Gregg Rolie - Five Days EP

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 21:48
Size: 49.9 MB
Styles: Rock
Year: 2011
Art: Front

[3:24] 1. Black Magic Woman
[4:12] 2. Anytime
[4:09] 3. Love Doesn't Live Here Anymore
[3:43] 4. If I Went Home
[3:48] 5. Trouble In Mind
[2:30] 6. Cool Little Mama

Gregg Rolie, a 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, has learned a lot about himself since taking fame’s exit ramp to start a family almost 30 years ago. He’s put into perspective the work done as a founding member of Santana, a stint that saw Rolie co-produce the group’s first four albums beginning in 1969. The bluesy B-3 stylist then added to an overstuffed resume that already included an appearance at Woodstock, leaving with Neal Schon to launch Journey. There, he helped craft a series of 1970s recordings that set the stage for that band’s arena-rock supernova moment in the 1980s.

These days, when not leading the rollicking seven-piece Gregg Rolie Band, you’re apt to find him performing in a series of small, deeply interactive gigs around Austin. The days of headlining football stadiums, it seems, are happily behind him. Instead, Rolie’s engaging with the audience. “Back then, you wanted to be the gods descending from Olympus,” Rolie says, chuckling to himself. “Now, it’s more personal. It’s funny, I used to not want to talk to an audience, and I don’t think I could have talked to them. But I’m comfortable in my own skin now.”

In keeping, Rolie has just released Five Days, an intimate solo EP featuring updates of “Black Magic Woman” and “Anytime,” two of his most memorable vocals with Santana and Journey, along with three new songs. Five Days was recorded live with son Sean as producer, on a piano in the living room of Rolie’s Austin home.

Five Days

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Raymond Scott & His Swinging Strings - Amor

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 37:06
Size: 84.9 MB
Styles: Easy Listening
Year: 1965/2009
Art: Front

[3:16] 1. How High The Moon
[3:31] 2. Summertime
[2:27] 3. Orchids In The Moonlight
[4:09] 4. Amor
[1:57] 5. What Is This Thing Called Love
[3:08] 6. Deep Purple
[3:30] 7. Stardust
[2:18] 8. True Love
[3:47] 9. All The Things You Are
[2:00] 10. La Cumparsita
[3:26] 11. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
[3:30] 12. Where Is Your Heart (Song Of The Moulin Rouge)

Composer, bandleader, and inventor Raymond Scott was among the unheralded pioneers of contemporary experimental music, a figure whose genius and influence have seeped almost subliminally into the mass cultural consciousness. As a visionary whose name is largely unknown but whose music is immediately recognizable, Scott's was a career stuffed with contradictions: though his early work anticipated the breathless invention of bebop, his obsession with perfectionism and memorization was the very antithesis of jazz's improvisational ethos. Though his best-known compositions remain at large thanks to their endless recycling as soundtracks for cartoons, he never once wrote a note expressly for animated use, and though his later experiments with electronic music pioneered the ambient aesthetic, the ambient concept itself was not introduced until a decade after the release of his original recordings. ~Jason Ankeny

Amor

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Frank Rosolino - I Play Trombone

Bitrate: 320K/s

Time: 37:26

Size: 85.7 MB

Styles: Bop, Trombone jazz

Year: 1956/2014

Art: Front

[7:03] 1. I May Be Wrong (But I Think You're Wonderful)

[4:17] 2. The Things We Did Last Summer

[6:07] 3. Frieda

[7:46] 4. Doxy

[7:34] 5. My Delux

[4:37] 6. Flamingo

It was said that Frank Rosolino played what he did on trombone because he didn’t know it was impossible. First gaining notice with Stan Kenton in the Forties, his fast solos and stratospheric high notes were unlike any heard up to that time. Part of a large crowd to leave Kenton en masse in the Fifties (Art Pepper, Bob Cooper, Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne) he was a major part of the West Coast school, even though his hard-charging style didn’t fit the "mellow" stereotype. Best known as a sideman, he rarely got the chance to lead his own sessions; one such effort, from 1958, was planned to be the first West Coast hard-bop album. His attack and his tone helped direct the modern style on trombone.

Frank Rosolino was born into a musical family; his earliest instruments were guitar and accordion. When he was thirteen he began taking trombone lessons and continued through high school, despite being unable to read music. His agility and horn speed supposedly came from his youthful attempts to emulate his brother playing the violin. He served in the Army at the tail end of World War II, stationed in the Philippines. After completing guard duty one night (and bored with it), Rosolino went onstage during an Army dance, and played with the rhythm section during the band’s intermission. The crowd was impressed, and Frank was transferred to a band unit – as was his plan. It was there that he learned how to sight-read, and upon discharge joined the Bob Chester band in 1946. Several jobs followed: the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1947, Gene Krupa in 1948 (Frank’s comedy vocal on "Lemon Drop" might be his most famous performance) and Stan Kenton from 1952 to ’54 … at its peak of popularity.

Frank became a star with Kenton, and shortly afterwards joined the Lighthouse All-Stars, where he played with other Kenton veterans for a number of years. He recorded often in this period, but rarely as a leader; he was particularly upset that Free for All, which he considered his best album, was never released in his lifetime. He became very productive as a studio musician, playing on movie soundtracks, singing occasionally, and working on the pop recordings of Phil Spector. While he still played jazz now and then (he appears on some Paulinho Da Costa sessions for Pablo, and toured with Benny Carter in 1974) but in the Seventies he played commercial music most of the time. In an event still clouded with mystery and speculation, Frank Rosolino died in a group suicide with his two sons. (One of the boys did survive the wounds.) His music remains vibrant, and often emulated.

Bass – Wilfred Middlebrooks; Drums – Stan Levey; Piano – Sonny Clark; Trombone – Frank Rosolino.

I Play Trombone

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Muriel Zoe - Red and Blue

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:43
Size: 123,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:31)  1. Bye Bye Blackbird
(4:37)  2. You Go To My Head
(3:09)  3. Up Jumped Spring
(3:17)  4. Lovesong, No. 1
(5:37)  5. My One And Only Love
(4:04)  6. Round Midnight
(4:14)  7. Don´t Explain
(5:38)  8. Willow Weep For Me
(4:20)  9. You Don't Know What Love Is
(2:16) 10. Second Time Around
(2:52) 11. Happiness Is Just A Thing Called Joe
(2:50) 12. The Masquerade Is Over
(3:55) 13. All The Way
(3:17) 14. Autumn Leaves

Muriel Zoe’s creativity springs from a rare skill in two fields: she has not just a great musical but also an artistic talent which developed early and which have fed off each other since then. Muriel Zoe is today a freelance musician and painter as well as a teacher of painting and graphic art in Hamburg. Muriel Zoe was born in 1969 in Ludwigshafen. Part of her schooling was at an English boarding school in South India. Back in Germany, she began to play guitar at age 12 and wrote her first songs with English lyrics at 15.  

In 1988 she began to train as painter and engraver at the art school in Nurtingen in the Southern region of Baden-Wurttemberg and continued her education from 1990 at the technical university for design in Hamburg. Since 1994 she has exhibited in both group and solo shows.  In 1990 she began studies... https://www.actmusic.com/en/Artists/Muriel-Zoe/Red-And-Blue/Red-And-Blue-CD

Personnel: Muriel Zoe: vocals, acoustic guitar; Michael Verhovec: drums, percussion; Matthias Pogoda: acoustic guitar; Johannes Huth: bass; Michael Leuschner: trumpet

Red and Blue

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Gary Smith - The Midnight Sun

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:01
Size: 128,6 MB
Art: Front

(5:55)  1. Angel Eyes
(6:53)  2. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
(6:02)  3. Twilight
(7:01)  4. Midnight Sun
(5:41)  5. Lullaby Of The Leaves
(5:31)  6. Stardust
(6:11)  7. Say What?
(3:49)  8. Emily
(5:25)  9. Sopros Suaves
(3:29) 10. Easy To Love

The Midnight Sun

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Peter Pearson - Lost In A Summer Haze

Styles: Lounge
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:18
Size: 83,6 MB
Art: Front

(6:18)  1. We're Looking at the Stars
(5:40)  2. So Beautiful
(4:55)  3. French Favour
(4:56)  4. Cafe De Paris
(2:46)  5. A Long Way Off
(5:59)  6. Lost In A Summer Haze
(5:40)  7. Stars In The Sea

Born in London 1947, qualified as a Doctor 1970, and subsequently became a General Practitioner until retirement in 1997. He dabbled in guitar (with brother), piano, and songwriting (with sister) in an earlier life, and played keyboards in a blues band (Blue Shift) in the nineties. After retirement from medicine, Peter was then able to concentrate on his other great passion- music composition. He completed "Music for the Media" course, obtaining a Diploma in Media Composition, and was awarded a Diploma in Music (composition) by the WMF. He achieved some notable successes in various song contests. He collaborated with and received much guidance from Nic Rowley. Several of his pieces have been published by Music Libraries, and over 200 tracks released, including a dozen albums. He is proud to be published by Mustard Music. 

Peter's chief earlier influences have been Rachmaninov, Elgar, Chopin, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, John Barry, Francis Lai, Michel Legrand, Jobim, and Ennio Morricone; and then the great pop composers of a later era, with emotive, romantic and soul influences. More recently, he has been heavily influenced by the Chillout scene, notably Michael e.. A curiously diverse combination that may explain his equally diverse styles, that crosses the genres of Easy Listening and Chillout, with elements of Ambient, Lounge, Jazz, Blues, light Classical and Rock.His primordial need in composition is to be emotionally moved- if there is no passion there is no music. 

He also feels a need to share his music, and strives to compose for the enjoyment of others. Peter's compositions are mainly instrumental. Being essentially a keyboardist, his chief materials are keyboards and a computer, with occasional use of an acoustic guitar and accordion. Peter's other passions include wine, sun, nature and his family. He lives happily in the south of France with his patient and supportive wife. As Francis Lai once told him: when music becomes a passion, it is an outlet that helps us surmount the imponderables of life. Bio ~ http://www.peterpearsonmusic.com/bio

Lost In A Summer Haze

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Michael Brecker - Nearness Of You : The Ballad Book

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2001
File: MP3@224K/s
Time: 60:23
Size: 97,6 MB
Art: Front

(5:15)  1. Chan's Song
(4:44)  2. Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
(6:18)  3. Nascente
(6:23)  4. Midnight Mood
(4:38)  5. The Nearness Of You
(5:22)  6. Incandescence
(5:29)  7. Sometimes I See
(7:11)  8. My Ship
(5:37)  9. Always
(5:34) 10. Seven Days
(3:49) 11. I Can See Your Dreams

There comes a time, it seems, when every major-label jazzer has to add a ballads album to his or her discography. That time has come for Michael Brecker, who enlists the formidable Pat Metheny as both producer and guitarist. Along for the ride are three players you may have heard of: Herbie Hancock, Charlie Haden, and Jack DeJohnette. The 11 tracks (divided into two five-track "chapters" and a one-track "epilogue") are flawlessly executed practically airbrushed and as mainstream as can be, but darned if they don't raise a few goosebumps. Brecker is restrained and mellow-toned throughout, shelving some of his pet licks and pushing himself into more lyrical territory. Metheny's guitar work is exquisite, particularly on Hancock's "Chan's Song," which contrasts nicely with Jacky Terrasson's version on 1997's Rendezvous (Blue Note). These aren't the ballads you'd expect, and that's primarily what makes the date work. There are two cuts from Metheny's 1996 album Quartet (Geffen), "Sometimes I See" and "Seven Days." 

There's also Brecker's "Incandescence" and "I Can See Your Dreams," the latter serving as the wistful "epilogue." Joe Zawinul's "Midnight Mood" is another unusual entry. The only standards are "Always," "My Ship" (Gil Evans's Miles Ahead arrangement, Gil Goldstein's adaptation for quintet), and "The Nearness of You," the last of which features James Taylor (!) on vocals. Taylor's presence raises some interesting issues. His is not a jazz voice by any means, and in a way, that's what redeems his performance on "The Nearness of You." Cynics may lambaste his inclusion as a commercial ploy, and they may be partly right, but one thing's for sure: he puts his own stamp on the tune, preventing it from sounding recycled and retro. The same can be said for "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," which also features Taylor's singing. One could argue that Taylor is this track's saving grace. Without him, the group might have played the song as a boring, muzaky instrumental. Instead, we hear Taylor revisiting one of his own classics, rearranged as a jazz ballad. There's artistic merit there for sure. ~ David Adler  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/nearness-of-you-the-ballad-book-michael-brecker-verve-music-group-review-by-david-adler.php#.VC3iFBawTP8

Personnel: Michael Brecker, tenor sax; Pat Metheny, guitars, producer; Herbie Hancock, piano; Charlie Haden, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums; James Taylor, vocals (2, 5)

Nearness Of You:The Ballad Book

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