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.

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.

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.

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.

Whatever band Michael Formanek, Tim Berne, Craig Taborn or Gerald Cleaver are in is usually a very good one. When they are in the same band, it’s special.

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.

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

The big accomplishment of the first ‘Dirigo Rataplan’ was in Devin Gray’s insight in conceptualizing ways to get the most out of his fellow musicians and himself. That’s the same kind of brilliance found on ‘Dirigo Rataplan II.’