Each Jazz CG cycle I go through a paperwork cycle, where I move what I wrote but didn't use and what I didn't write but might use and what I hadn't gotten around to yet to the next cycle's set of files. At that time, I realize that a lot of what I didn't use this time I won't be able to use next time -- or any time in the future -- so I try to cut them and clean up. As Jazz CG #17 closed, I had 122 records in by rated-but-unreviewed file, about a year's worth. I vowed to cut that in half, and managed to hack it down to 65. Most of these records are worthy of a Honorable Mention, but so are most of what I didn't cut. So, to compensate or to explain, I wrote up some quick comments on some of the cuts. The comments follow. The entire up-to-date surplus file is here. The latter file also includes long lists of records that also got flushed without additional comment. I assume that in these cases the explanations in the Jazz Prospecting file (here) suffice, although in most reissue/vault cases there are also Recycled Goods reviews.

The Harry Allen-Joe Cohn Quartet: Stompin' the Blues (2007 [2008], Arbors): Good enough it should have made the list of Harry Allen HMs, but it didn't, mostly because I found it a bit of a letdown -- just not enough to make the Duds list. Scott Hamilton guests but doesn't add much -- he never has played well with Allen even though they are by far the twin peaks of the swing revival niche. Trombonist John Allred adds a lot. Cohn remains a likable foil. B+(**)

JD Allen Trio: I Am I Am (2008, Sunnyside): Played this rated record again figuring I'd jot down a honorable mention line and that would be that. Came out with very little to say other than it's a very solid tenor sax trio outing with little extra to distinguish it, and that I may have overrated it a tad. Neither is a good sign during a pruning exercise. B+(***)

Louis Armstrong All Stars: Live in Zurich, Switzerland 18.10.1949 (1949 [2007], TCB): Previously unreleased live concert recording, with real All Stars -- Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, Earl Hines, Arvell Shaw, Cozy Cole, Velma Middleton. You've heard most of it elsewhere -- like on The Complete Town Hall Concert (1947) or the first half of the 4-CD The California Concerts (1951-55), the latter one of the best investments you can ever make -- although the Hines spotlights stand out. Cutting this means throwing away a HM line: "A good will tour for Hines, Bigard, Teagarden, et al., jumpin' those good ol' good 'uns." Easy come, easy go. B+(***)

Paul Bley: Solo in Mondsee (2001 [2007], ECM): One of more than a dozen solo piano albums in his vast discography. Not even the most recent one, as the 2007-recorded About Time has since been released on Justin Time. I think this one is better; at any rate it is more thematic, which sometimes counts for something. I think he probably ranks as one of the five greatest living pianists, but he doesn't generally get that recognition. (He came in 12th in Downbeat 2008 Critics Poll, so he gets a little.) But I always have trouble with solo piano. B+(**)

The Paul Carlon Octet: Roots Propaganda (2008, Deep Tone): I got a lot of flack a while back when I touted an album by Hilary Noble and Rebecca Cline (Enclave) with a joke about yanks making breakthroughs in Latin music. Carlon is another example -- in fact, I come up with a lot of them (the best this round being Mike Ellis). Self-consciousness on this point may be why I slipped Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea by Carlon's Grupos Los Santos in as an HM instead of giving it the full A-list treatment, but I would also point out that I was short for words and short for space and an HM in hand this column might be better than hoping for better next time. This record is a notch below, a marginal HM that lost its hook. Carlon's not a flashy saxophonist, but he has good sense and he's always in the game. B+(**)

Joe Cohn: Restless (2006 [2007], Arbors): A nice effort by Al Cohn's guitarist son to step out into the spotlight away from his regular band senior partner Harry Allen, but alto saxophonist Dmitry Baevsky didn't provide enough juice on his cuts, so back comes . . . Harry Allen, for half a great album plus some pretty nice filler. Again, I could have/should have worked this in. B+(***)

Lars Danielsson & Leszek Mozdzer: Pasodoble (2006-07 [2007], ACT): Bass-piano duet, seems like a pretty self-limiting formula, but Danielsson's sound looms huge, and Mozdzer is bright and flashy, with the usual Polish attention to Chopin. B+(***)

Dave Douglas Quintet: Live at the Jazz Standard (2006 [2007], Greenleaf/Koch, 2CD): OK, I'm just being pissy here, but this is a problem in information management and I give up. Douglas originally decided editing was for wusses and released his full 12-hour stand as download only, like he was Miles Davis or something. (He is, but let's not go there, for now anyway.) I was offered a chance to listen in, but didn't take it up, figuring I don't have time to tether myself to the computer for that long, and that I wouldn't make much sense of it anyway. Then I found this 2-CD edit in the local library. Asked the publicist for a copy, which he denied existed. Wrote up a note on it, which said things like: "His pieces explode, scintillate, dumbfound." Gave it an approximate rating, which is probably right but could be low. Don't have a copy. When/if I do I'll reconsider. Logically, it is at least an HM, and would cluster nicely with Moonshine, held back for next JCG. B+(***)

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Live in Zurich, Switzerland 2.5.1950 (1950 [2007], TCB): Another live shot that came out along with the Armstrong (see above). Not quite as surefire, but actually has more historical interest: this wasn't one of Ellington's golden ages, so there's not a lot of live material from this period, and the lineup is pretty jumbled, although Don Byas is a treat in the tenor chair, and Johnny Hodges made the trip. B+(***)

The Engines (2006 [2007], Okka Disk): Seems like such a great group on paper, with three-fifths of the best edition of the Vandermark 5 plus Boston bassist Nate McBride (also in MI3 and the funkier Vandermark projects like Spaceways Inc. and Power Play). But it didn't quite jell, with Dave Rempis prone to a lot of nasty squawking, and Jeb Bishop's dirty swathes of trombone short on grease. My notes singled out Tim Daisy for praise. Should revisit it some day now that my expectations have been reset, but I haven't found time, much less inclination. There's actually quite a bit of stuff that Rempis and/or Daisy have done that I haven't heard and would like to check out: their two Triage albums are very impressive (the second was a pick hit). B+(**)

Erik Friedlander: Block Ice & Propane (2005 [2007], Skipstone): Solo cello, something of a tour de force if you're open to that sort of thing. I got it late, lost it for a while, never got all that comfortable with it, may have cut him too much slack, by now don't even remember clearly. Friedlander is one of maybe a dozen players putting cello on the jazz map, and he's probably the most successful of the bunch. He's made the JCG A-list before. Maybe I didn't cut him enough slack. B+(***)

Dennis González NY Quartet: At Tonic: Dance of the Soothsayer's Tongue (2003-04 [2007], Clean Feed): A prequel or sequel -- don't remember which right now -- to NY Midnight Suite, which is a shade better, but still not as satisfying as Nile River Suite from the same time or Idle Wild shortly later, which makes these otherwise fine sets -- only half actually recorded at Tonic -- something of a mop up operation. B+(**)

Jason Kao Hwang/Sang Won Park: Local Lingo (2006 [2007], Euonymus): Another opportunity for a mini-cluster, with Hwang's Stories Before Within on the HM list, but this is more marginal, or at least a lot more difficult. I have no idea how closely Park's zithers and voice follow Korean folk and/or classical norms -- for all I know this may sound as avant there as here. Hwang's violin negotiates this terrain with the skill and aplomb he always shows. B+(**)

Omer Klein: Introducing Omer Klein (2007 [2008], Smalls): Talented young Israeli pianist in a trio plus percussion, mostly upbeat, thoughtful with some nice texture. Album is a bit of a misnomer: my introduction was an earlier Duet with bassist Haggai Cohen Milo, on Fresh Sound New Talent, charming in its simplicity and nearly as good. I've been keeping it in play as well, but not having moved on it feel like clearing both out. We'll hear more from him. B+(***)

Joachim Kühn/Majid Bekkas/Ramon Lopez: Kalimba (2006 [2007], ACT): Content-wise, this belongs to Bekkas, whose voice, guembri, oud, and kalimba center everything. Kühn gives the Moroccan folk/pop/whatever some jazz cred, mostly with his piano, but he also plays more than respectable Ornette-ish alto sax. Lopez drums, and that helps too. B+(***)

Steve Kuhn Trio: Live at Birdland (2006 [2007], Blue Note): With Ron Carter and Al Foster, thoroughly enjoyable piano trio. Runs a little long, but never wears out its welcome. Still, it's been sitting too long, and the picture is further clouded by another Kuhn trio, Pastorale, nearly as good. Kuhn is one of those second-tier pianists who always seems good but never gets a lot of attention. Goes to show. B+(***)

Lisbon Improvisation Players: Spiritualized (2006, Clean Feed): Rodrigo Amado-led sax trio, plus guest trumpeter Dennis González -- probably responsible for the spirit theme -- and a spare cello on two of six cuts. Amado is a worthwhile saxophonist who has tempted me on a number of occasions but still hasn't lucked out. González has appeared a number of times. Terrific player; lifts the spirits of everyone he meets. B+(***)

Mat Marucci-Doug Webb Trio: Change-Up (2006 [2007], CIMP): A drummer and a saxophonist with widely scattered session credits get a shot to play free in Cadence's for-audiophiles-only studio, and make the most of it. I've managed to hustle Cadence into sending a couple of CIMP batches (they released 5 CDs four times a year), but keep missing their rare gems. This was the best of the batch, and slipped through the cracks. The missing trio name, by the way, is bassist Ken Filiano -- practically the gold star stamp of quality on left-of-center jazz records. B+(***)

Ravish Momin's Trio Tarana: Miren (A Longing) (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Indian percussionist, I liked his previous Climbing the Banyan Tree a lot, his follow up less so. Difference is the trio, where the violin slot went from Jason Kao Hwang to Sam Bardfeld and the bass-oud slot from Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz to Brandon Terzic, each trading a unique view of the world for more conventional jazz chops. Admirers of the former record will like this one and hope for more. I still hope for a reunion. B+(***)

Stanton Moore Trio: Emphasis on Parenthesis (2007 [2008], Telarc): Should have added this to the dud list, but it would have cost me an honorable mention. Moore is one of the better fusion drummers around, and his trio mates are solid frontliners: guitarist Will Bernard and organ pumper Robert Walter. The organ trio is overdone today as retro, but even worse as postmodern: just melts down to a sticky mess. Walter's Cure All (Palmetto) and Bernard's Night for Day (Bju'ecords) wound up low B+, so they got no ink either. B-

Dave Mullen and Butta: Mahoney's Way (2006 [2007], Roberts Music Group): Interesting ambitions; he comes off looking like an American Courtney Pine, which is to say he wants to be massively successful as well as creatively brilliant, but the way things work over here is that that's an either/or proposition at best -- even in England the combo is only achieved by people like Pine who aren't really either no matter what they dream. But for now he has a synthesis that sort of works, especially when he covers Stevie Wonder and gets help from Nile Rodgers. B+(**)

Bernardo Sassetti: Unreal: Sidewalk Cartoon (2005-06 [2007], Clean Feed): An honorable disappointment after his pick hit Ascent. Sassetti is a Portugese pianist who tends to work in soundtrack motifs anyway, and that's where he goes with this, adding all sorts of guests for marginal effects -- the percussion can be especially intriguing. B+(**)

Matthew Shipp: Piano Vortex (2007, Thirsty Ear): After several very successful jazz + electronics records, you sense that Shipp felt the need to reestablish his credentials as a serious avant-garde jazz pianist, first with his solo album One, then with this trio. No complaints, other than that I got this so late that it had already been written up by Francis Davis and Gary Giddins and every other jazz critic of note, many putting it on their year-end lists. I don't have much to add to that. A-

Speak in Tones: Subaro (2003-04 [2005], Alpha Pocket, 2CD): Got three Mike Ellis records, a natural cluster with Bahia Band the choice, the other two marginal HMs, but managed to drop their names in the main review. This is actually the big project, a collaboration with percussionist Daniel Moreno, recorded in New York with a 16-piece group including Brazilians and Malians as well as local internationalists like Jerry Gonzalez and Adam Rudolph. Long groove pieces; some edge to the horns. B+(**)

Dan Willis: Velvet Gentlemen (2003 [2006], Omnitone): A fairly amazing album that I never really understood and never got back to, although it's been lingering on my list for over two years. Willis plays tenor sax and ten other wind instruments in a 7-piece group with a lot of options, including some impressive guitar from Pete McCann and percussion from John Hollenbeck. Liner notes play off Satie, quantum mechanics, and psychedelia, so there's plenty to be confused about. B+(***)

Saco Yasuma: Another Rain (2006 [2007], Leaf Note): First album, a Japanese alto saxophonist in New York, she has a cutting tone that sounded especially liberating when I put it on after a long series of now-forgotten dreck. Now I'm not sure how good she really is, but she rounded up a superior group with Roy Campbell stealing her spotlight and Michael TA Thompson on drums, and gave Golda Solomon a spoken word guest shot that sent me in search of Solomon's records (not as good as here). B+(***)