Nonesuch Records

The Arcs - Yours, Dreamily (2015) {Nonesuch Records 7559-79500-0}
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© 2015 Nonesuch Records / Warner | 7559-79500-0
Rock / Indie Rock / Punk Blues / Roots Rock / Retro-Rock

Cut swiftly – no more than two weeks at three different studios spread coast to coast – the Arcs' 2015 debut Yours, Dreamily does bear a spontaneous air, a record that enjoys its hazy detours as much as its sturdy foundations. This blend of airy sonic swirls and R&B-influenced rock formalism feels familiar, perhaps because it is the aesthetic that's driven Arcs leader Dan Auerbach during the heady mid-career heyday of his main gig, the Black Keys. Once the Ohio garage blues duo hooked up with producer Danger Mouse for 2008's Attack & Release, the Black Keys incorporated impressionistic soundscapes to their guitar growl but Yours, Dreamily flips the equation, favoring feel over grind.

Brad Mehldau - Suite: April 2020 (2020) {Nonesuch Records 075597919387}
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© 2020 Nonesuch Records | 075597919387
Jazz / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Piano

While sheltering at home with his family in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic, Brad Mehldau wrote 12 new songs about what he was experiencing; he was able to record them safely in an Amsterdam studio, along with tunes by Neil Young, Billy Joel, and Jerome Kern, for the album 'Suite: April 2020.'

Composed in 1993, the John Adams Violin Concerto is already a contemporary classic. Some reviewers say it is the best violin concerto written in the past 50 years. This new recording by Leila Josefowicz is the last word on what are now many recordings by some of the world's finest players. She first recorded the Violin Concerto in 2002 with John Adams, the composer, conducting. What makes this new recording the best? Josefowicz "owns" the piece having performed it in concert over 100 times since the premiere!

Composer and pianist Brad Mehldau is admired by jazz aficionados for his work with his eponymous trio, and soprano Renée Fleming is internationally renowned for her operatic performances and recitals of classical art songs. Knowing this, one might think that Love Sublime, Mehldau's and Fleming's 2006 release on Nonesuch, is a crossover album; yet while they are meant to appeal to a broad audience, Mehldau's original settings of poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke, Louise Bogan, and Fleurine are serious modern art songs, and not the easy hybrids of jazz and classical they may appear to be.

Three years passed between the release of the Brad Mehldau's Day Is Done and this live outing. What's so significant about this is simply that the former record marked the debut of drummer Jeff Ballard, who had replaced longtime kitman Jorge Rossy. Ballard is a more physical, busier, and more energetic drummer, allowing for Mehldau and bassist Larry Grenadier to up the ante in terms of dynamic and rhythmic options. Day Is Done offered a number of wonderfully contrasting moments where Mehldau, a big pop music fan from all eras, wove a tapestry from Burt Bacharach and John Lennon to Nick Drake and Colin Greenwood, from Paul Simon to Chris Cheek, as well as inserting a few of his own compositions.

Wilco - Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994-2014 (2014) {4CD Box Set, Nonesuch 7559-79543-9} (Complete Digibook Artwork)
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© 1994-2014 Nonesuch Records | 7559-79543-9
Rock / Adult Alternative / Indie Rock / Alternative Country Rock / Experimental Rock

Alpha Mike Foxtrot, is a 4-CD box-set of rare studio and live recordings collected from Wilco's extensive archives spanning the acclaimed Chicago band's 20-year career. Rolling Stone calls Alpha Mike Foxtrot "a comprehensive document of a great band with endless secrets to reveal" and the Austin Chronicle dubs it "a rousing release for fans." Produced by Grammy-nominated producer Cheryl Pawelski, co-founder of Omnivore Recordings, whose credits include Big Star's Keep an Eye on the Sky, The Band's A Musical History and Townes Van Zandt's Sunshine Boy: The Unheard Studio Sessions and Demos 1971 1972, Alpha Mike Foxtrot features 64 pages of liner notes that include track-by-track recollections from Wilco founder Jeff Tweedy, notes by band members Nels Cline and John Stirratt, and reflections from members of Wilco's extended professional family. The booklet also showcases dozens of archival and never-before-seen photos from a wide array of photographers chronicling all phases of the band's career.

Allen Toussaint - The Bright Mississippi (2009) {Nonesuch 480380-2}
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© 2009 Nonesuch Records / Warner | 480380-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Jazz Funk / Groove / New Orleans Jazz Revival / Piano

In Memoriam: Allen Toussaint (1938-2015). The Bright Mississippi stands alone among Allen Toussaint albums. Technically, it is not his first jazz album, for in 2005 he released Going Places on the small CD Baby-distributed Captivating Recording Technologies, a label run by his son Reginald, but for most intents and purposes – and for most listeners – The Bright Mississippi might as well be his first foray into jazz, since it's the first to get a major-label production and release as it's a de facto sequel to Toussaint's successful, high-profile, 2006 duet album with Elvis Costello, The River in Reverse.

Brad Mehldau Trio - Seymour Reads the Constitution! (2018) {Nonesuch 7559-79344-3} (Complete Artwork)
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© 2018 Nonesuch Records / Warner Music | 7559-79344-3
Jazz / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Straight-Ahead Jazz / Jazz Piano Trio

A straightforward acoustic jazz trio album, 2018's Seymour Reads the Constitution! nonetheless holds surprises for longtime Brad Mehldau fans. Moving away from his genre-bending collaboration with Chris Thile and his equally cross-pollinated exploration of J.S. Bach's classical pieces, After Bach, Mehldau settles into this warmly rendered set of originals and covers that fits nicely into his overall discography. Joining the pianist are his longtime associates bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Together, they've recorded often since the early 2000s, with Grenadier having worked regularly with Mehldau since the mid-'90s.

Steve Reich - Phases: A Nonesuch Retrospective (2006) {5-CD Set Nonesuch 7559-79962-2}
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© 2006 Nonesuch Records | 7559-79962-2
Classical / Modern Classical / Contemporary / Minimal / Post-Modern

Steve Reich has a remarkable arrangement for a composer in that he is an exclusive artist for Nonesuch and has been so for more than two decades. Back in 1996, when Reich celebrated his 60th birthday, Nonesuch issued a 10-CD box set of "everything" – all of the works in the Warner Classics vaults that he had recorded, including some new at the time, such as Steve Reich: Works 1965-1995. With Reich's 70th birthday afoot, the earlier set still in print and Nonesuch belonging to a classical music division that is operating on one lung, it has decided on a more modest approach to the newer observance with Steve Reich: Phases – A Nonesuch Retrospective, a collection consisting of five discs.