Gale & Rodrigues Group - Live At The Rex

Size: 109,6 MB
Time: 67:43
File: MP3 @ VBR ~226K/s
Released: 2007
Styles: Jazz: Hammond Organ
Art: Front

01. Full House (10:09)
02. Statement (11:54)
03. One-Eyed Monster ( 8:55)
04. I-90 ( 8:09)
05. You Don't Know What Love Is (11:46)
06. Laurier Luxury Walk ( 7:38)
07. Bye Bye Blackbird (In 7 For Chris Driscoll) ( 9:09)

Chris and Vanessa met at a very intense jazz workshop in the Canadian Rockies, where they decided after hiking to the summit of Sulpher Mountain that they were a musical match made in heaven. (well, more like after their set in the dark cabaret in the bowels of the Theater Complex, but a mountaintop does seem more majestic and mighty, doesn't it?).

Fast forward a few months to the Rex in Toronto, where Chris invited his good friend and marvelous drummer Davide DiRenzo to join them for a trio gig. They FREAKED out ... they couldn't believe the chemistry, the magic! It was like that love-at-first-sight feeling when your stomach flies up into your throat! They thought "We've gotta get this band recorded NOW! Yesterday is too late already!"

All they needed now was a guitar, and they'd be cruisin' down the road to 1960's-style organ jazz uphoria! Vanessa brought Mike Rud into the mix ... he's one of Canada's best-kept secrets, and he's BURNING!

So, on March 15 & 16, 2006, they returned to the Rex to put on a show, and they captured it on record for your listening and grooving pleasure!

Enjoy! They sure did!!!

Chris Gale - saxophone
Vanessa Rodrigues - Hammond organ
Mike Rud - guitar
Davide DiRenzo - drums

Live At The Rex

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Melinda DeRocker - I'll Be Seeing You

Size: 98,3 MB
Time: 41:39
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2013
Styles: Jazz Vocals
Art: Front

01. That Old Feeling (2:37)
02. I've Got A Crush On You (3:11)
03. It Had To Be You (2:14)
04. Embraceable You (3:12)
05. I've Got You Under My Skin (3:00)
06. The Nearness Of You (5:02)
07. 'S Wonderful (2:38)
08. You're The Cream In My Coffee (2:43)
09. The Way You Look Tonight (2:29)
10. Love Is Here To Stay (2:32)
11. I'll Be Seeing You (4:23)
12. Day By Day (3:48)
13. Time After Time (3:45)

With the debut of her first album, "I'll Be Seeing You," Melinda DeRocker brings fresh and beautiful arrangements of timeless standards, with a roster of New York-based jazz musicians supporting her superb vocals. Melinda is a trained singer, with a classical and musical theatre background who has moved seamlessly and gracefully into the standards genre as if she'd been singing these tunes for years.

Ms. DeRocker sings with warm, clear tones, that draw the listener in. With perfect articulation and pitch, rich and smooth phrasing, she even adds a hint of her Southern heritage at times. Singing in her mezzo range, she surprises by moving into an occasional high note with beauty and ease.

With just enough bite on "I've Got You Under My Skin," to humor and sass in "It Had To Be You," to desire and longing defining "Embraceable You," to pure joy in "Time After Time," Melinda DeRocker and her musical team have thoughtfully and skillfully created 13 "jewels" to present out into the music world.

I'll Be Seeing You

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Mary J. Blige - A Mary Christmas

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 45:54
Size: 105.1 MB
Styles: Holiday
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[4:08] 1. Little Drummer Boy
[4:37] 2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
[3:50] 3. My Favorite Things
[3:18] 4. This Christmas
[3:53] 5. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
[2:27] 6. Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer
[3:42] 7. When You Wish Upon A Star
[3:48] 8. Mary, Did You Know
[4:19] 9. Do You Hear What I Hear
[3:57] 10. Petit Papa Noël
[4:24] 11. The First Noel
[3:26] 12. Noche De Paz (Silent Night)

A truly Mary Christmas would match the distraught look on the cover. Blige's first Christmas album, guided by David Foster and Jochem van der Saag, doesn't feature sad or embittered chestnuts like "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" or "Fairytale of New York" (was Method Man busy?). Instead, it contains a mix of standard holiday songs -- a couple playful, many solemn, all dramatic. It's a big production; an orchestra backs Blige on most of the songs. She pours herself into all of the material, even when she's joined by Jessie J (of all people) for a version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" that is overcooked. It could use a couple more joyous songs in the vein of Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas," which is a delight despite so many versions since the original 1970 version. A Mary Christmas won't likely reach the high status of, say, Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas, but it's a full-effort holiday release that many of her fans should be able to enjoy for several years. ~ Andy Kellman

Recording information: Air Studios, London, UK; Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA; Chartmaker Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Platinum Sound Recording Studios, New York, NY; Verve Studios, Santa Monica, CA.

A Mary Christmas

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Conrad Herwig & Brian Lynch - Que Viva Coltrane

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 62:17
Size: 142.6 MB
Styles: Latin jazz
Year: 2004
Art: Front

[ 7:35] 1. Lonnie's Lament
[ 9:50] 2. Miles Mode
[ 7:57] 3. Wise One
[ 8:08] 4. Countdown
[ 5:03] 5. Central Park West
[ 7:49] 6. Grand Central
[ 5:47] 7. Straight Street
[10:05] 8. Locomotion

What more could Latin jazz fans ask for, seriously?. Not only are all the players just this side of top guns, they have been playing together in the same group for just shy of ten years. An all-star lineup and the genuine synergy that comes with regular collaboration do not happen often. When they do, well, it's clave magic. Pianist Edsel Gomez's playing is sly and intuitive. Bassist John Benítez, whose Descarga in New York could be one of the decade's most defining Latin jazz records, is strong and confident. Richie Flores is the genre's most underappreciated conguero, and his playing is typically incendiary. Robby Ameen is, of course, among the most in-demand drummers on the scene, and his playing is dazzling as always. Brian Lynch has a voice all his own, and of course Conrad Herwig is one of modern jazz's most influential trombonists. This being Herwig's second go at the Coltrane songbook, the obvious choices are done with, leaving him some gems that were hidden slightly below the surface of public interest. "Lonnie's Lament" is masterfully arranged and funky enough to make your hair stand on end. "Countdown" is at times both graceful and storming. Que Viva Coltrane is a fantastic addition to Herwig's Latin body of work. ~ Evan C. Gutierrez

Recording information: Systems Two Recordsing Studios, Brooklyn, NY (12/15/2003).

Conrad Herwig (trombone); Conrad Herwig; John Benítez (double bass); Mario Rivera (flute, tenor saxophone); Brian Lynch (trumpet, flugelhorn); Edsel Gomez (piano); Robby Ameen (drums); Richie Flores (congas).

Que Viva Coltrane

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Erin Dickins - Java Jive

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 44:52
Size: 102.7 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[3:03] 1. I Just Found Out About Love
[3:21] 2. Je Cherche Un Homme
[2:55] 3. Java Jive
[4:50] 4. Nice Girls Don't Stay For Breakfast
[2:57] 5. Tain't What You Do
[3:32] 6. Walkin' With Your Barefeet On
[4:07] 7. Long Ago And Far Away
[3:27] 8. Stayin' Is The Only Way To Go
[3:35] 9. Can't We Be Friends
[3:27] 10. Loads Of Love
[5:21] 11. I Must Have That Man
[4:12] 12. Sometimes I'm Happy

As an award winning jazz vocalist and founding member of The Manhattan Transfer, Erin Dickins has enjoyed a remarkable career on stage and in the recording studio. After five years singing ensemble music with The Manhattan Transfer, she expanded her musical horizons, emerging as one of the top studio singers in New York. Dickins performed, toured and recorded with many notable artists including Leonard Cohen, Bette Midler, James Taylor, The Talking Heads, James Brown, Barry Manilow, Jaco Pastorius and Ashford & Simpson, to name but a few. Dickins continues to perform and record, enchanting audiences throughout the world.

Dickins returns to her roots with a remake of the original Ink Spots’ hit, which she first recorded on the Manhattan Transfer album Jukin’. As title track, Java Jive will anchor the new release and will feature backing vocals by longtime friends Tim Hauser, Marty Nelson and Gene Pistill, the three male vocalists from the original Manhattan Transfer.

Dickins’ album was carefully crafted over a two-year period by a group of renowned musicians. Java Jive is produced by Jesse Frederick, and features pianist/arranger Rob Mounsey, trumpeter Barry Danielian and bassist David Finck. Dickins was awarded the prestigious Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in 2012.

Java Jive

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Christy Baron - I Thought About You

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 1997
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:17
Size: 126,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:15)  1. Got to Get you into my life
(5:05)  2. Round Midnight
(4:24)  3. Knocks Me Off My Feet
(2:23)  4. Ain't No Sunshine
(3:50)  5. Night And Day
(4:51)  6. Misty
(5:41)  7. Columbus
(5:45)  8. Body And Soul
(5:09)  9. Summer Soft
(6:58) 10. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
(3:43) 11. I Thought About You
(4:08) 12. If It's Magic

I Thought About You, Christy Baron's first album, demonstrated that a singer doesn't need the massive chops of Dianne Reeves or Dee Dee Bridgewater in order to deliver a convincing jazz vocal date. Instead of going for hard bop or providing a lot of complex, horn-like scatting and vocalese, the Pittsburgh native favors a light and melodic approach that is best described as "acoustic jazz with R&B and pop elements." One of the things that makes the CD successful is the fact that Baron doesn't bite off more than she can chew  though soulful and capable of depth, someone with as sweet and youthful a voice as Baron probably wouldn't have been very convincing on Billy Strayhorn's world-weary "Lush Life." 

But the singer shows how tasteful an interpreter of lyrics she can be on selections ranging from the standards "Night and Day" and "Body and Soul," to no less than three Stevie Wonder pearls: "Summer Soft," "Knocks Me off My Feet," and "If It's Magic." And her performance of Noel Brasil's "Columbus" is simply gorgeous. Thankfully, Baron realizes that great popular music didn't die with Cole Porter, and her ability to find the jazz potential in songs by the Beatles ("Got to Get You into My Life"), Bill Withers ("Ain't No Sunshine") and Wonder is a major asset. Though not well-known, I Thought About You indicated that Baron was someone to keep an eye on. ~ Alex Henderson   

http://www.allmusic.com/album/i-thought-about-you-mw0000232745

I Thought About You

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Christine Tobin - Secret Life of a Girl

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:58
Size: 113,6 MB
Art: Front

(4:13)  1. Bye Bye
(4:34)  2. Camille
(7:20)  3. Corner of an Eye
(3:58)  4. Dreamland
(5:29)  5. No Love No Thrill
(7:13)  6. Everybody Knows
(6:11)  7. Minx
(3:43)  8. Secret Life of a Girl
(6:14)  9. Poses

Three years and a lifetime in gestation, Secret Life of a Girl is an album London-based singer/songwriter Christine Tobin spoke about when she gave an interview to AAJ in autumn 2005. At the time, Tobin was touring in support of Romance and Revolution (Babel, 2004), the sixth own-name disc she'd recorded since 1995 and, like its predecessors, a soulful and intelligently programmed mixture of originals and covers.  Secret Life of a Girl continues that tradition. There are just two covers this time, Leonard Cohen's world weary "Everybody Knows" and Rufus Wainwright's playful "Poses." The other seven tracks are Tobin originals, one with lyrics by the poet Eva Salzman, whose writing Tobin also featured on Romance and Revolution's "Muse of Blues."  Just as Tobin described it in her interview, Secret Life of a Girl is a collection of songs featuring female characters, some younger, some older. "Camille" gets inside the head of a 10 year old girl and her imagined secret world. 

"No Love No Thrill" describes the feelings of a grown woman who has unhappily concluded a relationship with an older man. In "Minx" a woman reveals the carapaces and emotional disguises she employs to get by. "Secret Life of a Girl" deals in more metaphorical language with these and other ideas. The other tunes are not so gender specific, but dealing as they do with issues and situations which effect the lives of women as much as they do men each sits well within the general concept. "Corner of an Eye" is a brilliantly woven collection of epigrams telling of life's struggles. "Dreamland" is a meditation on secret memories. Tobin's lyrics, a mixture of metaphor and real life experience, are genuinely poetic and give her songwriting a depth and richness which repeated listening enhances rather than diminishes. Tobin is well served, as before, by a superb band of seasoned regular accompanists, including guitarist Phil Robson, pianist Liam Noble, bassist Dave Whitford and percussionist Thebe Lipere. Cellist Kate Shortt and drummer Simon Lea are the newest recruits, with whom Tobin started working live in 2005. Robson's lyrical electric guitar, an attractive blend of jazz and rock influences, is a feature of several tracks. 

Noble's percussive prepared piano on "Bye Bye" and solo on "Minx" are compelling contributions from a fast emerging keyboard master. This is another rewarding collection of deep-song from a singer/songwriter who combines literate compositions with a tangible sense of the jazz life, with all its attendant passions, joys and tribulations. Chris May   

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=29443#.UqJnuOJc_vt

Personnel: Christine Tobin: voice; Phil Robson: guitars; Liam Noble: piano and prepared piano; Kate Shortt: cello; Dave Whitford: double bass; Thebe Lipere: percussion; Simon Lea: drums; Alex Bonney: programming (8).

Secret Life of a Girl

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Houston Person - Soft Lights

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1999
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:08
Size: 149,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:07)  1. Here's That Rainy Day
(4:37)  2. I Only Have Eyes For You
(6:08)  3. It Might As Well Be Spring
(5:51)  4. Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me
(7:01)  5. At Last
(7:56)  6. The Night We Called It A Day
(8:47)  7. It Shouldn't Happen To A Dream
(5:59)  8. I'll Be Around
(6:16)  9. Hey There!
(5:21) 10. If

Honestly, it's tempting to imagine (shades of the urban legend about German avant-garde freaks Amon Düül) that when Houston Person signed to High Note Records in the mid-'90s, he recorded one marathon session and all of his albums since then have simply been culled from those master tapes. Certainly they've had the same sound, along with most of the same personnel. Practically the only way to tell the difference between the albums is by the song selection choices. This one splits the difference between jazz standards and pop hits, with Duke Ellington's immortal "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me" (given a wonderful, sprightly reading that owes a subtle debt to Rahsaan Roland Kirk's sublime take on the underrated A Meeting of the Times) leading one pack and Bread's treacly "If" (surprisingly good, with some lovely, restrained guitar work by Russell Malone the only backing for Person's meditative solo) the other. As always with Person, the standards win. This isn't a bad place to start for those wondering which album from this era to get. ~ Stewart Mason   http://www.allmusic.com/album/soft-lights-mw0000247259

Soft Lights

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Tsuyoshi Yamamoto - Speak Low

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2002
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 69:26
Size: 159,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:30)  1. Cool Struttin
(6:20)  2. Black Is the Color
(8:23)  3. Speak Low
(7:33)  4. Misty
(2:50)  5. Doxy
(4:14)  6. Jealous Guy
(7:07)  7. Yesterdays
(6:20)  8. I've Never Been in Love Before
(6:32)  9. Come in from the Rain
(7:29) 10. Girl Blues
(7:07) 11. Close to You

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto was born on 23rd March 1946. He started to play the piano when he was in primary school. In junior high school, he played the trumpet. His interest in jazz began when he first heard Art Blakey’s tunes in the French movie, “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”. It inspired him to return to the piano, to perfect his technique. During his university years, he played for Mickey Curtis and the Samurais and began his professional career, including tours with the group in Europe. 

Following this, he joined other bands and played in clubs. In l973, he formed his own band. As he polished his piano skills, he came to idolize pianists such as Bobby Timmons, Wynton Kelly and Red Garland. Yamamoto’s melodic technique and phrasing reflect Kelly’s influence. His use of block chords in ballads is similar to Garland’s. He had also heard Monk’s solo. When this record was made, his chief interest was pianists such as Randy Weston. Isoo Fukui was born on 10 April 1947 and came to Tokyo in 1968. He has played in a number of groups and in 1972 joined the MASARU IMADA TRIO. Tetsujiro Obara was born on 23 March 1941. At the university he played in the brass band. In l965,he became a professional. He has played in a number of bands, in many clubs and formed his own band. His favourite drummer is Elvin Jones. ~ Bio http://www.last.fm/music/Tsuyoshi+Yamamoto+Trio/+wiki

Speak Low

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