Keith Ingham - Rockin' In Rhythm

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 64:30
Size: 147.7 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[4:00] 1. Days Of Wine And Roses
[4:22] 2. Oh, Lady Be Good
[4:20] 3. Buttercup
[4:23] 4. Just A Mood
[3:14] 5. Delaunay's Dilemma
[5:35] 6. Lonely Town
[5:12] 7. Holy Land
[4:52] 8. I Surrender Dear
[4:50] 9. Devil's Island
[3:36] 10. Try A Little Tenderness
[4:56] 11. Rockin' In Rhythm
[3:41] 12. Little Man, You've Had A Busy Day
[6:07] 13. Canadian Sunset
[5:16] 14. Voce Abusou

The listener is struck by the high quality tunes Keith Ingham has chosen for his Arbors trio session, "Rockin' in Rhythm". From show tunes by the likes of Mercer, Gershwin and Bernstein, to out and out jazz tunes by Walton, Ellington, Shorter, Shearing and Lewis, to the melancholy closing theme by Jobim, Ingham has fashioned a varied and satisfying session.

The pianist himself embraces the world of both swing and bop, but nothing here sounds forced or rushed, or too slow for that matter. Keith Ingham matches his abundant technique with equally abundant taste, and sounds totally in control, expressing his musical thoughts with warmth, personality and swing. Ingham's trio is completed by Frank Tate on bass and Steve Little on drums, and they back up the pianist with finesse and groove at every tempo. For an idea of what this whole CD is like, sample "Days of Wine and Roses", "Delaunay's Dilemma", and "Try a Little Tenderness."

Keith Ingham's "Rockin' in Rhythm" reinforces the musical virtues and the listening pleasures of the piano trio format. Excellent and highly recommended. ~John Tapscott/amazon

Recording information: Nola Studios, NYC (10/08/2010).

Rockin' In Rhythm

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Jodi Stevens - Girl Talk

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 49:59
Size: 114.4 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2002
Art: Front

[5:12] 1. Girl Talk
[6:26] 2. It Never Entered My Mind
[4:13] 3. Lover Come Back To Me
[4:35] 4. Blue Gardenia
[4:40] 5. Foolin’ Myself
[4:26] 6. Angel Eyes
[3:18] 7. I’m A Woman
[4:48] 8. He Was Too Good To Me
[3:14] 9. Come On-A My House
[4:37] 10. You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To
[3:26] 11. More Than You Know
[0:57] 12. Girl Talk

Jodi Stevens has a warm voice, a straightforward delivery, and a swinging style, although she does not improvise that much. For this set she is joined by an excellent jazz quintet that includes pianist Ted Rosenthal, the colorful trumpeter Lew Soloff, and Andy Parsons on tenor. Although the repertoire consists of standards, there are some offbeat choices, including "Blue Gardenia," "I'm a Woman," "He Was Too Good to Me," and the novelty "Come on a My House"; the latter did not really need to be revived! Throughout this well-paced program, Stevens sounds confident and does a fine job with the diverse material. Worth checking out. ~Scott Yanow

Girl Talk

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Chris Montez - The Standards And More

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 49:23
Size: 113.1 MB
Styles: Pop, Easy Listening
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[2:38] 1. The More I See You
[2:33] 2. Call Me
[2:14] 3. Day By Day
[1:43] 4. Fly Me To The Moon
[2:06] 5. One Note Samba
[2:17] 6. Time After Time
[2:34] 7. Going Out Of My Head
[2:41] 8. Sunny
[2:29] 9. Yesterday
[2:46] 10. Our Day Will Come
[2:16] 11. Foolin Around
[2:23] 12. Because Of You
[2:40] 13. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
[2:59] 14. Once I Loved (O Amor Em Paz)
[2:36] 15. Girl Talk
[2:50] 16. Where Are You Now
[2:06] 17. The Face I Love
[2:38] 18. Nothing To Hide
[2:18] 19. I Will Wait For You
[2:26] 20. Love Is Here To Stay

Chris Montez (born January 17, 1943) is a Mexican-American singer. Initially known as a rock n roll artist, Montez became one of the most important chicano rockers following the tragic passing of Ritchie Valens, his mentor. Montez had a #4 hit in the US with the 1962 single “Let’s Dance”. Later, he was reinvented as a middle of the road easy listening singer, boasting a slew of Hot 100/Adult Contemporary crossover hits, predominantly renditions of jazz standards such as “The More I See You”, “There Will Never Be Another You”, and “Time After Time”.

Born Ezekiel Christopher Montanez in Los Angeles, California, Montez was brought up in Hawthorne, California. His early musical influences included the latino music played and performed by residents of his neighborhood, as well as Ritchie Valens. After the release of the highly successful “Let’s Dance” on Monogram Records, Montez spent several years touring with artists such as Sam Cooke, The Platters, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, as well as The Beatles, then relatively unknown outside of Liverpool.

The Standards And More

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Sue Tucker - May I Come In

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:21
Size: 89,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:58)  1. The Best Thing for You
(4:12)  2. If You Don't See It Too
(5:12)  3. May I Come In
(3:54)  4. It Could Happen to You
(2:32)  5. Like Someone in Love
(2:50)  6. I'm Gonna Laugh You Right out of My Life
(2:39)  7. You Turned the Tables on Me
(2:48)  8. Long Ago (And Far Away)
(2:46)  9. Any 'Ol Thing That You Like
(3:10) 10. I'll Remember April
(4:15) 11. The Gentleman Is A Dope

Good things come in small packages! With May I Come In, Minnesota jazz singer Sue Tucker provides nine standards and two original compositions with a first class group of musicians. She harkens back to an era when girl singers, like Chris Connor or June Christy, just sang without gimmicks or artifice, melisma or multi-tracking. Also, there are no show-stopping vocal techniques or three octave range'and if you're looking for improvisational vocalese or scatting techniques, they're not here. What makes this album work is that Sue Tucker knows how to swing these tunes. Tucker comes from a musical family. Her father, Jack Oatts, was one of Iowa's first jazz educators; her brothers are trumpeter Jim Oatts and the much recorded reedman Dick Oatts. The singer also has woodwind training and experience. 

The presence of such A-List personnel as Dick Oatts, Ted Rosenthal, Joe Magnarelli and John Mosca also enhance the album. The session begins smartly with Irving Berlin's "The Best Thing For You," with a tasty Mosca trombone solo, and continues with Tucker's own ballad "If You Don't See It Too," with Oatts taking a lyrical alto spot. The title tune, a rather obscure Fisher-Segal ballad, is followed by a number of brightly arranged visits with the Great American Songbook. The torch song "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life" is taken at an usually bright tempo but it seems to work. Her two compositions mesh perfectly with the other tunes. An earlier recording, Meant to Be , from 2000, was also self-produced and likely difficut to find. ~ Michael P.Gladstone   http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=13830#.U0iSIVdSvro
 

Personnel: Sue Tucker,vocals; Dick Oatts, woodwinds; John Mosca, trombone; Joe Magnarelli, trumpet; Ted Rosenthal, piano; Kent Saunders,bass; Andy Watson, drums; Marc Anderson, percussion.

May I Come In

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Anita Wardell - Straight Ahead

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1999
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:41
Size: 120,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:03)  1. It could happen to you
(5:53)  2. Young and Foolish
(4:48)  3. Polkadots and Moonbeams
(4:21)  4. Jackie
(4:18)  5. The thrill is gone
(5:46)  6. Humpty Dumpty Heart
(4:54)  7. I've got just about everythin
(5:12)  8. But not for me
(5:47)  9. We kiss in a shadow
(5:02) 10. Memories of you
(3:34) 11. East of the Sun

Great Britain has long been a fertile ground for singers and an awesome lot they are. Among the better known are Norma Winstone (the grande dame of English jazz singers), Carol Kidd, expatriate American Stacey Kent, Clair Martin and Jan Ponsford. Susannah McCorkle's career also blossomed there. Now we have Australian born Anita Wardell cutting her first album in England for the British record company, 33Jazz. I wish I could report that Ms Wardell belongs in this select group. But based on this recording, she is not quite there yet. The major problem is that she tends to get a bit shrill with the high notes as on "Young and Foolish". But this small problem should not be difficult to correct. Ms Wardell has a great sense of tempo and good diction which she employs with vigor to a play list of mostly standards along with some songs one doesn't hear too often these days. Ergo, we have "Humpty Dumpty Heart" made famous by Ray Eberle and the Glenn Miller Orchestra with their 1941 recording. Then there's the Frank Sinatra/Tommy Dorsey 1940 hit, "Polka Dots and Moonbeams". 

The wonderful Claude Thornhill Orchestra made a fine recording of this Jimmy Van Heusen/Jimmy Burke tune. "Jackie" by Hampton Hawes and to which Annie Ross added lyrics and like Ms Ross, Wardell does it vocalese style and quite well. Wardell also engages in some serious scatting on this tune. The remaining tunes are offered in a variety of styles mostly to a medium to up tempo beat. "The Thrill Is Gone" is the designated "let's do something with a Latin beat" tune. Ms Wardell's somewhat coy little girl voice goes nicely with such tunes as "We Kiss in a Shadow" and "It Could Happen to You". But it's her interpretation of "But Not for Me" where Ms Wardell's potential as a top flight vocalist becomes apparent. Kicking off with an interplay between Wardell, bass and drums with the piano coming in after the first chorus along with the introduction of some intelligent, well-placed scatting, this tune is the highlight of the album. While Ms Wardell possesses all the tools to become a good singer, she is still a work in progress. She's getting there, but has not reached the point where her performances are consistently at a high level. ~ Dave Nathan   

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=6048#.U0dBoFdSvro

Personnel: Anita Wardell - Vocal; Jason Rebello - Piano; Arnie Somogyi - Bass; Marc Meader-Drums

Straight Ahead

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Carlene Carter - Carter Girl

Styles: Country
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:14
Size: 106,4 MB
Art: Front

(2:49)  1. Little Black Train
(3:28)  2. Give Me The Roses
(4:31)  3. Me And The Wildwood Rose
(4:23)  4. Blackie’s Gunman
(4:47)  5. I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight
(2:41)  6. Poor Old Heartsick Me
(5:18)  7. Troublesome Waters
(5:28)  8. Lonesome Valley 2003
(3:55)  9. Tall Lover Man
(3:17) 10. Gold Watch And Chain
(2:49) 11. Black Jack David
(2:44) 12. I Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow

A great legacy can be a blessing and a curse, and when your mother is June Carter and your stepdad is Johnny Cash, you're going to have a lot to live up to in the minds of most folks. Carlene Carter has built a pretty remarkable career for herself as a vocalist, and after a dark period she made an impressive comeback with 2008's Stronger. But it's rare when a critic or biographer doesn't mention Carter's place in one of country music's founding families, and on 2014's Carter Girl, she embraces their vital role in country music's history while also putting her own stamp on their body of work. Ten of the 12 songs on Carter Girl were written by members of the Carter Family, the trio that wrote and recorded some of country's defining music in the '20s and '30s, while one of the remaining selections, touching on the death of Johnny and June, was adapted by Carlene Carter and Al Anderson from an old Carter Family classic ("Lonesome Valley"), and the other is a poignant tale of her grandparents' scuffling days before they rose to stardom ("Me and the Wildwood Rose"). When Carlene Carter sings about her family, one can hear the love and respect in her voice, as she seems to be in awe of them as much as any of us, and the two originals are deeply moving, but her interpretations of the Carter Family's songbook are also heartfelt and impressive. 

There's as much rock and blues as country in her takes on "Little Black Train," "Blackie's Gunman," and "Blackjack David," but Carter approaches these songs as something fresh and vital, and she fills them with her own fearless spirit, and when she takes a more traditional route on "Give Me the Roses" and "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight," she sounds strong yet compassionate, melding her strength with the sorrowful tone of the lyrics. And producer Don Was has brought out the best in Carter, matching her up with a top-notch band (including Greg Leisz on steel and electric guitar and Jim Keltner on drums) and bringing in Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, and Kris Kristofferson for memorable vocal cameos. On Carter Girl, Carlene Carter has confronted the mighty legacy of the Carter Family's songbook and allowed it to strengthen her music rather than buckling under its weight, and this ranks with her finest recorded work to date. ~ Mark Deming   

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=9135439&style=music&fulldesc=T

Carter Girl

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