Kevin Whitehead

Sidney Bechet played soprano saxophone in the early decades of jazz, before John Coltrane popularized the instrument. A new anthology, Mosaic Select: Sidney Bechet, offers listeners a chance to hear Bechet's music, transferred and restored from rare recordings from 1923 to 1947.

The new CD from the Mary Lou Williams Collective is Zodiac Suite: Revisited. The trio, created by pianist Geri Allen, plays the tunes of Mary Lou Williams.

The jazz trio headed by Sam Rivers has a new CD out, Violet Violets (Stunt label). Rivers' horn work is complemented by bassist Ben Street and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood.

Monk's Bones is the new CD from the Monk's Music Trio.

Cubist Music is the new recording by Puerto Rican pianist Edsel Gomez. It's on the Zoho label.

The new box set Miles Davis: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 is the latest in a crop of critical anthologies that add perspective to the history of jazz.

Pianist Erwin Helfer is a son of New Orleans who adopted Chicago as his home. His music is a blend of the jazz he grew up with and the blues he discovered. Eleven songs — a mix of standards and originals — illustrate his wide-ranging, energetic sound on the CD Careless Love.

Blue Note has recently reissued recordings that feature three so-called "second-tier" saxophonists: The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions by Ike Quebec; Tex Book Tenor by Booker Ervin; Let Me Tell You 'Bout It by Leo Parker.

For lovers of jazz music, the year 2005 brought a wealth of reissues by critical artists from Jelly Roll Morton to John Coltrane.

Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax presents the exhaustive recordings made by the sound documentarian.