1. STEVE LEHMAN OCTET Travail, Transformation and Flow (Pi) The years head-spinning jazz release came from the alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, who employed spectrum analysis as a compositional tool. That might have been a liability if the album werent such a breathtaking accomplishment, a blast of urban futurism at once hypnotic, kinetic and kaleidoscopic. And funky.
2. DIRTY PROJECTORS Bitte Orca (Domino) Dave Longstreth, the gangly mastermind behind this indefatigable Brooklyn indie-rock band, yelps about remaking the horizon on this album, a creative breakthrough. His inspired designs, and the diligent effort of three powerful female singers, makes that claim feel plausible, staggeringly so.
3. HENRY THREADGILLS ZOOID This Brings Us to, Volume I (Pi) Spring loaded and sharp cornered, this long-awaited studio release from Mr. Threadgill, the august avant-garde multireedist and composer, suggests a mutant species of free jazz, wherein free and jazz are both hopelessly inexact terms. Zooid, a group as industrious as it is intuitive, makes his case with style.
2. DIRTY PROJECTORS Bitte Orca (Domino) Dave Longstreth, the gangly mastermind behind this indefatigable Brooklyn indie-rock band, yelps about remaking the horizon on this album, a creative breakthrough. His inspired designs, and the diligent effort of three powerful female singers, makes that claim feel plausible, staggeringly so.
3. HENRY THREADGILLS ZOOID This Brings Us to, Volume I (Pi) Spring loaded and sharp cornered, this long-awaited studio release from Mr. Threadgill, the august avant-garde multireedist and composer, suggests a mutant species of free jazz, wherein free and jazz are both hopelessly inexact terms. Zooid, a group as industrious as it is intuitive, makes his case with style.
