With ‘Zealous Angles,’ Matt Mitchell blows a gaping hole into the notion that the piano/bass/drums construct in jazz has been played out.

As an advanced bassist and composer, Kim Cass with his star colleagues meet his challenges head-on, making ‘Levs’ such a breathtaking ride.

Kate Gentile held back no ambition in making the vast, unencumbered ‘Find Letter X,’ as her band carried out thoroughly conceived, nonconformist concepts.

Tyshawn Sorey’s trio builds on the triumph of the standards-reimagining ‘Mesmerism’ with the loose, imaginative ‘Continuing.’

By expanding his band into an orchestra for ‘The Other One,’ Henry Threadgill demonstrated that his deviceful musical ideas are not only scalable, but eminently enduring.

With ‘Thisness,’ Miles Okazuki and his nimble, astute and funky quartet take yet another significant artistic step forward.

Henry Threadgill’s creative light burns as bright as it ever did, and ‘Poof’ from his long-running Zooid ensemble is proof of why he is still earning accolades.

Matt Mitchell and Kate Gentile’s “for teens,” “spinal thought” and “peripheral drome” are spare conceptions with rich detail filled in on the fly from the assembled collection of improvisation masters.

‘Natural Selection’ is an advancement of bold, rock-oriented ideas drummer Dan Weiss first put forward a couple of years ago and justifies his decision to keep going down this path.

Liberty Ellman’s new PI Recordings release ‘Last Desert’ is some cerebral jazz, yet avoids the clutter of some music that often falls into that category.