Martin Wind, Get It? (Laika). The quartet’s feeling of controlled abandon, symbolized in the cover shot, is notable in the title tune inspired by James Brown. There’s a sense of slight danger even in the stately treatment of Billy Strayhorn’s “Isfahan” and Wind’s atmospheric, blues-inflected “Rainy River.” The chance-taking is at a high point in Thad Jones’ “Three and One,” with a Scott Robinson tenor sax solo that slithers, growls and wails. Wind, Robinson, pianist Bill Cunliffe and drummer Tim Horner are a compelling combination. On two pieces, Wind makes his debut on cello.

Johnny Mercer, This Time The Dream’s On Me (Warner Bros). Producer-director Bruce Ricker does a masterly job of integrating new and old material into a thorough biography of the great lyricist. The story of Mercer’s life and artistry melds film clips and recordings of Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Mercer singing his songs. Colleagues including Johnny Mandel and Tony Bennett offer assessments of his gifts, and Mercer himself reflects on his career. There is no attempt to gloss over his drinking and affairs, but they are in proper perspective. The film leaves the viewer with an amazed sense of Mercer’s brilliance, consistency and adaptability.

Nat Hentoff, At The Jazz Band Ball: Sixty Years On The Jazz Scene (U of California Press). Hentoff is our leading avatar of the proposition that jazz is a living expression of the principles embedded in the US constitution, of which he is also a scholar. He does not deal in technical analysis of music. He gives strong, informed opinions and tells stories about those he knew or knows intimately, among them Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane and Clark Terry. But he also writes about less famous figures whose blazing individuality “puts their lives, memories and expectations into the penetrating immediacy of their music.” Hentoff wears his love for jazz on his sleeve, and he balances it with insight, knowledge and long experience.

David Weiss & Point Of Departure, Snuck In (Sunnyside). Trumpeter Weiss’s heart may be in the 1960s, but he and his young band operate very much in the present. His solo style is largely a bequest from the late Freddie Hubbard, with whom he worked closely as a player and arranger. His repertoire here consists of pieces by Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill and Tony Williams, plus two from the neglected Detroit trumpeter Charles Moore. Weiss, tenor saxophonist J.D. Allan, guitarist Nir Felder, bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Jamire Williams are expansive and full of vigor. With the shortest track running nine minutes, the soloists go long but maintain focus—theirs and the listener’s.

Esperanza Spalding, Chamber Music Society (Heads Up). The contrarian impulse is to briskly walk away from hype about the latest sensation du jour, but critical duty says, listen anyway. In Spalding’s case, I’m glad I listened. She is an accomplished bassist with depth of tone, penetrating timbre and good note choices. Her singing has clarity and lightness. She is consistently in tune. Spalding writes and arranges well. With a small string ensemble, piano, drums and percussion, she interprets William Blake, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Dmitri Tiomkin and several pieces of her own. Her duet with Gretchen Parlato on Jobim’s “Inútil Pasagem” is a triumph of intricate simplicity. One with Milton Nascimento in “Apple Blossoms” has a lovely blend of their voices but bogs down in an awkward narrative lyric, one flaw in a captivating CD.

Joe Sardaro, Lost In The Stars (Catch My Drift). Last year, I mentioned in a review of Joe Sardaro’s Protégé that the singer’s 1986 vinyl album Lost In The Stars had never been reissued. Now, happily, it is on CD. Sardaro recruited high-level backing for his first recording; drummer Shelly Manne, bassist Monte Budwig, guitarist Al Viola, saxophonist/flutist Sam Most and pianist John Knapp. To quote my 1987 Jazz Times review of the LP, “A light baritone without spectacular range or notable resonance, he depends on taste, swing, diction and lyric interpretation. Those elements serve him well…” Most’s tenor sax solos are delightful. The CD adds five songs recently recorded by Sardaro. He sings them pleasantly but with less steady intonation than in the original eleven.

Jimmy And Percy Heath, Jazz Master Class (Artists House). In 2004, the year before bassist Percy Heath died, he and his saxophonist/composer brother Jimmy appeared in John Snyder’s master class series at New York University. A pair of DVDs captures them in several stunning duets, critiquing student performances of Jimmy’s tunes and being interviewed by author Gary Giddins. We also see pre- and post-master class conversations with the students, transcriptions of solos rolling across the screen as the solos are played and Giddins talking at length about the Heath Brothers’ importance. Percy’s and Jimmy’s charm, humor, erudition and contrasting personalities come across strongly. This set is a highlight in an invaluable Artists House project.

Harvey Pekar, American Splendor: The Life And Times Of Harvey Pekar (Ballantine Books). Pekar, who died this month, mesmerized readers by transforming his ordinary life into comics for adults. Pekar wrote the stories. R. Crumb and a crew of other artists illustrated them to Pekar’s specifications, in living black and white. His work led to the movie of the same name. I’m not sure that I’d go as far as some critics who compare him to Chekhov, but I’m not sure that I wouldn’t. If Pekar’s gritty ironies are an acquired taste, it’s a taste that settles in quickly.

Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Harvesting Semblances And Affinities (Pi). Coleman, an audacious alto saxophonist and composer, is as progressive as ever. Even subtler at melding disparate ingredients than in his first burst of M-Base renown in the 1980s, he declares in his liner essay, “…my intent was a type of energy harvesting, i.e. the gathering, through musical symbolism, of the energy of particular moments.” The music of his sextet is less metaphysical than his description. For all of the exoticism of its sources and titles, it is accessible and stimulating. “060706-2319 (Middle of Water),” for example, is a delightful polyrhythmic romp. Jen Shyu’s crystalline voice functions as a full partner in the horn section.

Art Pepper, Unreleased Art, Vol V (Widow’s Taste). Laurie Pepper continues to bring forth CDs of previously unreleased works by her husband. An alto saxophonist who hurled himself into his music, Pepper’s astonishing energy did not flag in this concert recorded in Stuttgart, Germany in 1981, the year before his death. His formidable rhythm section was pianist Milcho Leviev, bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Carl Burnett. Opening with an exuberant “True Blues,” the two CDs include Pepper reprising his beloved “Over the Rainbow,” jousting at length with Leviev on “Make a List (Make a Wish),” enjoying himself on clarinet in “Avalon” and wrapping up fiercely with a jet-speed “Cherokee.”

Gail Pettis, Here in the Moment (OA2). Pettis’s second album makes firm the promise of her first. To her deep contralto, clear diction and centered intonation she adds phrasing and tonal fillips that give her vocals identifiable personality. Among the indicators of her command, maturity and substantial jazz sensibility are the delight in her voice as she begins her bluesy take on “At Last,” a joyful whoop on the last word in “Day in Day Out,” her reflective treatment of the lyric of “The Very Thought of You,” and judicious but expert scatting on “Nature Boy.” As on 2007’s May I Come In, Mark Ivester is the drummer throughout, with Darin Clendenin and Randy Halberstadt alternating on piano and Clipper Anderson or Jeff Johnson on bass; superb accompaniment for a rising singer.

Coleman Hawkins, Live In ’62 & ’64 (Jazz Icons). Cameras caught the patriarch of the tenor saxophone (1904-1969) during a final period at the top of his game. The concert in Belgium suffers slightly at the hands, and sticks, of drummer Kansas Fields, who plays well but has difficulty containing his solos. Hawkins is magisterial, as he is two years later in London, where Harry “Sweets” Edison joins him on trumpet, along with Sir Charles Thompson on piano and Jo Jones on drums. Jimmy Woode is the bassist in both concerts. George Arvanitas is the pianist in Belgium. Video and audio quality are acceptable in Belgium, superb in the BBC broadcast. This is a rare opportunity to witness at length the master’s undiminished creative power late in his career.

Jack Fuller, What Is Happening To News (Chicago). Concerned about the fragmentation, dilution and manipulation news? So is Fuller. The veteran journalist worked his way up from reporter to CEO of a media conglomerate, then stepped out of the profession. Now he is using his Pulitzer Prize-winning skills to write about why, in a sophisticated media age, the primitive part of our brain lets trivia, opinion and emotion crowd out substance. Fuller believes that there are new ways to apply old values and restore the full, complex and balanced flow of information that citizens need to run a democracy. This is an important book.

Joe Martin, Not By Chance (Anzic). At the outset, bassist Martin’s album has the air of Downtown New York Generic, but the quality of the musicians and the playing soon kicks it into uniqueness. By the time they reach the ballad “A Dream,” Martin, saxophonist Chris Potter, pianist Brad Mehldau and drummer Marcus Gilmore have the listener fully involved for the rest of the seventy minutes. Martin augments his eight nicely made compositions with “The Balloon Song,” a Jaco Pastorius piece featuring Potter, sinuous and playful, on bass clarinet.

Julia Dollison, Kerry Marsh, Vertical Voices: The Music of Maria Schneider (artistShare). Dollison, the enchanting singer of 2005’s Observatory, teams with her husband and fellow vocalist Marsh in recreations of orchestral works by Maria Schneider. With flawless matching of intonation and through overdubbing that makes them a choir, they take Schneider’s pieces, with all of their complexity and ethereal beauty, into a personal dimension. Pianist Frank Kimbrough, guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Clarence Penn–Schneider’s rhythm section–enhance the authenticity. Thoroughly of the 21st century, the music nonetheless often approximates the otherworldliness of Monteverdi madrigals.

Classic Columbia, Okeh And Vocalion Lester Young With Count Basie (1936-1940) (Mosaic). Young’s lightness, buoyancy, rhythmic daring and harmonic subtlety on tenor saxophone helped free soloists from the arbitrary restrictions of time divisions. He told beautiful stories as he flew weightlessly across bar lines. His recordings with Basie, stunningly remastered by Mosaic in four CDs, include masterpieces that have set a high bar for generations of musicians. These are essential recordings.

Count Basie: Swingin’ The Blues (Masters of American Music). Basie’s rhythm section supported Lester Young in his greatest flights of invention. Drummer Jo Jones, guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Walter Page and Basie were the heart of a band that brought the looseness and loping swing of Kansas City onto the national scene and permanently enriched jazz. This 1992 documentary, on DVD for the first time, traces the band’s evolution and importance. Narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne, the film tells the story through clips of the band and interviews with Basie and some of his leading sidemen, including Harry Edison, Earle Warren, Joe Williams and Buddy Tate.

Randall Sandke: Where The Light And The Dark Folks Meet (Scarecrow Press). The qualities of directness and original thinking in his trumpet playing are also evident in Sandke’s prose. Full disclosure: I read this book in manuscript and wrote a blurb for it, to wit: “Randy Sandke’s research and documentation are thorough. His insights and opinions are forthright. His book will infuriate its targets, those in the music world who place myth, race, nationality, sociology, politics and commerce above music itself. Everyone else will find it revealing, thought-provoking and helpful.”

The Helen Merrill-Dick Katz Sessions (Mosaic). The bewitching singer and the late master of piano harmony and touch collaborated in 1965 and 1969 on two classic Milestone LPs. Mosaic’s reissue of both on one CD is a genuine event. In addition to Merrill’s incomparable singing and Katz’s playing, we get Thad Jones, Jim Hall, Hubert Laws, Gary Bartz, Ron Carter, Richard Davis, Pete LaRoca and Elvin Jones. Katz’s lapidary arrangements are an exquisite bonus. After hearing them for 35 years, I still smile at the surprises in his setting of “Baltimore Oriole.”