Spent the whole week pulling previously unheard records off the incoming shelves, making a dent, but leaving a lot to go. There is no chance that I'll be able to play the rest before Friday's year end list deadline. One thing I will have to do is to go back to the replay shelves and at least review the most promising things there. That will probably bag half of the deficit I thought I saw this year. Two good Stomp Offs below also help, as does Bloodcount, a Tim Berne joint that just missed today's cutoff.

Recycled Goods is still held up. It should be out later this week. Not much more to report there. I got invites to the Idolator and Village Voice year end polls, which are due the following week. I feel better about the non-jazz lists than the jazz list, largely due to a strong world-rock showing this year. But I wonder how much time I'll have to scrounge around for second tier records (for which there are many candidates).

Koko Taylor: Old School (2007, Alligator): Allen Lowe starts his book That Devilin' Tune with a set of quotes, including this from Julius Hemphill: "Mostly playing the blues got you more work playing the blues. I don't think playing the blues encouraged anybody to do anything different." Taylor is past 70 now, and this is her first record in 7 years. She hasn't done anything new since she started in the early 1960s, and back then the only thing that set her apart was that she sang louder than anyone else. On the other hand, the fact that blues singers can keep doing the same thing on and on and on suggests not only that they were on to something pretty timeless in the first place, the more interesting point is that blues performers, almost uniquely, get stronger as they get older. If blues is about anything, it's survival, and it takes some aging to build up credibility. But nothing proves the point like virility, which is why Muddy Waters called his comeback album Hard Again. Taylor's comeback is like that: loud, aggressive, in your face, up your ass. She may settle for that "piece of man," but you know she'd rather have the mule. A-

Dave Douglas Quintet: Live at the Jazz Standard (2006 [2007], Greenleaf/Koch, 2CD): Working off a copy from the Wichita Public Library, which is too bad because I'll have to give it back in way before I can sort it out. The music comes from December 2006, and is part of a massive 12-hour set being sold download only. The group consists of Douglas on cornet, Donny McCaslin on tenor sax, Uri Caine on Fender Rhodes, James Genus on contrabass, and Clarence Penn on drums. In other words, it is to our era roughly what the Miles Davis Quintet was in 1965 when they recorded their 7-CD Plugged Nickel set. I don't doubt that it's good to have it all available, and as much as I dislike download-only product, I must admit it makes a lot of sense in this case. The 2-CD release is an afterthought, meant for those of us who don't have the patience to wade through the whole thing. For me it still may be too much. Douglas is way too fancy for my taste, combining amazing chops with ideas that sail way over my head. Caine is in the same league, although I find him easier to follow, and write off what I don't get to his euroclassical passions. McCaslin certainly has chops to match, but he doesn't give me the same sense of bedazzlement. In any case, this is Douglas in full command. His pieces explode, scintillate, dumbfound. I doubt that I'll ever figure them out, and certainly don't have time now. I'll resume this if/when I get another chance to listen. B+(***) [PS: I hear a copy is on the way, so I may reopen this.]

Amir ElSaffar: Two Rivers (2007, Pi): B. 1977, near Chicago, Iraqi father, American mother, studied trumpet at DePaul, worked in classical and jazz contexts. Journeyed to Iraq in 2002, learning to sing maqam and play santoor (a hammered dulcimer), leaving before Bush brought it on. Maqam are habitual note patterns in Arabic music, based on uneven microtonal scales, hard to notate and therefore handed down from person to person. ElSaffar's santoor and vocals presumably fit the model. He says he's adapted his trumpet style as well -- at first it sounded typical hard bop, but by the end I was no longer so sure. The band spreads out between east and west: Carlo DeRosa (bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums) provide jazz rhythm, while Zafer Tawail (violin, oud, dumbek) and Tareq Abboushi (buzuq, frame drum) improvise in Arabic modes. The sixth member is Indian-American alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, who has a head start on Asian-Coltrane fusion. The piece was intended as a suite, based on the Tigris and Euphrates, from their sources to the Shatt al-Arab. But the rivers are just as aptly Iraqi and American, only played out in mutual respect, as jazz not war. B+(***)

The Adam Shulman Quartet: On Second Thought (2007, Kabocha): Pianist, based in San Francisco, studied in Santa Cruz, cites second generation beboppers (Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, Bill Evans) and their followers (Fred Hersch) as influences. First album. Wrote all the sounds. Quartet features a soft-touch tenor saxophonist named Dayna Stephens. Also John Wiitala on bass and Jon Arkin on drums. Very nice, but nothing more. B

Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble: Black Unstoppable (2007, Delmark): Young flutist, based in Chicago, has mostly avant-garde connections, but has all the marks of stardom, at least at the sort of level Regina Carter enjoys. Won Downbeat's Rising Star category three straight years -- admittedly not a lot of competition, but it hasn't been close either -- and likely to bump James Moody from the top spot in a year or two. Not just involved in AACM, she's co-president. I've noticed her on various projects, including a live trio that made my HM list, but missed her main vehicle, the boisterous Black Earth Ensemble, which has three previous albums. She wrote and arranged everything on the new one. I find it maddening, with stretches of marvelous music -- e.g., Jeff Parker's guitar, a funk vamp topped by David Boykin's honking -- and bits I can't stand, starting with the gospel vocals. Played it twice, and haven't tried to diagram the ups and downs, which I suppose I should if I decide to make this my featured dud. Flute's not an instrument I much care for, but it's not the problem here. No jazz flutist has done more since Robert Dick came on the scene. (Also available on DVD, which I have but haven't watched.) B-

Terence Blanchard: A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) (2007, Blue Note): The title strikes me as a philosophical muddle, although I suppose if you think it was a willful act of a purposeful God, His hurricane may merit some form of tribute. The title emerges chanted at the start of the first cut, "Ghost of Congo Square," and returns near the end of the piece, but doesn't break out beyond that. Congo Square was the site of the old New Orleans slave market, which back in its heyday was also felt by some to be part of God's will. Despite the words, the piece is striking, with Kendrick Scott's percussion conjuring up an African vibe, and Blanchard's trumpet clear and eloquent. Most of the deluge of post-Katrina albums pick their themes obviously -- titles here include "Levees," "The Water," "Wading Through," "In Time of Need," "Ghost of 1927," "Funeral Dirge," and "Dear Mom" -- then map out their music in predictable clichés. Blanchard doesn't escape this, but his horn stands out on record like his silhouetted images on the front and back covers. My main caveat is the orchestra that appears on several pieces, which paints a pretty backdrop while adding nothing of substance. B+(***)

Jentsch Group Large: Brooklyn Suite (2005 [2007], Fleur de Son): Led by Chris Jentsch, guitarist, based in Brooklyn. Has a couple of previous albums I haven't heard, including one called Miami Suite -- got his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from University of Miami. Group numbers 17, including conductor JC Sanford, five reeds, four trumpets, four trombones, guitar, bass, drums -- familiar names include John O'Gallagher, Dan Willis, Russ Johnson, Jacob Garchik, Alan Ferber. Big, swimming sound, but I'm not all that well disposed to the swaggering moves and the fancy orchestration. Ends with two non-Suite pieces which develop the guitar and individual horns better. B+(*)

Lee Konitz-Ohad Talmor Big Band: Portology (2006 [2007], Omnitone): Konitz came in #3 in Downbeat's Hall of Fame ballot last year, behind recently deceased Andrew Hill and Michael Brecker (who got in on the popular ballot) and ahead of still ticking (actually, like Konitz, still working) Hank Jones. Unless someone important dies, he should be next in line. (Jackie McLean, embarrassingly, wasn't even on the ballot when he died, then lept to the top of the list.) It's taken him a long time, but he's never been anywhere near the mainstream. Early on he was way ahead of his time -- looking back I'm tempted to call his 1949-50 Subconscious-Lee the first great postbop album -- and even when time caught up he remained sui generis. Even in the middle of a big band built for camouflage it's trivial to pick him out. On the other hand, don't know much about Ohad Talmor, who is here billed as conductor, arranger, musical director, and co-composer. He was born in France of Israeli parents, grew up in Switzerland, moved to New York in 1995. Plays tenor sax in his own groups, but works more as arranger/director in projects with Konitz and Steve Swallow. I dudded his Swallow project record. Haven't heard his previous work with Konitz. This one makes use of an extant big band from Portugal, Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, which I've previously on an album with Chris Cheek that I also disliked. So I'm inclined not only to credit this to Konitz but to give him extra credit for degree of difficulty. Or maybe I should save it for another spin. [B+(**)] [advance]

Anthony Braxton: Solo Willisau (2003 [2007], Intakt): I need to go back and listen to For Alto again. It was recorded 35 years earlier, is legendary as the first solo saxophone record (although Coleman Hawkins and possibly a few others did solo pieces). Penguin Guide ranks it as a crown album. Last time I played it I noted that it was the ugliest thing I ever heard. I doubt that I say the same now, but you never know. To this day when my wife wishes to show extreme disgust over some quarrelsome saxophonist I'm playing, she asks if it's Anthony Braxton. That's unfair and way off base. For Alto aside, when I first started listening to jazz in the mid-1970s, the first two artists I really keyed onto were Braxton and Ornette Coleman. (I figure that's why I grew up thinking Charlie Parker was a piker.) After Lee Konitz, Downbeat's critics should give Braxton some serious Hall of Fame consideration -- although that seems a long ways away, given that he's not on the ballot and stuck down around #9 in the alto sax category. This new one isn't anywhere near the ugliest ever, but it is solo, which gives it a narrow tone range and makes it tough to sustain much rhythm. He does "All the Things You Are" and seven originals, each running 8-12 minutes. At least some of it is sustained invention of a high order, but it's abstract, difficult, tough to keep up with, and ultimately of rather marginal interest. [B+(**)]

Steve Lehman Quintet: On Meaning (2007, Pi): First artist website I've bumped into since I got rid of Flash that has zero non-Flash info. Life without Flash has been swell: no browser hangs or crashes since I removed the plug-in. What brought this on was that AMG was serving Flash-based ads that wrecked my browser. But even benign ads can achieve high levels of annoyance when implemented in Flash. Glad to be rid of it. Lehman's not unfamiliar. Plays alto sax, which he studied under Jackie McLean and Anthony Braxton. This is his 5th or 6th album. First I heard was Artificial Light, a quintet I didn't care for, and probably missed a lot in. Next was Demian as Posthuman, a mix of smaller groups including duos which were simple enough to give his abstractions recognizable shape. This one is a quintet again, with Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet, Chris Dingman on vibes, Drew Gress on bass, and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. Hype sheet says: "Each of On Meaning's eight compositions addresses the challenge of creating fresh environments for modern vision of compositional form, harmony, rhythm, and orchestration" and describes Lehman's sax as "combining a highly advanced harmonic language, microtonal playing, extended techniques, and a deeply rooted rhythmic sense." I don't know what most of that means, but I do hear it in the music, especially the rhythmic sense, which gives his complex abstractions a jingle-jangle quality. Sorey continues to impress, too. B+(***)

Ari Brown: Live at the Green Mill (2007, Delmark): Chicago saxophonist, plays tenor and soprano, sometimes at the same time, also a little flute. B. 1944, came up through AACM in the 1970s, playing with Muhal Richard Abrams and Lester Bowie, more recently in Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio. Third album as a leader, a sextet (mostly) with Pharez Whitted on trumpet, Kirk Brown on piano, Yosef Ben Israel on bass, Avreeayl Ra on drums, Dr. Cuz percussion. Back cover quote: "Not impossibly virtuosic or unnecessarily complex." Also on DVD with an extra cut. Played it, but can't say I actually watched it all. B

Brad Goode: Nature Boy (2006 [2007], Delmark): Trumpet player, from Chicago, now based in Colorado. Sixth album since 1988, when his debut was titled Shock of the New. Haven't heard that one, but I doubt that it was very shocking. Very mainstream, bright tone on the trumpet, standard quartet with Jeff Jenkins on piano. Has a nice stretch of covers early on, including "I Remember You," "Sealed With a Kiss," "Tres Palabras (Without You)." Originals more conventionally postbop. B+(*)

Dennis González NY Quartet: At Tonic: Dance of the Soothsayer's Tongue (2003-04 [2007], Clean Feed): Actually, only 34 minutes were recorded at Tonic in 2003; the rest comes from a later studio session, added when the label thought 34 minutes was too short to release. This is the same group that recorded NY Midnight Suite in 2003: González on trumpet, Ellery Eskelin on tenor sax, Mark Helias on bass, and Michael T.A. Thompson on what he calls soundrhythium percussionist. Each have typically strong spots. B+(**)

Herb Robertson NY Downtown Allstars: Real Aberration (2006 [2007], Clean Feed, 2CD): Trumpeter, from New Jersey, attended Berklee, settled into New York's downtown avant-garde scene in the early 1980s, where he's a steady performer who's never garnered much attention. The other stars are Tim Berne (alto sax), Sylvie Courvoisier (piano), Mark Dresser (double bass), Tom Rainey (drums). I don't know much about the pianist -- AMG files her work under Avant-Garde, not Jazz, not that those distinctions are all that trustworthy -- but she seems the odd one out. Also odd is Dresser, who starts each discs/piece with bass solo, but I rarely have any idea what he's up to. The music has no casual utility, just more or less interesting effects -- the trumpet, for one. B

Alípio C. Neto Quartet: The Perfume Comes Before the Flower (2006 [2007], Clean Feed): Tenor saxophonist, from Pernambuco in northeast Brazil, studied in Portugal. Not sure where he's based now, but this was recorded in Brooklyn. Pianoless, Herb Robertson's trumpet is the other slash and burn horn, Ken Filiano plays bass, and Michael T.A. Thompson does his soundrhythium percussionist thing. Three (of five) numbers also pick up Ben Stapp on tuba, which adds a bubbly bounce to the otherwise free rhythm. B+(*)

Carla Bley: The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu (2007, Watt): The Lost Chords was a 2004 group/album name, the group led by pianist-composer Bley and including Andy Sheppard (soprano and tenor sax), Steve Swallow (bass), and Billy Drummond (drums). Fresu is a well-regarded trumpet/flugelhorn player from Sardinia. He has a couple dozen albums since 1985, almost all on hard-to-find Italian labels -- a half-dozen filtered down to my shopping list, but I've never managed to pick up any. He fits in very nicely here, topping out Bley's melodies, including an extended meditation on bananas, and burnishing Sheppard's sax lines to a bright brassy sheen. B+(**)

Mário Laginha Trio: Espaço (2007, Clean Feed): Not living anywhere near a decent record store, I've never been able to figure out whether the new format Clean Feed promos are the same packaging as their released albums or something especially cheap just for the writers (like their old promos obviously were). The new ones at least give me a package that I can file on a shelf and identify by reading the spine. I've never seen that sort of package in the stores, but it matches the album covers I see, and it comes close enough to my requirements that I've stopped flagging them as advances. I mention that here because this came in much better packaging: three-fold cardboard, a plastic tray glued down in the middle, and a separate booklet that slips into a slot. Clean Feed mostly releases American avant-gardists, but every now and then they come up with some local (Portuguese) talent that they like, even if far removed from the edge. Laginha plays piano, and this is a standard piano trio. Website is in Portuguese, so I'm not really sure what he's saying there about Deep Purple and Jethro Dull -- probably that he liked them before he discovered Powell, Evans, and Jarrett. B. 1960 in Lisbon. Has a discography going back to 1983, mostly accompanying singer Maria João -- the later records often list both names -- but also including a duet album with pianist Bernardo Sassetti. This may be his first trio album. It has a quietly understated eloquence, deft but not too flashy. B+(**)

Alan Pasqua: The Antisocial Club (2007, Cryptogramophone): Pianist, b. 1954 in New Jersey, studied with Jaki Byard and George Russell (one song here is titled "George Russell"). Has nine albums since 1993, which seem to be rather scattered stylistically, with one foot in postbop and the other in fusion -- played in Tony Williams' Lifetime early on and has had a long relationship with Weather Report drummer Peter Erskine. This one is squarely in the fusion camp, tied most closely to early-1970s Miles Davis. Pasqua mostly plays electronic keyboards. The lineup closely follows the Davis groups, with Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, Jeff Ellwood on sax, Nels Cline on guitar, Jimmy Haslip on bass, Scott Amendola on drums, and Alex Acuña on percussion. A lot of déjà voodoo. B+(*)

Mark O'Leary: On the Shore (2003 [2007], Clean Feed): Irish guitarist, based in New York. Has a half-dozen albums since 2000 on Leo, mostly well regarded, some with interesting names (Tomasz Stanko, Matthew Shipp, Mat Maneri, Uri Caine, Cuong Vu, Tom Rainey), none that I've heard. This one looks to have been on the shelf for a while. It was recorded in California with percussionist Alex Cline and a couple of trumpets. Hard to get a handle on it: mostly atmospheric, but not so consistently so that you can be sure of his intent. One note says this was influenced by Arvo Part, but also by Edward Vesala. Don't know what to make of that either. [B+(*)]

The Harlem Experiment (2007, Ropeadope): Related, although I can't tell you how, to two previous Ropeadope releases: The Philadelphia Experiment and The Detroit Experiment. The promo cover speaks of "a quilt of sounds that speak to the real Harlem," but I suspect that has less to do with the actual Harlem of today than the mythic Harlem of yore -- a scene still haunted by Langston Hughes and Malcolm X, where "Reefer Man" is still funny, "A Rose in Spanish Harlem" is a lonely jíbaro serenade, and the Jewish past still lingers in Don Byron's clarinet lead "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," with token entries for funk and a plea for rhyme as serious lit. In other words, an album of distinct pieces composed into an artificial mural. Vocals by Queen Esther, Taj Mahal, James Hunter, Olu Dara. Steve Bernstein smears his trumpet over Malcolm X. DJ Arkive is credited with cuts and bruises. B+(**) [advance]

Double Duo: Crossword Puzzle (2005 [2007], Libra): Two piano-trumpet duos, one from Japan (Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura), the other from the Netherlands (Misha Mengelberg, Angelo Verploegen). Not much different than a single duo would have been, given that both duos leave ample room for the other. B+(*)

Carla Kihlstedt/Satoko Fujii: Minamo (2002-05 [2007], Henceforth): Violin-piano duo. Kihlstedt is best known for her work in Tin Hat, although she's shown up in a number of contexts, including ROVA's latest assault on Ascension. The first three tracks, totalling 20 minutes, were recorded as an opening act for a ROVA concert in San Francisco. The final 28:40 tracks was recorded at Wels in Austria. The latter set meshes better, probably because the violinist is more aggressive. The pianist can brawl with the best of them, but she tends to hold back when not provoked. Which is OK too, in the limited way of duos. [B+(**)]

Joe Fiedler Trio: The Crab (2007, Clean Feed): Trombonist. Based in New York. Third album as leader, plus a substantial sideman list, divided between salsa bands, big bands, and work with avant-gardists (Anthony Braxton, Satoko Fujii, and Chris Jonas show up repeatedly). A previous trio was called Plays the Music of Albert Mangelsdorff, also on Clean Feed, which did a good job of framing trombone as a lead instrument. This trio, with bassist John Hebert and drummer Michael Sarin, builds on that, although it also shows the basic limits of volume and dynamics. B+(**)

Scott Fields Ensemble: Dénouement (1997 [2007], Clean Feed): Actually, a double trio: two sets of guitar, bass and drums. On the left channel: Jeff Parker, Jason Roebke, Michael Zerang. On the right: Fields, Hans Sturm, Hamid Drake. Most or all Chicago musicians. Fields has a dozen or more records since 1990, maybe earlier, including a duo with Parker on Delmark. This was originally self-released on Geode Records in 1999. Fields explains: "For most of the compositions, the trios are working in different but interlocking pitch sets and compound time signatures. These structures result in pip-popping little kicks and difficult-to-pin-down harmonies." Strikes me as dabbling: a bit here, a bit there, no particular urge to pull it all together. B+(*)

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet: LAGQ Brazil (2007, Telarc): Four guitarists: original members John Dearman, William Kanengiser, and Scott Tennant, plus Matthew Greif, who joined in 2006 replacing Andrew York. Group began at USC in 1980 under Pepe Romero, although York didn't join until 1990 and I can't find any discography that goes back further than 1993 (Dances From Renaissance to Nutcracker, although an album called Recital evidently precedes it). An album called Labyrinth featured "Zeppelin to Sousa, Basie to Copland." One called Air & Ground included Afro-Cuban, Macedonian, Native American, Brazilian, and Celtic pieces. So they're used to exotic repetoire, but they aren't specialists. Brazilian music is friendly, perhaps inevitable, guitar ground. This is pleasant and unchallenging. Guests pop in on a couple of songs: Kevin Ricard percussion, Katisse Buckingham flute and soprano sax, Luciana Souza vocals (two songs; she's never been a plus on anything I've heard, and ranks as a minor irritant here). B

Yerba Buena Stompers: San Francisco Bay Blues (2005, Stomp Off): Wasn't looking, so I got this one out of order. Real New Orleans jazz, as rediscovered in San Francisco in the 1940s -- yep, another Lu Watters tribute. One thing to note is that John Gill is singing better (3 songs) than on the early records, especially on "Take Me to the Land of Jazz." Trombonist Tom Bartlett still takes one tune, "Trouble in Mind," and also shows improvement. This is a very consistent band. B+(***)

Yerba Buena Stompers: New Orleans Favorites (2002, Stomp Off): Starts with "Tiger Rag" and "Tin Roof Blues;" ends with "Panama" and "Dipper Mouth Blues," with plenty more you'll recognize along the way -- "Doctor Jazz," "Ory's Creole Trombone," "Muskrat Ramble," not to mention "When the Saints Go Marching In." But you might not exactly recognize them because they're tuned back to the pre-swing era, and with their lack of solo power one can even say pre-Armstrong. The lineup again: two trumpets, trombone, clarinet, piano, banjo, tuba, drums. Echoes of Lu Watters; reverberations of King Oliver. They do "play that thing." A-

Yerba Buena Stompers: San Diego Favorites 2002-2003 (2002-03 [2004], Diamondstack): Live tidbits from the San Diego Dixieland Jazz Festival. The songs all show up elsewhere in their catalog, and the studio versions usually have more polish and often a bit more bounce. Also short on vocals. This only pales in comparison. B+(*)

Yerba Buena Stompers: The Yama-Yama Man (2007, Stomp Off): A couple of personnel changes in what has been a pretty stable lineup: Orange Kellin replaces Evan Christopher on clarinet (before Christopher, Larry Wright played clarinet); Clint Baker moves over from drums to tuba, replacing Ray Cadd, and Hal Smith joins on drums. Until now they've evidently kept close to the arrangements worked out by Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band, which includes a few originals by Watters and Turk Murphy as well as old songs they brought back in the 1940s Dixieland revival. Here they start to move on, picking old songs Watters missed and treating them accordingly. The title song, for instance, dates back to 1908, although Murphy had done it in 1957. Several songs come straight from King Oliver, which matches the orchestration to a tee. Others come from the Red Hot Peppers, which is about as modern as they get. Locking onto their fixed reference points, they freeze history, foregoing the sense of progress that even then was all the rage. That should make them dry, but their chosen moment is hard to resist: it was a point when the excitement of jazz jumped out of the horns and off the stage. Playing through the whole set of five studio albums shows two things that are rare in any such sequence: remarkable consistency and no sense of progress or evolution whatsoever. Both may be attributed to lack of individuality, which may have something to do with the fact that leader John Gill plays the most unprepossesing of instruments: the banjo. These are unjazzlike traits, but the music is primevally jazzy. A-

Ted Des Plantes' Washboard Wizards: Thumpin' and Bumpin' (2006 [2007], Stomp Off): Des Plantes is a pianist who plays stride and knows his Jelly Roll Morton. He has five albums on Stomp Off, a few more on Jazzology, going back at least to 1991. I can find very little info on the web, but turned up a photo with Dave Greer's Classic Jazz Stompers ("a territory band from Dayton, Ohio") showing a guy with a mustache and a deficit of mostly gray hair. Also found quotes from a couple of reviews he wrote for The Mississippi Rag (as in ragtime). I've heard one previous Washboard Wizards album, Ohio River Blues (1994, Stomp Off). This is a little more modern than the Yerba Buena Stompers albums, at least in two respects: the song focus is Harlem 1924-37, so it swings more, and Des Plantes wrote two new songs to slip in with the old ones. But the band lineup is similar, with banjo and tuba, and four players in common: Leon Oakley (trumpet there, cornet here), Hal Smith (drums, also washboard here), Clint Baker (tuba there, trombone here), and John Gill (banjo). The main difference is replacing the second trumpet with an alto sax -- again, a post-Oliver New York move. Five (of 17) vocal tracks: four by Des Plantes, one by Gill. Des Plantes is the more engaging vocalist, and the dollop of sax and dash of swing give this a slight edge. A-

Satoko Fujii Quartet: Bacchus (2006 [2007], Onoff): There are (at least) two Satoko Fujii [-Natsuki Tamura] Quartets, one with Mark Dresser and Jim Black, and this one with electric bassist Takeharu Hayakawa and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida. This one did a record called Zephyros in 2004 which I liked enough to put on my top ten list -- a marvelous mix of fusion grooves and avant bash. However, this one strikes me as an idea gone bad. The music is rockish at the fragment level, but without much to hold it together -- the groove plodding and cartoonish when it exists at all. But there is plenty of volume, especially with Tamura splattering his trumpet uncharacteristically. Not sure if she's famous enough to spend a dud slot on, but this is a very unpleasant, disappointing record. C+

Omer Avital: Arrival (2006 [2007], Fresh Sound World Jazz): Israeli bassist, working in New York since mid-1990s, with a handful of albums -- The Ancient Art of Giving (2006, Smalls) is a personal favorite. This, however, is not. It's a very advanced, sophisticated postbop sexet, with Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Joel Frahm (saxes), Avi Lebovich (trombone), Jason Lindner (keyboards), and Jonathan Blake (drums). There is a lot of art to the layering of the horns, producing dizzying swirls of sound. It's not clear why this came out in a World Jazz series: Avital plays oud on a couple of cuts, but that doesn't fix them in any kind of world -- meaning foreign to the west -- music. Nor does the fact that the rhythm is pretty regular count for much beyond its galloping rush. So maybe he's just gotten too old to pass for New Talent? B-

No final grades/notes this week on records put back for further listening the first time around.