On Burnt Belief’s ‘Mutual Isolation,’ the music takes another step forward in the band’s progression with a relative ‘back to basics’ approach. That’s all due to the limitless creativity and musicianship of Colin Edwin and Jon Durant.

Asked to pick five favorite Yuletide songs (and only five), our panel of holly-jolly musical enthusiasts offered some occasionally offbeat suggestions.

The only thing that beats a white Christmas is a blues Christmas, particularly the vintage style blues proffered by Ben Levin for his yuletide tune “Forgot Mrs. Claus.”

Take away the fussy orchestral arrangements from these vintage songs and you’re left with what made Bob James a long-time great. He still is.

Rich Halley’s ‘Boomslang’ is a mixture between of Halley-written material and group improvisations, and both approaches work equally well.

Here is the video premiere of the totally improvised piece “Zion” by piano maestro Nick Maclean.

Oftentimes quickly knocking out a record translates into a low quality product. For someone like Sue Foley, the raw and unfiltered ‘Pinky’s Blues’ just means she’s doing what comes naturally.

The video debuting here takes us on a whirlwind tour of Carn Davidson 9’s upcoming new album ‘The History of Us’ and the driving force behind it.

Highly individual artists on their own when they got together the first time, Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson forge a highly individual piano/guitar duo for ‘Searching for the Disappeared Hour.’

Here is the premiere of the video to herald the release of saxophonist, composer and bandleader Beth McKenna’s new album ‘Beyond Here.’