The electric-jazz foray ‘Fire Illuminations,’ like most Wadada Leo Smith albums, is not just another record. It’s another chapter in his fascinating, ongoing story.

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.

Teeming with guitars, Wadada Leo Smith’s ‘Najwa’ is one of those particularly bright moments in a catalog full of them.

Rob Reddy’s ‘Citizen Quintet’ imposes itself as more than just a collection of songs but as a creature: inhaling, exhaling, always moving in crooked paths while always finding its way home, displaying evolving emotion as it bursts with complexity.