The unusual Theatre is nearly as much theater and performance art as it is jazz. The music is frequently dramatic, featuring the vocals of Sheila Jordan on two of the four works. "El Chancho" is a showcase for the bandoneon of Dino Saluzzi, while the 25-minute "The Holy Grail of Jazz and Joy" has portrayals of the Knights of the Round Table with short spots for many of the musicians in the all-star group. Slightly more conventional are "In the Tradition of Switzerland" (even if it has a spot for Seppo "Baron" Paakkunainen on a Finnish birch bark flute) and "No One Can Explain It" (though Jordan's vocal is otherworldly). There are solo spots along the way for avant-garde altoist and soprano saxophonist Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, trombonists Dave Bargeron, bass trombonist David Taylor, and trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg.

Those who think of singer/saxman Curtis Stigers as a pop/rock artist and associate him with "I Wonder Why" and "Peace, Love and Understanding" will be surprised to learn that Baby Plays Around is very much a jazz album – not jazzy pop, but straight-ahead acoustic jazz. Not that there is any reason why someone with pop/rock credentials can't embrace jazz if his heart is really in it; after all, jazz and rock are both part of the blues family. And even though some pretentious individuals in the jazz world love to state that jazz is "America's classical music," the fact is that jazz has more in common with rock and R&B than with Beethoven or Mozart. Stigers thrived on that blues feeling as a pop/rock singer in the early '90s, and he thrives on it as a jazz singer.

It's a beautiful thing when a jazz group stays together for as long as drummer Billy Hart's Quartet has. Since debuting in 2006, the quartet, featuring tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, pianist Ethan Iverson, and bassist Ben Street, has only grown more entwined; a sentiment they further underscore on their fourth album, 2025's Just. An icon at 83 years old who has played with such luminaries as Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis, Hart's reputation precedes his quartet. Yet, his bandmates (who are all under 60) are also stars in their own right; something that could describe them as a kind of supergroup, if not for their deeply ego-less and generous playing; this is a band in the truest sense.

Tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and Polish pianist Marcin Wasilewski reunite for their second collaboration, 2025's harmonically unfettered, free-leaning Homage. The album, which follows their 2022 duet Arctic Riff, builds nicely upon their intuitive sense of group interplay, moving between deftly composed works and wholly improvised ones. Joining them once again is Wasilewski's trio featuring bassist Sławomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michał Miśkiewicz. This is the same group that earned acclaim for their work with the late trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and who bring an equally empathetic approach to playing with Lovano. Cuts like the opening "Love in the Garden" and "Golden Horn" have a tender, sun-dappled quality that conjures a striking blend of John Coltrane and Duke Ellington's later career small group work…

In the summer of 1999, Steps Ahead founder/vibraphonist Mike Mainieri joined Eliane Elias, Bob Berg, Marc Johnson and Peter Erskine for a reunion tour of Europe. They recorded several of those shows but Mainieri didn’t listen to the tapes for two years. He eventually did, and the result is the two-CD set Holding Together (N.Y.C.). The musicians perform the tunes with great sensitivity to one another, both as an ensemble and in solo spotlights. “Uncle Bob” just swings along, while Mainieri’s gliding vibes impart an almost magical quality to a lovely version of Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood,” and “The Time Is Now” is a 22-minute-plus opus that gives everyone a chance to shine. There are too many high points on this solid set to mention, but it should be noted that Berg’s playing is vigorous and inventive throughout and provides a poignant reminder of the profound loss the jazz world suffered when he was killed in a car accident.

Polish trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Tomasz Stanko has created a ballads album worthy of the hearty approval of his former employer, Kryzsztof Pendereki. With the aid of pianist Bobo Stenson, bassist Anders Jormin, and drummer Tony Oxley, Stanko has composed and recorded a series of vanguard ballads that make full use of his tonal palette and chromatic invention. Stanko composes a great deal for film and here it shows with the lush textures, rich timbres, and angular sonances. The set opens with the glorious "Sunia," which features Stenson in an unusually aggressive mode, attacking the upper middle register with 16-note runs and turnarounds in the key signature before Stanko brings it back to earth, very slowly with a mournful wail with a hearty echo put on his trumpet…