The holiday season is near, so I've muscled up the temerity to decide which of 2009's jazz releases are the ones that would make the best gifts for your jazz-loving loved ones. These albums were a few of my favorites from this year, but you may prefer some of the other CDs reviewed here.

• Holiday Gift Guide For Jazz CDs Released in 2009

Saxophonist Myron Walden, who is known mainly for his alto playing, switches to tenor on Momentum, the first of three records Walden is releasing over the course of the next few months. The music on Momentum is inspired by 1960s Miles Davis, but bound with more rhythmic cohesion, and with a heartier helping of soul.

• Album Review: Myron Walden's Momentum

Image Courtesy of Demi Sound Records

The paying of dues is a concept strongly linked to the jazz tradition. That's why when I'm forced encouraged by my editor to write about singer Michael Bublé, I take my lumps and hope for better days ahead.

I guess paying dues pays off, because this time, with the release of Bublé's new album Crazy Love, I was able to pawn off the review onto my esteemed colleague Charlie Christenson.

Read Charlie's humorous and polite trashing of the jazzified pop singer's new release. And if you are familiar with Bublé, try to determine whether he is guilty of anything that Charlie lists in his "Ten Things Jazz Singers Do That I Hate."

Image Courtesy of Reprise Records

It all started with Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument inventor. In 1842, he attached a clarinet mouthpiece to a brass creation that he named the saxophone. Because of its metal, conical body, the saxophone was capable of playing at volumes much higher than other woodwinds. It was used in military bands in the 1800s, but it took a while for it to be taken seriously by musicians.

Here is a brief history of jazz saxophonists, structured around the stories of the musicians who changed an odd invention into one of the most iconic instruments in jazz. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but a rough sketch of the involvement of the saxophone in jazz.

Image of Ornette Coleman © Juan Carlos Hernandez

Harpist Edmar Castaneda's reputation has been growing steadily since his move to the United States in 1994, and seeing the list of all-star collaborators on his latest album, Entre Cuerdas, curiosity got the better of me. The result is a gem of an album: unique in texture, addictive in groove, and balanced between passionate performance and studio polish...

Read more of James Hall's review of Edmar Castaneda's Entre Cuerdas.

Image Courtesy of ArtistShare Records

In case you need to brush up on your Latin jazz history, PBS has a four-part documentary that you can view online called "Latin Music USA." I already had an understanding of the melding of jazz and Afro-Cuban music through Dizzy Gillespie and Machito, but what I didn't realize was how much the rock and roll of the 50s and 60s borrowed from the mambos of earlier decades. What I found especially fascinating was how the Latin music of the 60s and 70s then borrowed elements of R&B and rock music to create boogaloo, which led to the rise of salsa and the esteemed (notorious?) Fania Records.

Related:

• Five Legends of Latin Jazz

Image © Getty Images

On Kurt Rosenwinkel's Reflections, the innovative and iconic guitarist isn't playing any tricks. The melodic phrases are even and tuneful, the harmonies are familiar, and the rhythmic underpinnings and formal architecture are simple and subtle. But, despite a barefaced lack of complexity, Reflections is one of the most exciting albums of the year...

• Album Review: 'Reflections by the Kurt Rosenwinkel Standards Trio

Image Courtesy of Wommusic Records

Search and Restore has been programming progressive jazz in New York for the past few years. No one is doing as much as Search and Restore to create a buzz about exactly the sort of innovative, genre-straddling music that will help snag the ears of those outside the jazz world, and continue to build a young jazz audience.

Now Search and Restore founder Adam Schatz is in the process of attaining 501c3 nonprofit status so that the organization can have the wherewithal to step up its game. The problem is, he has until October 30th to raise $450 for IRS filing fees, or they will drop the case. Schatz has created the following donation/reward scale:

a $30 donation gets you one free ticket to two Search and Restore concerts of your choosing. a $40 donation gets you two free tickets to two Search and Restore concerts of your choosing. Finally a $50 donation gets you 2 free tickets to the next THREE Search and Restore concerts of your choosing. A $200 donation gets you two free tickets to the next FIVE Search and Restore concerts, and at one of them I will personally feed you grapes and fan you with palm leaves.

You can Paypal your donations to ALS458@GMAIL.COM, or email Adam for other ways to donate.

Here are some upcoming shows brought to you by Search and Restore:

• November 17th: Andrew D'Angelo's Gay Disco Trio at DROM, with the Benefit Band (Jim Black, Trevor Dunn, Chris Speed, Oscar Noriega), at a lecture from Andrew on his recent healing trip to Tibet and the process of beating out brain cancer.
• November 23rd: Jason Lindner's Now vs Now CD release at DROM, with special guests.
• December 30th: Taylor Haskins Group at Drom (Nate Smith, Henry Hey, Todd Sickafoose, Ben Monder) with the John Escreet Project
• January 8th-9th: a Search and Restore.com day-long stage at the Winter Jazz Festival in the village.
• Every Tuedsay in January: ANOTHER Charlie Hunter residency at Rose.

Image Courtesy of Adam Schatz

Simply spellbound by my recent reviews of Ben Allison's Think Free and Vijay Iyer's Historicity? Well, if you want to sample the music itself, check out Josh Jackson's The Checkout Studio Sessions. This week he featured live performances and interviews with both Iyer and Allison:

• Vijay Iyer performs music from Historicity at The Checkout
• Ben Allison performs music from Think Free at The Checkout.

Image © Prashant Bhargava

On October 10th, 1917, one of the craziest pianists ever was born. Thelonious Monk was developing his quirky take on stride piano around the time bebop was born in the 1940s. Monk's unique style outlasted bebop in a way, and to this day his music is mined for its strange secrets.

Art Blakey was born on October 11th, 1919. He's best known for both deepening the groove in jazz, and for leading the Jazz Messengers, the model for the jazz supergroup.

Happy birthdays, gentlemen.

Image © Getty Images