Well, the holiday season is well underway, with much hand-wringing about Black Friday, news of all manner of economic foul mist, and goodwill toward...uh...not sure about that. One thing is certain in my mind and that is this: it has been a freakishly busy year for yours truly. First there was snow up to my eyeballs. Spring brought not its usual uplift but sadness. Summer was just plain weird, which was a perfect setup for a surreal fall. It's not winter yet, but I can feel it coming.

Somehow, in the midst of all of this, I managed to write. How, I'm not sure. To be honest, there are many pages that I look at now and just can't remember writing. Heavy circumstances and lack of sleep will do that to a person. I look at the writing though and can see that, yeah, it's me. Or at least somebody who sounds like me.

One thing that tends to happen when TheBusy piles up is that some things end up farther back on the priority list than I'd like. If you've paid much attention, you might have noticed that this weekly space has accounted for the majority of my Blogcritics presence. I've been doing a lot of work over at Jazz.com and let me say, there have been a ton of great jazz records that I haven't had a chance to write full-length reviews of.

As a temporary measure, I'm going to spend the next few Friday mornings spotlighting some jazz albums that have really knocked me out this year. Hopefully, I'll help you discover a record that would make a great gift for that certain someone on your list (and that should include you too!)

The Tony Malaby Cello Trio is not what you might think. No, it's not three cellos. Malaby plays tenor and soprano sax. Fred Lonberg-Holm takes care of cello and electronics, and John Hollenbeck brings along the drums, marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, melodica, and small kitchen appliances (that's what it says). Yep, there's a cello in there, but this material is far from chamber music.