John West

The much sought-after young American cellist John-Henry Crawford joins forces with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and conductor Martin West for his latest recording, featuring Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme and Dvořák's beloved Cello Concerto.

The seven works on the disc (two each by Harry Partch, John Cage, and Lou Harrison and one by LaMonte Young) are among of the most enjoyable introductory albums to just intonation. Guitarist John Schneider, who arranged several of the pieces on the disc for harp and guitar, is joined by harpist Amy Schulman and, in one work, by percussionist Gene Sterling. Schneider's extensive and highly informative notes guide the reader painlessly through a discussion of tuning theories and the history of the pieces.

Only John Mellencamp, whose career began with a series of wrong turns, raw determination, and the audaciousness to demand he be taken seriously could create a box set as strange, representative, and labyrinthine as On the Rural Route 7609. In the era of the “track,” Mellencamp has issued a massive, beautifully packaged, and exhaustively annotated four-disc career retrospective that doesn’t lean on his hits (many aren’t here), but rather on more obscure album cuts, outtakes, rarities (17 selections make their debuts here), and more recent material – numerous selections come from 2007’s Freedom’s Road and 2008’s Life Love Death and Freedom. In Anthony DeCurtis' excellent liner essay/interview, Mellencamp claims he isn’t “trying to prove anything. . . it was a way for them to discover songs of mine that perhaps were overlooked because of the songs that were so popular on the radio.” Given his choice of material, he may not feel that his career-long demand has been met yet.

Steppenwolf was a Canadian-American rock band, prominent from 1968 to 1972. The group was formed in late 1967 in Los Angeles by lead singer John Kay, keyboardist Goldy McJohn, and drummer Jerry Edmonton, all formerly of the Canadian band the Sparrows. Guitarist Michael Monarch and bass guitarist Rushton Moreve were recruited via notices placed in Los Angeles-area record and musical instrument stores.

John Mellencamp releases live album and documentary titled: The Good Samaritan Tour. The documentary, which will be narrated by Academy® Award winner Matthew McConaughey, chronicles Mellencamp’s historic free tour in 2000 when he performed on street corners and in public parks across the country. The new music is just one of many new projects Mellencamp has been working on including original plays, paintings and more.

July of 2021 found John Patitucci on tour in Italy with Chris Potter on saxophones and Brian Blade on drums. Patitucci says, “The tour in 2021 in Italy was an incredible experience with my two dear friends, who happen to be some of the greatest musicians in the history of jazz music. The tour was organized by Alex Travi, who had the idea that we should bring someone to record live at some point during the tour. All the tracks, with the exception of Without a Song, were recorded in Genova, Italy on July 22, 2021. Without a Song was recorded on July 24, 2021 in Alba, Italy.”

Five Times Surprise brings together a volatile mix of longtime compatriots and newly forged relationships. The distinguished improvisers all boast exceptionally diverse resumes. More than finding common ground, they reveal a vast universe of possibilities fueled by creative conflagration and genre blurring. “We’re improvisers who can walk into a room and create something together,” says the project's original instigator Henry Kaiser, who then listed the salient qualities of his fellow players here: the ability to listen, kindness, generosity, and—rare in this electric realm—a sense of humor. All those factors were at work on this new recording.