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Mary Halvorson - About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
The spiky melodies show the Braxton influence but go deeper than that, with her band filling out the spaces with bright colors and bursts of sound. It opens with “Full of Neon” where Patricia Brennan’s vibraphone adds a shimmering layer of sound behind a murderers row of horns: Immanuel Wilkens, Adam O’Farrell, Brian Settles, and Jacob Garchik. Halverson’s playing is as tasteful as ever - listen to her fluid solo on "Carved From,” for example - but themes like “About Ghosts” or “Polyhedral” show her settling into writing interesting melodies for an ensemble. I’m at the point where I’m curious to see her music arranged for a big band.

Vijay iyer and Wadada Leo Smith - Defiant Life (ECM)
Practically an ambient record, this one has all the sonic details I expect from an ECM record and some nice wrinkles. Iyer’s electric piano feels like watching the stars on a dark night, little flickers of sound against a backdrop of silence, while Smith’s muted trumpet recalls Miles’ circa “He Loved Him Madly” in the way moves around in these open spaces, taking listeners by the hand through these hazy, late-night soundscapes. It’s a very cool record that harkens back to ECM’s glory days some 40, 50 years ago, when it felt like the ambient silence of the studio was part of any given musical ensemble. Hopefully we don’t have to wait almost a decade for this duo to collaborate again.

Ambrose Akinmusire - Honey From A Winter Stone (Nonesuch)
Touches of hip-hop, beeping synths, and string quartets accent Akinmusire’s latest record, a LP that’s moody and slow at times but packed with ideas and good playing. I think it might be his best record yet. Key track: “MYanx”

James Brandon Lewis Trio - Apple Cores (Anti-)
Funky, fusion-inspired rhythms that propel Lewis’s tenor sax forward with a nice layering of guitar as a sonic bed. It’s an album with one foot in 70s jazz and an ear towards hip-hop and neo-soul. And Lewis’s playing throughout is great, carrying a record where he’s the main melodic voice. Key track: “Broken Shadows”

Tomas Fujiwara - Dream Up (Out of Your Head Records)
Percussion-driven music with touches of exotic sounds but one foot in the tradition. Reminds me of Zappa’s late 60s record Hot Rats and the Diga Rhythm Band. The rhythms layer on top of each other, patterns over patterns, grooves into grooves, and you can get lost in them. Brennan’s vibraphone carries the melody here, keeping the music from falling into pure rhythm and gives listeners something to hold on to, particularly on moody tracks like “Komorebi.”

Linda May Han Oh - Strange Heavens (Biophilia Records)
This trio record - with Oh on bass, Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet and Tyshawn Sorey on drums - is firmly rooted in the tradition, but is an engaging listen. Akinmusire never overruns the rhythm section, his runs nicely placed to give Oh’s bass room to breathe: listen to the way he moves between her bass notes on songs like “Noise Machinery” or “Work Song.” If his solo record showed how he’s pushing at jazz’s boundaries, this one shows that he can still do a wonderful job coloring inside the lines. And Oh’s playing is as on point as ever. Key track: “Noise Machinery”

Matthew Shipp - The Cosmic Piano (Cantaloupe Music)
A solo piano record where Shipp’s playing never strays too far into outer space or into abstract realms, but instead feels like a series of continuous, fluid performances. Not my favorite of his records, but a strong showing. Also I have to give the pianist major props for calling out Andre 3000’s piano doodling for what it was. It was refreshing to see someone stand up and essentially ask what that bullshit was.

Henry Threadgill - Listen Ship (PI Records)
An interesting one from Threadgill, who conducts an acoustic guitar-heavy band through a series of quick musical sketches. The music feels Latin at times, abstract at others. At its best it has a snake-like quality where the music twists and turns, and is constantly in motion. Threadgill’s horn is sadly absent from this record and selfishly I wish it were here, but his fingerprints are all over the music. It’s a neat late-career record from a giant in contemporary jazz.

Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner — The Music of Anthony Braxton (PI Records)
See my review for Dusted.

Out Of/Into - Motion II (Blue Note Records)
The latest from what’s essentially a group of young Blue Note All-Stars mines old territory, with a feeling that could’ve come from 60 or 70 years ago. Joel Ross’s vibes immediately ring out on “Brothers in Arms” where he trades licks with Immanuel Wilkins’s smooth alto sax. But the group fluidly moves styles with touches of electric piano, the slow and almost spacy sounds that start “Juno” before it builds up to Wilkins and Gerald Clayton’s solos, Kendrick Scott’s hip-hop informed drumming on “The Catalyst.” If only every supergroup was this good!

Various Artists - The Bottle Tapes: Selections from the Empty Bottle Jazz and Improvised Music Series 1996-2005 (Corbett vs Dempsey)
For nine years John Corbett and Ken Vandermark put on a Wednesday night jazz show at Chicago’s Empty Bottle club. After a few dates things came together and a long-running series of improvised music was born. This set, all of it recorded by a fan named Malachi Ritscher, captures many hours of this series: everything from American free jazz legends Steve Lacy/Roswell Rudd group to Dutch improvisers like Clusone Trio, to avant-garde rock like Thurston Moore and Mats Gustafsson playing as a duo. The music throughout is engaging, exploratory, and very well recorded - to say nothing of its importance in documenting this long-running series. Easily the most important archival release of the year.

Anthony Braxton - Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance Music)
See my review for Dusted. But also I want to add that I’m glad this music was not just released, but done so digitally by Phil Freeman’s label: I used to worry that if it ever did come out, it would be as an expensive and weighty box set on some tiny European label and I’d never be able to get my hands on it. Kudos to Mr. Freeman for not just releasing this important music, but making it widely available too.

Jessica Williams - Blue Abstraction: Prepared Piano Project 1985–1987 (Pre-Echo Press)
Jessica Williams probably isn’t on everyone’s radar and honestly, she wasn’t really on mine. I only found this one by accident, but to use a line from Bob Ross, it was certainly a happy accident. This record shows Williams in a fully abstract mode, with a piano that sounds like a harp dripping water being played in a cave. Building on John Cage’s idea of a prepared piano, Williams’s hard-bop style lines are refracted in ways where style seems new and different. “Portrait of Matisse” is all percussive, blunted playing where the piano notes die as soon as they’re played; “Odune-de” sounds like she’s playing a massive set of tuned percussion. Williams died a few years ago, I wish I could’ve gotten to meet someone who’s not just a trans elder but a fascinating musician to boot.

Charles Mingus - In Argentina (The Buenos Aires Concerts) (Resonance Records)
See my review for Aquarium Drunkard.

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra - Live At Widney High December 26th, 1971 (The Village)
I’m a sucker for Horace Tapscott. He’s a pianist who seems to me like he was overlooked in his lifetime and is only getting his due posthumously. This set shows the Arkestra in full flight, with Tapscott’s arrangements bursting with color and stretching out for up to 20 minutes at times. It’s a welcome addition to not just the Tapscott catalogue, but also for the Arkestra itself: an ensemble that deserves to stand on its own merits.