Banu Gibson - Sings More Johnny Mercer

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:03
Size: 137,2 MB
Art: Front

(2:41)  1. Blues in the Night
(2:59)  2. Goody Goody
(3:58)  3. While We Danced at the Mardi Gras
(3:29)  4. You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby
(3:53)  5. Day In, Day Out
(3:12)  6. I'm An Old Cowhand
(3:20)  7. Too Marvelous For Words
(3:54)  8. Skylark
(3:49)  9. On The Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe
(2:16) 10. Strip Polka
(3:33) 11. I Wanna Be Around
(5:21) 12. Autumn Leaves
(2:44) 13. Moon River
(4:17) 14. Something's Gotta Give
(3:37) 15. When October Goes
(5:50) 16. Dream

Johnny Mercer’s songs are American treasures clever, lively and relentlessly well constructed. Banu Gibson treats them as such on her new album, giving them the care and loving treatment they deserve. She and her trio (John Sheridan, Bill Huntington and Jeff Hamilton) embrace the romance of “Moon River” and wring the full measure of loss out of “Autumn Leaves.” Treating them as classics is a mixed blessing, though. At times, Gibson seems more engaged with her love of the material than the sentiments they express, which makes the more lighthearted songs frustrating. “Goody Goody,” for example, celebrates a jilting lover getting his comeuppance, but she sings it as it’s often sung theatrical and unavoidably cutesy because of the title phrase. And Gibson clearly has affection for those songs, including “I’m an Old Cowhand,” “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” and “Strip Polka” on the set. Those songs suffer from a lack of imagination, though not a lack of execution or passion for Mercer, and they’re not indicative of the whole album. The autumnal closing suite of songs are heartfelt and beautiful, and the band swings throughout, most impressively when it switches from waltz time to swing on “While We Danced at the Mardi Gras.”~ Alex Rawls  http://www.offbeat.com/2009/03/01/banu-gibson-banu-gibson-sings-more-johnny-mercer-swing-out/

Personnel: Banu Gibson (vocals); John Sheridan (piano); Bill Huntington (upright bass); Jeff Hamilton (drums).

Banu Gibson Sings More Johnny Mercer

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Gina Roché - Thankfully

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:51
Size: 103,6 MB
Art: Front

(4:48)  1. Thankfully
(5:09)  2. As I Am
(3:57)  3. Choose Love
(4:02)  4. Be the Change
(4:03)  5. Breakfast in Bed
(5:08)  6. Song for Mom
(4:18)  7. Love will Arrive
(4:26)  8. I Belong
(4:11)  9. My Fathers Love
(4:45) 10. Flying

Gina Roche, composer, jazz vocalist and guitarist, is happy to celebrate the release of her second CD, "Thankfully," a personal CD of original compositions. These compositions were inspired by experiences in my life over the past few years. Starting with the title track "Thankfully", a composition inspired by my husband John and his loving kindness with our daughters, to the song "Flying" a song written during a family intervention with my brother, about what my family went through, how it affected my mom, my brother. I am happy to report he is doing well and working to help others in recovery. There is a sweet, funny song "Breakfast in Bed" about the challenges of romance while having children (who like to get up too early in the morning!), to the song "Be The Change" this one touches on how even though life can become hectic, busy & frustrating at times, I am finding out that letting go of my past grievances & forgiving (myself & others) helps me make a difference of kindness in the world. Inspired by the Gandhi quote to "be the change you wish to see in the world" and the book The Law of Forgiveness by Connie Domino. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ginaroche2

Personnel: Gina Roché (vocals, guitar, shaker); L'Oreal Crisp Seels (spoken vocals); Ricardo Vogt (guitar); George Mesterhazy (accordion); Owen Sczerba (baritone saxophone); Randy Porter (piano); Barry Miles (Fender Rhodes piano); Tony Miceli (vibraphone); Tim Lekan, Nilson Matta (acoustic bass); Keith Hollis, Allison Miller (drums).

Thankfully

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David Hazeltine - The Inspiration Suite

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:39
Size: 137,1 MB
Art: Front

(6:12)  1. I Should Care
(7:23)  2. Don't Walk Away
(5:21)  3. The Inspiration Suite 1: Motivation
(7:59)  4. The Inspiration Suite 2: Reverence
(6:45)  5. The Inspiration Suite 3: Insight
(7:19)  6. The Inspiration Suite 4: Gratitude
(6:33)  7. My Ideal
(5:49)  8. Shoulders
(6:14)  9. Personage Of Wes

Jazz pianist David Hazeltine, like many baby-boomer musicians, is influenced by Wes, Buddy, and Monk Montgomery and Cedar Walton. For what he calls his most personally driven recording date, he pays tribute to them by composing a four-part suite inspired by their sounds. Hazeltine and his quintet which includes the formidable vibraphonist Joe Locke and longtime collaborator tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander give alms with some well-conceived and executed modern mainstream jazz. The suite begins as a neo-bop cadence buoys a splattering of several Cedar-flavored motifs, two-note accents, and piano-bass unison lines for "Motivation." "Reverence" has Locke's vibes shimmering on a low and slow Latin-shaded piece, followed by another bright neo-bop melody, "Insight," and the finale is a 6/8 composition, "Gratitude," that could have easily fit into the repertoire of Walton and Bobby Hutcherson's Timeless All Stars book. 

Of the five stand-alone tracks, two are covers left until the end of the CD Walton's much lesser-known "Shoulders" is as straight-ahead as jazz gets, while Buddy Montgomery's "Personage of Wes" is a kinetic, uppity sizzler. A newly arranged complex and arresting intro is tacked onto the standard "I Should Care," and Hazeltine's original "Don't Walk Away" is treated in a Latin fashion, occasional percussionist Daniel Sadownick adding the spice, but again settles in the modern mainstream. Hazeltine has not put out the full-force blockbuster breakthrough recording his clear talent indicates, but this one ranks with his many best efforts. ~ Michael G.Nastos   http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-inspiration-suite-mw0000491879

Personnel: David Hazeltine (piano); Joe Locke (vibraphone, unknown instrument); John Webber (bass instrument); Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone); Joe Farnsworth (drums); Daniel Sadownick (percussion).

The Inspiration Suite

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Craig Bailey, Tim Armacost & Brooklyn Big Band - Live at Sweet Rhythm

Styles: Jazz
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:06
Size: 156,7 MB
Art: Front

( 9:10)  1. Long Haired Girl
( 9:59)  2. Brazilian Bop
(14:44)  3. Take the Coltrane
( 4:52)  4. East of Enid
( 8:27)  5. Animated
( 7:52)  6. Quiet Time
(10:14)  7. My Blues
( 2:46)  8. Announcement Funk

The 17-piece Brooklyn Big Band, formed in 2000, is heavy on saxophone players, starting with its leaders, Craig Bailey (alto and flute) and Tim Armacost (tenor and clarinet). As displayed on this debut recording, Bailey and Armacost’s conception is to explore contemporary possibilities for the big band, in part by reviewing the past. The unsigned liner notes say of the disc’s longest track, “Take the Coltrane,” “This performance encapsulates a lot of what the group is trying to achieve,” which might be summarized as trying to answer the musical question, “What would Duke Ellington and His Orchestra have sounded like if John Coltrane had been their saxophonist in the 1960s?” “Take the Coltrane” is generously credited to Ellington as composer (notwithstanding that “Take the ‘A’ Train” was written by Billy Strayhorn), and while there isn’t much Ellington in it, it does attempt to reinterpret mature Coltrane in a big-band context. 

But that’s really only one track in a quite varied set. Trombonist Jason Jackson’s “Brazilian Bop” brings in the inevitable Latin tinge prior to “Take the Coltrane,” in what is basically a history lesson that makes up the first section of the disc, following the bravura opener, “Long Haired Girl.” Bailey’s palate-cleansing “East of Enid” inaugurates a mellow midsection for the album, giving David Berkman a chance to make like a New Age pianist before he joins in with a delicate flute line. Armacost’s big moment is his unaccompanied solo late in the melodic “Animated,” after which Bailey makes the argument that his old boss Ray Charles represented a valid strain of big-band jazz in “Quiet Time” and “My Blues.” Whether or not that’s true, the Brooklyn Big Band fully delivers on its claim to be an evolution of the big-band sound here. ~ William Ruhlmann   http://jazztimes.com/articles/25812-live-at-sweet-rhythm-craig-bailey-tim-armacost-brooklyn-big-band

Live at Sweet Rhythm

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