Horace Tapscott with the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, "Ancestral Echoes" (Dark Tree). Composer-pianist Tapscott was stoking the L.A. fires of the African diaspora so high in the 1970s that, according to Steven Isoardi's comprehensive notes, his tapes got incinerated the day after a recording session, and many of his Arkestra were rendered homeless when their communal house burned down. But fate didn't prevent Tapscott from documenting a vital 1976 studio performance of his large ensemble showcasing many young musicians and ambitious works by Tapscott, Guido Sinclair and Fuasi Abdul-Khaliq. Passionate solos, strong rhythms and healing vibes abound, and thanks to engineer Wayne Peet's miraculous restoration, you can really feel the heat. Listen/buy here.
Ran Blake & Christine Correa, "When Soft Rains Fall" (Red Piano). The sprayed dissonances of veteran pianist Blake marry well with the coarse emotive quality of Correa's disciplined voice in a program of (post)romantic standards founded on Billie Holiday's 1959 orchestral exhalation, "Lady in Satin." If Holiday straddled the boundary between entertainment and confession, these two have definitely opted not to mix you a Manhattan. That's fine; they left the bottle on the table, and you can take your belts straight. Sample/buy here.
Ran Blake & Frank Carlberg, "Gray Moon" (Red Piano). The spirit of Monk hangs over this piquant twin-piano fest, which nods to Greek music, Catalan music, R&B, George Russell and Duke while shuffling in four originals from Blake, one of our era's most penetrating keyboard voices. Eclectic, yes, but unified and engaging, each track a meal. Sample/buy here.
Scot Ray, "Reminiscential" Sandpaper shuffle; moony meditation upon distant Earth; electrocircuit Highland fling; a pointed geometric video. Getting inside slide guitarist Scot Ray's universal head gets you out of yours. Listen/buy here.
Thumbscrew, "The Anthony Braxton Project" (Cuneiform). Drummer Tomas Fujiwara, guitarist Mary Halvorson and double bassist Michael Formanek scoured the Braxton archives for the composer-windman's rarest gems, and played their abstract asses off with sensitivity and precision; Braxton's twisty lines seem made for Halvorson's delicate pluck. An ear-opener. Listen/buy here. Out July 24.