Cornetist Josh Berman's trio with Jason Roebke on bass and Chris Corsano on drums brings Chicago's jazz lineage into sharp contemporary focus, balancing compact composition and expansive interaction through playful, adventurous music that draws on early jazz, AACM-rooted invention, melodic swing, textural abstraction, and volatile rhythmic exchange.

A long-overdue first sole-leader album from drummer Charles Downs, formerly Rashid Bakr, bringing his deep history with Cecil Taylor, Jemeel Moondoc, Other Dimensions in Music, and the New York avant-garde into a collective quartet with Hery Paz on saxophone, Jamie Saft on piano, and Joe Morris on bass for five improvisations of fire, lyricism, angular reflection, and seasoned rapport.

A rediscovered 2014 live recording captures Satoko Fujii leading a specially assembled Bielefeld orchestra of professionals and young regional musicians through her monumental Shiki and works by Andreas Kaling, Natsuki Tamura, Luise Volkmann, and Fujii, blending conduction, written structure, collective improvisation, electronics, dual drums, and volatile large-ensemble energy.

Returning to Chicago with a fierce solo recital for contrabass saxophone, Jon Irabagon explores the instrument's cavernous depth, reverberant resonance, and agile extremities through unaccompanied improvisations and lesser-known works by Julius Hemphill and Anthony Braxton, revealing both the deep blues gravity and structural ingenuity of their music.

Bringing Michael Marcus' reeds and tarogato into a quartet with pianist Rod Williams, bassist Ricky Rodriguez, and drummer Allan Mednard, this ESP-Disk release extends Marcus' post-bop and avant-jazz language through compositions shaped by funky Monk-like angles, tight rhythmic interplay, lyrical woodwind clarity, and the seasoned drive of players versed in blues, free jazz, and modern creative music.

Bridging generations of creative music, pianist Milton Michaeli, double bassist Asaf Shchori, and drummer Hamid Drake form a vividly responsive trio, blending original compositions and improvisation into music shaped by jazz and Latin traditions, deep grooves, bowed textures, lyrical bass movement, spiritual rhythm, and inspirations from Sun Ra and Ras Michael.

"Tony Orzano, Bryan Rohmer and Jeremy Wexler return after their first release, Balloons on Grass, on 577 Records. Blown Fuse is a fearless, fully improvised sophomore record and the inaugural release on Orzano and Rohmer's newly founded...