It's been nearly twenty years since Pat Martino's comeback from a near-fatal brain aneurysm. In that time he's re-established himself as one of the jazz world's premier guitarists, a technically advanced post bop player who combines forward-thinking musical ideas with native Philly grit; think Pat Metheny with more soul. Think Tank, as the name suggests, finds Martino at his most cerebral, which has its pros and cons. The title track, for example, is a blues of sorts built on an equation based on the letters of John Coltrane's name, which may sound like an exercise for a composition class, but manages to hold together pretty well organically. Coltrane, a Philadelphia mentor of Martino's, is a recurring reference on the album, both indirectly in Martino's intensely spiritual and intellectual approach to the music, and directly on the funk-based original "Phineas Trane as well as on an extended romp through Coltrane's "Africa.

In listening to the five years of the Brad Mehldau Trio represented in this box set, one hears the unfolding of a new and significant part of modern jazz history, as the end of the 1990s opened the door on the explosive creative renaissance of the music in the 21st century. Nonesuch has compiled the five releases in the Art of the Trio series, as well as an additional disc of unreleased recordings from the same period (1997-2001), offering a serious reconsideration of what has already been accepted as a "next step" for the jazz piano trio's history. On Vol. 1, Mehldau, bassist Larry Grenadier, and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy intriguingly and seductively begin uttering the first sounds of their new language via Mehldau's originals, such as "Lament for Linus" and "Ron's Place." By 1998's Vol. 2: Live at the Village Vanguard, it's firmly in place: Mehldau is extremely impressive in the encore where he offers a wild, independently moving two-hand improvisation on John Coltrane's "Countdown"…

For Winter Songs, Steve Swallow’s first true leader date in over a decade (Into The Woodworks, 2013) and his first recorded appearance on the label after John Scofield’s Swallow Tales and Carla Bley’s Life Goes On in 2020, the master-bassist has gathered together a group of close confidants to accompany him through some of the most intrinsic and melodically immediate music he has ever written. Swallow explains, “before Winter Songs I had given music whatever I could, but as I made this album the tables turned: it gave me what I needed. Music is elemental, like the air we breathe…” With the expert but subtly applied horn section of Chris Cheek on sax and Mike Rodriguez on trumpet, Adam Nussbaum on drums keeping the time flexible and the tasteful harmonic outlining of guitarist Steve Cardenas and Gil Goldstein on piano, the nine collected originals that make up Winter Songs act more as conveyors of patient reflection and calm than they do as inciters of turbulent improvisation.

Reach up to the CD shelf and pull a handful of Fred Hersch CDS down. You'll find that the pianist has a good thing going with the Village Vanguard. Alive At The Vanguard (Palmetto Records, 2012) a stellar two CD set, and terrific solo set, Alone At the Vanguard (Palmetto Records, 2011), are Hersch's most recent recordings from the legendary venue; and now he and his trio offer up Sunday Night At the Vanguard. Hersch says this is his best trio album. Almost every artist says that about their latest—that this one's the best. But he might be right. The vote here would have gone to a studio recording, Whirl (Palmetto Records, 2010), a marvelous in-the-zone effort with this same trio—John Hebert on bass, Eric McPherson playing drums—until Sunday Night At The Vanguard rolled around.

English multi-instrumentalist John Surman has been known on a worldwide level, but never recognized as he deserved to be in the United States. A collaboration with John McLaughlin, or fellow Brits on the fusion or free jazz scene increased his cache a bit, but being a part of the ECM label had to have increased his visibility to a larger degree. This quite different recording of overdubbed woodwind and electronics has a suitable palate and soundscape profile for the European label, enhanced by the immaculate production values of the Rainbow Studio in Oslo, Norway, and fortified by Surman's heady and spacy revelations on this project of deep, introspective, and divine music. At his most heartfelt from the outset, a haunting refrain with flutes and recorder above synthesizers underpins a lilting bass clarinet melody on "Portrait of a Romantic," while the reverse sentiment of emptiness in a Terry Riley or Cluster like minimalism identifies "Not Love Perhaps" under Surman's soprano sax. "Roundelay" is stunning and unique to this set, with bass clarinet as an ostinato bass, buoying a full array of overdubbed saxophones sounding like an interactive quartet in a laid-back frame of sheer beauty.

Released in 1981, the debut of the legendary keyboardist from Eberhard Weber’s Colours band and later the Jan Garbarek Group, Freigeweht presented Rainer Brüninghaus as a highly original and idiosyncratic sound sculptor in his own right, accompanied by ECM stalwarts Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn and drummer Jon Christensen as well as oboist Brynjar Hoff. In a review of the album from the year of its release, the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung traced Rainer’s influences and minimalist designs back to Steve Reich, calling Brüninghaus “the most imaginative musician to employ minimal art in the realm of jazz. (…) Though he neither uses minimal art as ideology nor as replacement for a rhythm section, but in a more playfully constructive way, as an element that can undergo change.” Jon Christensen adds uncompromising propulsion to Brüninghaus’s lyrical themes, which are evocatively fleshed out by Wheeler and Hoff’s contemplative tones.

Although Rufus Harley also plays flute, soprano, and tenor on this record, it is for his bagpipe playing that the out-of-print album is most notable. The bagpipes tend to be a drone instrument and Harley cannot surmount the problem of cutting off notes quickly, but he plays his main instrument as well as anyone and is thus far the only jazz bagpipe player. With the assistance of pianist Oliver Collins, bassist James Glenn, drummer Billy Abner, and Robert Gossett on conga, Harley's versions of "Feeling Good" and "Scotch and Soul" are quite unique.

A beautiful later Blue Note album from vibist Bobby Hutcherson - a set recorded after his famous association with Harold Land, but with a groove that's wonderfully soulful in a whole different way. Bobby plays marimbas instead of vibes this time around, and he's working with his own arrangements for a slightly larger group - one that has some sweet fusion overtones, and these wonderful mellow funk inflections - so that even the mellow cuts have this warmly glowing, ultra-soulful sound that's mighty nice - a bit like some of the work from Gene Harris around the same time. Other players include Jerry Peters on Fender Rhodes, who also helped out with the arrangements - plus Harvey Mason on drums and Ernie Watts on reeds - and a few tracks feature sweet backing vocals from The Waters.

A tremendous little album from pianist Don Friedman - a trio session, but one that's cut with a mixture of Fender Rhodes and electric bass, which gives the album a majestically soulful groove. Friedman's never sounded better, and the record is easily one of his best - with a sound that matches the best CTI sides of the time, colored by the freedoms of the Japanese recording scene of the 70s - territory that Don never hit this strongly again, and which makes the record a really unique outing, quite diferent than both his early work and later sides. The group features Lyn Christie on bass and Bill Goodwin on drums.

When Monty Alexander walked into Studio Sextan on December 7, 2025 - a place he was already familiar with - he brought with him his entire incredible musical history. In a state of deep concentration and readiness, he settles in confidently at a familiar piano, alongside drummer Jason Brown and double bassist Luke Sellick with whom he forms perhaps the most intimate trio he has ever had. He has also invited, especially for this session, his longtime collaborator Bobby Thomas Jr., a percussionist of great style whose countless contributions have marked the history of jazz over the past forty years.

Sonic Boom was not released until 1979 and then remained in print only for a brief time before eventually being reissued years later. In addition to the great trumpeter Lee Morgan and a fine rhythm section (pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Billy Higgins), the well-rounded set is a bit special for it allows the often R&B-associated tenor David "Fathead" Newman an opportunity to stretch out in a more challenging setting than usual. Highlights include the funky "Fathead," the complex "Sneaky Pete," Morgan's lyricism on "I'll Never Be the Same," and the infectious rhythms on "Mumbo Jumbo." This is an undeservedly obscure session.

Guitarist John Scofield and bassist Dave Holland, two of jazz’s contemporary masters, have played together over the years in contexts including projects with Herbie Hancock and Joe Henderson and a spirited co-led band with Joe Lovano and Al Foster. Memories of Home is their first duo album, made at NRS Studios, in Catskill, New York, last year, after extensive touring activity. John Scofield: “The record, like our live shows, features tunes each of us composed, some new, some old. We share decades of common references musically. The similarities and differences in our approaches make for a more interesting collaboration, I think.” The album includes Scofield’s “Icons at the Fair”, “Meant to Be”, “Mine Are Blues”, “Memorette” and “Easy for You”, and Holland’s “Mr. B”, “Not for Nothin’”, “You I Love” and “Memories of Home.”