New Releases

* * * Tony Williams, “Tokyo Live,” Blue Note. Williams’ first live recording in years is a masterful, two-disc example of state-of-the-art contemporary jazz. The leader’s compositions are not always up to the level of his remarkable drumming. But the performances--with extended soloing by the ensemble of trumpeter Wallace Roney, saxophonist Bill Pierce, pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Ira Coleman and Williams--have the rich, multi-timbral textures and swift rhythmic complexities of spontaneous artworks. Especially worth noticing are Roney’s bravura solos, which provide ironic and convincing evidence of how much vitality still exists in the classic Miles Davis style that Davis, himself, once abandoned.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).