Brad Mehldau: "Songs: The Art of the Trio Volume 3" (Warner Brothers)
The dark-mooded piano romantic takes his deep, deep trio into new levels of telepathic interplay on an odd but effective set of songs: originals, standards (“For All We Know,” “Young at Heart,” “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”), and anti-standards (by Radiohead and Nick Drake). The best album yet by a young jazz talent who might, might, might live up to his potential.

Paulo Moura: "Pixinguinha" (Blue Jackal)
You think after samba and bossa nova and tropicalia that Brazil has no more tricks up its sleeves? Forget it. If you don’t know the charming, graceful, majestic music of the early 20th century chorinhos—particularly of the great composer, Pixinguinha, whose centennial last year was a big deal in Brazil—you’ve still got a lot of learning to do. This delightful album, by a warm and delightful veteran saxophonist, is as entrancing and memorable as a breezy afternoon on Ipanema beach.

Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Positizos: "Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos" (Atlantic)
In a year when the music world was lousy with authentic Cubans, the rangy, unclassifiable guitarist (Does he play rock? Jazz? Do we care?) cooked up a juicy band of Prosthetic Cubans for a swinging, eye-opening set of songs by Arsenio Rodriguez—a god among dead Cuban composers and a guy who never expected his songs to sound like this. Smart, sassy and—yippee!—fun, fun, fun. The full review.

Martial Solal: "Just Friends" (Dreyfus)
One of the world’s greatest jazz pianists happens to be French, to live in France, and have an improvising style that is not unlike Sonny Rollins’, which is a good thing indeed. At the age of 71, Solal has nothing to prove to America—he’s never made a big effort to prove anything to us, anyway—but this amazing trio album with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian shows that there’s a lot of life left in the old chien.