From her first album, trumpeter jaimie branch’s talent and omnivorous musical appetite was obvious. She had the chops for any jazz head, but also loved noisy outbursts, folk, modern classical strings, hummable hooks, crackling Latin rhythms, and more, folding it all into her music. Each release revealed more of that musical universe, whether delving into electronic music as Anteloper or pushing the sound of her main group Fly or Die further afield.

Her passing in 2022 casts a pall over her posthumous third album, Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)), a tragedy in itself, yet the music within is formidable, joyous, with branch still grabbing hold of whatever new sounds thrill her and expertly weaving it together. The droning electronic fanfare of “aurora rising” dovetails into the percolating rhythms of “borealis dancing.” Prog-rock riffs might abut punk fury or a funk guitar lick, or a calypso-indebted melody might appear before a more symphonic turn of phrase, her horn a gutbucket growl, then a warming sunbeam. She is ambitious and assured enough to make sure the music soars above pastiche. The album standout is “the mountain” –her stark re-imagining of the Meat Puppets’ “Comin’ Down” as a bare bones folk meditation– which stuns in its unadorned beauty. One can only imagine what musical vista branch might have sought out next.