Gilad Hekselman’s clean, super-technical playing has made him a modern-jazz guitar god, the kind of artist as likely to post lessons about chromaticism and chord voicings on social media as anything else. The real feat is that he makes it go down easy. Recorded with drummer Marcus Gilmore (of Chick Corea’s Grammy-winning Antidote) and longtime Brad Mehldau bassist Larry Grenadier, 2025’s Downhill from Here is probably the simplest album in his catalog since his 2006 debut Splitlife. Namely, it forgoes some of the experiments of something like 2022’s Far Star for straight, lyrical “modern” jazz whose smoothness reveals just enough of the edge in his technique to stay lively but never enough to feel confrontational. The Latin-ish “Scoville” is novel; the prog-swing of “Be Brave” is better. Jazz, yes—but also the kind of stuff that would appeal to jam band connoisseurs or fans of the Steely Dannier side of classic pop. If you’re looking for an ambassador, he might be your guy.