By Brooks Geiken

A trio of jazz albums that dazzle in surprising ways. 

There are startling things going on in the jazz world in Indiana. The Visions Jazz Ensemble, led by trumpeter Sam Butler and tenor saxophonist Garrett Fasig, have put together Across The Field, an album that takes tired old college fight songs and gives them new life in a modern jazz context. Fight songs are generally thought of as being pedestrian fare, but Butler and Fasig (Indiana University graduates) have gone back to the roots of these tunes (marches) and have come up with some pretty compelling interpretations.

What’s more, the band plays the stellar arrangements (half by Butler and half by Fasig) with considerable verve: Nick Recktenwald on trumpet, Jeff Parker, trombone, bass trumpet, Dan Ventura, piano, Jacob Smith, bass, and Francis Bassett-Dilley on drums. The instrumentation generates a very full sound — this is a veritable little big band.

There is a distinctly New Orleans feel to “Tiger Rag,” first recorded in 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. It is now the fight song for Louisiana State University. Butler showcases his talents on this one with a rousing trumpet interlude. Fasig takes the ball and runs with it in the Naval Academy’s ultra-recognizable tune “Anchors Away.” He scores a triumph: Fasig completely transforms a familiar melody, infusing it with jazz harmonies.

Ventura’s light swinging piano keeps the University of Tennessee’s “Rocky Top” on course. Butler’s solid brass arrangement switches gears as Parker displays his prowess on bass trumpet. He supplies dollops of soulful reflection. Florida A&M fight song “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” shines like a brilliant gem in an arrangement that brings together Theodore Mert’s original melody, Louis Armstrong’s 1964 arrangement, and a dash of Horace Silver. Wycliffe Gordon is a standout here, lifting the tune up a couple of exciting notches via some of his singular ruminations on trombone. Fasig’s jumping arrangement of “The Victors” (University of Michigan) gets going right away, propelled by Smith’s swift bass line. The brass also adds its distinctive swinging sound.

All in all, Butler and Fasig have created a debut record that really delivers the goods — thoughtful and fun arrangements of college fight songs. Staid tunes are infused with jazz pizzazz, fresh and hip.

Obsessed with the number 7 from childhood, trumpeter Brian Lynch has released an album wholly dedicated to exploring the numerical possibilities of his favorite digit. The title of Lynch’s latest release, 7x7by7, takes his love to its logical conceptual extreme: seven pieces of music, seven minutes in length, played by seven musicians.

What a great band Lynch has assembled: Craig Handy on tenor saxophone, Luis Perdomo, piano, Boris Koslov on electric and acoustic bass, Alex Wintz, guitar, Kyle Swan, drums, and Murph Aucamp on percussion. These musicians attack Lynch’s compositions with sensitivity and conviction, displaying a cohesion that could only be achieved by a steady working band.

Starting with the funky track “In the Riv,” Lynch takes the listener on his personal musical journey. The tune recalls (for Lynch and for selected listeners of a certain age) driving to a college jazz festival in a Buick Riviera. Handy, Wintz, Lynch, and Perdomo take turns pushing the boundaries of melodic invention. In the song “High Point of the Hang,” Lynch recalls how he toured with such great musicians as Horace Silver and Eddie Palmieri. Koslov’s acoustic bass brings considerable dexterity to the performance.

In another tip of the cap to his former employer, Lynch speeds it up for “On the Silver Road.” Lynch’s bright and shining trumpet work enhances this homage, and there’s a wonderful solo by Handy that deserves a trophy for lively creativity.

The lovely ballad “Greeting on 87th Street” finds the whole band in fine fettle, ranging from the wistfulness of Perdomo and Wintz to the brashness of Lynch and Koslov. All the players contribute mightily in a tune whose languid elegance was inspired by the love of Lynch’s life.

“Sympathetic Vibrations” begins as a cha-cha and quickly changes rhythm several times over. Driven by Koslov’s electric bass and Perdomo’s gorgeous piano, the song exudes a special roller-coaster feel.

Normally, an album contains some tracks that don’t meet the standard set by its high points. Not so with Lynch’s 7x7by7. All of the cuts, including “Academy Blues” and “Finnegan’s Garden,” contain interesting passages as well as dynamic solos. To my mind, this is the year’s solidest record so far — hard work, not luck, has everything to do with its considerable pleasures.

While in high school, tenor saxophonist Darryl Yokley was entranced by the 1967 novel One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Nobel Prize–winning writer Gabriel García Márquez. This literary adoration led to the creation of Yokley’s latest record, Un Mundo en Soledad (A World in Solitude). The song titles  are taken from passages in the book, and they are ordered according to the story’s chronology. The narration, voiced by Yokley, is taken from the mouth of one of the book’s most mysterious characters, Melquíades.

Darryl Yokley’s Sound Reformation is composed of Yokley on tenor and soprano saxophones, Zaccai Curtis on piano, Luques Curtis on bass, Wayne Smith on drums, and Little Johnny Rivero on percussion. Yokley’s bolero, “Un Mundo en Soledad,” kicks off the album on a melancholy note. Rivero’s congas spice up the following tune, “Macondo,” named for the town where the novel’s action takes place.

Inspired by the Colombian musical form Vallenato, Yokley and company do right by “El Pueblo” (The Town), which boasts a thoughtful solo turn by Z. Curtis. L. Curtis and Smith revel in their mutually reinforcing bass and drum chops on “Los Matrimonios Malditos” (The Cursed Marriages), its provocative melody buoyed by Yokley’s soprano sax.

The most adventurous composition on the album must be “Desaparecieron” (They Disappeared), a track that boasts some wild free jazz via tenor saxophone, screams, and appropriately repetitive narration in Spanish. Yokley really goes out on a limb on this composition, given that the rest of the record is strictly straight ahead.

Another tune that features narration, “Remedios La Bella” (Remedios the Beautiful), recalls the part of the novel where Remedios is hanging clothes out to dry. She is swept up by the wind, never to be seen again.

Yokley picked key moments from the book to inspire his tunes and the band, especially Z. Curtis, seems to be channeling the spirit of the novel. I’ve read One Hundred Years Of Solitude twice, which helped me to understand, and appreciate, this musical interpretation. But it is not necessary to have read Marquéz’s masterwork to enjoy Yokley’s compelling musical vision.

Brooks Geiken is a retired Spanish teacher with a lifelong interest in music, specifically Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and Black American music. His wife thinks he should write a book titled “The White Dude’s Guide to Afro-Cuban and Jazz Music.” Brooks lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.