Critic's Pick: Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears Vinyl Release Feat. JayVe Montgomery

The technically and technologically exploratory tradition of jazz fusion may be long past its heyday, but it’s still a big influence on standout contemporary musicians from Kamasi Washington and Thundercat to Nashville ace guitarist, composer and bandleader Sean Thompson. Released in April, his latest Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears album is Inner Principles, featuring dazzling displays of instrumental prowess, judicious use of the whole trick bag of effects to create otherworldly sounds, and thoughtful arrangement whether a given segment is composed or improvised. There’s a wealth of traditions beyond fusion in the mix, and Thompson and company use the sonic palette to paint vivid pictures — from the survival of chaos embodied in the curling motif played against busy rhythms in “Whitethorn Rose” or the layers of synth and guitar sounds in “Requiem for the Canopy.” The first vinyl edition of the album is ready, and Thompson is celebrating at West Side gallery and performance space Random Sample. JayVe Montgomery, an inventive and intuitive performer and storyteller on wind instruments and much more — whose recent Lake Black Town project took him to “drowned towns,” sites created across the Southeast when authorities dammed rivers in areas where Black people built communities and economic power — will support. 

8 p.m. at Random Sample

4904 Charlotte Ave.