Not just jazz; the sound of freedom

Two new albums show a surge in forward thinking in a derivative ageIt probably helps that you like jazz when it comes to swashbuckling new albums by Polar Bear (Peepers – quick-witted, feisty, melancholy) and Brad Mehldau ( the two-CD Highway Rider – heartbreaking, tense, rapturous). It helps to think of the immense trip jazz took from Armstrong to Parker to Miles to Ornette to Coltrane or from Oliver to Ellington to Mingus to Monk to Ra (pulling with it Stravinsky, Ravel, Bartó...

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