Nonesuch Records released pianist and composer Brad Mehldau’s Ride into the Sun—a songbook record of music by the late singer, songwriter, and guitarist Elliott Smith—on August 29, 2025. Featured musicians include singer/guitarist Daniel Rossen (Grizzly Bear); singer/mandolinist Chris Thile (Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek); bassists Felix Moseholm (Brad Mehldau Trio, Samara Joy) and John Davis (who also engineered and mixed the album); drummer Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Randy Newman); and a chamber orchestra led by Dan Coleman, who also conducted on Mehldau’s 2010 album Highway Rider.

This is the second long-player to be taken from the same August 1958 Five Spot recordings that had yielded the similarly brilliant Thelonious in Action The quartet heard on these sets includes Monk (piano), Johnny Griffin (tenor sax), Roy Haynes (drums), and Ahmed Abdul-Malik (bass). Their overwhelming and instinctual capacities directly contribute to the powerful swingin' and cohesive sound they could continually reinvent. While these are Monk's tunes, arrangements, and band, it is Griffin who consistently liberates the performances. During "Nutty," his flurry of activity - which adeptly incorporates several lines from "Surrey With the Fringe on Top" - has a maniacal swing that is highlighted by some definitive counterplay from both Haynes and Monk. Additionally, the transition between Haynes and Monk is organic and seemingly psychic…

The Arc Light Sessions is the brainchild of keyboardist and composer John Alarcon. It is a studio project which specializes in symphonic progressive rock - a style of music that uses rock as a base and adds to that a tasty mixture of elements from classical, jazz and/or folk to create a new concoction. It has a strong following among people who appreciate high quality musicianship and sometimes indulges in longer than average songs. The ultimate goal is to create quality rather than only aim at generating mass appeal. For some, progressive rock is synonymous with progressive metal which leaves the more pastoral elements out of the repertoire of some groups. This style, favored by some, is not what The Arc Light Sessions is about. The music is also not about length for length's sake. The songs develop organically and contain musical passages where warranted but the intent is to have them fit thematically into each piece.

To Lose You: Rare Country Heartbreakers showcases the lesser-known country weepers, classic tracks revisited by superstars and early recordings of later hitmakers in Shelby Singleton’s Nashville catalog that became part of the Sun Records family.

For Wolfgang Amadeus, composing violin sonatas was a welcome respite from his tiresome commissions. With great clarity of expression and the right combination of lightness, playfulness and depth that make these pieces so special, Tibor Gyenge and Michael Schoch present a selection of their favourites.

Cannibalism 1 (1978). Given the cohesion of the group's studio albums, Can's songs work surprisingly well in compilation form, as evidenced by Cannibalism 1, a collection of tracks taken from the first six years of the group's existence. Covering ground from 1969's Monster Movie to 1974's Soon Over Babaluma (although nothing from 1973's superb Future Days makes the cut), the sampler compiles many of the group's high points (including "Father Cannot Yell," "She Brings the Rain," "Mushroom," and "Soup"), and offers a thorough overview of Can's eclectic musical history to date, even if the abridged versions of cuts like "Mother Sky," "Aumgn," and "Halleluhwah" don't measure up to the full-length renditions featured on the original albums…

From out of nowhere came Little Sam Davis with this sterling set, making it clear that at least a few blues harpists of post-war vintage are still roaming around out there, just waiting to be rediscovered. Backed by a sharp rhythm section, Davis shows that he's been keeping his ear to the ground over the decades. His harp mastery and enthusiastic vocals are equally arresting.