The Lana Hawkins Quartet - Beyond The Rainbow

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:18
Size: 134,1 MB
Art: Front

(2:25)  1. Orange Colored Sky
(3:22)  2. Fever
(4:26)  3. You Belong To Me
(3:37)  4. Route 66
(4:28)  5. The Boy From Ipanema
(3:06)  6. I'm Beginning To See The Light
(4:46)  7. My Funny Valentine
(3:11)  8. I Got A Woman
(4:26)  9. At Last
(2:55) 10. Whatever Lola Wants
(3:22) 11. I've Got The World On A String
(3:45) 12. These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
(3:38) 13. They Can't Take That Away From Me
(2:48) 14. Do You KNow What It Means To Miss New Orleans
(3:55) 15. It's Too Late
(4:02) 16. Over The Rainbow

Lana Hawkins has been singing many genres of music for most of her life, ranging from a portrayal of Patsy Cline in live theatrical productions to lounge acts featuring jazz, pop and blues standards and classics. Her latest album by The Lana Hawkins Jazz Quartet, "Beyond the Rainbow," is a dedication to her younger brother who passed away in January 2007. "Over the Rainbow," the last track on the album is a touching acoustic version guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye. The musicians who performed on this album are Lana Hawkins: Vocals, Steve Kamerling: jazz guitar and vocals, Denis Shebhukov: acoustic and electric bass guitar, Aaron Tully: acoustic and electric bass guitar, Keith Hall: percussion and drums. Lana's pure, soulful voice is perfect for the song selection on this album as she uses excellent control of style with tons of passion in her voice. She has been compared to Diana Krall, Eva Cassidy and Patsy Cline. She currently resides in Michigan and performs regularly with her quartet locally and regionally. She is looking to expand her fan base and venues to nationally as well as internationally.  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/lanahawkins

Beyond The Rainbow

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Donald Brown - The Sweetest Sounds

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1988
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 64:46
Size: 148,7 MB
Art: Front

(7:01)  1. I Used To Think She Was Quiet
(7:05)  2. I Should Care
(5:36)  3. Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You
(5:00)  4. Theme For Ernie
(5:05)  5. The Sweetest Sounds
(6:55)  6. Affaire D'Amour
(7:13)  7. Nature's Folk Song
(3:04)  8. Betcha By Golly Wow
(6:57)  9. Woody N' You
(6:49) 10. Night Mist Blues
(3:57) 11. Killing Me Softly With His Song

Donald Brown has had a fairly low-profile career despite his talents, settling in Tennessee as a teacher after a period playing with the Jazz Messengers and teaching at Berklee. This lesser-known effort, cut for the JazzCity label and reissued a decade later by Evidence, matches the pianist with bassist Charnett Moffett, drummer Alan Dawson, and (on four of the 11 songs) vibraphonist Steve Nelson. Brown contributed three of the originals and digs into such standards as "I Should Care," "Woody N' You," and Ahmad Jamal's "Night Mist Blues," uplifting such later pop tunes as "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and "Betcha By Golly Wow." An excellent effort by a greatly underrated player and composer. ~ Scott Yanow   http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-sweetest-sounds-mw0000035476

Personnel: Donald Brown (piano); Steve Nelson (vibraphone); Charnett Moffett (bass); Alan Dawson (drums). Reissue Producer: Jerry Gordon.

The Sweetest Sounds

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The John Scofield Band - Up All Night

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:08
Size: 154,0 MB
Art: Front

(6:18)  1. Philiopiety
(6:05)  2. Watch Out For Po-Po
(7:28)  3. Creeper
(5:53)  4. Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get
(2:57)  5. I'm Listening
(6:57)  6. Thinkhathali
(6:04)  7. Four On The Floor
(6:38)  8. Like The Moon
(8:20)  9. Freakin' Disco
(5:05) 10. Born In Troubled Times
(5:16) 11. Every Night Is Ladies Night

The Freaky Deaky is back! This is the most inspired playing I have heard from John Scofield in many years. On Up All Night, Scofield has found the elusive spot (as a player) between knowing what he's doing and what he doesn't know. The band caught at the time of this recording exists at that junction a place beautifully balanced between solid compositional form and sheer improvisational grace. Scofield hasn't been this hungry in a long, long time!  If you liked Scofield's last album, Uberjam, be prepared for a quantum leap in both conception and playing on Up All Night. And if you didn't like Uberjam, then you might be surprised here by the extent of Scofield's talent. This music harkens back to the leader's lean and mean days with Miles Davis, although it doesn't have the same sound. What it does share with Miles' work from that era is rawness, sheer guitar power from an expert player, and genre-busting grooves that have one foot in the jazz camp and the other in deep-fried Philly Soul. 

The band is comprised of a solid electric bass and drums rhythm section, then complemented with massive samples and rhythm guitar work from Avi Bortnick, and topped off with Scofield using creative guitar samples, live backwards guitar, and an extended tonal palette. Six tunes employ a badass horn section that really fills the sound out. The horn arrangements were written by Scofield, who brings an almost "Gamble and Huff" sensibility to the music. The new technology and "jam band" sensibility works wonders for Scofield's playing style. While his playing has been rather contrived in the past, it is anything but on this recording. Scofield's style has always owed a lot to his ability to create fluid chromatic melodic lines. That was what made him and Mike Stern a formidable duo in Miles' band. Stern's raw power and direct blues-rock feel pushed Scofield to a new, more supple guitar style, and I hear a similar rawness and thrust behind the band here. 

These young guys push Scofield into much- needed new directions, and he rises to the challenge. He throws his fluid legato style smack dab into the middle of some warped-out funked-out backwards shit, still coming out on top. It's a joy to hear someone who can play the guitar so well actually play the music so well. Check his guitar work on "Like The Moon." His playing on the disco-tinged and aptly-named "Freakin' Disco" is absolutely on fire...damn! This modern gem from a modern guitar icon is well worth your listening consideration. ~ Farrell Lowe   http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=12297#.Uwk-JIVZg9c  
 

Personnel: John Scofield-electric guitar, guitar samples; Avi Bortnick-rhythm guitar, samples, loops; Andy Hess- bass; Adam Deitch-drums; Craig Handy-tenor saxophone, flute, bass clarinet; Earl Gardner-trumpet; Gary Smulyan- baritone saxophone; Jim Pugh-trombone; Samson Olawale-percussion sample

Up All Night

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Bing Crosby With Bob Scobey's Frisco Jazz Band - Bing With A Beat

Styles: Big Band
Year: 1957
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 37:36
Size: 87,0 MB
Art: Front

(2:51)  1. Let A Smile Be Your Umbrella
(3:02)  2. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myelf A Letter
(3:29)  3. Along The Way To Waikiki
(3:16)  4. Exactly Like You
(2:40)  5. Dream A Little Dream Of Me
(2:47)  6. Last Night On The Back Porch
(2:45)  7. Some Sunny Day
(3:27)  8. Whispering
(2:57)  9. Tell Me
(3:54) 10. Mack The Knife
(3:15) 11. Down Among The Sheltering Palms
(3:07) 12. Mama Loves Papa

They just don't write songs like "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter" anymore. It's a catchy melody combined with witty lyrics that conveys an innocent longing for love that would be inconceivable as a radio hit today. However, the same goes for just about any other song on Bing With A Beat.  But then they weren't really writing songs like that in 1957, either. That's when this album first appeared, and none of the songs were in heavy circulation among pop singers at the time. Only "Mack The Knife" still had some legs, thanks to versions recorded by Louis Armstrong (earlier) and Bobby Darin (later). But most are relics from the time when Bing first became famous, long forgotten by the artists whom he influenced. 

Leave it to Crosby to resurrect these old tunes tunes that he always wished he had recorded to create his one true jazz album, a tribute to the music he always loved. Crosby had continued to record well into the fifties, straddling two generations with his blue-eyed, gentlemanly appeal. But where it would have been easy to sing over a lush Nelson Riddle-type orchestration as he had already done he hand-picked Bob Scobey and the rest of his Frisco Jazz Band to create a swinging Dixieland backing that has no strings at all. Dixieland was always Crosby's love, and while the presentation and song selection may seem a little trad, it's a tribute to the talents of Crosby and Scobey that the album works as well as it does and has an instant appeal today. For one thing, Crosby sounds positively jubilant at the opportunity to sing these songs with the hot band behind him, and truly Bing With A Beat sounds like no other vocal album from the time period. Scobey and company rip through the choruses when given the chance and provide punchy backing when Crosby takes the mike. 

There's a snap in Crosby's delivery that wasn't always featured on previous recordings, but his strength was always making lyrics sound earnest. No one has written a song about "Waikiki" in years, but Crosby makes it sound like the hot new vacation spot. In his book Jazz Singing Will Friedwald claims that Bing With A Beat is one of the top ten jazz vocal albums ever made. This may come as a surprise to those who never thought of Crosby as a jazz vocalist in the first place, but there's no denying that Armstrong and Sinatra both owe him debts in their rhythm and phrasing, and most of all the art of singing naturally. Top ten? Maybe. Leave it to Bing, though, to assert himself as capable of creating a jazz album that out-jazzes most of them. ~ David Rickert   http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=15506#.Uwl0MIVZg9c

Personnel:  Bing Crosby - vocals; with Bob Scobey's Frisco Jazz Band.

Boing With A Beat

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