While many labels issue samplings of their artists to hip the consumer to what it is they have to offer them as product, the folks at Thirsty Ear, curated by pianist and composer Matthew Shipp, put together Blue Series Sampler, an aesthetic sampling of what is inarguably the most exciting, forward-thinking jazz label in the United States. The Blue Series deal is one based on approaches to creating music, not genre approaches. Hence, there are tracks from Shipp's varied acoustic and electric ensembles, DJ tracks by everybody from Spooky to the cats in Spring Heel Jack playing live with everyone from Evan Parker to William Parker, to David S. Ware's new string band, to El-P's forthcoming experimental forays into jazz and hip-hop, with a ton of stuff in between. There are no dogs, no forsaken tracks, and no haphazardly chosen selection on this collection -- great evidence is the inclusion of the Kidd Jordan/Fred Anderson cut from the Vision Festival. This is just the shape of jazz to come, but its texture, its treatise, its look, sound, and artifice all sprawled out in Technicolor blue. ~ Thom Jurek