Silky Denims: 03/21/14

Friday, March 21, 2014

Amanda Addleman - Aglow

Size: 64,2 MB
Time: 27:57
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2012
Styles: Jazz: Vocals
Art: Front

01. On The Sunny Side Of The Street (4:32)
02. Almost Gone (3:22)
03. My Heart Belongs To Daddy (3:35)
04. It Could Happen To You (3:15)
05. When The Lights Are Gone (4:06)
06. When Your Lover Has Gone (4:29)
07. Someday My Prince Will Come (4:34)

Amanda’s interest in voice and piano started at a very young age and in school she participated in anything and everything musical. By age 14 she was already locally performing in jazz combos, pit bands, and rock groups. By age 16 she had written, arranged and recorded her first demo record.

She received her bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA after four years of total immersion in jazz and vocal practice. She had the opportunity to study with some of the greatest educators in the world including Charlie Sorrento, Mili Bermejo, Maggi Scott, Greg Hopkins, Ken Cervenka and many more.

Upon completion of her degree, Amanda returned home to the Bay Area and began working as a singer, pianist, arranger, composer and educator. While Amanda's primary focus is jazz, her performances may include anything from her own renditions of contemporary popular songs, to a growing repertoire of original pieces.

Now, as an established artist in the San Francisco area, Amanda continues to expand her increasingly impressive list of venues. She maintained a residency at the city’s favorite Pied Piper Bar & Grill within the historic Palace Hotel as well as playing late night sets in local jazz spots like Savanna Jazz in the Mission District & the Sleeping Lady in Fairfax.

The Amanda Addleman Band is a collection of outstanding players from all over the country who combine beautiful melodies and fiery instrumental playing. The result is a program that is both entertaining and rich in musicalilty.

Aglow

Delbert Bump/Greg Yasinitsky Quartet - Round The Korner

Size: 170,9 MB
Time: 74:32
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Jazz: Hammond Organ
Art: Front

01. Fool Proof ( 5:48)
02. Lift Off ( 8:11)
03. Do You Have Two (11:02)
04. Sunsup ( 6:00)
05. Afternoon Of Dreams ( 6:50)
06. Field Of Vision ( 6:10)
07. November Sky ( 8:58)
08. Big Time ( 5:51)
09. Morning Samba ( 4:35)
10. Atomic Clock ( 5:09)
11. Samba De Leon ( 5:53)

That wonderful Hammond organ sound is at the heart of this tasty project featuring wonderful original compositions and great playing by Delbert Bump(organ), Greg Yasinitsky(sax), Doug Morton(trumpet) and Steve Homan(guitar).

Round The Korner

Raquel Silva Joly - Lembranças Do Brasil E Outras Histórias...

Size: 77,2 MB
Time: 33:33
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Bossa Nova
Art: Front

01. O Bebado E A Equilibrista (5:19)
02. Besame Mucho (3:06)
03. O Pato (2:38)
04. Sabia (2:43)
05. Que Reste T'il De Nos Amours (2:44)
06. Vera Cruz (4:10)
07. I Remember You (3:53)
08. Ladeira Da Preguiça (2:37)
09. Preciso Aprender A Ser So (6:18)

Raquel Silva Joly, guitarist and singer of bossa nova, shows precocious musical talent coming up from childhood to the study of classical guitar thanks to the gift of absolute ear. After graduating, she devoted herself to interpretative analysis of the works of Latin American authors of the end of '800 (Villa Lobos, Barrios, Ponce). She specialized in the harmonies and rhythms of the Brazilian popular music. An intense concert activity, performing throughout Italy - even during special cultural events - and abroad (Austria, France, Germany, America). The starting point of the artist is a research done on the most beautiful Brazilian songs, with particular reference to the work of Baden Powell, A. Carlos Jobim, Chico Buarque, Milton Nascimento, Edu Lobo, Ivan Lins. The landing point is to be a revisiting of these great songs in a different key, very personal - though not entirely free from the canons of traditional Brazilian music - particularly attentive to the nuances of harmonics in a constant attempt to merge with the expressive universe classic scholar, and contemporary jazz. Through her arrangements Raquel plays the notes and words of familiar brasilian songs passing by moments of pure energy to the most rarefied atmospheres, such as those typical circular and hypnotic sound of the berimbau...

Lembranças Do Brasil E Outras Historias...

Bill Jennings - Architect Of Soul Jazz: The Complete Early Recordings 1951-1957

Size: 180,6+160,0 MB
Time: 78:27+69:31
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Guitar Jazz, R&B, Jazz Blues
Art: Front & Back

CD 1:
01. Alexandria, Virginia (2:56)
02. You Came A Long Way From St. Louis (2:48)
03. Stompin' With Bill (2:45)
04. The Lonesome Traveller (3:06)
05. Piccadilly Circus (2:01)
06. There Will Never Be Another You (2:51)
07. What Will I Do (3:48)
08. Billy In The Lion's Den (2:52)
09. Fine And Dandy (2:28)
10. Just You, Just Me (2:46)
11. Down To Earth (2:18)
12. May I (2:53)
13. Get Hot (2:26)
14. Stuffy (2:57)
15. Solitude (2:49)
16. What's New (3:31)
17. They Can't Take That Away From Me (2:16)
18. Sweet & Lovely (3:26)
19. Blue Grass (3:56)
20. Soft Winds (2:57)
21. Sophisticated Lady (2:15)
22. Big Boy (2:13)
23. 633-Knock! (2:27)
24. Danny Boy (2:31)
25. Darn That Dream (2:39)
26. Alexandria, Virginia 2 (2:54)
27. Stomp (Stompin' With Bill) (2:41)
28. Stompin' With Bill (2:43)

CD 2:
01. Willow Weep For Me (2:47)
02. Day Train (2:33)
03. Glide On (2:38)
04. Three Little Words (2:37)
05. Have You Ever Had The Blues (2:32)
06. Better Ask Somebody (2:44)
07. Sea Breeze (2:30)
08. A Good 'un (2:25)
09. Easy Living (3:51)
10. Nature Boy (2:06)
11. Ja-Da (4:03)
12. Angel Eyes (3:20)
13. You Don't Know What Love Is (2:03)
14. It Ain't Necessarily So/Summertime (4:06)
15. Answer Me My Love (3:16)
16. What Is This Thing Called Love (2:40)
17. It's Easy To Remember (3:10)
18. One For My Baby (3:50)
19. You Go To My Head (2:53)
20. Mood Indigo (2:15)
21. Wishbone (2:37)
22. Blues In My Heart (2:36)
23. Roses Of Picardy (3:03)
24. Down Boy (2:44)

Architect Of Soul Jazz CD 1
Architect Of Soul Jazz CD 2

Anne Czichowsky Quintet - The Truth And The Abstract Blues

Size: 139,3 MB
Time: 60:38
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Jazz: Vocals
Art: Front

01. Bluesette (6:25)
02. Blue Portrait (6:01)
03. Everytime We Say Goodbye (6:30)
04. Now And Then (5:54)
05. But Not For Me (4:46)
06. Kitchen Talk (3:23)
07. Idle Moments (5:38)
08. S.O.S. (4:30)
09. In A Mellow Tone (5:21)
10. Blues In Green (5:49)
11. Soulmates (6:17)

Jazz singing (and not only singing) has changed considerably over the past decades. This proves the ability of jazz to integrate new trends, styles and techniques and combine them into something new as only few other genres can. At times, the reference to the roots is also lost or even ignored. However, artists appear on the scene time and again, who do the one without leaving out the other. The Anne Czichowsky Quintet is one of the contemporary masters of this discipline in Germany (and beyond). It celebrates the relaxed but driving sound, which is so particular to swing jazz. But then it already switches to an uptempo bebop only to meet again in a ballad, which deeply moves the listener: with a radiating voice, but also at times with a guitar solo that could fit perfectly in a rock song. Anne Czichowsky composes lyrics for instrumental pieces and solos again and again, as she already did on her previous album (released by Neuklang), among others, "Idle Moments" (Duke Pearson) and "Blues and the Abstract Blues" (Oliver Nelson). She scat sings with her variable and very accurate voice, which you almost would want to call an "instrumental". A simply beautiful and entertaining CD has resulted, a joy for aficionados of acoustic, modern jazz.

Anne Czichowsky (born1981 in Schaffhausen/CH) studied and lives in Graz (A) and Stuttgart. She soon made a name for herself thanks to international and national prizes and triggered an enthusiastic response to her concerts and first CDs. She is above all distinguished by her resistance to the "singer-songwriter scene," to which many in her age group are attracted, and takes her own path: always based on history, but then step by step forward with her own interpretations and developments. The fact that her voice appeals thanks to flexibility, depth, emotionalism and the cleanest intonation is the result of her fantastic talent and uninterrupted, disciplined learning. She passes on the latter in workshops and at two colleges in the meantime.

Thilo Wagner is a just perfect accompanist on piano. He has toured worldwide and accompanied musicians such as Art Farmer, Jim Hall, Clark Terry and Bob Mintzer. The fact that he is an honorary citizen of New Orleans says a lot about his recognition in the country of origin of jazz.

AThe guitarist Martin Wiedmann also perfected his playing alongside renowned musicians such as Mike Stern, Pat Metheny and Emily Remler and has just an impressive list of performances to show, among others with Bobby Shew, Claudio Roditi and Jiggs Whigham.

To call Axel Kühn on bass a sideman would be very inappropriate. The bandleader (Kühntett/Double Moon Records and Axel Kühn Trio/Double Moon Records/fall 2014) again proves here the independent voice he is capable of in every group.

Drummer Matthias Daneck received his music training in Switzerland (Swiss Jazz School Bern) and the USA (Manhattan School of Music); his teachers were Kenny Washington and John Riley, among others. He has already accompanied many big names in jazz, recorded numerous CDs and also heads his own band (N.O.W.)

"Anne sings like a whole band … she sings like Eric Dolphy plays, like lark over a cornfield in the summer" (Jazzpodium, A. Schmidt). "We are going to hear a lot from this voice in the future – hopefully" (Swiss Radio DRS 2).

The Truth And The Abstract Blues

Marlene Arden & Phil Conti - 'S Wonderful

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:56
Size: 108,2 MB
Art: Front

(2:27) 1. Undecided
(5:14) 2. Rio de Janeiro Blue
(4:17) 3. Lovin' You More & More
(2:47) 4. Night & Day
(4:22) 5. Fever
(3:57) 6. Down in Brazil
(4:58) 7. Moondance
(4:19) 8. Ronnie's Samba
(4:19) 9. I Miss You So
(3:16) 10. 'S Wonderful
(3:43) 11. Why Don't You Do Right?
(3:11) 12. Hold On I'm Coming

Contemporary Jazz Vocalist Marlene Arden and Pianist Phil Conti perform in Five-Star hotels and onboard luxury cruise ships Worldwide. Their vast repertoire encompasses Classic Jazz & Blues Standards, The Great American Songbook, Contemporary/ Smooth Jazz, Brazilian/Latin, and an array of Contemporary selections. Marlene Arden & Phil Conti are more than just fine musicians performing on stage. They engage the audience with their warm personalities and enthusiasm for their music. They draw from each other’s talents to create their own distinctive style. Marlene Arden is a lifelong musician. The daughter of trumpet player and Big Band leader Ben Arden and virtuoso violinist Sylvia Arden. Marlene was literally “born on the road,” she spent her childhood under the influence and company of family friends such as Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, and many more. Marlene became the first Jazz and Contemporary Singer to earn a Degree in Voice from The American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Her smooth and smoky voice transports the listener into the very heart of the song. An artist of truly International appeal whose repertoire of songs are sung in English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Spanish and Italian. Phil Conti is a world class pianist and composer who started playing classical piano at the age of five. As a teenager, he expanded his playing to Jazz, Pop and R&B. Phil Conti was performing in the Los Angeles area professionally from the age of fifteen with his own trio, as well as touring with various bands throughout the United States and Canada. His travels led him to Las Vegas where he played extensively in Hotels and Casinos. Since then Phil has been performing on Five-Star cruise ships for the last twenty plus years.

Marlene Arden and pianist Phil Conti found perfect harmony when they performed together as “The Marlene Arden Trio” in The Downbeat Jazz Lounge onboard The Carnival Destiny. After nearly a decade, they reunited to form “Marlene Arden & Phil Conti.” They were the featured Guest Entertainers aboard Japan Cruise Line’s, The Pacific Venus sailing from Australia, The South Pacific, and Japan. The Marlene Arden Quartet received excellent reviews from their performances onboard The Celebrity Solstice, The Grand Princess, and more. Their career path to date has been broad-based including long-term engagements worldwide in Five-Star hotels: The Ritz Carlton Chicago; Four Seasons Hotel Newport Beach, California; The Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel, California; Westin Bonaventure Los Angeles, California; Four Seasons Hotel, Calgary, Canada; Westin Banyan Tree, Bangkok, Thailand; Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta, Indonesia; Sheraton Imperial Hotel (ITT Sheraton Luxury Collection), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Las Vegas Hilton and The Flamingo Hotel Las Vegas. Luxury Cruise Ship long-term engagements include: Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Japan Cruise Line, Crystal Cruise Line, Holland America, Disney Cruise Line, NCL, and Carnival Cruise Lines. Marlene Arden & Phil Conti’s latest CD, entitled ”‘S Wonderful” is an eclectic mix of Jazz and Contemporary Jazz. Selections include Cole Porter’s “Night & Day”; Gershwin's “‘S Wonderful”; Van Morrison’s “Moondance”; Michael Franks’s “Down in Brazil”; Sassy Bluesy songs, “Fever” and “Why Don’t You Do Right”...to Contemporary Jazz selections, “Rio de Janeiro Blue”, Ronnie’s Samba, and more.... http://www.marlenearden.com/performer/marlene-phil.html

Personnel: Marlene Arden: Vocals; Phil Conti: Keyboards & Bass; Steve Yates: Drums & Percussion; James Hurley: Acoustic Guitar ("Down in Brazil" Track 6)

'S Wonderful

Helen Merrill - Helen Merrill Sings Rodgers & Hammerstein

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1988
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 34:22
Size: 79,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:20) 1. It Might As Well Be Spring
(4:59) 2. Hello Young Lovers
(4:00) 3. I Have Dreamed
(2:51) 4. People Will Say We're In Love
(3:13) 5. Getting To Know You
(3:09) 6. My Lord And Master
(3:34) 7. If I Loved You
(2:55) 8. My Favourite Things
(4:18) 9. The Sound Of Music

The songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein, with some notable exceptions, have not attracted jazz interpretations to the extent that the songs of Rodgers & Hart have. Helen Merrill, that oxymoron a "jazz singer," here puts her stamp on nine Rodgers & Hammerstein standards, creating an album that is a triumph of the performer's art over the material. For the most part, Merrill, accompanied by a chamber group consisting of a piano, four strings, a horn, a harp, an occasional vibraphone, bass, and drums, imposes her introspective ballad style even on songs that, from the lyrics and their original arrangements, might seem to suggest a more vibrant treatment. In particular, "People Will Say We're in Love" and especially "Getting to Know You" tend to be thought of as lighter songs than Merrill chooses to make them. With her funereal tempos and considered, word-by-word interpretations, she suggests that having people say you're in love could be fatal, and what interests her in "Getting to Know You" is the fear the lyrics describe.

Not surprisingly, "It Might as Well Be Spring" is more mournful than yearning, and "Hello Young Lovers" concentrates on the aging narrator. The only song on which Merrill's becalmed approach sounds exactly right is "My Lord and Master," even if she drains it of anger, leaving only pain. After all these slow, disembodied performances, however, "My Favorite Things" is given an uptempo treatment, while the singer's vocals seem to have been strangely compressed. But then it's back to the furrowed brow for a joyless reading of "The Sound of Music." Of course, Merrill has sung this music before, and not always this way. (Recall the lively "People Will Say We're in Love" from 1956's Dream of You LP.) In her fifties, she seems to be deliberately trying to reinterpret Rodgers & Hammerstein for a troubled, complicated age. Anyone familiar with these songs (and who isn't?) will be forced to think about them again after hearing this album. Richard Rodgers, who died two years before it was made, would have disliked it, as he did all jazz versions of his work, although he probably would have approved of the slow tempos. ~ William Ruhlmann http://www.allmusic.com/album/helen-merrill-sings-rodgers-hammerstein-mw0000269928

Helen Merrill Sings Rodgers & Hammerstein

Quincy Jones - Q: Soul Bossa Nostra

Styles: R&B
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:34
Size: 150,7 MB
Art: Front + Back

(3:55) 1. Ironside
(3:53) 2. Strawberry Letter 23
(4:08) 3. Soul Bossa Nostra
(3:45) 4. Give Me The Night
(4:31) 5. Tomorrow
(5:00) 6. You Put A Move On My Heart
(3:11) 7. Get The Funk Out Of My Face
(5:53) 8. Secret Garden
(7:05) 9. Betcha Wouldn't Hurt Me
(5:24) 10. Everything Must Change
(4:57) 11. Many Rains Ago (Oluwa)
(4:05) 12. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
(2:36) 13. It's My Party
(2:56) 14. Hikky-Burr
(4:08) 15. Sanford and Son

Other than a handful of one-offs, producer, composer, and arranger Quincy Jones has been busy outside of the music world, acting as a film producer and a cultural ambassador. Q: Soul Bossa Nostra is his first proper "new" album in 15 years, though it revisits tracks he either composed, recorded, or produced previously with a host of the current era's most popular artists from the R&B, pop, and hip-hop worlds. Given his rep, the star power here is not surprising, but re-recording classic songs with new singers or in some cases adding vocals to a track that never had them at all is risky. Soul Boss Nostra feels like a tribute exercise assembled more for radio play and to attract the holiday and single-track download markets than a creative one. One need only go to the remake of Shuggie Otis' classic "Strawberry Letter 23," which Jones produced for the Brothers Johnson in 1977. The vocal and production by Akon employ shimmering, slippery hip-hop rhythms, Auto-Tune, and layers of programmed keyboards and backing vocals, without the tune's signature bassline! It's thin and hollow. The oft-sampled hit "Soul Bossa Nova" appears here as a collaboration between Naturally 7 and Ludacris (who has sampled it himself).

Jones' new arrangement is streamlined; it lacks the dynamic punch and humor of the hit. Q composed "Ironside" for the '70s television series; he uses the original orchestral and vocal tracks with a rap by Talib Kweli on top. It's better, but still feels disconnected. Why Jones re-arranged and re-corded "Tomorrow" with John Legend is a mystery; this version is void of the warmth of Tevin Campbell's from 1990. Campbell is here on a remake of Al B. Sure/Barry White track "Secret Garden" that keeps White's original vocal, and adds Campbell's with Robin Thicke, LL Cool J, Usher, and Tyrese. It is utter lacking in finesse or emotion. "Get the Funk Out of My Face," with Snoop Dogg, at least retains the Brothers Johnson feel; his rap almost works. "P.Y.T." is remade here by T-Pain and Thicke with so much Auto-Tune, it sounds like a cartoon soundtrack. Amy Winehouse's remake of "It's My Party" (which Jones produced for Lesley Gore in 1962), is tepid. Bebe Winans' reading of "Everything Must Change" is easily the set's classiest, most soulful track; it stands out beautifully from the dross. Given Jones' legendary stature and reputation for taste, this set feels unnecessary at best, and downright cynical at worst. ~ Thom Jurek

http://www.allmusic.com/album/q-soul-bossa-nostra-mw0001989335

Q: Soul Bossa Nostra

Kenny Werner & Jens Sondergaard - Play Ballads: A Time for Love

Styles: Piano and Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:10
Size: 124,2 MB
Art: Front + Back

(7:09) 1. But Beautiful
(6:13) 2. 'Round Midnight
(7:42) 3. A Time for Love
(6:51) 4. Lover Man
(7:15) 5. Over the Rainbow
(7:04) 6. Willow Weep for Me
(4:50) 7. Darn That Dream
(7:03) 8. Everything Happens to Me

After many years of knowing each other, Danish saxophonist Jens Søndergaard and pianist Kenny Werner decided that it was the right time to translate years of friendship into music. The result is the enchanting A Time For Love, which digs deep into a program of classic ballads. Songs like Jimmy Van Heusen's "But Beautiful" and Ann Ronell's "Willow Weep For Me" have entered the general consciousness, and the challenge to every ballad player is to make them speak with new relevance; the drama of the songs has to be rediscovered. To Werner and Søndergaard, the solution is simple: they play from the heart. Werner lays a carpet of pretty notes as background for Søndergaard's singing saxophone, and together they understand how tell a story and make every note count.

Art Pepper's inspiration looms large, especially the beautiful duo albums the late saxophonist recorded with pianist George Cables Goin' Home (Galaxy/OJC, 1982) and Tete À Tete (Galaxy/OJC, 1983). Like that famous duo, Werner and Søndergaard speak to each other and create a magic conversation where songs like "Over The Rainbow" (a signature Pepper piece) is played with empathic elegance. Elsewhere, Werner's introduction to Johnny Mandel's "A Time For Love" reveals Bill Evans' inspiration for his ballad "Peace Piece." The late pianist's impressionistic sensitivity closely resembles Mandel's song as it is played in Werner's interpretation. Throughout, Søndergaard and Werner manage to keep the impromptu magic of the session. They play like they have known these songs for years and have just been waiting for this particular moment to express all the things there are to say in them. Timing is everything, and the album shows why it certainly was time for Søndergaard and Werner to get together, and lovers of good music can only be grateful that they did. ~ Jakob Baekgaard http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=35084#.UyN634U7aQM

Personnel: Kenny Werner: grand piano; Jens Søndergaard: alto saxophone.

Play Ballads: A Time for Love