Kurt Rosenwinkel Quartet

"Star of Jupiter," Kurt Rosenwinkel's grippingly self-assured new double album, begins and ends with a show of radiance. On both the opening track, "Gamma Band", and the title track, which wraps things up, Mr. Rosenwinkel processes his guitar so that it seems to flood the picture with fluorescence.

Rhythmically, he leans on urgent repetition and the plunging momentum of his band, working with rhythms traceable to one or another variant of fusion. The two compositions bracket the album almost as a kind of armor, protecting the softer and more vulnerable materials within.

Rosenwinkel, 42, has always been a jazz guitarist of glowing lyricism and graceful exposition, with a technique that can form streamlined contours out of even the gnarliest convolutions. His aesthetic compass hasn't really changed since the release of his major-label debut, "Enemies of Energy", a dozen years ago. But as Mr. Rosenwinkel has grown in stature, becoming a lodestar within the modern jazz conservatory, he has kept renewing the challenge, diversifying his repertory or concept or personnel. —Nate Chinen, New York Times