These colors run.
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Jon Hassell, "Seeing Through Sound" (Ndeya). The world/ambient pioneer delivers a lush, timeless sound painting that ranges from Eno's green worlds to Miles' most pained dissonances, twinkling like a star and stomping like a dinosaur along the way. Fall into it.
Maria Schneider, "Data Lords" (ArtistShare). Too clean? Too white? Too static? Too stretched out with solos by the prominent likes of Bowie saxist Donny McCaslin, sensual guitarist Ben Monder and perennial alto master Steve Wilson? Maybe, but "Data Lords" is a sincere requiem for humanity, and Schneider's sonorous orchestrations may squeeze your tear ducts exactly as she intends. Available for $25 exclusively here.
Vijay Anderson's Silverscreen Sextet, "Live at the Angel City Jazz Festival." Brooklyn drummer Anderson digs up the guts of abstraction with an avant star band featuring Bobby Bradford, Vinny Golia, Hafez Modirzadeh, Roberto Miranda and William Roper. Familial and harmonically wooly, they rampage through riffs, grooves and group improvisations like the giants of yore. Sample the last two selections, where windman Golia really cuts loose, and read Charles Sharp's knowledgeable notes. Listen/buy here.
Purple Gums, "Back Where We Came From" (Tomato Sage Consortium). Cornetist Bobby Bradford and tubaist William Roper again team up for philosophy, poetry, history, jamz and jokes. Funky, angry and friendly. Listen/buy here.
Dan Rosenboom, "Points on an Infinite Line" (Orenda). The acoustic-quartet format most clearly highlights trumpeter Rosenboom's desire to unite intellect with tactility; challenge with beauty; Ornette with Miles. And the fearless warmth of longtime sax foil Gavin Templeton helps him get there. Listen/buy here.
Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade, "RoundAgain" (Nonesuch). The quartet reprise their '90s union with a collection of complex, rigorous compositions that reminds us of what we loved (the creativity) and what they lacked (the fire). The band are most inviting when more relaxed, as on Blade's delicate ballad "Your Part To Play" and Redman's joyfully trotting title track.
Human Error Club (Preference). Laugh along with the cut-up rhythms, fusion/Afro grooves and electronic space-outs of this L.A. trio featuring drummer Mekala Session (Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra) plus keyboardists Diego Gaeta and Jesse Justice. Recorded improvisationally, it sounds . . . alive. Listen/buy here.