Not Easy Listening, Rewarding Listening

As we approach the end of a decade in which young jazz musicians have spent an inordinate amount of time revisiting the past--most notably the ‘50s and ‘60s--it’s good to know that there’s still plenty of imaginative, envelope-stretching music being played around the fringes of the improvisational art.

Much of it won’t sell a lot of albums, and some of it can be demanding and difficult. But it’s the kind of adventurousness essential to the music’s future, and every bit as important as the appreciation and understanding of the jazz past.

Here is a quick, cross-section glance at some of the edgy but engaging CDs that have turned up in recent months:

Alto saxophonist Greg Osby--”Banned in New York” (***, Blue Note)--has followed his own path with considerable persistence. And this latest album showcases the individuality that courses through all his free-flowing improvisations, even when he is examining such relatively familiar material as standards (“I Didn’t Know”) and the blues.

Pianist Randy Weston--”Khepera” (*** 1/2, Verve)--has also pursued his own vision, in his case via a series of interfaces between jazz and African music. “Khepera,” which also features Pharoah Sanders and Benny Powell, is a particularly effective linkage of the two, with Chinese musician Min Xiao Fen adding the plangent sounds of the pipa to the musical melting pot.

Scandinavian saxophonist Jan Garbarek is another consistent musical maverick. His two-CD “Rites” (***, ECM) is filled with floating sounds that are as starkly moody as the black-and-white photos that accompany the package. But jazz is at the heart of it, and Garbarek has done an effective job of positioning the music in the context of his own cultural milieu.

Veteran tenor saxophonist-composer Ed Summerlin has been effectively venturing through the jazz avant-garde for more than three decades. “Sum of the Parts” (***, Ictus Records) displays the complexities and inherent swing in his dissonant, contrapuntal music. Resonant with influences from George Russell and Ornette Coleman, it nonetheless comes together as one of the genuinely individual voices in the arena of exploratory jazz. (Available from Ictus Records, P.O. Box 242, Pleasant Valley, NY 12569.)

Larry Karush is a pianist who manages to blend elements from virtually the entire gamut of 20th century music into his articulate improvisations. In “Art of the Improviser” (*** 1/2, Naxos Jazz), a riveting set of solo piano tracks, he draws together such disparate elements as bluegrass, banjo music, stride, tinges of Erik Satie, boogie-woogie, country and the blues. But his own vision--one of the most fascinating in current jazz--remains constant.

Saxophonist Phillip Johnston has led a variety of groups in a career centered on the edgy music that emerged from New York’s downtown underground scene in the ‘80s. His latest album, “The Needless Kiss” (***, Koch Jazz), features his current Transparent Quartet in a program that uses the textures of the vibes-bass-two saxophones ensemble to energize a set of material ranging from precise, classical-sounding pieces to spare ballads and an occasional rhythm tune.

Bill Laswell continues down an odd musical path with “Jazzonia” (** 1/2, Douglas Music). Like a number of other artists, he attempts to find connections among jazz, rap and hip-hop. But he does so here by deconstructing such familiar jazz standards as “Cottontail,” “Angel Eyes” and “Moody’s Mood for Love,” largely abandoning melody and harmony in favor of repetitious vamps and turntable scratches. In the process, first-rate saxophone work from Byard Lancaster and some fine string scoring by Karl Berger is essentially wasted.*

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).