Klepto

A weird mix of stoner jams, eerie ambience and occasional punk tones, hell, there’s even a little hint of funk in there too. If you like the riffs of Fu Manchu, the ambience of Red Sparowes, occasional funk of The Chilli Peppers and Russian's, give this album a go.

A career on the saxophone with one of the most freethinking saxophonists in music history for a father has to be a tough call. Now 46, Ravi Coltrane, son of John, has often chosen to be a sympathetic sideman rather than the boss. But his Blue Note Records debut as a leader feels like a giant step. The tracks are split between two groups (a quartet with Luis Perdomo on piano, and a superb quintet with Geri Allen at the keys, and Ralph Alessi on trumpet), playing an arrestingly original postbop repertoire, plus covers of pieces by Ornette Coleman and Paul Motian. There are delicate improv conversations between Coltrane and Alessi, passages in which Geri Allen and drummer Eric Harland uncannily recall the sound of the young Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams in the Miles Davis quintet, quiet tone-bending sax ruminations and a deliciously ramshackle version of Ornette Coleman's Check Out Time. It genuinely sounds like a coming-of-age for Ravi Coltrane.

Folks in Europe were hip to Larry Garner long before most blues fans in the states. The Baton Rouge guitarist had already toured extensively overseas, with two British albums to his credit, before Verve issued his stunning domestic debut, You Need to Live a Little, in 1995. Rooted in the swamp blues tradition indigenous to his Baton Rouge environs, Garner brings a laudable contemporary sensibility and witty composing skills to his craft. Inspired by local swamp bluesmen Silas Hogan and Clarence Edwards, Garner learned how to play guitar from his uncle and a couple of gospel-playing elders. After completing his military service in Korea, he returned to Baton Rouge and embarked on a part-time musical career (he worked at a Dow chemical plant for almost two decades until his recent retirement)…