Outstanding recent Jerusalem jazz albums

- The Nadav Haber Quartet, "Addis Mist." Haber and his colleagues returned last week from Addis Ababa, where they were invited to play at the city's annual music festival. This is a big honor that few Western musicians earn, and Haber won it, with great justification, thanks to his wonderful debut album, which presents a sensitive and profound encounter between Ethiopian music and expressive jazz. The is the best Jerusalem jazz album of 2006, and is also the year's most exciting Israeli jazz album.

- Various artists, "Jazz in Jerusalem." The cover is somewhat anemic, the subtitle ("The Birth of the Local Standard") is too bombastic, and the second half of the album is not nearly as good as the first half. Despite these flaws, the collection, which contains renditions of songs by Matti Caspi, Shlomo Gronich, Naomi Shemer, Nahum Heiman, Nurit Hirsch and Avihu Medina, is an important and enjoyable album. It presents a contemporary portrait of the Jerusalem jazz scene and reflects young jazz musicians' profound need to address the Israeli classics.

- The Julia Feldman Ensemble, "Words are Worlds." Compared to the plethora of standard, boring homages to jazz greats, Julia Feldman's homage to Billie Holiday is an extraordinary work that tries to meet the spirit of the original, not to imitate it. "It's really a fantasy," says Feldman. "If we were to take Holiday's amazing development and roll it forward in time, what would happen?" Feldman does not yet have the presence of a great singer, but she is worthy of praise for her courageous approach and her success in diving into Holiday's deepest pain.

- The Chameleon Trio, "In Between." This new album by flautist Dvir Katz, clarinetist Nitai Levi and bassist Ora Boasson-Horev illuminates an important aspect of what is happening in Jerusalem's jazz scene: the contribution of Music Academy graduates, especially those from its jazz department. The Chameleon Trio's complex music can be categorized as "third stream," a combination of jazz and classical music, and as might be expected, it has a serious, even ponderous element. Fortunately, this is well-balanced by captivating demonstrations of humor, playfulness and joy.

- The Rats, "Afternoon High." They have the name of a punk group, and the cover of their debut album shows a very non-Jerusalemite seashore, but The Rats is definitely a Jerusalem jazz ensemble. They are characterized by sophisticated melodic thinking, relative rhythmic freedom and a sound deeply influenced by the ECM record company. This is searching, deliberating, unstuffy music, the way a young ensemble should sound.

- Jean Claude Jones, "Hosting Myself." Tomorrow, the ensemble Kadima will celebrate its second anniversary in the living room of bass player Jean Clude Jones. Jones will also toast his new album, an entirely improvised bass solo (with a bit of electronics, also improvised). On the cover of the disc, Jones writes that when a musician friend of his heard about his intention to record a bass solo album, he jokingly asked: "Will it cause blindness?" But "Hosting Myself" is not masturbation, but rather art at its best.

- Judy Lewis and Orr Didi, "Two on the Horizon." Judy Lewis has never been afraid to do things her own way. When she was 20, she became religiously observant, immigrated to Israel and cut short a promising career as a classical pianist. After having four children, she left her husband and religion and rediscovered herself as quite a wild jazz pianist. Recently she began to play with Didi, a 17-year-old guitarist, and their joint album is a calm, harmonious and very beautiful acoustic work. Not long ago the two returned from an appearance at the Kathmandu Jazz Festival.

- Ariel Lani, "31 Bars." When Ariel Lani turns 17, eight years from now, he will no doubt listen to the album he made at age 9 and turn up his nose. But as a summary of the achievements of a third-grader who discovered jazz only a year and a half ago and has attacked it with the totality of a super-curious child, "31 bars" is an astonishing album, nearly unbelievable. It is scary to think what he will accomplish by his bar mitzvah. (Ben Shalev)