Something is glorious in the state of Denmark. It’s this part-tough, part-tender, all-soulful trio session featuring Copenhagen-based father-and-son team Anders (Hammond organ) and Benjamin (tenor saxophone) Koppel. Their drummer-percussionist on this August 2019 date is the American powerhouse Brian Blade, who, as always, irradiates the session with his joy at making music.

Indeed, Blade’s exuberance goes a long way toward defining this album’s character. It’s at his urging that “Mavis” sounds like a New Orleans R&B number, despite its uneasy 7/8 time and chord structure; it’s also he that keeps guest MC Al Agawi, who has a tendency to ignore the syncopation behind him, firmly on task throughout the title track. (Blade takes a solo on that same track, seemingly free yet never letting go of the pulse.) On Kenny Werner’s lovely but sad “Fall From Grace,” Blade mostly plays a loose, open swing; in the tune’s second half, however, his persistent snap on the ride cymbal suggests nagging pangs of … guilt? Doubt? Just plain sorrow? In any case, it’s effective, adding a surprising level of pathos to the song.

Still and all, the album never stops belonging to the Koppels. Blade’s incessant ride on “Fall From Grace” is a supplement to Benjamin’s woeful saxophone voice, his swing a garnish for Anders’ very Lutheran weeping. The organist has a predilection for his high end, which often casts a spookiness over the music; twice, it detours the slow-burn soul of “If You Forget Me” into long, sinister shadows and monster-movie nightmares. The dark side takes over completely on “Bazaar Revisited,” which begins on furtive tiptoe and dissolves into chaos. Yet Benjamin’s smoky but pointed tenor saves us — maybe even, going by his sermonizing on “Should Have Put A Ring On It,” in the biblical sense.

Perhaps the most well-rounded — and most in-tune — saxophone quartet ever, PRISM turns 40 this year, with more than 300 commissioned works in its ever-expanding oeuvre. Those distinguishing qualities come into play prominently on the group’s latest, Heritage/Evolution, Volume 3. With Tim McAllister on soprano sax, Zachary Shemon on alto, Matthew Levy on tenor and Taimur Sullivan on bari, PRISM Quartet is a model of open-mindedness and artistic refinement. The saxophonists play with virtuoso precision and exhibit a level of interpretive judgment that comes with classical training and deep connections to jazz. Embracing a reverent, chamber music vibe, the ensemble coaxes the subtle, sophisticated beauty out of highly nuanced works featuring guest artists Tim Ries (tenor sax, soprano sax, flute), Miguel Zenón (alto sax), Terell Stafford (trumpet) and Melissa Aldana (tenor sax). Like previous Heritage/Evolution installments, this is a program of serious material that’s a true delight to hear, a colorful spectrum of compositions penned by Aldana, Levy, Stafford and Steven Sondheim. Heritage/Evolution Volume 1 (2015) included contributions by guest instrumentalists Steve Lehman, Dave Liebman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Greg Osby, Ries and Zenón. For Volume 2 (2021), Ravi Coltrane, Joe Lovano and Chris Potter came onboard. PRISM makes art-music to suit any instrumental configuration or stylistic context, and the group clearly isn’t afraid to take on a challenge. In the coming weeks, PRISM Quartet will present its most ambitious project to date: Generate Music, a new body of work exploring the ties between Black and Jewish Americans. The project aims to form a musical narrative by including panel discussions, radio broadcasts and world premiere performances of eight new commissioned works by Yotam Haber, David Krakauer, Myra Melford, Diane Monroe, Ursula Rucker, Tyshawn Sorey, Susan Watts and Fred Wesley, who will use PRISM Quartet as the core of a larger ensemble with an overarching goal of exploring cross-cultural exchange. Generate Music concerts will take place June 8 in Philadelphia and June 9 in Brooklyn, with panel discussions happening May 28 and May 30 in Philadelphia. The project will conclude with a radio broadcast on WWFM and an album release on XAS Records in 2025. For more information on Generate Music, CLICK HERE.

How much of post-1965 jazz history has been a search for that perfect sweet spot between its popular- and art-music foci? Well, with Blue Note Mode, Belgian guitarist Jeanfrançois Prins seems to have found it. If the title doesn’t tell you that (not coincidentally, the album was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio), his bandmembers — hornmen Jeremy Pelt and Jaleel Shaw, pianist Danny Grissett, bassist Jay Anderson and drummer E.J. Strickland — should.

Indeed, there’s a certain lenticular-image nature to Blue Note Mode. Examined from one angle, it’s a hard-bop record: full of swing and the blues, hot, wailing horns (“Blue Note Mode,” “Move or Be Moved”) and the liquid clarity of Prins’ guitar tone (“Diana,” “’Round Midnight”). Approached from another angle, though, it’s an exploratory, post-bop album with unconventional forms and shifting time-feels (“H and C’s Dance”), unsettling harmonies (“Blues Sea”) and standards refit with hip-hoppish rhythms (“Daahoud”). Never, though, does that dichotomy feel forced, or bipolar. It’s all a beautifully cohesive tapestry.

And it clearly inspires all involved. Trumpeter Pelt, in particular, is on a tear; every time he takes the solo spotlight, he blazes across it. Prins’ “Move Or Be Moved” is a brilliant example: Out of Shaw’s propulsive alto line, Pelt takes off like he’s been stung by a bee, with each consecutive phrase a new fanfare. Prins routinely follows Pelt in the solo sequences, and whether by the latter’s inspiration or his own spark, he always seems to make par. On the title track, the trumpeter ends his solo with a touch of coolant, which Prins immediately discards in order to scorch up the joint.

Importantly, though, Prins can generate serious electricity without the horns, and does so on six of the album’s 12 tracks. He and Grissett lay down a scintillating double-solo marathon on the guitarist’s “I’m Movin’ On” and “Ornette-Lee” (ironic that the latter, named for two of Prins’ favorite saxophonists, has no horns). The leader then surprises with a sweet crooning vocal on the closing “Too Late Now.” It’s a beautiful moment that renders pop-or-art identities irrelevant.

Good Trouble finds Matt Wilson as boisterous and hard-swinging as ever. Resourceful, too: This critic had never heard a contrafact of “Feed The Fire,” Geri Allen’s signature tune, before Wilson’s playful album opener “Fireplace.” The drummer brings his affability as well to Ornette Coleman’s “Feet Music,” spurring his bandmates — alto saxophonist Tia Fuller, tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Jeff Lederer, pianist/vocalist Dawn Clements and bassist Ben Allison — into a downright boogie. Add in a sly, slinky performance of Lederer’s “Albert’s Alley,” and who can resist?

But it’s not all fun and games for Wilson’s new quintet. Good Trouble (both band and album named from the words of the late Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis) has a very serious message about community service. It can manifest as deeply moving, like the gorgeous ode to Lewis “Walk With The Wind” (with some wonderful saxophone interplay between altoist Tia Fuller and tenorist Jeff Lederer), or as a strident call to action, like “RGB,” a tribute to everyone’s favorite Supreme Court justice (again with great sax work, but also a rousing piano solo from Dawn Clements). At its best, it does both at once, like the gospel-cum-calypso closer “Community Spirit.”

There’s also a strain of sweetness to Good Trouble, thanks in large part to Clements’ vocals. She animates the fond ballad “Be That As It May” with a wistful, sinuous delivery. Add joy to that delivery and you have the heartbreaking-in-spite-of-itself rendition of John Denver’s “Sunshine On My Shoulders” that glides gracefully over Wilson’s tu-way pocky-way beat and Ben Allison’s knowing bass line.

Even at its most earnest, though, Good Trouble can’t help but default to Wilson’s sense of fun and humor. “RBG” ends with a vocal chant from the band, urging the listener to “honor her plea/serve your community.” Yet it concludes with gales of laughter as Fuller gleefully shouts, “Matt, you’re so in it!” You will be, too.

Isaiah Collier is a multi-instrumentalist blazing out of Chicago. About to turn 26, Collier’s ascension into the upper-echelon jazz world is happening now. His 2021 release, Cosmic Transitions (Division 81), received a 5-star review in DownBeat. He was named Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist in last year’s DownBeat Critics Poll. Live shows with his band The Chosen Few, and other incarnations, simply astound. He grew up taking the best from the wide span of music available in Chicago, developing his skills through the Jazz Institute of Chicago and the Chicago High School for the Performing Arts as well as taking in the wisdom of members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). He went on to study at the Brubeck Institute. He learned well and is now an artist in full bloom as evidenced on his latest recording, The Almighty (Division 81). There is so much to take in with this record. There’s a deep sense of the spirituality and fire of Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders as evidenced on tunes like “Compassion” (featuring AACM legend Ari Brown, a mentor) and “Duality Suite (I. +, II. -, III. Divine Masculine, IV. Divine Feminine).” “Compassion” offers a calling of the spirits for the proceedings. It’s just lovely. “Duality Suite” fires off 23 minutes of hold-on-tight, high-tension energy that gives way to soulful contemplation. This single tune offers a full spectrum of the fantastic artistry Collier and company deliver. It’s exhilarating. “Love” is a beautiful medium-tempo tune that speaks to the subject in a complex, churning musical movement with beautiful vocals by vocalist Dee Alexander. “Perspective (Peace And Love)” offers another beautiful message with the repeated refrain of “peace and love” by Collier. The album culminates into another extended, and beautifully complex, composition, “The Almighty.” In addition to the members of his amazing group the Chosen Few — Michael Shekwoaga Ode on drums, Julian Davis Reid on piano and Jeremiah Hunt on bass — Collier adds a group he calls The Celestials consisting of strings, a horn section and an expanded rhythm section to reach shamanistic heights, calling out to The Almighty. It’s thrilling, reflective, spellbinding music that never loses its sense of groove. There’s no way listeners cannot feel the magnetism of Collier’s generous, glowing spirit.