‘Good Intentions’ is an astonishing start from a saxophonist and composer still absorbing the more daring sides of jazz, because Alden Hellmuth is not interested in biding her time before putting her own imprint on the music form.

On ‘Breaking the Shell,’ Bill Frisell, Andrew Cyrille & Kit Downes get to expand their home base of creatively improvised music using the stately yet otherworldly sounds of the pipe organ.

When Brandon Seabrook does a solo banjo and guitar project as he did with ‘Object of Unknown Function,’ there’s even more of his uniqueness to ponder, appreciate and – yes – enjoy.

‘The Data’ is some of Matthew Shipp’s most heartfelt and ardent of his solo piano albums, informed with a lifetime of jazz and classical studies behind it.

A band that pairs a Fender Rhodes player with a pianist and no bass perhaps shouldn’t work, but with sheer flair that not only overcome that challenge, Kira Kira utterly thrives in it.

Throughout ‘Luminary,’ Tonino Miano often takes chances and stretches out while somehow making the music very melodic and pretty at the same time.

Thumbscrew’s elusive sound radically mixes studied with spontaneity and incorporating fresh novel ideas each time around, with ‘Wingbeats’ representing yet another step forward.

As Toto’s sophomore album ‘Hydra’ arrived 45 years ago this week, snooty critics were dutifully annoyed. But they were building toward something big.

Here is the video premiere of “Vesper Flights,” from the Joel Frahm Trio’s upcoming album ‘Lumination.’

Jupiter, the band, and ‘Jupiter,’ the album, feels like the start of a long run of some meaningfully explosive genre bending.