Last week was pretty much a personal wipeout, although I suppose I can take credit for surviving it without fumbling anything too bad. The long-awaited 11th Jazz Consumer Guide was published with no major glitches. I got all my files updated, so now I'm ready to go after #12. I sent a year-end ballot in to Francis Davis for the Voice's jazz poll. I wrote some annotation to the ballot to be published as a sidebar to the poll results. I got an F5 column done. I made latkes, chopped liver, and salt-cured salmon for Hanukkah. I managed to blog something every day, and got a bit of jazz prospecting done, although I made damn little progress on my year-end research. I also finally cracked open the new 8th edition of the Penguin Guide and started to chart differences.

No final grades on records I held back this week. It's early in the cycle and best to keep an eye on what's new. Starting to get 2007 advances. This will probably remain slow over the next two weeks as holidays interfere with my schedule, guests come and go, and year-end Recycled Goods looms large.

Jazz Yule Love II (2006, Mack Avenue): If Christmas music really outsells jazz, as I've seen reports claiming, I guess this is one way to help pay the bills. Seems useless to me, but I've heard far worse down at the local mall. The roster includes familiar names from the label's recent releases, plus two I hadn't noticed: Oscar Brown Jr. and Bud Shank. No dates provided. Brown died in 2005, with his last album in 1998. Shank is 80 now, still active, with a good live record last year joined by Phil Woods. Here he makes the best case I've heard in years for letting it snow. B-

Bruno Hubert Trio/B3 Kings: A Cellar Live Christmas (2005 [2006], Cellar Live): Hubert plays piano. The B3 Kings have Cory Weeds on alto sax, Bill Coon on guitar, Chris Gestrin on the famous organ, and Denzal Sinclaire on drums. My impression is that the two groups alternate rather than play together, excepting that Sinclaire sings one song with each. There's some good news here. One is that they're serious enough about jazz that sometimes they deconstruct these songs until you forget what they're playing. Another is Coon's guitar, although the others, notably Hubert, strike me favorably. Still useless. B-

The Frankenstein Concort: Classical-A-Go-Go (2006, Sfz): Subtitled "invigorating musical novelties for woodwinds, piano, and percussion." Featuring Erik Lindgren, the piano player, who is best known from one of the first landmark experimental rock groups, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. Don't really know what to make of this one, which seems neither classical not go-go, but rather something that works within a closed system of humor I'm not really privy to. Includes pieces from usual suspects Erik Satie and Raymond Scott, a gloss on Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein," and originals, including one close to "Tomorrow Never Comes." Not without interesting bits, but too clever by some factor beyond my powers of calculation. B

Jacques Loussier Trio: Bach: The Brandenburgs (2006, Telarc): I have him rather stuffily filed under classical, since that's what a quick glance at discography, at least since 1987's Reflections on Bach, reads like. Bach represents about half the list, but I also note Handel, Mozart, Chopin, Satie, and Ravel. But there's nothing stuffy about this record. I don't know the classical readings, so it's hard for me to tell where the texts end and the jazz begins, but surely the walking bass wasn't in the original. B+(*)

Expolorations: Classic Picante Regrooved, Vol. 1 (2006, Concord Picante): Better than the usual back catalog remix project, probably because most of the originals are so awash in beats they hardly need remixing. Surprising because Picante had turned into something of a retirement home for salseros, so maybe we should hand it to the A-list remixers, who evidently know how to juice up the clave. B+(**)

Mort Weiss: The B3 and M3 (2003 [2006], SMS Jazz): Not sure what SMS stands for, but the website motto is "Straight Ahead," and that's clear enough. (OK, Sheet Music Shoppe, a music store Weiss owns.) Weiss played a little sax in his youth, giving it up when he turned 30, and picking up the clarinet again when he turned 65. He plays bright, bouncy swing, working here with an organ-guitar-drums trio on two Charlie Parker warhorses and a set of old standards. The booklet details a series of legal hassles with Concord over how the organ player's name and image can be used to promote the record, but only when you hear the record do you realize why Concord was so pissed: it's not as if their boy ever turned anything in to them this downright infectious. [B+(***)]

David Smith Quintet: Circumstance (2005 [2006], Fresh Sound New Talent): Young Canadian trumpet player, currently NYC-based, in a quintet with saxophonist Seamus Blake, guitarist Nate Radley, bass, and drums. Wrote all the material except for Mal Waldron's "Soul Eyes." Straightforward: the rhythm section has a little swing to it, the two-horn stuff meshes nicely, I like his tone and lyricism, and the guitarist gets in a couple of nice solos. [B+(***)]

Hat: Hi Ha (2005 [2006], Fresh Sound New Talent): One thing I'm sure of is that sooner or later Sergi Sirvent will wind up producing an A-list album. This piano quartet with Jordi Matas on guitar may be the one. Right now my main reservation is his vocal on the closer, "Everyday Is a New Beginning." He's not much of a singer, although he tries to make up for it in passion. Reminds me a bit of Annette Peacock, but not as skillful. But his command of the piano continues to advance, and I have no complaints about the Fender Rhodes he credits first either. His compositions offer interesting ideas, and he's moved to the point where it's hard to pigeonhole him. He has his own sound, he's prolific, and he's on a role. It's just a matter of time before he gets some recognition. [A-]

Oscar Peñas Group: The Return of Astronautus (2005 [2006], Fresh Sound New Talent): Don't know much about Peñas, and never heard of anyone in his group except perhaps -- rings a bell, anyway -- keyboardist José A. Medina. Barcelona group, Peñas plays guitar. Evidently Javier Vercher played sax in an earlier edition of the group, but the current saxophonist goes by the name Guim G. Balasch. The other band members are D-Beat Gonzalez on bass and Mariano Steimberg on drums. Peñas has a thick, metallic tone, which melts into the fender rhodes and electric bass. Postbop, more or less. The ballads are lovely. The faster pieces don't make much of an impression. B

Michael Blanco: In the Morning (2004 [2006], Fresh Sound New Talent): Bassist, born and raised in San Diego, studied at North Texas (evidently a strong jazz program), moved on to New York. He puts his compositions forth on a broad pallette with five or six pieces, and he's managed to draw on first rate players all around: Rich Perry on tenor sax, Alan Ferber trombone Aaron Goldberg piano, Bill Campbell drums, plus two cuts with Rob Wilkerson alto sax. Perry sounds terrific, and of course I love Ferber's solo. But my favorite moment turns out to be the bass lead on the closer. Educated postbop, impressively executed. B+(**)

Bruce Arkin Quartet: Wake Up! (2006, Fresh Sound New Talent): Arkin plays tenor and soprano sax. Don't know anything more about him. Record was recorded in Barcelona with Albert Bover on piano, Chris Higgins bass, Jorge Rossy drums. Mostly indifferent postbop, but he does pick up some steam on a "bittersweet love song" called "All I Wanted Was You (Bitch)," so maybe he just needs to be slapped around a bit. A meditation on Tookie Williams, executed in California recently, is also worthwhile. B

Queen Mab Trio: Thin Air (2005 [2006], Wig): Two Canadians, clarinettist Lori Freedman and pianist Marilyn Lerner, started recording as Queen Mab a decade or so ago. I haven't heard anything they've done before, either together or in side projects, which include classical and klezmer as well as free jazz improv. This is their second trio album with cellist Ig Henneman, who is right in the thick of things. It's difficult going, and I'm not sure just what I think of it, but on second play the discordant piano gets my attention. [B+(*)]

Duo Baars-Henneman: Stof (2006, Wig): Like most avant improv duos, this is slow, thin, and demanding. Ab Baars plays tenor sax, clarinet, shakuhachi, noh-kan -- the last two are Japanese bamboo flutes. Ig Henneman plays viola. It's tough for me to concentrate closely enough, but there are enough spots of interest to keep it in play. [B]

Peter Brötzmann Group: Alarm (1981 [2006], Atavistic): Don't know whether I'm just getting used to Brötzmann or whether this actually stands out. This is a 40-minute radio shot from a group with three saxophones, trumpet, two trombones, piano, bass and drums. The brass is there mostly to roar and blare on the siren-like alarm motif -- something about reactions to a nuclear emergency. It's simplistic, but at least it's something you can hang onto while the saxophones -- Frank Wright and Willem Breuker join Brötzmann -- get all exercised. After the two-part title piece, we get 3:38 of a Frank Wright piece, complete with vocal -- uncredited but presumably Wright, since a) it's in English and b) he did that sort of thing. But the real star in the early going is pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, who bounds over everything the horns throw at him. The South African rhythm section of Harry Miller and Louis Moholo also impress. Beware that the concert got caught short by a bomb threat. [B+(***)]

Peter Brötzmann/Albert Mangelsdorff/Günter Sommer: Pica Pica (1982 [2006], Atavistic): A meeting of two major figures of the German avant-garde -- almost two generations, as trombonist Mangelsdorff was 13 years older than saxophonist Brötzmann. Sommer plays drums and "horns," whatever that is, and is basically a substitute for Han Bennink -- an inferior one, if you accept the authority of the Penguin Guide (first edition, back when the LP was available). I find the encounter generally gratifying all around. B+(*)

Christoph Gallio/Urs Voerkel/Peter K Frey: Tiegel (1981 [2006], Atavistic): Soprano sax, piano, bass, respectively, although there are bits of drums (Voerkel) and trombone (Frey). Recorded in Zurich. Seems to be a previously unreleased work tape, with thirteen compositions each called "Improvisation" followed by a number. Gallio went on to form a group named Day & Taxi, where he has a substantial body of work I'm unfamiliar with. AMG only lists one album for Voerkel, but a web search reveals a half dozen or so. Voerkel and Frey reportedly lived in a house with Irène Schweizer and other luminaries -- Mal Waldron was another on the list. The music is delicate, articulate, sharply drawn, with each member contributing memorable moments. B+(**)