Uri Caine

Two quiet men of the avant-garde, Philly vibist Jamal and trombonist Moncur both were among the earliest to play free jazz with their respective instruments.

Gene Coleman's amorphous ensemble picks up a couple of traditional musicians from Taiwan and China to play his decidedly nontraditional new compositions.

Trumpeters Nate Wooley and Lionel Kaplan and vocalist Audrey Chen all excel in making sounds their mouths were not designed to make, and it all works beautifully wrong together.

"Dude, that guitar has eight strings!" — 90 percent of the audience at every Charlie Hunter concert ever.

Two days after the ex-boss hits town (whew, that could've been awkward), former Charlie Hunter saxophonist Ellis arrives with his own equally quirky if ever-so-slightly-less-Bonnaroo-scented quartet.

OK, yeah, he's only 19, he flies over the keyboard like a punk kid Art Tatum, but really, what else is there to do in Kyrgyzstan?

Steven Bernstein has to be a better influence on the kids than those creepy Wiggles, right?

They'll burst your eardrums and drink you under the table. At the same time.

Trombonist and mad scientist Lewis is the IT guy of the free-jazz world, and here he'll provide a study in contrasts with heart-on-sleeve saxophonist/poet Matana Roberts.

How the hell do you squeeze a piano into Slought? Then again, Caine has a way of making the incongruous fit.

Just when you think you've caught up with Evan Parker's saxophone, he'll lose you around the next bend.

Hometown heroes both adopted and native come together for a world premiere quartet: Dave Burrell, Reggie Workman, and Rashied and Muhammad Ali.

Sure, they put out a CD together, but you still have no idea what to expect out of these two. Ever since he started messing with electronics, DeJohnette's more ADD than ever.

Solo acoustic show from the archetypal electric fusionist.

The Polish trumpeter and his young quartet create starker and emptier spaces with each new CD; their latest is like a Bergman film exploding in your head.

Some fathers play baseball with their sons; Mat and dad Joe Maneri explore microtonal theory. Where's the Hallmark card for that?

A smorgasbord of local talent, and the user-friendliest collection of sounds to come out of Slought in recent memory.

A rare appearance by the erratic genius of free pianism.

The latest of drummer Jim Black's NYC-meets-Scandinavia, jazz-meets-post-rock experiments.

This is Fortune's third stop home this year, and each set has been absolutely smoking. Sonny's doing his part — why aren't you there?

Chicago's heppest cat could still pull off the beret, bongos and snapping finger beatnik cliche. It's there in his voice if not on the stage.

Man, the zig-zag-tastic symmetry of MMW is completely screwed when you stick in that curvy little S. But Scofield can zig and/or zag with the best of 'em.

Drummer Louis Hayes keeps the post-bop legend alive.