Tony Vacca and World Rhythms Ensemble
Rhythm and Flow
(World Rhythms)

This local legend eats, sleeps and breathes musical fusion, and the latest release from Tony Vacca and World Rhythms Ensemble doesn't disappoint those accustomed to his varied blend of West African percussion, jazz and unusual spoken-word. The third track, "Horn Funkadelic," is just what it purports to be: a funky sound trip featuring Tim Moran on saxophone. The 22-minute first track, "Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky/Baoule Dance Song," begins like something ambient you might hear in yoga class, and then builds to a high-energy jam with all of Vacca's familiar percussive elements. Vacca and his slate of skillful collaborators have created a masterfully played album in which saxophone meets djembe, English meets Amharic, and apparently, Vacca even meets a dragon: "In a dream I scale the wall of a fortress/ I slay a dragon guard/ I elude the demons of a sorceror/ I draw the tarot card marked love."  —Amy Littlefield

Matt Haimovitz
Figment
(Oxingale)

Former Valley resident Matt Haimovitz, who has since departed for Montreal, takes the classical cello to places it's seldom, maybe never seen. The first track is a highly unusual mash-up of acoustic cello, electronic beats, record scratching and sampled segments of strange musical talk. The friction has perhaps only one musical cousin: a combo of swing and hip-hop by the band Jurassic 5. From there, Figment travels to modern pieces (by the likes of Elliot Carter) whose strange melodies fly out of the speakers with a jagged beauty. Haimovitz coaxes unlikely sounds from his instrument (with the aid of electronics at a few points), and Figment is a sound voyage that constantly surprises with its sonic landscapes and its playfulness. The last track returns to multi-instrumental strangeness, with percussion and piano joining cello to back up nightmare-strange vocals. This is the work of a monstrously inventive player cavorting in uncharted territory.  —James Heflin

Hot Day at the Zoo
Zoograss
(Inta -> Records)

Lowell's Hot Day at the Zoo, a four-piece bluegrass-inflected jam band, won accolades, particularly around New England, for its 2008 EP Long Way Home, a moody follow-up to the band's popular debut, Cool As Tuesday. HDATZ's latest release, Zoograss, due out next month, shows yet another dimension of this extremely talented band.

Recorded live at The Waterhole in Saranac Lake, N.Y., Zoograss doesn't hide the influence of the Grateful Dead—an influence the band happily acknowledges—but neither does it play as a mawkish tribute. What you hear is a high-energy gig played by musicians who are so fluent they can jump out into adventurously layered solos without ever sounding like they're noodling between tokes. Particularly noteworthy is the powerful use of harmonica by Michael Dion, which is unapologetically right upfront in the mix. If you like the album, mark your calendar: HDATZ plays the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton Jan. 29. —Tom Vannah