Johanna Grussner - Come Rain Or Come Shine

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 40:38
Size: 93.0 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2011
Art: Front

[3:55] 1. Caravan
[3:10] 2. Come Rain Or Come Shine
[4:50] 3. Save Your Love For Me
[4:31] 4. A Felicidade
[4:09] 5. Honeysuckle Rose
[3:21] 6. Moon And Sand
[4:11] 7. How Long Has This Been Going On
[2:56] 8. Norwegian Wood
[3:02] 9. Samba De Um Nota So
[6:28] 10. Little Guy At Bachin's

Her clear-as-a-bell vocals, assured phrasing and near perfect grasp of English put Johanna Grüssner right at the top of the current crop of Scandinavian female jazz singers. Come Rain Or Come Shine is her third solo album and best yet: a gently swinging, highly enjoyable mix of straight jazz and Brazilian samba, performed with supreme professionalism.

Grüssner, from the Finnish Åland islands, makes use of a broad musical palette. On previous albums she has sung both Swedish and Finnish traditional songs, interpreted songs featured in Finnish author Tove Jansson's Moomintroll children's stories and, with her two sisters Ella and Isabella, been a lynch pin of the folk group Daughters Of The Wolf.

Jazz, however, remains her principal bag. She's paid her dues with studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and Manhattan School of Music, and with sporadic gigging in New York City. On this release, she's accompanied by some of the most talented musicians in Stockholm, where she now lives. They include Ulf Karlsson, who helped her produce and whose work on both six and twelve-string guitars is impeccable. ~Chris Mosey

Come Rain Or Come Shine

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Dave McKenna Quartet - Dave McKenna Quartet Featuring Zoot Sims

Bitrate: 320K/s

Time: 62:55

Size: 144.0 MB

Styles: Piano jazz

Year: 1974/1994

Art: Front

[5:59] 1. Limehouse Blues

[6:00] 2. I Cover The Waterfront

[3:11] 3. 'deed I Do

[5:14] 4. Grooveyard

[3:30] 5. One Good Turn

[2:49] 6. Dave's Tune

[4:21] 7. Linger A While

[5:20] 8. There's Gonna Be Some Changes Made

[4:38] 9. Wherever There's Love

[7:08] 10. I Cover The Waterfront

[4:53] 11. Grooveyard

[5:06] 12. One Good Turn

[4:42] 13. Wherever There's Love

Prior to his longtime association with the Concord label, pianist Dave McKenna's four Chiaroscuro albums (of which this CD brings back the second) did a great deal to make the veteran mainstream pianist known to the general jazz public. This set features McKenna, bassist Major Holley and drummer Ray Mosca joined by the great swing tenor Zoot Sims, who doubles on soprano. The original nine-song program is augmented by four previously unreleased numbers. Highlights of the fine straight-ahead date include "Limehouse Blues," "Deed I Do," "Linger Awhile" and two versions of "I Cover the Waterfront." ~Scott Yanow

Dave McKenna Quartet Featuring Zoot Sims

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Rob Keiter - The Glory Of Love

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 57:04
Size: 130.7 MB
Styles: Easy Listening, Jazz vocals
Year: 2010
Art: Front

[5:18] 1. This Nearly Was Mine
[5:23] 2. Looking For Another Pure Love
[4:50] 3. Laughter In The Rain
[3:32] 4. The Glory Of Love
[3:08] 5. Alfie
[4:16] 6. For No One
[6:24] 7. What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life
[3:47] 8. Get Happy
[6:13] 9. Our Loving Eyes
[4:22] 10. Grateful For A Pleasant Trip
[5:11] 11. What The World Needs Now
[4:35] 12. You Are My Heaven

As Rob Keiter stood at the microphone in the vocal booth recording his vocals for "This Nearly Was Mine," the opening track of his The Glory of Love album, a torrential flood of tears burst forth unexpectedly. Although he could not contain his raw emotions while singing the heartfelt words about love lost, he sang anyway. What was captured on the recording was something special and it established the tone for the entire collection of classic love songs in jazz settings.

"When I finished singing, I went into the control room to try to explain what happened. Everyone was silent. They felt it. The song ("This Nearly Was Mine") was recorded in one take. We agreed not to record it again, that what we got was genuine and could not be duplicated," revealed Keiter.

When Keiter began the recording sessions with producers Amber and Rob Whitlock for The Glory of Love, he was in the midst of a dark period following the breakup of a twenty-three year marriage. Singing the songs that comprise the collection enabled him to grieve as well as to find new hope. "Even though I had lost love, I wanted to sing love songs because I still believe in love. Having sung my entire life, I would say that I truly found my voice as a result of that experience (in the studio)," he explained.

Keiter's voice is suave, sophisticated, and silky smooth yet rich with feeling and warmth. Although The Glory of Love is distinctly jazz - contemporary, swing and straight-ahead - Keiter and The Whitlock's culled material with jazz, pop, R&B and even theatrical roots. He recorded jazzy versions of eleven songs written by the likes of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Neil Sedaka, John Lennon & Paul McCartney, and a pair of songs each by Hal David & Burt Bacharach and Stevie Wonder. The Whitlock's penned an original song, "Grateful For A Pleasant Trip," specifically for Keiter. Backing the crooner in the studio was a fine cast of musicians including Grammy winner Randy Brecker (trumpet), Rob Whitlock (piano), Pat Kelley (guitar), Trey Henry (bass), Cliff Almond (drums), Amber Whitlock (vocals) and a horn section consisting of Wayne Bergeron (trumpet and flugelhorn), Andy Martin (trombone) and John Rekevics (saxes and flutes). Radio stations will have a difficult time choosing between a handful of emphasis tracks such as "Laughter in the Rain," "What The World Needs Now," "Looking For Another Pure Love," "For No One" and "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life."

The Glory Of Love

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Claire Martin - Secret Love

Styles: Jazz Vocals
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:29
Size: 120,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:31)  1. Secret Love
(5:56)  2. But Beautiful
(4:10)  3. The Meaning of the Blues
(3:08)  4. Jive
(2:54)  5. Love Is a Bore
(4:17)  6. Where Do You Start
(6:18)  7. God Give Me Strength
(3:29)  8. Get Happy
(4:49)  9. My Buddy
(3:48) 10. Cheek to Cheek
(5:44) 11. Don't Misunderstand
(4:21) 12. Something Cool

Secret Love is the 10th album for Linn records from the first lady of British jazz and (as ever) she brings great musicians and formidable but not over-sung material together to craft something that will last a lifetime. Claire Martin always performs with personality, attitude and an attention to sonic detail, and it's testament to her great technique and vocal power that she's as astonishingly good live as she sounds on this album. Johnny Mandel's "Where Do You Start?" is a heart-rending, intimate portrayal of a disintegrating relationship, sung in a duo with long-standing collaborator, guitarist Jim Mullen. Claire's great control of rhythm and pace means that she can make much out of little instrumentation. Jim's liquid guitar phrases support Claire's golden-syrupvocal perfectly and give her the space to bend and shape the rhythm to the emotional ups and downs of the song. In Bacharach and Costello's "God Give Me Strength", Claire calls on her significant vocal range, and moves from breathy whispers to lungfulls of power in just a few bars. She holds her own easily against the three percussionists giving it their all, and wringspassion from every belted-out note. It's not just in the slower, more passionate numbers that Claire excels, though. Gareth Williams, one of Claire's favoured pianists, has created a dizzyingly fast arrangement of "Cheek to Cheek", in which Claire paces herself on the intro, before dense piano-work from Gareth gives the song liftoff. Laurence Cottle  the jazz musician's bass guitarist  unveils a lyrical, vocalised solo at breakneck speed here, and there's plenty of space for the trio to swing. 

Again, in the percussion-centric "Get Happy", the musicians are given free rein to solo, led by Nigel Hitchcock's boppish sax, once Claire and Clark Tracey have shared the intro together on voice and drums. Two more of Claire's buddies - Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and saxophonist Bobby Wellins - come together with her to celebrate the life of recently departed writer, broadcaster and mutual friend Joel Siegel with the song "My Buddy". A wistful and breathy solo from Bobby, velvet vocals from Claire, and Sir Richard's understated piano create a poignant and delicate tribute. Claire's diction and delivery arean extension of her speaking voice and attitude (of which she has plenty!) There's never a sense that she's over-acting or over-emphasising - which marks her as a natural. So, hold on. Why hasn't Claire got Grammies and platinum discs coming out of her ears? Why is she such an unsung singer? At least this conspiracy means that we haven't lost her to the impersonal gigs that megastardom brings...yet. ~ Kathryn Shackleton   http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/grdp

Secret Love

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Jeff Golub - Grand Central

Styles: Smooth Jazz
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:12
Size: 140,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:48)  1. Hello Betty
(4:24)  2. Lulu's Back
(6:00)  3. If You Want Me to Stay
(4:17)  4. Mojito
(4:52)  5. Something
(5:13)  6. Shockwave
(4:51)  7. Slinky
(4:10)  8. Grand Central
(4:08)  9. Ain't No Woman (Like the One I Got)
(5:37) 10. The Way I Feel Tonight
(5:31) 11. Stuffin' It
(3:34) 12. Brooklyn Dreams
(4:42) 13. Let's Stay Together

A staple of the smooth jazz format since the mid-'90s, the former sideman for Rod Stewart fills a unique rock/blues gap between the genre's overabundance of R&B-influenced saxmen and the cool, classy elegance of artists like Chris Botti. At his best, as on this exciting collection, he's raw and just a bit dirty, wailing with his buddies and having some loose, energetic fun. Though fans mostly saw him out there on the Guitars & Saxes Tour or on countless smooth cruises, Jeff Golub spent his down time at home in N.Y.C. seeking out local clubs where he could jam with his buddies and break in some new material. Fashioned as a celebration of both the loud and subtle conversations between workaday New Yorkers, Grand Central found Golub happy in the midst of his adopted hometown, jamming hard and fast as if the subway's doors are closing and he's just about to jump on or off. He plays it mostly fast and funky, but shows a unique emotional depth by making his guitar gently weep on a nice cover of "Something." 

It's clear he's having a blast taking a live-in-the-studio approach with a handful of the cats he ensembles with around town. Keyboardist Chris Palmaro throws a buoyant piano harmony down on the brassy scorcher "Hello Betty" (inspired by an old romantic gum commercial!) as easily as he creates a retro-chill cool on Sly Stone's "If You Want Me to Stay" (a vibe that echoes Golub's more laid-back previous disc, Temptation). On the Ray Charles-influenced "The Way I Feel Tonight," the guitarist's sweet, bluesy charm is massaged by Palmaro's brooding B-3 and pianist Kenny White's jazzy shimmer. Golub always includes tracks with his smoothie all-star pals; here, Rick Braun leads the horn section on "Hello Betty" (which he also produced), Kirk Whalum goes dark and cool on the acoustic jazz ballad "Slinky," and Richard Elliot keeps the customer satisfied on a pleasant cover of "Ain't No Woman Like the One I Got." The brightest cameo belongs to Philippe Saisse, who invokes the spirit of Les McCann stunningly on the crazed, horn-drenched soul-jazz jam "Mojito," a track inspired by a drink Golub dubbed a favorite on one of the smooth cruises. After a low-key chilled-out turn on his previous disc, it's great to hear him partying again. ~ Jonathan Widran   http://www.allmusic.com/album/grand-central-mw0000567911

Grand Central

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Patricia Vonne - Rattle My Cage

Released: 2013
Size: 83,7 MB
Time: 36:16
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Styles: Americana,Latin Flamenco-Rock,Tex-Mex,...
Art: Big Front

01. Rattle My Cage [4:53]
02. Dark Mile [4:07]
03. Ravage Your Heart [4:51]
04. Que' Maravilla [4:29]
05. This Cat's In The Doghouse [2:56]
06. Bitter Need [4:10]
07. Dulce Refugio [2:52]
08. Paris Trance [2:42]
09. Tequileros [3:02]
10. Mexicali De Chispa [2:10]

Rattle My Cage finds singer, songwriter, bandleader and actress Vonne collaborating on songs with some of the most distinguished Texas musicians that have inspired and informed her music: the late Doyle Bramhall, Alejandro Escovedo, Rosie Flores and Johnny Reno alongside some of her other favorite musical talents. The result, raves her hometown San Antonio Express News, "is her best, edgiest and most focused album yet. The image is tougher; so is the music."
The 10-song collection is suffused with Vonne's bracing passion, deep heart, and the determination that led her to make music her life, start her own label, Bandolera Records, and become a popular live attraction in not just Texas but Europe, where she recently completed her 21st tour, capped by an appearance at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival. Rattle My Cage also distills the distinctive multicultural rocking borderland roots style she has developed into its most potent and tantalizing brew to date.
The title track, co-written with Reno (who played saxophone with Stevie Ray Vaughan's original Double Trouble & Chris Isaak), opens the set with a shimmering blast of high-octane guitar rock sparked by the sexy muscularity of the customized classic hot rods that gather annually in Austin at the Lonestar Rod & Custom Round Up.
Similarly, her collaboration with Escovedo, "Ravage Your Heart," is a powerhouse mid-tempo rocker in which "a lover's kiss makes an angel sigh," and "Tequileros" is an intoxicating Tex-Mex rave-up penned with Alex Ruiz of Austin's flamenco rockers Del Castillo, whose bandmate Rick Del Castillo laces the number with whip-snapping electric guitar.
Vonne shows the range of flavors and styles that inform her music on the mesmeric Latin-tinged romantic plea of "Que Maravilla," the classicist cafe piano/singer crooning of "Bitter Need" (co-written with Peter Kingsbery from the pop band Cock Robin), the snappy Iberian dance of "Dulce Refugio" (written about the ravages of insomnia with San Antonio rocker Michael Martin of The Infidels), and the meld of hot gypsy jazz on "Paris Trance." One of her proudest moments on the disc is the bristling blues-tinged lament, "Dark Mile," written with Texas legend Doyle Bramhall, known for penning such hits with Stevie Ray Vaughan as "The House Is Rockin'" and "Change It." Vonne dips back into the 1950s on the rollicking number she wrote with her pal Rosie Flores, "This Cat's in the Doghouse" (which Flores also recorded on her last album). And then she closes the set by showing her impressive stuff on electric and acoustic guitars on the vividly Southwestern instrumental number, "Mexicali de Chispa," composed with her brother, famed filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.
Vonne is backed on most tracks by her Band: longtime collaborator Robert La Roche (formerly of Virgin Records recording act The Sighs) on guitar, bassist Scott Garber (whose many credits include Giant Sand, Ronnie Lane, Escovedo, The Silos and more) and drummer Dony Wynn (who has worked with the likes of Robert Plant, Robert Palmer and Dr. John). Noted instrumental guests include such top Austin keyboard talents as Ian McLagan (of Small Faces/Faces fame), Bukka Allen and Michael Ramos plus Reno on saxophone and Joe Reyes (of Lara and Reyes) on nylon string guitar. The album is also her fourth outing helmed by producer/engineer and musician Carl Thiel, whose time growing up in Mexico City and vast musical vocabulary have made him an ideal studio foil for Vonne's stylistically broad sound.

Rattle My Cage

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