Marlene VerPlanck - My Impetuous Heart

Size: 167,9 MB
Time: 71:50
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2000
Styles: Jazz Vocals, Cabaret
Art: Front

01. Fools Fall In Love (4:52)
02. Can't We Be Friends (4:56)
03. I'm Travelin' Light (2:53)
04. Call Me Irresponsible (2:58)
05. Soul Eyes (3:55)
06. I Can Hardly Wait (3:21)
07. All In Fun (4:32)
08. You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me (3:59)
09. The Day I Found You (4:27)
10. Dance With Me (3:39)
11. You Must Believe In Spring (4:50)
12. Fun To Be Fooled (3:56)
13. Willow Creek (5:13)
14. There's Never Been A Better Day (3:27)
15. How Little We Know (3:04)
16. We'll Be Together Again (5:12)
17. Love Won't Let You Get Away (3:03)
18. My Impetuous Heart (3:26)

She's come a long, long way from the time she set the jingle world on end by singing those three syllables, "mmm-mmm-good," and kicking off a commercial idolization of Campbells Soup. My Impetuous Heart, Marlene Ver Planck's 16th album and first for DRG, makes manifest that her voice is as light, lilting, clear, and entertaining as it ever was, maybe even more so. Her backing on this album, with the Hank Jones Trio taking the lion's share of accompanying duties, is as impeccable as the playlist, which blends standards with some compositions that aren't performed often.

There are guest appearances by George Shearing, Marian McPartland, and Bucky Pizzarelli on a couple of the cuts.

Ver Planck is blessed with an unsurpassed sense of timing and phrasing. Listen to her with Hank Jones on the "Friends" medley "Can't We Be Friends" and "Just Friends." Those small pauses between phrases has the listener waiting in anticipation for the next line. No matter what the style, Ver Planck handles it with aplomb. She's bouncy with "Call Me Irresponsible," where Jones gets some solo time, and she's soulful on "Fools Fall in Love." Ver Planck doesn't scat -- at least not very much -- but engages in sophisticated cooing and humming on "...Irresponsible" and on the introduction to Mal Waldron's "Soul Eyes." Pizzarelli's guitar does melodic but unobtrusive yeoman work in support as Ver Planck caresses haunting lyrics penned by the undervalued vocalist Bev Kelly. Excellent playing by Hank Jones' regular bass player, Gary Mazzaroppi, prevails as he weaves in and out with Ver Planck on "Travelin' Light." Ver Planck and Jones deliver "You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me" as a ballad. The slower pace permits greater appreciation of the lyrics, which often get glossed over by the breakneck speed in which this tune is usually performed. Ver Planck displays her poignant, melancholy side with a heartrending interpretation of "You Must Believe in Spring," and does so without being maudlin. George Shearing shows up to assist in the presentation of the cabaret favorite "All in Fun." Among the less familiar but listenable material is "Willow Creek"; Marian McPartland joins with Ver Planck on this wistful tune, which McPartland wrote with Loonis McGlohon. The inviting "Dance With Me Outside," introduced with some of that sophisticated cooing, is a cosmopolitan vocalist/trio rendering reminiscent of a small, cozy (and expensive) New York City Lounge. It's an intimate setting, with musicians delivering a slightly off-center tune.

Marlene Ver Planck is among those contemporary "veteran" performers who are in the upper tier of jazz pop singers, along with the likes of Carol Sloane and Sue Raney. Never dull, the performances here are filled with delightful surprises, and the amazingly facile Ver Planck possesses an extraordinary feel for her songs, a feel which she then passes on to the listener. ~Review by Dave Nathan

My Impetuous Heart

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Jim Oblon - Sunset

Size: 118,4 MB
Time: 50:37
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Blues, Rock, Jazz, Hammond Organ
Art: Front

01. Before I Grow Too Old (3:18)
02. Lucille (7:39)
03. Desert Sun (4:08)
04. With You On My Mind (5:37)
05. When I Was A Cowboy 1911 (5:05)
06. Blueberry Hill (4:18)
07. Wrapped Up In Your Love Again (6:35)
08. Sunset (5:11)
09. Railroad Bum (3:43)
10. Copperhead (4:58)

Out of the smoky bars and neon lights of East Nashville comes the swinging Telecaster blues of guitar-slinger Jim Oblon. His new album Sunset, recorded with the legendary session drummer Jim Keltner and renowned GRAMMY-winning pianist/organist Larry Goldings, has musical roots that go deep into blues, R&B and classic country on a variety of ballads, vintage rock and standards. Oblon, always a believer in the bigger musical picture, aims to expound upon musical legacy without becoming an impersonation. “Today there’s a ‘blues scene’ with Brylcreem and bowling shirts, all the gear, but it doesn’t have the essence of music. I wanted to honor the people who came before me. Maybe I can add a few of my own things, but I want to not lose what was.”

A classically trained multi-instrumentalist from New England, Jim Oblon is now a local icon as the Tuesday night host/performer at East Nashville’s Foobar rock club when he isn’t on the road with Paul Simon as his touring guitarist. He gained national attention playing bass, drums and guitar on Paul Simon’s excellent So Beautiful or So What and his 2011 single, a Jim Morrison-esque recording of the traditional song “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” which was used in the season finale of HBO’s hugely popular vampire drama True Blood.

“Unlike so many hot players onstage every Tuesday night in East Nashville, Jim Oblon understands restraint is as much the realm of passion as stinging notes that fall like shrapnel.” —Nashville Arts Magazine

Thanks to kamane.
Sunset

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Clare Teal - Get Happy

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:07
Size: 117,8 MB
Art: Front

(4:21)  1. All For Love
(2:41)  2. Get Happy
(4:33)  3. Love Hurts
(4:19)  4. Begin The Beguine
(3:29)  5. Cheek To Cheek
(2:57)  6. Get On It Sam
(4:32)  7. The Very Thought Of You
(3:04)  8. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
(4:59)  9. Moondance
(3:40) 10. Love For Sale
(3:35) 11. High Love
(3:42) 12. Time After Time
(3:11) 13. All The Things You Are

When Yorkshire-born singer Clare Teal first surfaced six years back, she sounded like an artist who could deliver a very safe jazz and classic-pop repertoire with a distinctive fizz that came from both technical sophistication and an unequivocal love of the material. Teal grew up fantasising she was Ginger Rogers whirling into the arms of Fred Astaire around the aisles of Keighley shopping centre when she was out with her mum - and that enduring devotion to swing, standards and lyrics about a rosily simplified life remains central to her appeal.

This set marks Teal's move to Universal's W14 imprint (Alison Moyet and Siouxsie Sioux are labelmates), and, of course, it's all tailor-made Michael Parkinson material. Teal's powerful jazz credentials are more to the fore on this album, however, notably in her light-stepping swing over a fast bass-walk on Cheek to Cheek, the Ella Fitzgerald scat-jam at the end, and the Cab Calloway hi-de-ho references in the finale of Moondance. Her clarity and controlled power allow her to make the much-travelled pop ballads Love Hurts and Breaking Up Is Hard to Do her own, but in replacing the sense of desolation in Love for Sale with a kind of plain-speaking resignation, she diminishes its meaning. Some may find many of the other lyrics too cheesy to be delivered without irony, and the Radio 2 vibe too pervasive. But, as always with Teal, she sounds as if she's loving every moment, and for many that will be infectious.~ John Fordham   http://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/feb/22/jazz.shopping1

Get Happy

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Eden Atwood - Turn Me Loose

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:59
Size: 126,5 MB
Art: Front

(4:01)  1. Home
(3:17)  2. Don't Fence Me In
(5:41)  3. I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
(3:21)  4. Ain't Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again
(4:15)  5. Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)
(5:30)  6. Pure Imaginattion
(4:20)  7. Ill Wind
(4:20)  8. True North (Bonus Track)
(4:14)  9. Girl Talk
(4:12) 10. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
(3:41) 11. The Best Is Yet To Come
(4:53) 12. I'll Close My Eyes
(3:09) 13. Lazy River

A fine interpreter of lyrics, Eden Atwood started off her jazz career with a series of excellent recordings for Concord. Raised in Montana, Atwood studied drama and musical theater at college but became interested in jazz, and at 19 she began singing locally. Although she worked as a model and an actress, Atwood has focused her attentions on singing; she made her debut in New York in 1992 and sings in a style somewhere between jazz and cabaret. She produced a high volume of material through the first half of the 90's, but stopped delivering regular material until she signed with Groove Note in the early 2000s.

~ Scott Yanow   http://www.allmusic.com/artist/eden-atwood-mn0000177681/biography

Turn Me Loose

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Eddie Daniels - Swing Low Sweet Clarinet

Styles: Clarinet Jazz, Big Band
Year: 2005
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:20
Size: 119,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:21)  1. Begine The Beguine
(3:58)  2. Stompin' At The Savoy
(5:35)  3. Stardust
(5:17)  4. Three In One
(6:36)  5. Quiet Now
(5:19)  6. Stride Rite
(4:44)  7. Waltz For Mirabai
(6:53)  8. Goodbye
(7:32)  9. Sing, Sing, Sing

Without going overseas to pad the list (Don Byron, Buddy DeFranco or Ken Peplowski may win some stateside polls and honors; Antti Sarpila and Putte Wickman won’t), one can count the number of outstanding contemporary Jazz clarinetists on the fingers of one hand. One of the best of them is Eddie Daniels, heir–apparent in the Goodman / DeFranco / Tony Scott dynasty of unvarnished swingers who pays earnest homage to the instrument’s heyday on Swing Low Sweet Clarinet, ably supported by Germany’s world class Frankfurt Radio (hr) Big Band. Daniels is no stranger to large ensembles, having spent half a dozen years as a sideman (mainly on tenor sax) in the Thad Jones–Mel Lewis Orchestra and recorded previously with the Jazz Arts Group of Columbus, OH, and even the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He’s right at home here too, deftly weaving his spellbinding phrases through and around the hr band’s tailor made arrangements (including two by Jazzmeister Peter Herbolzheimer). 

Daniels opens with a tune closely associated with clarinetist Artie Shaw, Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine,” and closes with a Goodman classic, Louis Prima’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” (performed in concert, with drummer Wolfgang Haffner depping admirably for Gene Krupa). Sandwiched between are studio versions of Goodman’s haunting theme song, “Goodbye,” and two more of the King of Swing’s memorable hits, “Stompin’ at the Savoy” and “Stardust,” along with former employer Thad Jones’ “Three in One,” Denny Zeitlin’s “Quiet Now,” and a pair of Daniels’ own compositions, the Swing Era style “Stride Rite” (which suggests at times the standard “This Is Always”) and the sunny “Waltz for Marabai.” If Daniels has an Achilles heel, it may be that he makes playing virtuosic clarinet seem so preposterously easy. Because of this, he sounds deceptively laid–back and is open to the charge (which has been made) that he is short on soul. To lay that accusation to rest, simply listen to “Sing, Sing, Sing.” Comparatively speaking, the other selections may sound almost nonchalant, but on the other hand you’ll seldom hear a clarinet played any better. Toss in the hr Big Band as a bonus and slap a “Grade A” label on this one. ~ Jack Bowers   

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=7828#.UzYSdIVSvro
 

Personnel: Eddie Daniels, clarinet, with the Frankfurt Radio (hr) Big Band, Kurt Bong, conductor; Harry Petersen, Heinz Dieter Sauerborn, alto sax; Wilson de Oliveira, Tony Lakatos, tenor sax; John Oslawski, baritone sax; Paul Lanzerath, Martin Auer, Alexandre Molempr

Swing Low Sweet Clarinet

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Chris Hopkins, Bernd Lhotzky - Partners in Crime

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:33
Size: 130,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:19)  1. Tonk
(3:42)  2. Imagination
(3:25)  3. Georgia Jubilee
(4:24)  4. Snowfall
(4:29)  5. I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'
(4:05)  6. Jingles
(4:41)  7. Someone to Watch Over Me
(4:10)  8. Salir a La Luz
(2:32)  9. Sneakaway
(5:42) 10. Five 4 Elise
(3:52) 11. Partners in Crime
(3:27) 12. Doin' the Voom Voom
(3:18) 13. Russian Lullaby
(2:47) 14. I Believe in Miracles
(2:32) 15. Apanhei-Te Cavaquinho

Don’t let the title upset you: there are no victims here.  And the mournful basset hounds are misleading: this isn’t morose music.  It is a two-piano recital by the sterling players Hopkins and Lhotzky.  And it’s almost an hour of absolutely gorgeous music.  What distinguishes this from other discs in the idiom is something rare and irreplaceable.  Taste. Chris and Bernd are not only astonishing technicians who can scamper all over the keyboard and make joyous noise.  But they are wise artists who know that a rich diet of auditory fireworks soon palls. (How many people, listening to a gifted player “show off” a stride pianist play at dazzling speed, a horn player careen around in the upper register have thought, “That’s really impressive.  Could you stop doing it now  we’re all convinced that you can!”  I know these radical thoughts have entered my mind more than once, and I suspect I am not alone.) Although they are harmonically sophisticated musicians, Bernd and Chris know that melody and variety are essential.  

”Sweet, soft, plenty rhythm,” said Mr. Morton, and he hasn’t been proven wrong. So this disc doesn’t wallop us with pyrotechnics there is a James P. piece, Jingles but it roams around happily in the land of Medium Tempo with delicacy and precision.  It isn’t Easy Listening or music to snooze by, but no crimes are committed against Beauty here.  What’s more, these players have understood how to plan a concert even when the imagined audience may be driving or doing the dishes so there is never too much of any one approach or style.  The disc begins with the Ellington-Strayhorn Tonk (which, once again reminds me of Gershwin in Paris and Raymond Scott in his studio), then moves to a lacy reading of Fud Livingston’s Imagination, Arthur Schutt’s Georgia Jubilee, Thornhill’s Snowfall, I Got Plenty O' Nuttin', the aforementioned Jingles (a masterpiece at a less-than-frenzied tempo but swinging hard), a lovely Hopkins solo rendition of Someone to Watch Over Me, Bernd’s Salir a La Luz (dedicated to Isabel Lhotzky, the Lion’s Sneakaway as a solo for Bernd, Bernd’s Five 4 Elise (whimsically based on Fur Elise), Chris’ Partners in Crime  , Doin’ the voom voom, russian  Lullaby, I believe in miracles (for Mr. Waller), and  Nazareth’s apanhei-te cavaquinho. 

Discerning readers will note the absence of Ain’t Misbehavin’ and other songs that have been played many times in the last ninety-plus years, but this disc isn’t devoted to the esoteric for its own sake.  Each of the songs has a strong melodic line: the listener never gets bored, for even the most familiar one here say, Someone to Watch Over Me is handled with great tenderness, elegance, and a spacious intelligence, as if the players already knew what cliches and formulaic turns of phrase were possible, and had discarded them in favor of a loving, deep simplicity.  Even their 5 / 4 version of FUR ELISE is delicately hilarious. And  as an added bonus  the disc is beautifully recorded in the old-fashioned way: two Steinway pianos and one pair of Sennheiser omni-directional microphones.  It’s music for the ears, the heart, and the mind and (without meaning any acrimony here) the disc is a quiet rebuke to pianists who pound their way through the same tired repertoire and record producers who make it sound artificial. It’s a beauty, and it celebrates Beauty.  http://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/an-elegant-recital-partners-in-crime-by-chris-hopkins-and-bernd-lhotzky/

Partners in Crime

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