Jacky Terrasson’s music has always been a marvelous melding of the complex and the understated. Moving On, his latest album, demonstrates both sides of this equation with fantastic results. There’s so much going on here. The theme of this recording comes from the pianist’s move back to France after spending a good portion of his career in New York City. The music demonstrates his love for both the push and pull of life. And the 15 songs on this set add to that yin–yang dichotomy, with two trios playing the tunes. Bassist Sylvain Romano and drummer Lukmil Perez, the French trio, join Terrasson for six tunes. Bassist Kenny Davis and Alvester join him as the American trio. The music is complex, but in the pocket. His pianism serves both trios well, as Terrasson plays challenging passages with such ease that the listener can just sit back and feel a rush of sound wash over them. Terrasson kicks off the album with his French trio’s total and impressive reimagining of “Beseme Mucho,” the classic bolero written by Consuelo Velázquez. Terrasson, Romano and Perez take the tune at a heartbreaking adagio, giving it an almost classical reverence. On the flip side, the American trio delivers the album’s title track as a fast-paced, raise-the-roof, feel-good jam demonstrating all the excitement that a new chapter in one’s life can offer. It’s a Terrasson original that flows with positive vibes, as do many of his compositions, like “R&B” or the slow-burning “Edit (Piaf)” from the album. Terrasson also treats us to some really great guest spots and standards. Grégoire Maret joins in on truly fun version of the mega-hit “Happy,” complete with vocal spots by Camille Bertault and Karen Guiock Thuram. Drummer Billy Hart steps in for a turn on “Misty (NYC Take).” Other treats include “My Baby Just Cares For Me” with a terrific guest vocal by Guiock-Thuram; Est-ce que tu me suis?” with another terrific vocal by Bertault; and “Enfin,” a Terrasson original with Maret guesting. Hart also takes the drum chair for the album’s outro, “Theme From New York, New York.” It’s a fitting 53-second ditty to wrap up a thoughtful set that says “goodbye and thanks” to one home and “hello, can’t wait to see you” to a new one. Terrasson’s love letter is beautifully delivered to both.

Alto and soprano saxophonist Nicola Caminiti’s debut album is a thing of beauty. He identifies it as a somewhat abstruse concept album, “a non-chronological narration of my journey in this world.” While it explains the care he takes with the music, the listener need not know even that much to appreciate the stately and meditative post-bop therein.

Caminiti is remarkably facile on his axe(s), and he wastes no time demonstrating it with the long, loquacious, angular-but-swooping alto lines he unfurls on the second track, “Elliptical Biking.” (Such lines resurface in knobbier, more dissonant guises on “Adam Arturo” and “Cloudy In(to) The Sky.”) This is expected; debut albums about proving oneself. But Caminiti is at his best when he eases up on that aspect. “City Lights (and deep darkness),” the keystone of the album’s 11 tracks, is a medium-slow, long-note and lyrical melody; in another context it might be a vocal line for Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. Caminiti (on soprano) plays it with grace and pathos, with sensitive accompaniment from pianist Lex Korten, bassist Ben Tiberio and drummer Miguel Russell. His solo still gives him a chance to flex his chops without sacrificing the lyricism.

Better still are the ballads. The mournful “Farewell Too Soon” takes a well-developed journey from intangible sadness to catharsis, and the fragile “Crowded Solitude” is treated with an almost unbearably light touch. Both cases show that Caminiti has a powerful musical empathy with Korten. Whether this quartet is a session pick-up group or a standing, working band is yet to be seen, but the saxophonist and pianist’s partnership is one that should continue.

Mike Holober’s Gotham Jazz Orchestra brings big-city virtuosity and rarefied sensibility to a double-disc, multi-movement program of original compositions inspired by the great outdoors and overflowing with the insights of its six protagonists: prominent environmental activists and artists who’ve dedicated their lives to protecting America’s beautiful landscapes and endangered natural resources. This Rock We’re On: Imaginary Letters is an utterly moving, long-form suite that finds pianist Holober — a lifelong nature enthusiast with a passion for canoeing and hiking in the pristine lakes and woods of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin — at the height of his deep-rooted composing/arranging expertise. A grand-scale masterwork, the album gracefully intersperses the leader’s grandiose jazz-meets-classical charts with sparser, vocals-centered art songs that convey the earnestness shared among champions of the conservationist movement in the form of Holober’s ghost-written correspondences, poetically rendered here by up-and-coming Brazilian singer Jamile Staevie Ayres. The ace instrumentalists in the Gotham Jazz Orchestra, drawn from the highest ranks of jazz and classical players, lend eloquence and heft to Holober’s save-the-planet message; they include tenor saxophonist Jason Rigby, alto saxophonist Ben Kono, multi-reedist Charles Pillow, trumpeter/flugelhornist Marvin Stamm, drummer Jared Schonig, guitarist Nir Felder and the prominently featured cellist Jody Redhage Ferber, among numerous other notables. The ensemble is augmented by two special guests, saxophonist Chris Potter and bassist John Patitucci, who fully embrace the group’s shared vision with gusto and simpatico. You won’t need a boat, a tent or a detailed map to enjoy This Rock We’re On, but listeners who’ve paddled their way through the Boundary Waters in the past might easily imagine the call of the loon inviting them back for a return trip.

Composer/conductor Jihye Lee has a keen sense of rhythm in her work. On her latest recording, Infinite Connections, Lee puts that affection and her powerful music on full display. The theme for the album rests on the profound memories Lee has of her grandmother, who was born in Korea when it was a Japanese colony. Lee’s grandmother, an orphan, married as a teenager, mainly to be protected from the sex trade. She maintained the sadness throughout her life of a woman held down by a stifling patriarchal society, according to Lee. The tune “Born In 1935” captures that feeling beautifully, chronicling her grandmother’s journey from happiness in youth to darkness in adulthood to dementia late in life (she passed away in 2022). The orchestration is beautiful. Alto soloist Dave Pietro (known for his work with the Maria Schneider Orchestra and practically every other New York big band of note) delivers a fabulously stirring solo. The power of Lee’s rhythmic focus here and throughout the recording is no accident. She features traditional Korean folk rhythms as the backdrop to her compositions on Infinite Connections. They are exquisitely performed by percussionist Keita Ogawa of Snarky Puppy fame along with the orchestra’s amazing rhythm section of Jared Schonig on drums, Matt Clohesy on bass, Adam Birnbaum on piano and Alex Goodman on guitar. The album has punch from the downbeat, with the stunning opener “Surrender” featuring trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire delivering a killer guest spot. He also guests on the mysteriously lovely “You Are My Universe.” Kudos go out to trombonist Alan Ferber and tenor saxophonist Jason Rigby for terrific work throughout; especially fine are their solos on “We Are All From The Same Stream.” Co-produced by Lee and big band composer-leader Darcy James Argue, Infinite Connections stirs the soul, inspires the listener to ponder deep thoughts and makes for an ultimately beautiful listening experience. Jihye Lee is a composer who with capture your ears, attention and imagination, today and well into the future.

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.