Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond - So Real

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 77:13
Size: 176.8 MB
Styles: Cool jazz, Saxophone/piano jazz
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[ 3:19] 1. I'm In A Dancing Mood
[10:05] 2. Two Part Contention
[ 2:07] 3. Camptown Races
[ 4:57] 4. Jeepers Creepers
[ 6:21] 5. Gone With The Wind
[ 5:17] 6. Take Five
[ 8:10] 7. Lonesome Road
[ 4:23] 8. Eleven Four
[ 2:27] 9. Short'nin' Bread
[ 4:30] 10. Basin Street Blues
[ 5:36] 11. Take The A Train
[ 7:58] 12. Blue Rondo Ala Turk
[ 6:36] 13. Georgia On My Mind
[ 5:21] 14. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime

Desmond and Brubeck began their partnership at a club called the Bandbox in Palo Alto, California in the late 1940s. Brubeck would intentionally goad Desmond beyond his musical comfort zone, by forcing him to play more uptempo songs. Brubeck knew that pushing Desmond to play at faster tempos would encourage him to overcome his natural reserve and play with more conviction and expression.

While Desmond and Brubeck's engagement at the Bandbox was a commercial success, they fell out over personal and financial concerns. Desmond moved to New York in 1950 to perform with pianist Jack Fina on alto saxophone and clarinet. At the same time, Brubeck formed a new trio that began to receive critical acclaim. Desmond soon found out about the trio's success and returned to San Francisco to see if he had a chance of joining his old friend's group.

The story of how Desmond got back on Brubeck's good side is amusing. Brubeck held a grudge against Desmond over the difficulties they had from when they last performed together. Brubeck, now married with three children, told his wife Iola that Desmond was not allowed in their home. One day, Desmond showed up at the door and Iola took him into the back yard, where Brubeck was folding diapers. Desmond pleaded with him, but Brubeck would consider hiring him back until the saxophonist offered to babysit his three children. This turned out to the offer Brubeck could not refuse.

So Real

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Carol Welsman - S/T

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 50:33
Size: 115.7 MB
Styles: Easy Listening, Vocal jazz
Year: 2007
Art: Front

[4:28] 1. Brazasia
[3:53] 2. Hold Me
[3:53] 3. Dans Cette Chambre
[3:59] 4. What A Fool Believes
[2:48] 5. Eu Vim De Bahia
[3:51] 6. Cafe
[4:56] 7. Live To Tell
[4:01] 8. Nosotros
[4:59] 9. Too Close For Comfort
[2:25] 10. With Me
[3:28] 11. Dans Mon Ile
[3:53] 12. Beautiful
[3:53] 13. Ora

If this self-titled CD had more of a straight-ahead jazz outlook, it would be easy to describe Carol Welsman as a member of the Cool School; the Canadian singer favors the type of relaxed, subtle phrasing that June Christy, Helen Merrill and Chris Connor were known for in the '50s. But for the most part, this 2007 release (which was produced by Jimmy Haslip of Yellowjackets fame) is not straight-ahead jazz but rather, is best described as jazz-tinged pop/NAC singing along the lines of Basia, Marilyn Scott and Sade. The 50-minute CD does have its improvisatory moments; the Brazilian-flavored "Café" (a Welsman original) demonstrates that Welsman can scat and improvise effectively when she puts her mind to it. But pop dominates the album, and that isn't a problem because Welsman's pop -- although certainly light -- is not lightweight. For all her subtlety and understatement, Welsman gets her emotional points across whether she is putting her spin on the Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes," Madonna's "Live to Tell" or the Latin standard "Nosotros." Welsman has no problem performing in Spanish on "Nosotros"; in fact, she performs in a total of five languages on this disc -- not only English and Spanish, but also in Portuguese on "Eu Vim de Ahia," in Italian on "Ora" and in French on "Dans Cette Chambre." The latter is an example of a familiar melody with new lyrics; "Dans Cette Chambre" is Welsman's French-language interpretation of Gordon Lightfoot's "Beautiful." A Lightfoot melody and French lyrics might seem an unlikely combination, but it works for Welsman. This disc falls short of exceptional, although it's a pleasing, likable effort that is worth hearing if one has spent a lot of time listening to NAC favorites like Basia and Scott. ~ Alex Henderson

Carol Welsman (keyboards); Pierre Côté (acoustic guitar); Vern Dorge (soprano saxophone); Jimmy Haslip (bass guitar); Jimmy Branly (drums); John Acosta (background vocals). Additional personnel: Eric Marienthal (alto saxophone).

Carol Welsman

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Delicatessen - 2 albums: Goodnight Kiss / Jazz & Bossa

A jazz / bossa nova band, from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Formed by Ana Kruger (vocals), Carlos Badia (guitar), Nico Bueno (bass), Mano Gomes (drums) & sometimes, New (piano). Their work is recognized by brazilian music critics, inc: Nelson Motta & Roberto Muggiati.

Their début album, Jazz + Bossa, was produced by Beto Callage & Carlos Badia. This album has ‘bossa nova’-influenced reinterpretations of US jazz standards music & two original compositions, sung in Portuguese. Ana Kruger has a soft & clean voice, reminiscent of 50’s female vocalists.

They have played live in Porto Alegre’s Iguatemi Mall on Valentine’s Day and they have played live in other cities like Buenos Aires (Argentina), Florianópolis (South Brazil), Rio de Janeiro & São Paulo.

Album: Goodnight Kiss
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 42:20
Size: 96.9 MB
Styles: Bossa Nova
Year: 2011
Art: Front

[4:02] 1. You Turned The Tables On Me
[3:06] 2. As Long As I Live
[4:06] 3. I'm Old Fashioned
[5:30] 4. Someone To Watch Over Me
[3:30] 5. The Best Is Yet To Come
[3:20] 6. I Don't Know Enough About You
[4:22] 7. Where Do You Start?
[3:40] 8. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
[3:03] 9. It's A Pity To Say Goodnight
[2:46] 10. Outras Dicoes
[4:51] 11. Low, Slow, Less

Goodnight Kiss

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Album: Jazz & Bossa
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 53:14
Size: 121.9 MB
Styles: Bossa Nova, Jazz vocals
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[4:23] 1. Angel Eyes
[3:04] 2. In A Mellow Tone
[6:10] 3. Black Coffee
[5:16] 4. In A Sentimental Mood
[1:56] 5. You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me
[3:46] 6. The Very Thought Of You
[2:38] 7. Do It Again
[4:08] 8. I Fall In Love Too Easily
[2:06] 9. I Love The Way You're Breaking My Heart
[3:36] 10. That's All
[3:45] 11. The Touch Of Your Lips
[6:09] 12. I'm Through With Love
[3:38] 13. Todos Os Dias
[2:32] 14. Setembro

Jazz & Bossa

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Hiromi Kanda - Hiromi In Love

Styles: Jazz Vocals
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:13
Size: 107,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:14)  1. That Old Feeling
(3:22)  2. Always Here For You
(3:36)  3. How Deep IS The Ocean
(3:12)  4. I'll Never Smile Again
(4:14)  5. Blue Love
(4:03)  6. Someone To Watch Over Me
(3:27)  7. My Funny Valentine
(2:57)  8. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
(3:26)  9. All The Way
(3:31) 10. When I Fall In Love
(3:16) 11. Cry
(4:03) 12. The Second Time Around
(3:47) 13. Unforgettable

Japanese singer Hiromi Kanda expresses her affection for American pre-rock traditional pop music on Hiromi in Love. She is accompanied by members of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, playing arrangements written and conducted by Matt Catingub (who also contributes alto saxophone, piano, and backup vocals) on a set of standards written by the likes of Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, and Rodgers & Hart, plus a couple of originals in a similar style. Her timbre may remind some listeners of Linda Ronstadt, who made three albums of similar music, though native English speakers probably will feel the same way about Kanda that native Spanish speakers did listening to Ronstadt's albums of Mexican music, in the sense that Kanda sings with a slight Japanese accent throughout. She is certainly comprehensible, and these are much more than karaoke-like performances, but it is impossible to ignore that, for example, in "That Old Feeling," the word "foolish" comes off sounding like "fulitch," or that, in "Cry," "sunshine" is rendered as "sanshan." Thus, English speakers may suppose they are listening to the soundtrack of an old movie set in post-World War II, U.S.-occupied Japan. This probably means that Hiromi in Love will be most successful in Japan itself and the Pacific Rim in general, where Kanda's accent won't be as much of an issue.~ William Ruhlmann  http://www.allmusic.com/album/hiromi-in-love-mw0001959346

Hiromi In Love

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Karin Krog - One on One

Styles: Jazz Vocals
Year: 1997
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:18
Size: 154,1 MB
Art: Front + Back

(2:35)  1. Blues In My Heart
(3:12)  2. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
(5:05)  3. These Foolish Things
(2:58)  4. But Not For Me
(6:16)  5. God Bless The Child
(3:22)  6. Just In Time
(3:58)  7. A Song For You
(4:14)  8. Feeling Too Good Today Blues
(5:31)  9. Stardust
(2:02) 10. I Wont Dance
(3:07) 11. Medley: Blue and Sentimental/ Sentimental and Melancholy
(2:49) 12. Scandia Skies
(2:28) 13. I Was Doing All Right
(3:33) 14. I Got The Right To Sing The Blues
(3:05) 15. Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
(7:21) 16. John Coltrane`s `A Love Supreme`
(2:31) 17. As You Are
(3:07) 18. Going Home

Not overwhelmed with the song now playing on this album? Be patient, the next track may be something more to your liking. This album is a musical smogarsboard of songs cutting across a variety of vocal genre. The play list runs from the traditional "Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child," through Hoagy Carmichael's ultimate standard "Stardust" through John Coltrane's poem-song "A Love Supreme" with a little of 1960s popsters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller thrown in. It would be unkind to say that the singer is simply trying out everything until she finds something she does well. Not so with Karen Krog, one of the finer and more inventive jazz singers of the last three decades. One on One is a compilation of three different recording sessions Krog made as part of a duo performances. Krog and premier bass player Red Mitchell are on the first six tracks, recorded in 1977. Also recorded in the same year, Krog and Swedish pianist Bengt Hallberg are on tracks seven through fourteen. The last four tracks, recorded in 1980, are devoted to Krog's work with Nils Lindberg, Swedish composer and organist. There are not many singers who would risk singing with just a bass or an organ as accompaniment. The vocalist and bass player must have great musical rapport given the limitations of the instrument. As far as an organ goes it, if not delicately played, can overwhelm the vocalist. The fact that it comes off incredibly well is a tribute not only to Krog, but to Mitchell and Lindberg. The Krog/Mitchell sessions are especially haunting. Mitchell plays cello like passages on Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To." His phrasing and articulation seem to be made especially for Krog's vocal inflections and phrasing. Hallberg has been a top performer in Europe for several years and has recorded with Krog before. Lindberg is a composer and, as is evident on the almost sacred rendition of "A Love Supreme," a church organist. This album offers a over an hour of a wide variety of music all showcasing Karen Krog's amazing vocal virtuosity.~Dave Nathan  http://www.allmusic.com/album/one-on-one-mw0000725523

One on One

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Come Shine - With The Norwegian Radio Orchestra In Concert

Styles: Jazz Vocals
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:46
Size: 134,5 MB
Art: Front

(6:19)  1. My Funny Valentine
(5:42)  2. Moon River
(4:41)  3. Let'S Do It
(5:23)  4. Memories Of You
(7:51)  5. You Don'T Know What Love Is
(6:54)  6. September Song
(5:34)  7. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
(4:35)  8. Lush Life
(7:39)  9. When I Fall In Love
(4:04) 10. I Like To Hear It Sometime

Live Maria Roggen (born 22 March 1970 in Oslo) is a Norwegian jazz singer, songwriter and composer, educated at Foss High School (violin and vocals), sociology and Musicology intermediate at the University of Oslo and Jazz Line at Trøndelag Conservatory of Music (NTNU) (1995–98). Worked as Jazz and singing teacher at the Sund folkehøgskole, Høgskolen in Agder (music conservatory) and at Trøndelag Conservatory of Music (NTNU). Since 2006, Associate Professor of jazz singing at the Norwegian Academy of Music.[1] She is the older sister of the twin sisters Ane Carmen and Ida Roggen from the Norwegian vocal band Pitsj. Roggen first appeared in the duo Tu'Ba with the tuba player Lars Andreas Haug 1994. She helped start the band Wibutee in 1997-2000, and then was the lead singer of the Norwegian jazz band Come Shine 1998-2004. In 2003-08, she appeared with their own lyrics and compositions in the Live Band. In 2007, a solo disc Circuit songs which won Spellemannprisen the Norwegian Grammy Award in the Open class. Since 2004, Roggen has been co-singer and one of the driving forces of the improvisational vocal ensemble Trondheim Voices, for whom she made the compositions. In 2009, Roggen and pianist Helge Lien formed the Norwegian-language duo Live/Lien that performs original music written to texts by Norwegian poets, cover songs and jazz tunes. In addition to her own bands and groups Roggen have sung with, among other Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Trondheimsolistene, Bugge Wesseltoft, Tom Steinar Lund & Trio de Janeiro, deLillos and Leieboerne, and she has since 1996 been a backup singer in the group Young Neils. In 2008 and 2009 she participated in four tribute concerts For Radka together with Arild Andersen, Jon Eberson and Jon Christensen, including in the Norwegian National Opera. In 2006-2009 she sang the tango and jazz compositions in the Atle Sponberg and Frode Haltli s La Fuente. She participated in children's records Magiske kroker & hemmeligheter, (Egmont 2008) and Go'natt, (Jazzland/Universal 2009). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Maria_Roggen

With The Norwegian Radio Orchestra In Concert

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Gregory Porter - Liquid Spirit

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:05
Size: 139,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:55)  1. No Love Dying
(3:35)  2. Liquid Spirit
(3:09)  3. Lonesome Lover
(3:31)  4. Water Under Bridges
(3:19)  5. Hey Laura
(3:42)  6. Musical Genocide
(4:08)  7. Wolfcry
(4:58)  8. Free
(4:16)  9. Brown Grass
(3:23) 10. Wind Song
(3:35) 11. The "In" Crowd
(4:47) 12. Movin'
(6:52) 13. When Love Was King
(7:47) 14. I Fall In Love Too Easily

After two solid albums on Motema, both of which earned Grammy nominations, singer and songwriter Gregory Porter makes his Blue Note debut with Liquid Spirit. A singer whose quicksilver vocal style refuses to be caged by either jazz, gospel, or R&B, his warm, inviting baritone utilizes them all when he wishes to. Using the musicians who appeared with him on 2012's Be Good  Yosuke Sato and Tivon Pennicott, saxophones; Chip Crawford, piano; Aaron James, bass, Emanuel Harrold, drums Porter wrote or co-wrote 11 of these 14 songs. There is a dynamite reading of Billy Page's hard-grooving "The In Crowd" that highlights Porter's rhythmic phrasing. Though it's a soul tune at heart, he swings hard. The cover of Max Roach's and Abbey Lincoln's "Lonesome Lover" evokes the soulful post-bop spirit of the original and offers a bracing portrait of the singer's command of his own upper range. Covers aside, the real strength of Liquid Spirit lies in Porter's songs: his lyrics and melodies are as rich as his voice. 

Opener "No Love Dying Here" walks a line between jazz and soul; its life-affirming words are underscored by the effortless conviction and authority in his vocal, while Sato's alto saxophone solo affirms the lyric. The fingerpopping, handclapping gospel groove in the title track is punched up by saxophones and Curtis Taylor's trumpet. The call-and-response between Porter and James' bass is tasty, and one can hear a trace of Donny Hathaway in the singer's commanding, heartfelt delivery. "Hey Laura" is characterized by Porter's relaxed but utterly sincere delivery, and packs a knock-out emotional punch in his protagonist's plea to the object of his affection. "Brown Grass" is a close second in the emotional punch department; it's a love song to be sure, but a sadder one. Porter articulates his protagonist's regrets simply and honestly, and therefore resonantly. For all of his innovative ability to effortlessly combine, shift, and shape various musical genres in his own image, Porter is militantly old school check "Musical Genocide," as he celebrates the music of the past with a popping piano, hard-grooving horns, funky Rhodes, and swelling B-3. 

On the tender ballad "Wolfcry," he is accompanied only by Crawford; it's so hip and melodically rich, it could easily have been sung by a young Nat Cole. The way he and his band move through blues, jazz, gospel, and R&B simultaneously on the declamatory testimonial "Free" is breathtaking. The intro to "Movin'," near set's end, suggests Bill Withers, but Porter quickly shifts it into higher gear with the horns punctuating the ends of his sung lines. While his first two recordings revealed a major new talent with their promise, Liquid Spirit is a giant step forward artistically, and for the listener, an exercise in musical inspiration.~Thom Jurek  http://www.allmusic.com/album/liquid-spirit-mw0002555419

Liquid Spirit

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