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Crazy Horse by another name is Molina, Talbot, Lofgren & Young, the group who released their debut All Roads Lead Home in 2023. The genesis of the album lies in the COVID-19 pandemic: isolated at home, Ralph Molina, Billy Talbot, and Nils Lofgren all wrote new material, eventually getting a chance to bring these sessions to life around the same time they supported Neil Young on his 2021 album Barn. Young is a presence on All Roads Lead Home - he contributes a live solo version of "Song of the Seasons," which debuted on Barn - but the focus is squarely on the other three members of Crazy Horse, who all contribute three songs apiece. Where other, earlier Crazy Horse albums tend to lumber as the group shoulders the burden of heavy volume, All Roads Lead Home is relatively light on its feet, relying on interplay over amplification…

Neil Young embarked on a 2019 European tour with Promise of the Real only two weeks after the passing of Elliot Roberts, his life-long friend and manager. Young viewed this tour as a living tribute to Roberts, claiming in the liner notes to Noise & Flowers – a 2022 document of the 2019 trek – that "Playing in his memory (made it) one of the most special tours ever. We hit the road and took his great spirit with us into every song." Noise & Flowers does indeed have a unique vibe, one that's far removed from the weird, fevered protest of Earth, the previous live album Young recorded with Promise of the Real. Here, he amiably wanders through his back pages, selecting a few standards ("Mr. Soul," "Everybody Know This Is Nowhere," "Helpless," "Rockin' in the Free World") but spending more time playing songs that don't always make their way onto set lists.

"The Great German Songbook" Is there really one? Yes there is although most people are not aware of it, especially the Germans themselves, who seem to find it hard recognising their own heritage of great popular music - not only the obvious classical greats. Most people do not even realise that "Strangers in the Night" is a German song written by the late Gert Kaempfert in the 60’s.
Six of Germany’s most exciting young jazz musicians have grabbed at the treasury of German songs and have made themselves a bold selection - from the Middle Ages, through the Golden Twenties up to the present day. From the Comedian Harmonists, Zarah Leander, Hildgard Knef all the way up to Bert Kaempfert and recent hits by new superstars Herbert Grönemeyer and Xavier Naidoo…

In addition to its impressive musicianship, Brigham Young University Synthesis stands apart from most other college big bands due to its diverse and inventive arrangements. On this set, live from the 1996 Montreux Jazz Festival, the 20-piece orchestra (directed by Ray Smith) performs a program ranging from "Sing, Sing, Sing" (which has Smith featured on clarinet), to pieces by Miles Davis ("All Blues"), Sammy Nestico, Bob Mintzer, Pat Metheny, and Dizzy Gillespie. Even with all of the changes in styles, the band and its soloists adapt themselves quite well. Among the individual stars of this easily recommended big-band set are tenor saxophonist Mike Vance, trumpeter Brent Durland, and guitarist Joshua Payne.

Violist Jesus Rodolfo makes his PENTATONE debut, accompanied by pianist Min Young Kang, with an album showcasing three iconic 20th-century Russian composers who all left their homeland: Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky. Rodolfo presents selections of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata in G Minor in arrangements by Vadim Borisovsky, while Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne can be heard in his own transcription for viola and piano. The pieces performed revolve around love, decency, hope and optimism prevailing against mortality, mistrust, injustice and uncertainty. Within the context of a world slowly respiring from a severe pandemic, this has become a recording about the importance of the perseverance of hope, determination and love in the face of death and uncertainty. Acclaimed for his exhilarating, passionate performances, innate musicality and technical prowess, Spanish violist Jesús Rodolfo has been praised by The New York Times Digest as "a star whose light transcends the stage."

In April 1989, Neil Young released the 5-track mini-album Eldorado on CD in Japan and Australia under the name “Neil Young and the Restless”. Neil (guitar & vocals) was backed by Rick Rosas on bass and Chad Cromwell on drums, with long-time Crazy Horse band-mate Frank “Poncho” Sampedro contributing guitar on the title track. Long sought after by Neil Young fans, this wonderful album and guitar tour-de-force finally gets a worldwide release on CD, and the first US release on vinyl outside of Australia. Number ORS 21 in Neil’s Official Release Series, the album comprises of 4 Neil Young compositions, plus a cover of the American standard “On Broadway”, written by Leiber, Stoller, Weil and Mann.