Paul Desmond - Take Ten

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 55:30
Size: 127.1 MB
Styles: Saxophone jazz
Year: 1963/1999
Art: Front

[3:09] 1. Take Ten
[5:36] 2. El Prince [alternate Take]
[3:23] 3. El Prince
[6:52] 4. Alone Together
[4:55] 5. Embarcadero [alternate Take]
[4:00] 6. Embarcadero
[4:11] 7. Theme From Black Orpheus
[7:18] 8. The Night Has A Thousand Eyes [alternate take]
[6:04] 9. Nancy
[4:20] 10. Samba De Orfeu
[5:36] 11. The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else)

Alto saxophonist Paul Desmond has been considered one of the avatars of the cool school of jazz. One of the few saxophonists of his generation to not be overly influenced by Charlie Parker, Desmond favored a sound that was somewhat mellow, suave, smooth and dry--so much so that critics and fans would liken his style to "a very dry martini." These appellations certainly weren't meant to imply that there's no emotion or swing in his playing, only that the focus is away from forced emotionalism.

TAKE TEN was recorded in 1963, with a small crew of sympatico musicians, including one of the finest mainstream jazz guitarists ever, Jim Hall. Hall and Modern Jazz Quartet drummer Connie Kay are the closest thing to "counterparts" on their instruments to the Desmond approach: tight, economical, tasteful. Everyone compliments each other perfectly. The program mixes originals, standards ("Alone Together") and several bossa nova pieces ("Samba De Orpheau," "Theme From Black Orpheus"). Desmond makes each piece his own. Nicely recorded, this album is recommended for both fans and newcomers.

Recorded at Webster Hall, New York, New York between June 5 & 25, 1963.

Paul Desmond (alto saxophone); Jim Hall (guitar); Gene Cherico, Gene Wright (bass); Connie Kay (drums).

Take Ten

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Anita O'Day - Careless Love

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 77:19
Size: 177.0 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[3:51] 1. I Can't Get Started
[2:52] 2. I Fall in Love Too Easily
[3:39] 3. You Turned the Tables On Me
[3:56] 4. I've Got the World On a String
[3:35] 5. We'll Be Together Again
[4:05] 6. Time After Time
[2:25] 7. No Moon At All
[3:42] 8. I Cover the Waterfront
[3:23] 9. Anita's Blues
[3:53] 10. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
[2:20] 11. Taking a Chance On Love
[3:14] 12. All Too Soon
[2:53] 13. You Don't Know What Love Is
[3:36] 14. As Long As I Live
[3:23] 15. Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year
[4:29] 16. My Ship
[2:23] 17. Let's Fall in Love
[2:42] 18. You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me
[3:18] 19. Tenderly
[3:58] 20. A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
[3:12] 21. Who Cares
[2:32] 22. I'm Not Supposed to Be Blue
[3:48] 23. Fly Me to the Moon

Few female singers matched the hard-swinging and equally hard-living Anita O'Day for sheer exuberance and talent in all areas of jazz vocals. Though three or four outshone her in pure quality of voice, her splendid improvising, wide dynamic tone, and innate sense of rhythm made her the most enjoyable singer of the age. O'Day's first appearances in a big band shattered the traditional image of a demure female vocalist by swinging just as hard as the other musicians on the bandstand, best heard on her vocal trading with Roy Eldridge on the Gene Krupa recording "Let Me Off Uptown." After making her solo debut in the mid-'40s, she incorporated bop modernism into her vocals and recorded over a dozen of the best vocal LPs of the era for Verve during the 1950s and '60s. Though hampered during her peak period by heavy drinking and later, drug addiction, she made a comeback and continued singing into the new millennium. ~John Bush

Careless Love

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Pamela Rose - Wild Women Of Song: Great Gal Composers of the Jazz Era

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:38
Size: 145,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:10)  1. I Don't Know Enough About You
(5:09)  2. That Ole Devil Called Love
(5:55)  3. Down Hearted Blues
(5:02)  4. I'm Not Missing You
(4:46)  5. What A Difference A Day Makes
(4:09)  6. Wild Women (Don't Have The Blues)
(4:58)  7. Bruised Around the Heart
(4:25)  8. And Then Some
(3:31)  9. A Fine Romance
(4:30) 10. My Silent Love
(5:01) 11. I'm In the Mood For Love
(3:36) 12. Can't We Be Friends
(5:03) 13. Close Your Eyes
(4:17) 14. If You're So Special

Pamela Rose would make one helluva politician. She's already a firmly established jazz and blues vocalist bearing a slight physical and musical resemblance to Bette Midler. And like Midler, Rose infuses her live and recorded performances with non-stop energy. The political reference involves her fifth release, sub-titled "Great Gal Composers of the Jazz Era." She is not only paying lip service to the likes of Peggy Lee and the lesser-known Dorothy Fields, but the seldom-heard-of Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, and (thanks to Lee Hildebrand's encyclopedic notes) Bernice Petkere, once known as "the queen of Tin Pan Alley," who wrote "Close Your Eyes;" "The Girl Gershwin," Dana Suesse, who wrote "My Silent Love;" and one who actually worked with Gershwin, Kay Swift, who wrote "Can't We Be Friends." Pam has become a swinging lobbyist, and we're the beneficiaries. No attempt here to channel anyone; Pamela Rose simply honors them with her own approach to all 15 tracks. 

Pianist Tammy Hall provides a 1920s environment for Rose on "Down-Hearted Blues. Mat Catingub comes up with an R & B big band sound for the title track; and he is literally beside himself for "I Get The Blues When It Rains," playing keyboards, saxes, and dubbing a number of voices (himself and Gayle Wilhelm), for a hip vocal cushion behind, and with, Rose. Don't think the accent is on blues. Rose pulls out all the stops for this session: scatting with Hammond B-3 organist Wayne De La Cruz on "I'm In The Mood For Love;" alternating between Latin and straightahead jazz with De La Cruz on "Close Your Eyes;" tenorist Joe Cohen helps Pamela get down and dirty on "If You're So Special," one of three originals by Rose. As infectious as her raucous numbers are, her most memorable singing is devoted to ballads such as "What A Difference A Day Made," "Can't We Be Friends," "And Then Some," and particularly "My Silent Love." The latter is heightened by the sensitive backing of guitarist Mimi Fox. It all adds up to nearly 69 minutes of well-balanced entertainment mixed with heartfelt, female-centric jazz anthropology. ~ Harvey Siders   

http://jazztimes.com/articles/25543-wild-women-of-song-pamela-rose

Wild Women Of Song: Great Gal Composers of the Jazz Era

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Hal Galper Trio - Airegin Revisited

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:09
Size: 156,4 MB
Art: Front

(11:23)  1. Embraceable You
( 6:09)  2. Ascendant
( 7:28)  3. One Step Closer
( 9:27)  4. Ambleside
( 8:44)  5. Melancholia
(10:57)  6. Conception
(13:59)  7. Airegin

Hal Galper's Airegin Revisited is exhilarating. The pianist has been working at his artistry for more than a half century, and he is moving surely into the "elder statesman of jazz" category, riding the furious wave of several distinctive and idiosyncratic trio recordings. Galper, like alto saxophonist Lee Konitz and pianist Martial Solal, has gone deeper into the music than seems possible, taking a great many standards and unleashing them, reshaping the familiar tunes with his unwavering vision into a new art. Galper has, in recent years, found a new home at Origin Records, offering a discography Furious Rubato (2007), Art-Work (2009) E Pluribus Unum (2010) and Trip the Light Fantastic (2011) that gets better and more compelling, with each subsequent release. He has also found two likeminded musical brothers in bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop, versatile and sophisticated players who can keep up with his rubato concept, one of playing loose and free with tempo and harmony even structure twisting the familiar forms like a rubber band, then pulling them back and letting them fly free. 

Opening with an eleven minute-plus take on George Gershwin's "Embraceable You," the trio shifts shapes and colors, playing with the melody in a joyous exploration that slips, near the end, into a brief straight reading. The floating "One Step Closer," a Galper original inspired by Brazilian harmony, finds Johnson and Bishop laying down a subtle and graceful rhythm, with the pianist going into a sparkling Erroll Garner groove in his solo. Galper did what he calls his "post-graduate work" in Sam Rivers' band in the mid-sixties, and played on the saxophonist's A New Conception (Blue Note, 1966). Homage is paid to the teacher on Rivers' "Melancholia." Rivers was a rule-breaker, and student Galper learned lasting lessons, with the trio's version paying homage by slowing things down to evoke a sense of loss at Rivers' passing near the end of 2011. In another homage, Galper closes the disc with saxophone legend Sonny Rollins' title track. A fourteen-minute tour de force with, Bishop's cymbals steaming, and Johnson, bowing, it adds a viscous underpinning to an exuberant finale to this stunning album.    ~ Dan McClenaghan  

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=43489#.U0WjF1dSvro
 

Personnel: Hal Galper: piano; Jeff Johnson: bass; John Bishop: drums.

Airegin Revisited

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Hugh Masekela - The Americanization Of Ooga Booga

Styles: Soul Jazz
Year: 1965
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:33
Size: 97,5 MB
Art: Front

(8:05)  1. Bajabula Bonke (Healing Song)
(6:38)  2. Dzinorabiro (The Good Old Days)
(5:22)  3. Unhlanhla (Lucky Boy)
(5:29)  4. Cantelope Island
(5:25)  5. U-Dwi (Song To My Father)
(0:27)  6. Masquenada
(4:04)  7. Abangoma (Song Of Praise)
(7:00)  8. Mixolydia

Getting Americanization of Ooga Booga released was evidently akin to pulling teeth, because MGM Records' president was convinced it would be a bomb what Hugh Masekela and his band had played at this early-1965 gig at the Village Gate was jazz, but it was too African-based for American tastes, so the label chief maintained. What he missed was the infectious joy woven through every note of music here, which was enough to carry any kind of music from anyplace in the world over any unfamiliar patches, including the language, melodies, references to events, and places on the other side of the world; if this was to be New Yorkers' (and the recording world's) introduction to South African music, it was made incredibly genial and accessible, even from a jazz standpoint. The influence of Dizzy Gillespie and Freddie Hubbard can be heard, along with McCoy Tyner in the playing of pianist Larry Willis, and he shows his debt to John Coltrane as an inspiration on "Mixolydia" as well as his affinity for Brazilian music on "Mas Que Nada." But the core sound was what Masekela called "township bop" his short trumpet bursts, sometimes seemingly approaching microtonal territory, are engrossing celebrations of the melodies of his repertory, which is mostly of South African origin (including a pair written by his then-wife, Miriam Makeba). 

Among the latter, the opening number, "Bajabula Bonke," aka "Healing Song," got its first airing on record here  it would later receive a bolder performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, comprising one of that event's numerous musical highlights, but where that later performance streaked and soared, this one starts out slowly and quietly, exquisitely harmonized and rising gradually and gently like a glider catching rising winds; it's impossible to fully appreciate the Monterey performance without hearing this one. With Herbie Hancock's "Cantelope Island" providing one firm reference point in the American jazz idiom, the set really wasn't that removed from 1965 listeners, as its stronger-than-expected sales proved. The later CD reissue (The Lasting Impressions of Ooga Booga), comprising this set and The Lasting Impressions of Hugh Masekela, is the best way to get this material, but the LPs make fascinating artifacts of an era when South Africa was just being discovered by the rest of the world. ~ Bruce Eder   http://www.allmusic.com/album/americanization-of-ooga-booga-mw0001304086

The Americanization Of Ooga Booga

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