The avant-garde trades heavily on being just that: ahead of its time. It flatters the listener that we are being let in on the music of the future. That mythology is increasingly hard to square with Kris Davis’ music, though, as Diatom Ribbons Live At The Village Vanguard makes clear. For all its freshness and innovation, Davis’ music is precisely and unmistakably the sound of today. It helps that Davis’ Diatom Ribbons quintet comprises fearless, best-in-class players like drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Trevor Dunn and electronics guru Val Jeanty. This bunch can make anything, from the breathless rocker “Kingfisher” to the skewed quasi-ballad “Brainfeel,” sound ultra-modern. But Davis’ material also does a lot of that work for them. With its disparate, slow-moving parts, “Endless Columns” moves from spacey eeriness to solid groove, especially in its middle portion when Carrington, Lage, Dunn and Jeanty meld together to pave the way for a surprisingly melodic Davis solo. “Bird Call Blues” does it one better, with experimental vocals and musique concrete building up to steady-swinging post-bop. Their contemporariness is all the more impressive considering that the quintet deeply mines the progressive jazz tradition in their Vanguard stand (the recording comes from two nights at the club in May 2022). It features covers of Ronald Shannon Jackson, Geri Allen and Wayne Shorter (freewheeling versions of Shorter’s “Dolores” close each of the album’s two discs). Jeanty also includes speaking samples of, among others, Sun Ra (“V.W.”) and Paul Bley (“Bird Call Blues”). Has time finally caught up with the avant-garde? Is the future now? Perhaps it’s just that Davis has the acuity and focus to root a farsighted vision firmly in the present.

Each track on this new double disc from Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society stands as a marvel of musical architecture, a self-contained miniverse populated by conspiring ensemble players and ace soloists. Seven of the 11 expansive compositions presented here are commissioned works that Argue originally wrote for various orchestras, arts organizations and festivals: Teeming with optimism and built upon minimalist foundations, these far-ranging and ultimately cohesive works include the Dave Pietro soprano saxophone feature “Ebonite” and the improv-laden, Ellington-inspired “Tensile Curves” (both for the Hard Rubber New Music Society with support from the Canada Council for the Arts), “Last Waltz For Levon” (for the Danish Radio Big Band), the Bob Brookmeyer dedication “Wingèd Beasts” (for New England Conservatory) with its softly dissonant passages, and the binary-gone-berserk “Codebreaking” (for the West Point Jazz Knights) written in honor of the British mathematician and early computer scientist Alan Turing. What you might consider the title track, opener “Dymaxion” — featuring a propulsive, high-climbing bari sax solo from Carl Maraghi — is Argue’s dedication to American architect and inventor Buckminster Fuller, whose philosophy of “doing more with less” seems to manifest as an underlying substrate for the entire album. “All In,” which Argue composed in memory of the late big band stalwart Laurie Frink, basks in full-ensemble density in support of Nadje Noordhuis’ sensitive and intense trumpet solo. “Your Enemies Are Asleep,” a statement of solidarity with the people of Ukraine, rumbles like an approaching storm of military destruction, its recurrent three-note motif signaling impending doom and raising tension levels so high you might feel ready to strangle Argue the arranger; to my ears, this is clearly the intention of Argue the artist. “Ferromagnetic” begins adrift with nebula-like clouds and swirls of scattered sounds, until the rocking electric guitar of herder Sebastian Noelle pulls it all together with what feels like unifying gravitational force, setting the table for Matt Holman’s effects-processed trumpet solo. Album closer “Mae West: Advice” (with Paisley Rekdal’s lyrics sung by Cécile McLorin Salvant) is the closest the Secret Society comes to traditional big band swing and song form, ending the program on an upbeat note that gives listeners a bit of palate-cleansing levity as they head back into their own personal universes to digest and ponder the full Dynamic Maximum Tension experience.

From the opening strains of Where Are We, Joshua Redman’s first recording on Blue Note, the tenor saxophonist sends a statement that’s really more of a confessional about America, one full of hopes and dreams, but also reality and confusion and love and loss. The album begins with the powerful ballad “After Minneapolis (face toward mo(u)ring),” an original that covers those very real feelings with depth and poignancy following the murder of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. The tune begins with Redman playing the melody to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” before making his horn cry for help. Gabrielle Cavassa, a young singer with a deep, rich, fragile voice, beautifully serves the lyrics penned by Redman: “Knee on neck, near naked night, colors cleave/Fear forms hate in faithless fight, love that leaves.” Instrumentalists aren’t usually the best lyricists, but Redman has a gift here. The album progresses through a truly far-reaching program of songs about places and the people in them. Bruce Springsteen’s “The Streets Of Philadelphia” becomes a slow-jam blues, again featuring Cavassa’s seductive vocals and some beautiful guitar work by Kurt Rosenwinkel. The album delivers terrific mashups, including Redman and company combining Count Basie’s “Goin’ To Chicago” with Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago.” Joel Ross guests on the cut with his super cool, lyrical work on vibraphone. There is so much to like on this recording, from a delightfully tender rendition of Jimmy Webb’s classic “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” to the standard “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” to the mashup of “The Stars Fell On Alabama” into Coltrane’s “Alabama.” Cavassa is a star in the making. Other tasty appearances by guitarist Peter Bernstein and trumpeter Nicholas Payton highlight Redman’s working band of Aaron Parks on piano, Brian Blade on drums and Joe Sanders on bass. By the time the final notes fade on the chestnut “Where Are You?,” the album’s closing number, hearts have been broken, beaten, weathered and mended. Minds have been stretched and blown. Joshua Redman has delivered his finest recording to date. And that’s saying something.

Claire Daly has a warm, inviting, witty, tremendously engaging personality that shines through in her playing. Just as the goal of a great writer is to write as they speak to make their craft more personal, Daly plays how she thinks. And that thoughtfulness is on full display on her new recording, Vuvu For Frances, a tribute to one of New York City’s long-standing jazz patrons, the 98-year-old Frances Ballantyne.

The recording serves as a throwback in many ways, tipping its hat to the heyday of the 52nd Street jazz haunts from the 1950s, beginning with the album’s cover: a classic Bill Gottlieb photo of “The Street,” to beautifully rendered chestnuts like Jimmy Van Heusen’s “All The Way,” Johnny Mercer’s “Fools Rush In” and “Mood Indigo” from the team of Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard. The setting also turns into a terrific conversation between Daly’s low-down bari and the flowing tenor of George Garzone, a colleague and long-time mentor.

Daly and Garzone together are magic. They flow in and out of each other’s lines, complement each solo and charm the bejeezus out of you on each of this set’s 13 tunes.

They throw down on Charles Lloyd’s “Sweet Georgia Bright,” backed by a swinging rhythm section in Jon Davis on piano, Dave Hofstra on bass and David F. Gibson on drums. Ditto on “People Will Say We’re In Love” at one of the fastest tempos this writer has ever heard. They plant their musical tongues firmly in cheek for a ride around “The Lonely Goatherd” from The Sound Of Music. You can almost hear free-jazz yodeling in the background as they play “Lay ee old lay ee old-oo,” then take the whole tune into an avant-garde tantra before returning, true to form.

The rest of the set just offers a warm embrace. “Half Nelson,” “Harlem Nocturne,” “The Very Thought Of You” and more, delivered with all the grace and warmth these kids can muster.

What else can be said? Go get some Vuvu. It’ll be good for your soul.

We live in a golden age of jazz pianists. This writer has contended for years that at no other time in history have so many prolific jazz pianists traversed the planet at one time. It is truly an embarrassment of riches — in this case, the wealth comes from Arturo O’Farrill, who has long been known for his incredible ability to command a big band as a composer, arranger and leader. For proof, just check out his debut on Blue Note …dreaming in lions… or Fandango At The Wall In New York (Tiger Turn), the latter being named Best Latin Jazz Album at the 2023 Grammy Awards. Fronting his Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, O’Farrill has carved out his place in today’s jazz universe. Fronting the ALJE, he’s a river of creativity, beauty and soul. But on Legacies — an album that tips his hat to his father, the famed Cubano jazz legend Chico O’Farrill, and other key influences — we hear a different side of the maestro as a pianist in solo and trio settings. It’s a recording of boundless ideas and energy. Let’s start with the trio work, where O’Farrill works beautifully with son Zack on drums and Liany Mateo on bass. The three cook through Herbie Hancock’s “Dolphin Dance” with surprising, angular twists and turns. On O’Farrill’s own “Blue State Blues,” you can practically hear the smiles from the trio as they rip through these blues with a sense of pure joy. There’s a touching tribute to his former employer Carla Bley, “Utviklingssang,” that rings a quiet, cool vibe and maintains an understated intensity that’s just right. The solo pieces are equally, or even more, impressive. Let’s just put this out there: Arturo O’Farrill is one of our greatest living pianists. Period. Go ahead and argue. But first, listen to him play “Darn That Dream” from the album or his father’s tune “Pure Emotion” or Thelonious Monk’s “Well, You Needn’t.” These aren’t just reworkings of old chestnuts, they are revelations that go to the heart of O’Farrill’s mind, music and art. “How did a classically trained musician with an Irish/Mexican/Cuban/German heritage and a propensity toward the avant-garde became the poster boy for Afro Latin Jazz?” O’Farrill asks in the press materials for Legacies. “Obviously, by falling in love with jazz piano. I have always been a jazz pianist first, and all that other stuff afterwards. When Don Was [the president of Blue Note Records] asked me to record this side of me, I was very grateful for the chance to return to my roots as a musician.” We’re grateful, too. This is an experience and a treat that listeners can retreat to any time they need a reliable pick-me-up.