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First off, the triple-disc elephant in the room: the Neal Morse Band’s An Evening of Innocence & Danger: Live in Hamburg. Morse, Eric Gillette, Bill Hubauer, Randy George and Mike Portnoy deliver exactly what the title says, plowing through the NMB’s most recent conceptual opus with the added excitement of rougher vocal edges and elongated opportunities for face-melting solos. Welcome deep cuts at the end of each set plus the heady mashup encore “The Great Similitude” heat things up nicely. The band’s delight in being back in front of a transatlantic audience comes through with (sorry not sorry) flying colors. Order from Radiant Records here.

Motorpsycho, on the other hand, cools things down on their new, palindromically titled Yay! This time around, Bent Sæther, Magnus “Snah” Ryan and Tomas Järmyr back off the booming drones, steering into light acoustic textures and Laurel Canyon vocal harmonies for a fresh, intimate variation on their spiraling neopsychedelia. Even with titles like “Cold & Bored” and “Dank State (Jan ’21)”, the results are inviting and exhilarating. (And don’t worry — the band’s penchant for the long jam is alive and well on more expansive tracks like “Hotel Daedelus” and closer “The Rapture”) My favorite from this crew since 2017’s The Tower.

And, seconding Russell Clarke, I heartily recommend I Am the Manic Whale’s Bumper Book of Mystery Stories. Dialing down the snark of previous albums and turning up the atmospherics, it’s a thematically linked suite of veddy veddy British melodic prog vignettes engineered to thrill and disturb. Michael Whiteman and his jolly compatriots seem absolutely delighted to creep you out on “Ghost Train”, send your head spinning on “Erno’s Magic Cube”, and drag you into headlong adventure on land (“Secret Passage”), sea (“Nautilus”) and outer space (“We Interrupt This Broadcast . . .”). I felt like a kid again!

Meanwhile, Greta Van Fleet come slamming back with Starcatcher. With the polished studio sound of 2021’s The Battle of Garden’s Gate well and truly ditched, Frankenmuth, Michigan’s finest get down and dirty here, launching one ferocious rocker after another and mounting a stairway to . . . somewhere? on the trippy single “Meeting the Master.” Yeah, GVF still wear their influences on their capacious sleeves, and sometimes feel a bit inside the box for all the Kiszka brothers’ ecstatic caterwauling. But getting the Led out to Generation Z still strikes me as a worthwhile mission, and to see these young’uns keep the flame alight is all an aging rocker could ask for. Order from GVF’s webstore here.

Speaking of inspired revivalists, my favorite economist/surf guitarist Ivan Pongracic is back, too! This time, the driving force of midwestern exoticists The Madeira has teamed up with fellow genre titans from Aqualads and Insect Surfers to form the supergroup Lords of Atlantis. This all-instrumental effort is one groovy surf-rock summit, awash with delectable retro sounds as Pongracic and compadres build up serious heads of steam on piledriving tracks like “Temple of Poseidon”, “Libertas!” and “The Fiery Trident”. What more is there to say but “Cowabunga, dudes”?

It’s been a great summer for jazz reissues and rediscoveries as well. The newly-unearthed Evenings at the Village Gate catches the titanic John Coltrane at a key moment in his development, morphing from lightning-fast “sheets of sound” to a cutting focus on raw, unbridled saxophone tone. Eric Dolphy matches Coltrane leap for leap on woodwinds; drummer Elvin Jones pushes the duo harder and further out; and McCoy Tyner on piano and Reggie Workman on bass somehow keep the searing wails of “My Favorite Things” and “Impressions” grounded in a steady, rolling groove. This is music on the edge, taking heart-stopping chances, never collapsing into itself, sticking one satisfying landing after another. Order from the Coltrane webstore here.

Often considered Coltrane’s only true rival back in the day, Sonny Rollins was nonetheless up to something very different — probing the harmonic foundations of the Great American Songbook to unearth the melodic potential inherent in even the cheesiest tunes. The new triple-disc reissue Go West: The Contemporary Records Albums provides a prime sampling of Rollins’ approach at one of his many peaks; breezy backing from stars of the 1950s West Coast cool school support an unstoppable flow of invention, pathos and humor, whether tackling tricky standards like “How High the Moon” and Duke Ellington’s “Solitude” or Wild West cornpone such as “I’m an Old Cowhand” and “Wagon Wheels”. As the magisterial new Rollins biography Saxophone Colossus reveals, almost any album from his 50+ years of playing yields moment after moment of surprise and delight; this set serves up more than most. Order from Craft Recordings’ webstore here.

And special kudos go out for the stunning compilation of Charles’ Mingus final albums Changes: The Complete 1970s Atlantic Studio Recordings. Bassist Mingus was easily the most original American composer since Ellington, and even his falling prey to a fatal motorneuron disease couldn’t quench his unceasing creativity. Everything that made the man great is here: classic compositions revitalized on Three of Four Shades of Blues and Me Myself An Eye, extended epic innovations on Cumbia and Jazz Fusion and Something Like a Bird, unrepeatable, explosive combinations of protest, sarcasm and tenderness on Changes One and Changes Two. Whether the forces involved are Mingus’ core Jazz Workshop or an all-star orchestra, whether they’re playing inside, way out or both styles at once, every player’s total commitment is palpable, creating the “sound of love” that Mingus found in Ellington and miraculously cultivated throughout his career. Order from the Rhino webstore here.

Meanwhile across the pond, Other Doors finds the latest iteration of British jazz-rock pioneers Soft Machine whipping Coltrane’s volcanic innovations, Rollins’ endless explorations and Mingus’ sprawling structural conceptions into their own special blend. This is first-rate fusion by sharp, seasoned players; long-time guitarist John Ethridge spars playfully with prog-adjacent saxist Theo Travis (The Tangent, No-Man, Robert Fripp) as new bassist Fred Thelonious Baker and grizzled drummer John Marshall (retiring from the drum stool after this album at the age of 82!) hold down the driving bottom end. Whether putting their own spin on Softs throwbacks “Penny Hitch” and “Joy of A Toy” or taking off on new vehicles like Ethridge’s title track and Travis’ closer “Back in Season”, the energy and interplay here has to be heard to be believed.

Speaking of seasoned, the folk event of 2022 marked Joni Mitchell’s return to the concert stage after a grueling seven year recovery from a life-threatening aneurysm. The resulting souvenir, Joni Mitchell at Newport, Featuring the Joni Jam, catches Mitchell in high spirits and resonant voice (even taking a pungent guitar solo on “Just Like This Train”); guest vocals range from Joni Jam wrangler Brandi Carlile’s overamped enthusiasm to Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes’ even-keeled self-effacement, backed by an luxuriously appointed backing group (complete with strings) and chorus. As event-based as this recording is, it may not wear well over repeated listens, but the emotion conjured up on Mitchell classics like “Big Yellow Taxi”, “Amelia”, “Both Sides Now” and closing singalong “The Circle Game” make it heartening to hear. Order from the Rhino webstore here.

Less famous than Mitchell but every inch her equal in experience and musicality, country pianist Bobbie Nelson labored in the shadows of her brother Willie, anchoring his backup band over the decades. Her first headline recording Loving You, a collaboration with vocalist/fiddler Amanda Shires, became a memorial following her passing last year. And it’s a total winner; Nelson’s playing exemplifies simplicity and grace on a delightfully eclectic set, with Shires delivering the goods on the heartbreaker “Always On My Mind”, the graceful Western swing of “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, the aching gospel of “Tempted and Tried” and much more. Laid back yet heartfelt, this album can sit right alongside Willie’s classic standards album Stardust as a model of evocative, unaffected beauty.

— Rick Krueger