Roger Scruton, Culture Counts (Brief Encounters). If you’re concerned that the bad in culture is driving out the good, this little book by the British philosopher and polymath may make you feel better. Scruton writes not only about music, but about architecture, painting, literature and the high-water marks of Western culture. He offers hope that lowlife pop culture will not overwhelm a society seemingly bent on dumbing itself down. He proposes that music can play a positive role in moral education. He attacks “nihilistic intellectuals” and he has a lovely little section on laughter as a “society-building response.”

Jovino Santos Neto, Alma do Nordeste (Adventure Music). Based for some years in Seattle,
the pianist, flutist and composer returns to his native Brazil and collaborates with eleven of his countrymen. The music is based in the baiãos, forrós, xotes and other rich forms of Northeastern Brazil. It is intensely rhythmic, melodic and full of adventure. Indigenous percussion and stringed instruments meld beautifully with Santos Neto’s jazz concepts. Once you’ve heard Toninho Ferragutti’s playing in the tradition of the great Sivuca, you may think twice before you tell your next accordion joke.

Ed Reed, The Song Is You (Blue Shorts). His career was derailed by a troubled life, but as he approaches his eightieth year, Reed’s second CD confirms that he is a singer who serves the song. Not a great vocal technician, he specializes in phrasing and interpretation that penetrate to the heart and meaning of lyrics. Among thirteen well-chosen songs, the title tune and “Lucky To Be Me” are essential performances. The small band led by Peck Allmond includes Russell George, once a superb bassist, now an equally good violinist.

Brubeck Brothers Quartet, Classified (Koch). The band headed by bassist/trombonist Chris and drummer Dan Brubeck is in top form on seven new quartet compositions, an impressive chamber suite and a stirring ensemble version of their father’s “Blue Rondo a la Turk.” Guitarist Mike DeMicco, pianist Chuck Lamb and the brothers have become one of the tightest ensembles in jazz without losing their sense of surprise, even abandon. When they combine with the Imani Winds for Chris Brubeck’s three-movement “Vignettes for Nonet,” they introduce a substantial new concert piece full of rich textures and rhythms.

Fever, The Music of Peggy Lee (Capitol). This quasi-documentary sketches Peggy Lee’s life and career. Its greatest contribution is the use of performance clips, interviews and informal films to create a portrait of a gifted artist whose human warmth matched her talent. She was terrific even in a shampoo commercial. Her first husband, the guitarist Dave Barbour, remained her great love even beyond their divorce. The bonus clip of Lee singing “I Only Have Eyes for You” to Barbour as he accompanies her underlines the heartbreaking story better than the script does in the main section.

Katie Hafner, A Romance on Three Legs (Bloomsbury). The story of Glenn Gould’s search for the perfect piano allows us to know the great pianist–and great eccentric–a little better. The book is a superb piece of reporting, its subtext a meditation on the compelling nature of music and its ability to inspire obsession.

Hans Glawischnig, Panorama (Sunnyside). The bassist ranges beyond his usual Latin territory through nine imposing original compositions. Glawischnig’s sidemen are his boss, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, pianists Chick Corea and Luis Perdomo and the noteworthy young drummers Antonio Sanchez, Marcus Gilmore and Jonathan Blake. Saxophonists Rich Perry and David Binney and guitarist Ben Monder also make appearances in this beautifully conceived and executed collection

Carl Saunders, The Lost Bill Holman Charts (MAMA). Holman wrote these jewels of chamber music in the early 1980s, but the commissioner put them in a closet for more than twenty years. When they came to the attention of virtuoso trumpeter Saunders, he assembled a septet to record them. And what a septet: tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb, trombonist Andy Martin, baritone saxophonist Bob Efford, pianist Christian Jacob, bassist Kevin Axt and drummer Santo Savino, with Sam Most as a guest soloist on flute and baritone. Holman wrote brilliantly for medium-sized bands for a Kenton Presents project in 1954, for Jimmy Rowles’ Weather In A Jazz Vane in 1958 and for Zoot Sims’ Hawthorne Nights in 1976. Since then, most of his work has been for large aggregations. These newfound charts fill the gap–and then some.

Eric Alexander, Prime Time (High Note). In top form and with a responsive audience, the muscular tenor saxophonist and his quartet are captured in concert on CD and, in different performances, on an accompanying DVD. Like the music, the video and audio are clear and straightforward. Pianist David Hazeltine, bassist John Webber and drummer Joe Farnsworth are solid in support and solo. Alexander’s and Hazeltine’s heartfelt duo version of Bernstein’s “Some Other Time” is a welcome departure from the intensity of a menu of challenging original tunes.

Bud Shank, Against The Tide (Jazzed Media). The main current of the DVD is superbly photographed and recorded video of a Shank quartet recording date. Interwoven with the studio session are documentary coverage of the alto saxophonist’s long career and segments of Shank speaking. Pulling no punches, he discusses music, musicians, critics and why he walked away from the flute. The documentary includes scrapbook photos plus film and kinescopes of Shank performing in several settings from the 1950s forward. Running nearly two hours, the DVD is a thorough appreciation of a major jazz figure. The bonus CD has Shank with pianist Mike Wofford, bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Joe LaBarbera; in duet with pianist Bill Mays; and with Bill Holman’s band, the Lighthouse All-Stars and Duke Ellington.

Bob Blumenthal, Jazz: An Introduction To The History And Legends Behind America’s Music (Collins). The critic and historian’s attractive little book is a fine primer that also works as a refresher course for the experienced listener. Ushering the reader through the history and styles of the music, Blumenthal employs photographs, sidebar facts, anecdotes and enough informed opinion to provide perspective. The book includes a short glossary and a list of recommended recordings. It is a helpful guide and a good read.

Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet (ArtistShare). The trumpeter ranges from placidity to wildness, often within a few bars of the same piece. What may seem near mania on the first hearing resolves into logic and strange beauty as the music becomes familiar. On the outer edge of amplification, Vu, tenor saxophonist Chris Speed, electric bassist Stomu Takeishi and drummer Ted Poor are electric in more than one sense. For all of his adventurousness, Vu is a melodist; “Now I Know (For Vina)” and “I Promise” are gorgeous tunes.

Kendra Shank: A Spirit Free, Abbey Lincoln Songbook (Challenge). It would been have natural to assume that Abbey Lincoln’s songs are so tied to her personality that no attempt to adapt them could succeed. Ms. Shank, however, manages to pay tribute to Ms. Lincoln and evoke her without imitating or caricaturing her. Given the older singer’s individualism, not to say eccentricities, that is an accomplishment. Ms. Shank succeeds entirely. The band accompanying her is first rate, with notable contributions from pianist Frank Kimbrough, saxophonist Billy Drewes and bassist Dean Johnson

Sam Yahel Trio: Truth And Beauty (Origin). This trio was called Yaya3 when it debuted in 2002. By whatever name, organist Yahel, tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman and drummer Brian Blade depart from the standard organ trio blockbuster approach into subtlety and taste, without sacrificing propulsion. Yahel has developed impressively from his starting point, the pianistic organ style of the late Larry Young. Yahel’s, Redman’s and Blade’s degree of anticipation and interaction is stunning on the piece called “Bend The Leaves.” Pianist Brad Mehldau wrote the literate, helpful liner notes.

2 Films: Nonstop Travels With Michel Petrucciani & Trio Live In Stuttgart (Dreyfus Jazz). The documentary film follows the late pianist in Europe and the United States. Beautifully directed and photographed, it captures his musicality, charm, wit and spunk. Memorable moments: a reunion in Big Sur with Charles Lloyd; a visit to the Steinway factory in Hamburg; playing on top of a New York skyscraper. In concert a year before he died in 1999, Petrucciani is in great form with bassist Anthony Jackson and drummer Steve Gadd.

Howard Mandel: Miles, Ornette, Cecil, Jazz Beyond Jazz (Routledge). Our fellow artsjournal.com blogger also calls his web log Jazz Beyond Jazz. His book further increases listeners’ ability to understand the avant garde music he knows so well. Mandel helps clear the way toward appreciation of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, who departed from standard jazz forms in the 1950s, and of Miles Davis’s quite different departure in the ’60s. It is a successor to and, in a way, a continuation of A.B. Spellman’s classic Four Lives In The Bebop Business (retitled–dully–Four Jazz Lives).

Herbie Hancock, River, The Joni Letters (Verve). Without its cadre of vocalists, Hancock’s tribute to Joni Mitchell would not have received a Grammy nomination or widespread critical attention. In varying degrees, Mitchell, Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Luciana Souza and Corinne Bailey Rae do justice to Mitchell’s songs. Leonard Cohen is effective in his atmospheric delivery of her lyrics in “The Jungle Line.” But if the CD contained only instrumental tracks of the quality of “Both Sides Now,” “Sweet Bird,” “Solitude” and “Nefertiti,” it might be the best Hancock-Wayne Shorter album ever. As it is, River is one of their finest collaborations.

Roberta Gambarini and Hank Jones, Lush Life (55 Records). With a new collaboration of the Italian singer and the American pianist about to be released, it is past time to tell you about this one. Gambarini and Jones are all but flawless in this collection of classic songs and two jazz standards, Gigi Gryce’s “Reminiscing” and Tadd Dameron’s “Cool Breeze.” Highlights of the duets: a spirited “Just Squeeze Me” and a gorgeous “Then I’ll Be Tired Of You” that includes the seldom-heard verse. Four tracks add bassist George Mraz and drummer Willie Jones III. A slightly different US release of the CD, called You Are There, has only Gambarini and Jones duets.

Stu Pletcher, The Story Of Stewart Pletcher (Jazz Oracle). Stu Pletcher is not a household name. Even in the 1920s and ’30s when he played in popular bands led by Ben Pollack, Smith Ballew and Red Norvo, he was not a household name. Nonetheless, he was a splendid cornet and trumpet soloist who modeled himself after Bix Beiderbecke and yet, like Bix admirers Rex Stewart and Bobby Hackett, developed his own conception. This collection assembled from rare sources by Pletcher’s son Tom gives a rounded picture of Stu Pletcher’s considerable gifts as a soloist, arranger and journeyman vocalist.