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Meshell Ndegeocello

"The Spirit Music Jamia: Dance of the Infidel"

Available at All That Jazz for $17.98

It's been years since I walked straight to the jazz section of a record store to search for mind-wringing sounds by the likes of Ornette Coleman, and so it happened that the hand of jazz had to reach into the rock section to find me.

Someone had picked up this album and decided not to purchase it. Instead of returning it to its proper place, they abandoned it half-way across the store in the rock section.

Thank God they did. This is a great album full of screaming trumpets and off-beat drumming. It's the kind of jazz that makes you a little uncomfortable, as if you just drank too much coffee. It makes the blood race into your wrists. It makes you want to stand up. It makes you want to pull out a notepad and pen to scribble strange, disjointed poetry.

At 35, bassist and singer/songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello represents the next breath of jazz, bringing musicians such as saxophone player Kenny Garrett and organ player Neal Evans into the studio.

Rated: Thank God for misplaced music.

Mike Ness

"Cheating at Solitaire"

Available at All That Jazz for $16.98

Returning from the world of heady instrumentation, I wandered back into the rock 'n' roll wading pool. This record came out in 1999 and was Mike Ness' first release after Social Distortion.

A photo on the inside cover paints a perfect picture of the kind of music on the album. Ness sits on a leopard-printed seat cover wearing a cowboy hat and a battered leather jacket over his gas-station-attendant rockabilly uniform.

Although it's not a new rel--ease, I think this record's time may have come for a mass listening.

Since 1999, people have come around to the kind of slide-guitar, spaghetti-western music Ness explored in "Cheating at Solitaire."

Since this album came out, Johnny Cash reappeared on the world stage with his "America" releases. Then his death spurred a pyre of tributes, re-releases, record sales and rethinking about what influences belong in mainstream music.

For those whose appetite already is whetted, Ness plays a Hank Williams cover, "You Win Again," and Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice."

Perhaps as an arrow pointing to the feel Ness wanted from this album, he fittingly brings in Bruce Springsteen for a vocal cameo on "Misery Loves Company."

Rated: His tattoos look good with a cowboy hat.

Jimmy Smith

"The Sermon!"

Available at All That Jazz for $12.98

Inspired by my Meshell Ndegeocello find, I pointed my CD flipping fingers toward the jazz corner of the store and pulled out this remaster of a classic Jimmy Smith album.

"The Sermon" has only three tracks and, led by the album's title, I came to imagine each track as one of Dante's three cantos -- hell, purgatory and paradise.

The title track is a 20-minute horn-and-keyboard rant that builds up the congregation with a bee-bop revival service.

"The Sermon!" is a celebration of the Hammond organ and of Smith's talent at its keys.

His music is led swinging along by Art Blakey's brushes on the drums.

Originally released in the 1950s, the Blue Note label remastered this recording and put it back on the shelves for members of the next generation in 2000.

Rated: Warm vintage Hammond organ sound to inspire another generation.

-- Autumn Phillips