from Mary Halvorson’s poetry debut.

There might not be a better vehicle for the genius of Anthony Braxton than Anthony Braxton himself, but in tackling a few choice selections of his material, Thumbscrew revealed further facets of his ingenuity just in how they use those compositions to take his vision to new places.

Nate Wooley finds insight for his music from a glacial landscape and, like its namesake, his own ‘Columbia Icefield’ is far out and expansive.

Here is S. Victor Aaron’s Best of 2018 list for modern and mainstream jazz releases.

The upheaval seen in Washington and elsewhere since 2016 has amped up the political awareness of a lot of people, and Dave Douglas is no exception.

The all-originals ‘Ours’ and all-covers ‘Theirs’ are both bulls eyes from Thumbscrew and a strong way to persuade the quality label Cuneiform to not give up the fight.

The term “code girl” came randomly out of the mouth of Halvorson’s primary mentor Anthony Braxton but it could have easily been directed at Halvorson herself