Packing Heat and Singing Sweetly.

1. PISTOL ANNIES ''Hell on Heels'' (Columbia Nashville) The country singer Miranda Lambert's side project with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley turned out to be loose, wise, tough, well written, well sung and more in tune with the debt-stricken American moment than her own record this year. 2. JASON MORAN/ROBERT GLASPER DOUBLE TRIO (Live, 1/15/11, streamableat wbgo.org/thecheckout/houstonians-in-nyc-live-at-92y-tribeca/) A 54-minute set of two free-form, convulsive, style-shifting songs, performed during the Houston-centric festival at the 92nd Street Y TriBeCa, programmed by the pianist Mr. Moran, and recorded for broadcast by WBGO (88.3 FM). (Mr. Moran on electric keyboard and Mr. Glasper on piano; Mark Kelley on electric bass and Alan Hampton on acoustic; Chris Dave and Eric Harland on drums.) When it ended, I felt that it said so much about where jazz is now -- inasmuch as it is black music, popular music, regional music, improvised music and a philosophy of play -- that I didn't need to hear any more for a while. (If we can call it an album, it's a better extended statement than most I heard this year; hence the inclusion of so many jazz album tracks in my singles list.) [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]