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Really great work from tenorist Joshua Redman – an artist that many have been following for decades – but who, to us, really seems to be hitting a new level of genius in recent years! There's this understated confidence going on here – as if Redman no longer has anything to prove, and can just open up beautifully on the tenor – never breaking down too many barriers in jazz, but always blowing with this distinct sound that's very much his own – and which brings an edge to his well-written compositions on the record, which have a beautiful balance of color and rhythm. Pianist Aaron Goldberg is also fantastic – a very rhythmic player, but one who also leaves a lot of space between the notes – in ways that create this glow, or maybe a sense of waves of sound from his instrument – gently rocking the performance in this strong, yet subtle way. The rest of the quartet features Reuben Rogers on bass, and Gregory Hutchinson on drums that are bold, but never overdone – and the set of all-original material includes "How We Do", "DGAF", "Stagger Beer", "Vast", "Circle Of Life", and "Come What May". LP, Vinyl record album

Two sides of legendary experimental composer Steve Reich – with one side composed for a large ensemble, the other side comparably pared down and composed for a quartet! The former is the 14+ minute "Pulse" played by the International Contemporary Ensemble, with 4 violins, a viola, flute, bass, piano and a pair of clarinets. It's not at all the drone you might expect from the title, but actually kind of soars, with the bass serving as anchor to the other loftier instrumentation. The Quartet pieces are performed by Colin Currie Group – with a pair of vibes and a pair of pianos – and bookended by 2 fast parts with a slower part between. LP, Vinyl record album

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One of our favorite Zorn "tribute" albums from the 80s – in this case a set of long pastiche tracks that pays hommage to pulp writer Mickey Spillane, Albert Collins, and the film Forbidden Fruit. The track "Spillane" is the best – a side-long number that features text by Arto Lindsay, plus John Lurie as the voice of Mike Hammer – over instrumentation by Bill Frisell, Anthony Coleman, Zorn, Jim Staley, Bob James, and Bobby Previte. "Two Lane Highway" is a showcase for solo work by Albert Collins, but Zorn nicely messes things up a lot with a New York downtown approach that includes John Patton, Bobby Previte, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Wayne Horvitz. "Forbidden Fruit" features the Kronos Quartet augmented with voice by Ohta Hiromi and turntables by Christian Marclay! Also includes "Spillane" & "Two Lane Highway". LP, Vinyl record album

You know the story. Ry Cooder got tired of playing with Ali Farka Toure, set his sights on another culture to plunder, and the rest is history! Who'd have ever thought the Cuban embargo would create a useful situation for a dried-out rocker to suddenly have great record sales again? Can't blame the old guys for falling for Ry, and you've got to give them credit for doing a good job – but dig this one for the music, and not just because we're Americans who've pretended that Cuba didn't exist for 40 years! CD

While in the intervening years Hamza El Din has gone on to great prominence, this Nonesuch recording of his work on the oud was one of the earliest documents of his North African style of music. This recording consists of three pieces, with his virtuoso playing and singing, the first two extended pieces and the third a shorter vocal and frame drum number, all have a singing style clearly indebted to Arabic classical tradition, while his playing on the oud reflects the Sudanese and Egyptian roots of the Nubian culture: "The Water Wheel", "Remind Me" and "Song With Tar". CD

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Great longform piano work from Brad Mehldau – a set of solo material recorded live in Tokyo, with a number of very long tracks that really push past the sound of his trio material! In fact, we might even say that some of these numbers have more of an edge overall too – this odd current of darkness that we don't usually associate with Mehldau, and which really makes the record a standout. Titles include a great reading of the Nick Drake tune "River Man", plus "Monk's Dream", "Alfie", "Paranoid Android", "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover", "My Heart Stood Still", "Roses Blue", "Things Behind The Sun", and "Waltz Tune". LP, Vinyl record album

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An interesting little album – a set that's part indie, and part a surprisingly great tribute to the music of the Indonesian gamelan – extrapolated through the compositions of Colin McPhee, who was one of the first to transcribe the sound of the percussive ensemble for the piano! The duo of Nico Muhly and Thomas Bartlett take McPhee's music for inspiration – and serve up a few especially great tracks that recreate gamelan energy on piano, vibes, and a small bit of strings – sometimes instrumental, sometimes with light breathy vocals that make a really great combination with the music. Other moments are more dreamy and airy, but equally beautiful in their own sort of way – and titles include "Gambangan", "Festina", "Grendel", "Pemoengkah", "Balthasar", "Eusebius", "Selenite", and "Taboeh Teloe". CD

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