Inventing the future as they go

“Leaves of Grass” is one of a growing number of jazz albums moving beyond the familiar fare of straight-ahead rhythms and standard repertoire. Here are other current examples:

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Stefano di Battista

“Parker’s Mood” (Blue Note)

When Charlie Parker died in 1955, graffiti began to appear around Manhattan with the words “Bird Lives.” It turned out to be a visionary statement, since Parker, through his music, did indeed live and continues to live into the 21st century as one of the three or four most influential artists in the history of jazz.

Italian alto saxophonist Di Battista approaches this program of Parker classics -- “Confirmation,” “Donna Lee,” “Hot House,” etc. -- with the same respect for the original that a classical pianist would have in a performance of a Mozart concerto. The repertoire may be familiar, but what Di Battista does with it is something else. A brilliant technician, familiar with the complete vocabulary of Parker riffs and phrases, he employs them in one fiery bebop improvisation after another. The result is a performance that honors jazz history, preserving its essence, while bringing it to life in an interpretation by a strikingly contemporary artist.

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Zach Broch and the Coffee Achievers

“Chemistry” (Secret Fort Records)

Add Chicagoan Broch to the small list of players finding ways to bridge the potentially hazardous chasm between the violin and jazz. On tunes such as “This Is Just” and “Play Blanca” -- which also incorporate the airy singing of Melissa Stylianou into the layered musical mix -- he plays with a warm tone and occasional double stops reminiscent of Stephane Grappelli. Elsewhere -- “Remember Young Ray” is a good example -- he swiftly leaps into a swirling morass of fleet-fingered phrases simmering with electronic distortion sounds a la Jean-Luc Ponty. Recently awarded a Carnegie Hall residency, Broch is an intriguing young artist with a bright future.

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Jason Moran

“Same Mother” (Blue Note)

Pianist Moran stretches the envelope with each album. This time out, he alternates ruminative improvisational meandering with occasional, sudden encounters with boogie-woogie, blues, funk and stride style playing. Then, just when the elements all seem to come into place, he throws a curve ball and serves up a rhapsodic rendering of a theme from Prokofiev’s “Alexander Nevsky.” What makes this plateful of elements so appealing is Moran’s meaty compositional imagination, combined with a precise improvisational style that spins out solos in which every note has a purpose.

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Salvatore Bonafede

“Journey to Donnafugata” (Cam)

Pianist Bonafede, fascinated by Nino Rota’s score for the 1963 film “The Leopard,” revives it here for a jazz quintet, with guest appearances by guitarist Ralph Towner and percussionist Michele Rabbia. Bonafede’s scoring finds remarkable jazz linkages: the sprightly rhythmic whimsy of “Mazurka” and “Polka”; the manner in which the arrangements provide settings for trumpeter Enrico Rava’s flowing, Miles Davis-tinged lines and guitarist John Abercrombie’s blues-shaped melodies; the exchanges between Rava and Abercrombie on “Galop,” their phrases suspended in an open space filled with darting bursts of percussion from Rabbia and Clarence Penn; the bright, upbeat swing in Bonafede’s piano soloing on “Quadriglia.” Not well known in this country, Sicilian-born Bonafede clearly merits a wider hearing.