Paul Meyers Quartet - Paul Meyers Quartet Featuring Frank Wess

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 65:32
Size: 150.0 MB
Styles: Guitar jazz, Saxophone jazz
Year: 2010
Art: Front

[7:25] 1. Snibor
[6:32] 2. Blue Lanturn
[5:36] 3. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
[7:32] 4. One For Miss D
[5:00] 5. Lazy Afternoon
[4:53] 6. Menage A Bleu
[5:25] 7. Just One Of Those Things
[8:30] 8. My One And Only Love
[6:54] 9. Who Cares
[7:39] 10. I Cover The Waterfront

Count Paul Meyers among those relatively few jazz guitarists who concentrate on playing a nylon-string instrument. Assembling a terrific band for these sessions, including veteran bandleader and Basie alum Frank Wess on tenor sax and flute, bassist Martin Wind (a leader as well and regular collaborator with pianist Bill Mays), and drummer Tony Jefferson, Meyers includes a mix of standards, originals, and well-known jazz compositions. Oddly enough, the bluesy opener, "Snibor," is not one of Billy Strayhorn's more widely played works (though Duke Ellington fans will be familiar with it), but the light, swinging treatment with Wind's intricate solo, Wess' robust tenor, and the leader's subtle playing signals immediately that this is an impressive outing. All of the standards shine, including the breezy setting of "Just One of Those Things" with engaging features for Meyers and Wess; the warm rendition of "Lazy Afternoon" with guest vocalist Andy Bey; and the gorgeous "My One and Only Love," which opens as a duo by Wess and Meyers with a delayed entrance by the rhythm section. Wess contributed "Menage a Bleu," a tasty blues that sounds like the perfect wrap-up for a late-night club date. Meyers penned a pair of originals, "Blue Lantern," a pulsating vehicle featuring Wess' spirited flute and Meyers' cooking guitar, and the choppy, infectious "One for Miss D." The Paul Meyers Quartet Featuring Frank Wess is a delight from start to finish. ~ Ken Dryden

Acoustic jazz guitarist Paul Meyers is joined by Frank Wess on tenor saxophone and flute, bassist Martin Wind, drummer Tony Jefferson. Joining the quartet on vocals on the song Lazy Afternoon is Andy Bey.

Recording information: Bennett Studios, Englewood, NJ (01/18/2007-01/19/2007).

Personnel: Paul Meyers (nylon-string guitar); Martin Wind (acoustic bass); Tony Jefferson (drums).

Paul Meyers Quartet Featuring Frank Wess

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Jane Monheit - The Heart Of The Matter

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 57:00
Size: 130.5 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[5:56] 1. Until It's Time For You To Go
[4:29] 2. Depende De Nos
[5:12] 3. Little Man You Had A Busy Day
[4:51] 4. Two Lonely People
[5:25] 5. A Gente Merce Ser Feliz
[7:15] 6. Golden Slumbers / Long And Winding Road
[2:51] 7. When She Loved Me
[4:19] 8. Born To Be Blue
[4:16] 9. Close
[3:06] 10. Night Night Stars
[4:10] 11. I Get Along Without You Very Well
[5:05] 12. Sing

A technically proficient singer with a distinctive style that straddles the line between Ella Fitzgerald's extroverted, loosely swinging approach and Linda Eder's more restrained Broadway and cabaret style, Jane Monheit is a virtuoso. One minute she's dazzling you with her resonant bebop-ready chops and the next she's making you cry with a single verse of a ballad. On her ninth studio album, 2013's Heart of the Matter, Monheit brings all of her gifts to bear on a set of mature, heartfelt songs that rank among her best. The album also works as a companion piece to 2009's The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me. With that album, Monheit celebrated such milestones as the birth of her son Jack and turning 30. She then followed up with 2010's equally as compelling if more swinging and straight-ahead jazz-sounding Home. Heart of the Matter, with its ruminations on motherhood and fidelity, returns Monheit to the more intimate, contemporary pop sound of The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me. Working with producer/arranger Gil Goldstein (who also adds his lyrical accordion sound to several tracks) and her usual rhythm section of drummer Rick Montalbano (her husband), pianist Michael Kanan, and bassist Neal Miner, Monheit has crafted a sumptuous, immaculately arranged album that once again shines a light on her immense vocal talent. Whether she's framed by a lush orchestral backing on the bossa nova "Depende de Nós" or a spare electric piano and flute arrangement on "Two Lonely People," Heart of the Matter finds Monheit nestled deep into the pocket of her own cross-genre sound, and it's a warm place to be. ~ Matt Collar

Recording information: Avatar Studios (2012-11-09&2012-11-10&2012-).

The Heart Of The Matter

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Jane Stuart - Don't Look Back

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:12
Size: 118,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:54)  1. I Just Found Out About Love
(3:35)  2. Experiment
(4:58)  3. Eleanor Rigby
(4:37)  4. Don't Look Back
(5:44)  5. Bird Of Beauty
(4:02)  6. Let It Come To You
(3:58)  7. Who Will Buy
(4:08)  8. Wheelers And Dealers
(2:48)  9. You Are there
(5:37) 10. Summertime
(4:43) 11. I'll Follow The Sun
(3:02) 12. I Didn't Know What Time It Was

From the opening bars of "I Just Found Out About Love," Jane Stuart takes control of this sophisticated collection of tunes with a voice that oozes style, confidence and emotional strength. Don't Look Back brings Stuart together with an empathic group of musicians, the arrangements are always interesting and at times inspired, and the conclusion is clear: this is a great vocal jazz album. Stuart has a long history as a dancer, actor and singer she was performing on TV at the age of five but her first album, the self-produced Beginning to See The Light, didn't appear until 2007. Her style is mainstream, informed by pop and by Broadway, and characterized by a clarity and control that ensures she invests each lyric with honest emotion. She sings with subtle but effective shifts in tone, emphasis or volume that immediately communicate the story there's no need for vocal acrobatics or showboating, and Stuart indulges in neither of them. 

Her performance of Johnny Mandel's "Don't Look Back" is absolutely beautiful. Sad but hopeful, her voice is superbly engaging: the restrained, gentle backing from drummer Rick De Kovessey, percussionist Emedin Rivera, bassist Kermit Driscoll and pianist Rave Tesar is the perfect accompaniment. The song selection takes from the Great American Songbook, musical theatre and pop classics. Stuart's own "Let It Come To You" is a ballad of regret that shares a lineage with Gene de Paul's "You Don't Know What Love Is." She removes Lionel Bart's "Who Will Buy" from its stage musical origins, gives it a slinky arrangement and brings in tenor saxophonist Frank Elmo to add a rasping, high-energy solo. Stuart's reworking of two songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney is intriguing. Her arrangement of "Eleanor Rigby" slows it down, builds in delicate and spacious guitar from Dave Stryker and invests it with more glamour than this sad tale of loneliness usually receives, while her treatment of the lesser-known "I'll Follow The Sun" is genuinely fresh. 

The original is pretty, light and optimistic; here, Stuart turns it into a torch ballad, delivering a vocal performance of such emotional intensity that it seems as if she is telling of her own personal heartbreak. ~ Bruce Lindsay  

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=39075#.UkA7GxAkI5c

Personnel: Jane Stuart: vocals; Rave Tesar: keyboards, background vocals; Dick Oatts: alto saxophone, flute; Frank Elmo: tenor saxophone; Dave Stryker: guitar; Emedin Rivera: percussion, whistles; Rick De Kovessey: drums, background vocals; Sue Williams: bass (1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 12); Kermit Driscoll: bass (3-6, 11); Orlando Quinones: background vocals; Paige Sandusky: background vocals.

Don't Look Back

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The Trio Of OZ - The Trio Of OZ

Styles: Jazz
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:58
Size: 135,0 MB
Art: Front

(6:08)  1. Angry Chair
(5:07)  2. Sour Girl
(4:08)  3. Det Tar Tid
(6:37)  4. I Will Possess Your Heart
(6:14)  5. Lost
(6:07)  6. When You Where Young
(7:24)  7. In Your Room
(4:24)  8. Bizzare Love Triangle
(5:13)  9. There Is A Light
(7:31) 10. King Of Pain

The dilemma for modern jazz artists is how to grab the ears of younger audiences, while remaining respectful of the legacy of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Louis Armstrong without recycling yet another variation of "So What?" The eclectic and restless musical tastes of drummer Omar Hakim and pianist Rachel Nicolazzo (aka Rachel Z.) offer some mighty impressive bait to reel them in, The Trio of Oz's repertoire reading like an hour's worth of college radio station programming. But how to reconcile music from artists including Depeche Mode, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots with two vets like Z and Hakim, who honed their skills with artists like Weather Report, Wayne Shorter and Steps Ahead?

Quite nicely, since these two masters' résumés also include stin ts with Dire Straits, Sting and Peter Gabriel, rendering their creation of new ways to splice the seemingly contradictory jazz and rock idioms together into some sort of mutant hybridcapturing the fun of the latter without compromising the integrity of the former completely understandable.

When going after a younger demographic, It's best not to pander to them with warmed-over covers of last month's pop hits, already deleted from their iPod; The Trio of Oz demonstrates far more respect for the sensibilities of its target audience. Hakim and Z, along with newcomer, bassist Maeve Royce, have redefined "jazz rock" into an absorbing and stirring hybrid, sans the trappings of cranked up guitars, banks of synthesizers, excessive volume, and piling notes atop each other in an act of sonic overkill.

It's probably no accident the last track, The Police's "King of Pain," is the most familiar to the ears of even the most casual rock listener Written by Hakim's old boss, Sting, it's a lovely, moody ballad delivered here with impeccable taste, as are the improbably named, "Angry Chair" and ominous "I Will Posses Your Heart," by Death Cab for Cutie.

Z says she enjoys playing in trios because she's "greedy," and gets ample opportunity to demonstrate her considerable chops, but she still plays well with others. Hakim is never overly flashy, a tasteful percussionist who never overwhelms with technique when finesse will do. On acoustic bass, Royce is short of the wealth of experience her two compatriots possess, but she's a formidable talent with more than a few moments of Ron Carter-like brilliance. When she alternatively caresses and attacks Coldplay's "Lost" with her bow, it's fully understood why she got the job.

Whenever jazz is in danger of becoming safe, static and scared to stray out of its comfort zone, that's when it's in the fast lane to becoming the muzak for museums naysayers already claim it is. The Trio of Oz strikes that delicate balance between respecting tradition while refusing to be handcuffed by it. There's a lot here, in one of 2010's most brilliant debuts for both purists and pioneers to admire. ~  Jeff Winbush   http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=37723#.UktRwBBvA1I

Personnel: Rachel Z: piano; Omar Hakim: drums; Maeve Royce: acoustic bass

The Trio of OZ

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