The economy, which hit the music industry hard, has been especially brutal on jazz. Labels that in the 1990s were helping to aid something of a jazz renaissance–Columbia, Atlantic, BMG and Verve–have either folded or largely curtailed their jazz production and left great young talents of 10 years ago, like James Carter, Cyrus Cheshnut, Mark Turner, Nicholas Payton and Christian McBride, without a regular recording venue.

Not that this is completely a bad thing. It could be argued that there was a saturation, that many of those “young lions,” technically splendid all, didn’t have a voice, vision or original composition skills yet. Too many of the records were, in other words, boring and forgettable.

Today, despite its lower-than-low profile–and if any group of musicians can easily acclimate themselves to oblivion it is jazz musicians–there’s still some innovative music being made, and yes, recorded, more and more by smaller labels.

Greg Osby: Inner Circle (Blue Note)

In his self-penned liner notes, the 42-year-old alto saxophonist and composer writes, “This music isn’t for everyone. It’s for anyone.” Which is how it’s always been for Osby, who’s had a 12-year relationship with Blue Note, one of the few storied labels still fighting somewhat of the good fight. He doesn’t have the cult status of the entrenched Downtowners, nor is his music commercial or easily foot-stompable, but there’s so much good to say about Greg Osby, where to start? He has a distinctive sound on the alto; his compositions are self-assured; he’s developed into one of the most important bandleaders of the day, and his 1998 “Banned in New York” is one of the most vital jazz recordings of the last 10 years. On his latest, he’s as elliptically beautiful as ever, prodded and pushed by his longtime partner in harmony, the pianist Jason Moran (who’s latest, “Modernistic,” a solo effort, is also out from Blue Note, though you’d be better to try his tremendous 2001 release, “Black Stars” with Sam Rivers).

The altoist wrote all of the compositions except for two: one is Mingus’s melancholy “Self Portrait in Three Colors,” the other a cover of, yes, “All Neon Like,” by Bjork, an ongoing predilection for both Osby and Moran. Stephon Harris on vibes is reminiscent of Bobby Hutcherson and his brilliant work during the label’s 1960s heyday. Osby stretches his musicians and the music.

Andrew Hill: Beautiful Day (Palmetto)

Sensibilitywise, Osby and Moran owe a great deal to Hill, the quiet postmodern master. Hill’s elusive Blue Note recordings were ahead of their time in the ’60s, recalling a Rothko canvas or an Antonioni panning shot. Narrative, or melody, was beside the point, but so too was all-out exploratory dissonance. Hill went years without a record contract until he was signed by Palmetto, fast becoming the gem of indie jazz labels. His sextet recording “Dusk” from 2000 was one of the very best releases of that year, but with his latest he uses a 15-piece big band. It was recorded live at New York’s Birdland and as Stanley Crouch writes in the liner notes, “there is plenty going on.” Hill’s piano isn’t always front and center, not in a quintet, sextet and not in this setting either, but his genius always is. He composed and arranged all eight pieces and his pensive, thoughtful touch has never been on better display as when he duets with the exceptional flutist (and reedman) Marty Ehrlich. Elsewhere, with young up-and-comers like Greg Tardy and Nasheet Waits, they clash and brawl and raise some hell–and come back again, softly.

Ben Allison: Peace Pipe (Palmetto)

Allison founded the lofty sounding Jazz Composers Collective 10 years ago, but the 35-year-old bassist’s music is anything but. In person, he’s engaging and funny and his music advances that wit. On “Peace Pipe,” he’s joined by a special guest, the Malian kora player Mamadou Diabate. It might seem an unlikely addition to a jazz combo, but remember the perfect partnership of kora virtuoso Foday Musa Sosa and Herbie Hancock in 1985 on “Village Life.” The higher-pitched stringed kora is a perfectly able complement to the bass. Allison doesn’t try to overimpress as some bassists-as-bandleaders do. But his bass lines are neat and clever, perfectly rhythmic, like his tunes, with some, like “Dakan,” destined to be covered in their own right someday.

David Ware Quartet: Freedom Suite

(AUM Fidelity)

Sonny Rollins, a one-time heavyweight champ on tenor, recorded the “Freedom Suite” in 1958 and it’s one of his best-known originals. That 20-minute composition was buttressed by a handful of standards, but Ware, a titan of Downtown, plays only the suite and extends it to 40 minutes, a perfect vehicle for his bracing style. It’s one of his more listener-friendly outputs–not that he’s gone soft. His tone is still ferocious and combative. In Ware’s hands the suite is inquisitive, searching, angry, triumphant, disappointed, inconclusive. His longtime collaborators (and kindred spirits) Matthew Shipp and William Parker, seminal leaders in their own right now in the midst of reinventing jazz (see below), are there every step of the way, pondering the questions, thinking out loud–as ever.

Matt Maneri: Sustain (Thirsty Ear)

This is the latest in the Matthew Shipp-produced Blue Series, which has been one of the most innovative things to come around in jazz, or any music, of late. It brings the avant garde more toward the center, borrows from here and there, uses DJs, and blends weird sounds and rhythms just plain beautifully. Radiohead would totally dig it.

Here Maneri, son of jazz iconoclast and educator Joe Maneri, bows unexpected sounds out of his violin and viola, some through distortion. Songs like “In Peace” and “Nerve” suggest the early ’70s, wah-wah’d Miles Davis that had such a popular resurgence a few years ago through reissues. Others, like the title track, with its cymbal and bell work, evoke The Art Ensemble of Chicago. Painist Craig Taborn is a wonder here, as is the underappreciated saxophonist Joe McPhee. Wallow in his exit on the final track, “Alone (Mourn).”

To get a better idea of this series you can also try the new sampler, Blue Series Essentials, which, in addition to Maneri and Shipp, features William Parker, DJ Spooky, Tim Berne and The Antipop Consortium. The series, with 15 discs now, all with notable cover art–real art, that is–shows no signs of waning. Shipp’s latest, “Equilibrium,” not out until January, is one of his best and most accessible yet.

Kermit Ruffins: Big Easy (Basin Street Records)

Now, for a 180-degree turn. From the label that brings you the invigorating chroniclers of the African diaspora, Los Hombres Calientes, comes the ebullient trumpeter who plays two regular weekly gigs in his native New Orleans, where he’s already a legend. You can see why. On stage he’s irrepressible: he says “all aboard” often and without any apparent reason; he winks at his audience repeatedly; takes requests, and perhaps most difficult of all, he manages to look great in hats. He plays good-time music and reminds us that jazz, in a bygone era, was party music. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, nothing the Dirty Dozen Brass Band or the Rebirth Jazz Band or LeRoy Jones or even Los Hombres haven’t done. But he plays a sweet, sweet horn, and oh, yeah, did we mention that he sings? When he belts out lyrics like “swing your booty, all night long!” it’s impossible not to like. Played after the other albums, it shows how far jazz has come, how diverse it is. And how far it can still go.