Jazz has a long history of taking popular songs of the day and making them vehicles for improvisation. Organist Joey DeFrancesco’s current exploration of the music associated with Michael Jackson, “Never Can Say Goodbye”, is merely the latest addition to the list. Though this music is linked with the undisputed “King of Pop,” this is jazz at its finest. Jackson and his music have become part of the American landscape every bit as much as the singers that preceded him and the songs, as DeFrancesco’s spirited readings bear witness to, give themselves smartly to an improvisatory approach.

The ensemble Triveni is the perfect conduit for the musical explorations of Avishai Cohen, who takes full advantage of the space and freedom this piano-less trio affords. Drawing from hard-bop, straight-up funk, and avant-garde, drummer Nasheet Waits, bassist Omer Avital and trumpeter Cohen effortlessly move from the American songbook to standards and Cohen’s original compositions on “Introducing Triveni.” Cohen’s sometimes provocative and always soulful playing has never sounded so assured as he continues to establish himself as one of his generation’s leading musical voices.

Connoisseurs of the Kansas City barbecue scene are certainly familiar with the world renowned Gates Barbecue. Saxophonist Bobby Watson, who leads the jazz studies program at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is a huge fan. “Kansas City is the Napa Valley of barbecue,” he says. “Gates’ Barbecue stands alone as king of the valley!” He’s such a big fan that he’s written a suite in honor of the legendary chain, “The Gates BBQ Suite”, featuring Watson with the UMKC Concert Jazz Orchestra. Asked why he chose to write about barbecue, Watson explains, “…the way I compose is similar to the way Duke Ellington composed, which is to find a theme, not necessarily a musical one.”

The band Oregon has achieved a rare milestone – 40 years of making music together. The innovative quartet has become one of the leading improvisational groups by blending Indian and Western classical music with jazz, folk, and avant-garde elements. Their new CD, “In Stride”, reflects the compositional talents of the four musicians, drawing upon Mediterranean moods that cross with European traditions, incorporating influences from South America, and drawing upon the American tradition of melding traditions.

The collaboration heard on John Scofield’s new CD — “54” — had its origins back in the ’90s when Vince Mendoza asked the guitarist to play on his first album. Scofield has since been on two more of Mendoza’s records. When Mendoza assumed directorship of the Metropole Orchestra of the Netherlands in 2005, he and Scofield decided to collaborate again with primary focus on Mendoza’s arrangements of Scofield compositions as performed with the Orchestra. Scofield says, “Vince is one of the most creative arrangers today and his sensibilities are perfect for my compositions. This orchestra is unique to any other I know of in its ability to play with a natural jazz feeling.”

Many critics have opined that Charles Lloyd’s new quartet with pianist Jason Moran, bassist Reuben Rodgers and drummer Eric Harland may be the best of all his groups. The quartet’s previous live release in this line-up met with across-the-board approval and was voted number one album of the years in both the Critics and Readers Polls of Jazz Times magazine. “Mirror” is the first studio CD by the unit and it features beautiful, transformed versions of favorites including both Lloyd originals and tunes he has made his own over the years.

Born in Quivican, Cuba, in 1941, Chucho Valdes is one of Cuba’s most famous pianists, bandleaders, composers and arrangers. Perhaps best known for founding the famous Latin jazz band Irakere in 1972, Chucho’s illustrious career has also garnered him six Grammy wins and 16 nominations over the past three decades. He’s recorded over 80 CDs and performed with everyone from Herbie Hancock and Dizzy Gillespie to Wynton Marsalis and Chick Corea. Chucho’s new CD, “Chucho’s Steps”, with the Afro-Cuban Jazz Messengers, marks his return to the U.S. for the first time in 7 years.

Grammy Award-winner Danilo Perez is among the most influential and dynamic musicians of our time. In just over a decade, his distinctive blend of Pan-American jazz has attracted critical acclaim and loyal audiences. The Panama native first attracted the spotlight in the late-’80s as the youngest member of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra. Since then, the pianist has toured and/or recorded with jazz greats like Wayne Shorter, Roy Haynes and Michael Brecker. In 1993, he turned his focus to his own ensembles and recording projects. His new release, “Providencia”, crosses streams of jazz, classical and Latin American folk music.

Also out with new music: singer Cynthia Felton showcase the Ellington songbook on “Come Sunday”; saxophonist and composer Albert Rivera, whom DownBeat Magazine touts as “part of the next wave in this jazz ritual,” unveils his second release, “Inner Peace”; and veteran guitarist and composer Tom Rizzo, originally a member of Doc Severinsen’s fusion group Xebron and a regular member of the Tonight Show Band in its final Carson years, is joined by a stellar new ensemble of some of L.A.’s finest on “Imaginary Numbers.”

Few can match Steve Turre’s skill as a trombonist. His technical mastery has seen him win five Down Beat magazine polls. Since his formative experience as a teenager playing alongside Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Turre has gone on to play with artists such as Ray Charles, B.B. King, Woody Shaw, Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie and McCoy Tyner. He can also be found playing in Cuban maestro Arutro O’Farrill’s orchestra and the “Saturday Night Live” band. For his new disc, “Delicious and Delightful”, Turre is joined by sax great Billy Harper, pianist Larry Willis, with whom Steve had worked in Shaw’s band, and guitarist Russell Malone.

After reimagining the music of John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter on previous releases, trombonist Conrad Herwig continues his “Latin Side” series of discs by highlighting the compositions of iconic jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. “The Latin Side of Herbie Hancock” was recorded live at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, and features reigning jazz giant pianist Eddie Palmieri and trumpeter Randy Brecker. With arrangements provided by Herwig and pianist Bill O’Connell, the recording includes classic Hancock tunes like “Cantaloupe Island,” “Watermelon Man” and “The Sorcerer.”

Also out with new music: Pianist Larry Goldings and saxophonist Harry Allen collaborate on a sophisticated and magnetic project, “When Larry Met Harry”; pianist and composer Dave Bass, whose music career was put in jeopardy 20 years ago after a wrist fracture and who went on to law school and his current gig as a California Deputy Attorney General in civil rights enforcement, is joined by Ernie Watts and Mary Stallings on “Gone”; and trumpeter Jim Rotondi has vibraphonist Joe Locke and drummer and Iowa native Bill Stewart in his quintet for “1000 Rainbows.”

Centuries ago, chamber music was the music for the masses — the music in which people from nearly every segment of society could find meaning and relevance. A decade into the 21st century, Esperanza Spalding — the bassist, vocalist and composer who first appeared on the jazz scene in 2008 — takes a contemporary approach to this once universal form of entertainment with “Chamber Music Society.” Backed by drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and pianist Leo Genovese, Esperanza creates a modern chamber music group that combines the spontaneity and intrigue of improvisation with sweet and angular string trio arrangements. The result is a sound that weaves the innovative elements of jazz, folk and world music into the enduring foundations of classical music.

The 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Marsalis Family gathered together last June at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for a very special evening of celebration, appreciation, and performance as patriarch Ellis Marsalis received the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The concert featured performances from sons Branford on sax, Wynton on trumpet, Delfeayo on trombone, Jason on drums, poet Ellis III, and special guest, family friend Harry Connick Jr. The release of “Music Redeems” coincides with the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and proceeds from sales of the disc will benefit educational programming at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, the heart of the New Orleans Habitat Musicians’ Village.

Also out with new music: Freddy Cole celebrates the life and music of his friend and mentor, Billy Eckstine, with “Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B”; contemporary jazz keyboardist Tom Grant unveils his latest, “Delicioso”; and composer and bandleader Chie Imaizumi’s “A Time of New Beginnings” features an all-star band including Randy Brecker, Jeff Hamilton, John Clayton, Gary Smulyan, and Terell Stafford.

First meeting in the clubs of Los Angeles’ Central Avenue in the early 1960s, and following separate but superlative careers, tenor legends Hadley Caliman and Pete Christlieb reunited in the fall of 2009 to perform a couple of concerts and record a new studio CD — “Reunion” — taking up where they left off some forty years ago. With original music by pianist Bill Anschell and the two headliners along with a couple of standards, the band creates a warm and swinging recording, a great document of two longtime friends and icons of American music.

Another legend of the saxophone, James Moody, follows up his “Moody 4A” release of last year with “Moody 4B”, recorded in 2008 a day after the previous disc. As Ira Gitler writes in his liner notes, “While these sessions were not recorded before a live audience, the essence of Moody and the quartet (pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Todd Coolman and drummer Lewis Nash) comes through with elan and spirit. Again there are numerous pearls from the Great American Songbook as well as gems from the Great American Jazz Standards Library.”

Meanwhile, saxophonist Matt Garrison unveils his first disc as a leader, “Familiar Places”, featuring trumpet great Claudio Roditi and guitarist Mark Whitfield; guitarist Tomas Janzon is joined by jazz greats Tootie Heath and Art Hillery on his third release, “Experiences”; and Eastern Iowa pianist and composer Tim Daugherty and his quartet offer up a program of original tunes inspired by the aftermath of the Iowa Floods of 2008 on “River of Promise.”

Jimmy Amadie was a hot jazz pianist in the 1950s, playing for such notables as Mel Torme and Woody Herman. His career was seemingly on the fast track until 1960, when an extreme form of tendonitis in his hands derailed his playing career for decades. After several surgeries and plenty of physical therapy, the former boxer from North Philly made his recording debut shortly before his sixtieth birthday in 1997. On his new disc, “Kindred Spirits”, Amadie and his trio are joined by a trio of reedmen whom the pianist has always wanted to work with, Lee Konitz, Lew Tabackin, and Joe Lovano.

Ralph Alessi is among the most active innovators in New York City’s downtown progressive jazz scene. Jazz Times magazine has noted that Alessi has “drop-dead trumpet chops” and calls his music “…as sophisticated and disciplined as post-modern progressive jazz gets.” He’s collaborated with Steve Coleman, Don Byron, Jason Moran, Fred Hersch and others over the years. “Cognitive Dissonance” is Alessi’s sixth CD of originals. He’s joined by drummer Nasheet Waits and bassist Drew Gress, with Moran and Andy Milne sharing keyboard duties.

Other new releases: saxophonist Ken Fowser and vibraphonist Behn Gillece unveil a program composed entirely of original compositions on their second release, “Little Echo”; reedman Kelly Jefferson unveils his third release, leading a quartet on “Next Exit”; and Japanese saxophonist Takao Iwaki, a student of George Garzone, debuts with Introducing “Takao Iwaki.”