It’s the way George Garzone and his all-star quintet play that makes this studio recording feel so much like a live blow. It’s the soul-stirring conviction heard in their approach to the three originals on this eight-song, straightahead jazz program that makes them sound as warm and familiar as old standards. And it’s the exploratory manner in which the Boston-tough, Berklee-smart tenor saxophonist and his co-conspirators — trumpeter Randy Brecker, pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Santi Debriano and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts — reinvent the program’s four standards (and one contrafact) that makes them so worth listening to again. Themes For Good Friends showcases Garzone’s enduring — and highly influential — voice after more than 50 years in the music. Indeed, he continues to play with the same harmonic sophistication, pure tenor tone and deliberate approach to improvisation that have defined him all along. Themes For Good Friends also serves as a celebration of musical relationships forged over a lifetime. Each musician is a bandleader and improviser in their own right; together they create a unified ensemble built on decades of friendship and collaboration. Opening the album is John Coltrane’s “Theme For Ernie” performed as a lyrical duet between Garzone and Perdomo. Archie Shepp’s “U-Jaama” follows, with Watts anchoring the full ensemble before launching into a commanding solo and Debriano providing a rhythmic foundation that allows the music to swing effortlessly. “It Will Happen To You,” built upon the framework of Jimmy Van Heusen’s “It Could Happen To You,” demonstrates Garzone’s wit as an arranger, as the track transforms familiar material into a joyful modern swing vehicle; Brecker delivers a trumpet performance filled with warmth and invention, while Perdomo contributes an exuberant piano solo before the fun concludes with a spirited exchange between Debriano and Watts. Debriano’s composition “Ripty-Boom” provides one of the album’s more expansive performances, with every member stretching freely. Garzone’s “To Michael Brecker” finds him joining the late saxophonist’s trumpet-playing brother in a single melodic statement that becomes a moving tribute to one of jazz’s most beloved voices. Garzone and Watts’ duet deconstruction of “Giant Steps,” an adventure in twisty improvisation that reveals the familiar Coltrane melody only in its closing moments, is one of the bolder statements in this delectable, highly accessible program of hard-swinging hard-bop and heart-wrenching balladry. It passes the “listen to this album over and over all day” test with flying colors.

As a critic, I often use Ella Fitzgerald’s stereo recordings as guideposts for standards I’m less familiar with; her fidelity to the written melody, attention to detail and interpretative brilliance are nonpareil. Yet this makes it easy to forget how thoroughly she makes the songs her own, especially in concert — and what a blast it is when she does so.

On Live At Falkoner Theatre Copenhagen 6th February 1966 (special thanks to Gearbox Records for squeezing most of the historical context just into the album title), she eases into it. The only real customizing of opener “Satin Doll” comes when she reprises the last eight bars, and there’s just slightly more decoration on Burt Bacharach’s “Wives And Lovers,” which oddly enough might be the gig’s hardest-swinging number. (Accompanying Ella on the gig is the Duke Ellington Orchestra, minus Duke and the rhythm section: pianist Jimmy Johnson and his trio sit in.) Yet by the time she’s done with both, you can barely imagine anyone else singing them.

By the time of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” however, she’s recomposing top to bottom: It’s an oddly monotonous rewriting, but she fills it with her panoply of oomph. She growls, hollers, belts, shrieks and shouts so that even the Johnny Hodges/Paul Gonsalves reed section is just barely able to keep up. Almost as much fun, though, is “Só Danço Samba,” which she barely alters at all, but merely punches in all the right spots. Then there’s “How High The Moon,” by this time Ella’s traditional showstopper; if it’s not quite the dizzying heights of her famous 1960 Berlin recording, it’s not because she doesn’t put just as much energy into it.

The most astonishing trick of all, though, comes in the set’s two ballads, Billy Strayhorn’s “Something To Live For” and Ellington’s “I’m A Lucky So-and-So.” On the former, particularly, she’s as precise and on-the-page perfect as one can fathom; on the latter, she surely sounds exactly as Duke intended for the song. Yet in her hands, they no longer belong to those giants and it sounds like they never did. How did she do that?

The vibes are a magical instrument, creating otherworldly sounds with all that shimmer, echo and glow that just floats in the air. Jalen Baker, at 31, is a young master practitioner on the vibes. He feels the draw of this instrument and knows just how to compose and arrange to bring out the full, lush tonality of the instrument. In the case of RePaved, Baker’s fourth album, he also demonstrates how to form a less-than-conventional group around his music. He joins a jazz quintet featuring flutist Alexandria DeWalt, pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Gabriel Godoy and drummer Gavin Moolchan with a string quartet consisting of Yoojin Park, Ciara Jamila, Tia Allen and Reenat Pinchas. The combination is fantastic. Baker creates gorgeous washes and complex interplay that simply sound beautiful in his music. But beyond that, he proves to be a true storyteller, in this case detailing through instrumental music the trials, travails and power of his home: the 3rd Ward in Houston Texas. Along with most of the musicians on the recording, Baker grew up in the gritty neighborhood, which boasts a proud history of being one of Houston’s historic Black neighborhoods. RePaved serves as warning shot to those who attempt to gentrify the neighborhood and pave over its storied streets without paying homage to its cultural roots. And Baker sets forth to play some beautiful music while teaching some of that history. The set opens with “Antioch,” a tribute to the first Black baptist church created by slaves emancipated in Texas on Juneteenth, 1865. The tune slides into “John Henry,” a lovely ballad dedicated to the church’s founder, John Henry “Jack” Yates. “Dowling:Emancipation” drives an upbeat tempo and melody to celebrate the day in 2017 when Dowling Street — originally named after Dick Dowling, a Confederate commander — was renamed Emancipation Avenue. “Freedman” continues the proud theme of the community rising above pain. As does “City On The Water,” a tune that pulls at the heartstrings and reminds us that one act of nature can wash it all away. Baker changes the mood quickly with the buoyant “Kashmere,” a smile-inducing tribute to the Kashmere Stage Band, one of the swingingest high school bands in history under the direction of Conrad O. Johnson in the 1960s and 1970s. He also does a terrific take on the Thelonious Monk/Dezil Best tune “Bemsha Swing,” and the proceedings conclude with a wistful dose of memoriam via Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.” Throughout the set, Baker conjures thoughtful, deep imagery and demonstrates his expansive artistry as a composer, musician and all-around artist. He’s got the goods!

Ayn Inserto captures the beautifully complex and soulful essence of the celebrated trumpeter-educator Sean Jones on this spectacular new recording made in collaboration with Germany’s renowned WDR Big Band. When the Boston-based composer-arranger — an important contributor to the worldwide contemporary large ensemble scene who’s worked extensively with her own jazz orchestra for 25 years as well as the Frankfurt Radio Big Band beginning in 2022 — was commissioned by the Cologne-based WDR to present an evening-length concert performance of her original music in 2024, she selected compositions representing various aspects of her existing oeuvre and wrote a brand-new suite for Jones, the night’s featured soloist. The program begins with a series of pieces released on earlier albums by the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra (“Eschel Sketch,” “La Danza Infinita,” “Vinifera” and “Down A Rabbit Hole” for those already familiar with her work). The middle portion of the set includes “Mr. Jones And Company” (a 2019 piece commissioned by NYO Jazz, the Carnegie Hall national youth ensemble led by Jones) and “BJ’s Tune” (Inserto’s arrangement of a Jones composition) — both of which contribute to setting up the show’s grand finale: the 22-minute, four-part “Suite For Sean Jones,” dedicated to the evening’s special guest artist, a personal friend who’s had productive and meaningful musical encounters with Inserto previously. Named for the many disparate qualities that embody Inserto’s work — including deliberate yet heavily syncopated rhythms, flowing lyricism amid a buoyant sea of tonal rubs and harmonically tense ensemble figures, and a youthful attitude that vitalizes her more mature, abstract constructs — Jagged Edges & Elegant Lines documents a monumental event in the large ensemble realm and paints a gorgeous portrait of one of jazz’s most well-rounded and accessible instrumentalists.

Vocalist Akua Allrich isn’t shy about the themes in her work: pan-Africanism; politics, racial and otherwise; Black womanhood; and spirituality, including the gods of the West African Akan people (who she thanks in her liner notes). Indeed, shyness is not in her performing vocabulary: Maryland-based Allrich has a robust, booming alto voice that she further imbues with powerful presence. It seems at first to belie the title Bonya, which she initially translates as “humility”; she elaborates, however, that Bonya is “the practice of listening deeply and allowing Spirit to speak, create and inspire.”

Indeed, it does exactly that. This live performance in Baltimore includes takes on Nina Simone’s “Four Women” and Billie Holiday’s “Fine And Mellow”: signature pieces by two of Allrich’s heroes. Some singers would be trapped in the composers’ outsize personas; Allrich, unintimidated, inhabits both songs completely. She pushes ahead of the beat on “Fine And Mellow” where Holiday famously fell behind, then scats with all her might through one chorus, yet sacrifices none of the blues flavor (thanks in part to bassist Kris Funn, in whom Allrich has a splendid musical partner). On Simone’s song, she simply lets her confidence and conviction burst forth, sounding only like herself. (Funn remains a solid partner, but Samuel Prather’s piano, Brent Birckhead’s alto saxophone and Tyler Leak’s patient drum line are also essential).

Much more stunning music occurs. Allrich transforms Randy Newman’s “Baltimore” into a reggae-fied shout, Prather’s echoey Rhodes giving it a faint dub vibe. Her own compositions, the joyful “Bonya” and the soulful ballad “Push And Pull,” arrive with as much weight and presence as everything else. If there is a missing element here, it’s intimacy; even on “Push And Pull,” both Allrich’s power and the sound of the room are very much on display. But that’s OK. The Spirit that Allrich allows to speak, create and inspire on Bonya is delivering its message not to a small group of listeners, but to the world.

Saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Isaiah Collier has become known as a fiery artist channeling John Coltrane’s driven spirituality, Chicago’s AACM avant garde aesthetic and a personal love of individual expression. But drop the needle on Joy, his new five-song EP, and there’s a totally different side of Collier’s artistic being. He delivers old-school Motown wrapped in hip, young Chicago for 27 minutes and 11 seconds of pure … Yep, you’ve got the idea. If you’ve been following the 28-year-old rising star’s career, the title track, which is also the first track, snaps your head around. Sixties pop piano? R&B chimes? Violins? A killin’ horn section riff? The buildup is one part Smokey Robinson and one part fellow Chicagoan Chance the Rapper. And then it happens. Isaiah Collier sings. The man who tells stories through his array of instruments also has a great voice. “Joy,” the song, is a summertime, top-down, driving slow banger that can also raise you up for church on Sunday morning. It’s guaranteed to pick you up when you’re feeling down. On “Landscape Of Dreams,” Collier plays all the instruments — piano, flutes, percussion, drums, bass — on this breathy dose of happiness. “Where I’m Loved” shines the spotlight on Collier’s falsetto and relationships on a straight-up r&b groove. “When The Dust Settles” takes the set in a totally different very electric direction. Collier had just received a microKorg synth from co-producer Sunny Daze. So, he started messing with it joined by Cole Runge on guitar and his brother Jeremiah Collier on drums. For those who don’t know, Jeremiah is incredibly talented, too, touring with Stanley Clarke as well as playing with his own band The REUP. The result is a massive U-turn from the rest of the set, but it’s crazy fun. To close the set, Mr. Collier takes us to church with “God’s By Your Side.” Collier notes that the song was inspired by the passing of D’Angelo. The theme is absolutely beautiful: keep moving, keep going forward. And that’s exactly what Isaiah Collier does. He moves forward, following the muse, following his heart. And he has a big, curious heart.