Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Eve Cournoyer - Tempete

Size: 87,1 MB
Time: 37:07
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2010
Styles: Pop
Label: Productions Sabot-De-Venus
Art: Front

01. Pour Survivre (3:23)
02. Taxi (2:56)
03. Je Parie (4:16)
04. Sept-Iles (3:47)
05. Hanna (3:34)
06. On A Perdu (3:59)
07. Sans S'en Faire (3:51)
08. En Avant (4:14)
09. Ayoye (3:27)
10. Tempete (3:36)

Chansonnière et technicienne sonore, Eve Cournoyer écrit, compose et réalise ses chansons depuis plus de 10 ans.

Sur ses albums, Sabot-de-Vénus (2002) et L’écho (2005), elle a gardé ce qu’elle avait enregistré chez elle pour ensuite y ajouter en studio de la basse (Maurice Williams et Fred Fortin), de la batterie (Alain Quirion et Alain Bergé) et de la guitare électrique (Jocelyn Tellier et Guy Kaye).

En grande amoureuse des mots, Eve Cournoyer cultive l’art de la phrase qui cogne et qui sonne, la mélodie qui accroche et qui reste dans la tête. Son écriture, ponctuée de double sens, navigue entre l’ombre et la lumière, tantôt engagée, tantôt drôle ou romantique.

Le fruit de sa créativité fut d’ailleurs souligné lors de la remise de deux prix remis par la SOCAN pour ses chansons Dans le bois et Tout arrive. Ève Cournoyer a aussi fait la trame sonore de deux films réalisés par François Delisle – Le bonheur c’est une chanson triste (2004) et Toi (2007).

Toujours en 2007, Ève participait au sein d’un collectif d’artistes à l’enregistrement de l’album « Le Zoo » (Orange Musique), un hommage à Jean-Claude Lauzon.

Forte de deux expériences de tournée en première partie du spectacle Kanasuta de Richard Desjardins en 2004 et 2008, Ève a aussi présenté plusieurs spectacles en groupe ou en solo dans divers festivals et salles du Québec.

Son troisième album parait le 6 mai 2010, après une longue attente. C’est à force de persévérance, de la solidarité de ses musiciens, de la passion pour la musique et des ‘’Lâche-pas té capable’’ et ‘‘Quand est-ce qu’il sort ton prochain album? ’’ que cette autoproduction fait maison voit le jour.

Toujours empreinte de cette poésie qui fait la force de ses textes, maintes fois salués par la critique et ses paires, c’est avec la détermination qu’on lui connaît qu’Eve Cournoyer signe un album (coréalisé avec Simon Dolan et mixé par Jean-Phillipe Villemure ) qui évoque les catastrophes naturelles intérieures, les rêves de voyage, la peur de la sécheresse de l’âme, l’urgence de l’éveil active de la conscience humaine et les dangers de la pollution de nos richesses.

Quand ça gronde en-dedans, que les doutes tonnent, les angoisses pleuvent, le remède réside dans l’espoir du retour du beau temps, du calme après la tempête.

Celle que Richard Desjardins a invitée en première partie de sa tournée Kanasuta s'est entourée des musiciens Rémi Leclerc à la batterie, Guillaume Bourque à la guitare et lapsteel, Étienne Morin à la guitare électrique sur Ayoye et Tempête et Simon Dolan à la basse pour graver sur disque et pour nous jouer Tempête sur une scène près de chez vous.

Tempete

The Harry Allen-Joe Cohn Quartet - Stompin' The Blues

Size: 152,3 MB
Time: 65:21
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2008
Styles: Jazz: Mainstream Jazz
Art: Front

01. You're Driving Me Crazy (7:33)
02. I'll Get By (7:17)
03. Stompin' The Blues (5:10)
04. My Old Flame (5:00)
05. Don't Want To Have To (4:52)
06. But I Will (5:21)
07. I Only Have Eyes For Youn (9:19)
08. (I Would Do) Anything For You (8:18)
09. Medley It Might As Well Be Spring/Spring Is Here (6:27)
10. So There (5:59)

Despite his still young age, tenor saxophonist Harry Allen has released nearly 40 CDs. Even more impressive is that he plays mostly standards, and while that well is deep, there's no easy chore in making American popular songs fresh and vibrant within the mainstream. Allen accomplishes this by changing up his bands, working hard on his personalized post-Stan Getz voicings, and occasionally inviting veteran hero/musicians to his recording sessions. In this case, fellow tenor man Scott Hamilton joins the band Allen co-leads with the excellent primarily rhythm guitarist Joe Cohn, and there's a story behind the recording date. Hamilton, living in London, England, flew to the U.S. shortly after the terrorist threat there in February of 2007 and was forced to check his saxophone instead of carrying it with him on the flight, and it was badly damaged in transit. But somehow Hamilton was able to piece the hurt horn together, and he sounds as good on it as he ever has. Trombonist John Allred is another modern miracle on this effort, as his playing in accord with, opposite to, and in conversational mode with Allen is sheer genius. Why is Allred not hailed as one of the top five jazz trombonists going today? Some good swingin' music is created as Allen and Allred trade alternating choruses for the obscure "I'll Get By" and go back and forth in chat-chat mode during "I Only Have Eyes for You," while each adopts solo lines on the medley melodies of "It Might as Well Be Spring" (Allred) and "Spring Is Here" (Allen). Of the three selections with the twin tenors plus 'bone, "You're Driving Me Crazy" is as interactive as any Dixieland tune, the deep saxes take eight-bar turns for "My Old Flame," and all three horns hit a singsong groove as the cool bass of Joel Forbes and Cohn's guitar prep "(I Would Do) Anything for You." Of the originals penned by Allen, "Don't Want to Have To" evokes a Gerry Mulligan or Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond classical jazz stance moving forward, wryly followed by the just fine swing of "But I Will." The title track is a basic romping, bopping 12-bar blues, while the end game piece, "So There," has Allen and his band syncopatin' as hard as he ever has. This is yet another complete, effervescent, solid session for Allen. It's also a treat to read the liner notes by Herb Wong. Any jazz fan can receive special insight reading what Dr. Wong has to say. ~Review by Michael G. Nastos

Stompin' The Blues

Brook Benton - A Jammin' Christmas Time

Size: 74,7 MB
Time: 31:43
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Blues Soul, Holiday
Art: Front

01. Beautiful Memories (3:01)
02. Christmas Makes The Town (2:37)
03. Child (3:17)
04. I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas (2:53)
05. Merry Christmas All (2:36)
06. Blue Decorations (3:32)
07. I've Got The Christmas Spirit (3:56)
08. Decorate The Night (3:26)
09. This Time Of The Year (2:36)
10. When A Child Is Born (3:45)

Silky smooth: that was Brook Benton's byword from his first record to his very last, as the singer parlayed his rich baritone pipes into seven number one R&B hits and eight Top Ten items. Stints on the gospel circuit preceded Benton's first secular session for Okeh in 1953, but his career didn't begin to take off until he teamed with writer/producer Clyde Otis. Benton co-wrote and sang hundreds of demos for other artists before frequent collaborator Otis signed his friend to Mercury; together they pioneered a lush, violin-studded variation on the standard R&B sound, which beautifully showcased Benton's intimate vocals.

Benton crashed the top spot on the R&B charts in early 1959 with his moving "It's Just a Matter of Time," then rapidly encored with three more R&B chart-toppers: "Thank You Pretty Baby," "So Many Ways," and "Kiddio." Pairing with Mercury labelmate Dinah Washington, their delightful repartee on "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" and "A Rockin' Good Way" paced the R&B lists in 1960.

The early '60s were a prolific period for Benton, but he left Mercury a few years later and bounced between labels before reemerging with the atmospheric Tony Joe White ballad "Rainy Night in Georgia" on Cotillion in 1970. Benton later made a halfhearted attempt to cash in on the disco craze, but his hitmaking reign was at an end long before his death in 1988.

A Jammin' Christmas Time

Shelley Neill - The Currency Is Heat

Size: 91,8 MB
Time: 39:34
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Jazz/Pop Vocals
Art: Front

01. Old Love (8:17)
02. I Fall To Pieces (4:32)
03. La La La Means I Love You (5:48)
04. Up On The Roof (4:25)
05. Hit The Road Jack (4:16)
06. Crazy (5:06)
07. Half Moon (2:50)
08. At Last (4:16)

Hypnotic interpretations of songs by Eric Clapton, Patsy Cline, Janis Joplin and Willie Nelson by a vocalist described as " a shadow-enfolded high priestess enticing passers-by to surrender before spellbinding song."

This is her sixth recording project with pianist Laszlo Gardony, bassist Ron Mahdi and Yoron Israel on drums - who were also her recording partners on her last release Irish Eyes Gypsy Soul - the first of two projects to take familiar songs and reinterpret them. With this new release - The Currency Is Heat - Shelley Neill takes bold steps to provide one-of-a-kind presentations of songs that are both instantly recognized and unique in their presentation.

The Currency Is Heat

Tony Scott - Lost Tapes: Tony Scott In Germany 1957/Asia 1962

Size: 158,3 MB
Time: 68:12
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Jazz
Art: Front & Back

01. Moonlight In Vermont ( 3:56)
02. The Man I Love ( 4:22)
03. Lover, Come Back To Me ( 6:54)
04. You Go To My Head (Take 2) ( 8:22)
05. Blues ( 4:16)
06. A Night In Tunisia ( 4:22)
07. There Will Never Be Another You (10:26)
08. Blues For Charlie Parker ( 4:50)
09. Hong Kong Jazzclub Blues ( 8:02)
10. All The Things You Are ( 6:08)
11. Moonlight In Vermont ( 6:30)

Clarinetist Tony Scott wasn't a fan of vibrato. Adding it would only have smoothed out his sound and landed him in the shadow of Artie Shaw and Buddy DeFranco. Instead, he preferred to stand out with a hoarse, stripped down, high-register tone. To the uninitiated, Scott could sound sour and breathless, like someone who hadn't yet fully mastered the complications of the instrument. But once you're acclimated to Scott's approach, you will find much to admire in his style, and you'll crave his textured, uneven delivery.

If you dig Scott as much as I do, you'll be gratified to learn that Tony Scott: Lost Tapes, Germany 1957 and Asia 1962 (Jazzhaus) is out this week. The album of previously unreleased material features Scott recording in a studio and on stage in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1957, and in performance in Hong Kong and Singapore in 1962. These recordings are notable because we get to hear Scott in Germany at the height of his Down Beat critics' poll prowess in the late 1950s. We also hear Scott just before he abandoned jazz for six years to focus on New Age and World music.

His recordings in Germany with local sidemen are divided among cool and spirited. The studio ballads like The Man I Love, Lover Come Back to Me and You Go to My Head are haunting while the live material is up-tempo and gripping, particularly a hyperactive A Night in Tunisia, There Will Never Be Another You and All the Things You Are. The album's last four tracks were recorded live in Asia with Italian musicians. Three of the songs—Blues for Charlie Parker, Hong Kong Jazzclub Blues and All the Things You Are—sizzle with instrumental daring. On Moonlight in Vermont, the last track recorded in Singapore, we hear a gorgeous version of the standard, which makes for a nifty contrast with the album's first track—the exact same tune recorded five years earlier in Germany. Turns out they're both hip for different reasons.

Following the 1962 recordings, Scott would go off in other musical directions until 1968. During this period, he recorded Music for Zen Meditation (1964), Djanger Bali: Tony Scott and the Indonesian All Stars (1967), Atmospheric Conditions Permitting (1967) and Music for Yoga Meditation and Other Joys (1968).

Scott died in 2012. ~by Marc Myers

Lost Tapes

Jo Jones - The Jo Jones Special

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 40:46
Size: 93.3 MB
Styles: Swing, Contemporary jazz
Year: 1955/2010
Art: Front

[5:49] 1. Shoe Shine Boy (First Take)
[6:29] 2. Lover Man
[4:47] 3. Georgia Mae
[3:58] 4. Caravan
[7:44] 5. Lincoln Heights
[6:40] 6. Embraceable You
[5:15] 7. Shoe Shine Boy (Second Take)

Bass – Walter Page; Guitar – Freddie Greene; Piano – Count Basie, Nat Pierce; Tenor Saxophone – Lucky Thompson; Trombone – Benny Green; Trumpet – Emmett Berry. Recorded in New York City, August 11 & 16, 1955.

This was the first album “the man who plays like the wind” did as a leader. On four of the numbers he fronted a septet with Nat Pierce on piano. Soloists Benny Green and Emmett Berry are excellent, but if one hornman especially excels here is tenor Lucky Thompson, one of the most unjustly neglected artists in jazz. On the two magnificently robust takes of Shoe Shine Boy, the guest pianist is Count Basie, thereby reuniting, for the first time in eight years, what was the greatest rhythm section in jazz. On Caravan, there were some changes on the line-up of the septet, but throughout all the sides, the uniting personality is Jo, a master of flowingly musical jazz drumming.

The Jo Jones Special

Susie Arioli - Night Lights

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 44:32
Size: 102.0 MB
Styles: Standards, Easy Listening
Year: 2008
Art: Front

[3:06] 1. Can't We Be Friends
[2:47] 2. Out Of Nowhere
[2:28] 3. Blue Skies
[2:37] 4. The Big Hurt
[2:38] 5. How Deep Is The Ocean
[3:23] 6. I Can't Get Started
[3:27] 7. The Very Thought Of You
[3:17] 8. Je Bois
[3:14] 9. Lumière De Nuit
[2:47] 10. Beyond The Sea
[3:07] 11. It's You Or No One
[2:39] 12. It Could Happen To You
[2:50] 13. You Go To My Head
[3:25] 14. More Than You Know
[2:40] 15. Basswalk

In October 2008, Susie Arioli released a first album under her own name entitled Night Lights. This fifth album in her career, which appeared on the Spectra Musique label, was a highlight in the singer’s evolution. Still accompanied by the outstanding guitarist Jordan Officer, who also produced the album, this time a radiant Susie integrates into her repertoire her own unique takes on standard jazz classics. On pieces like “Blue Skies,” “Can’t We Be Friends” and “Beyond the Sea,” there’s that distinctive and original Susie Arioli sound once again. Solidly backed by Officer on guitars and by Bill Gossage on bass, the sparkling brunette delivers her songs with all the ardour she’s so well known for.

Night Lights

Joe Magnarelli - My Old Flame

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 55:13
Size: 126.4 MB
Styles: Hard bop, Trumpet jazz
Year: 2010
Art: Front

[7:09] 1. My Old Flame
[6:25] 2. I'll Be Seeing You
[5:09] 3. Highbridge
[7:25] 4. Eracism
[6:43] 5. The Duke
[6:25] 6. Blues For Skee
[4:47] 7. When Your Lover Has Gone
[6:18] 8. Bilbao
[4:48] 9. McChesney Park

Joe Magnarelli (Tp), Marty Sheller (Orchestrations), Dick Oatts (AltoSax), Rick Germanson (P), David Wong (B), Peter Bernstein (G), Vince Cherico (D), Jimmy Wormworth (D), Wilson "Chembo" Corniel (Perc), Daniel Sadownick (Perc). Recorded March 29-30, 2010 in New York, NY.

Even some jazz cognoscenti may not be familiar with the name of Joe Magnarelli...but that's not Joe's fault. He's been playing a heap of trumpet since arriving on New York City's jazz scene some 25 years ago. Sometimes in the often-wacky world of music, and especially in jazz, even the near-great ones escape detection for quite a spell. But on the wings of My Old Flame, his latest CD, Joe's name and fame may take flight - and perhaps soon we'll all know Joe. Magnarelli is a consummate professional from years of service in the bands of Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, Toshiko Akiyoshi, The Vanguard Orchestra, and a number of recognized smaller bands - and this just skims his resume.

My Old Flame shows "Mags" working with a combo, and, on some selections, augmented by a 16-piece string section. The result in all cases is a delight to the ear. The disc also reveals that Mags can cook on a low or high flame. The strings, presided over by Marty Sheller, melds with Mags' trumpet on the title track and on Dave Brubeck's "The Duke" (his anthem to Ellington), as though they were ordained to be. The collaboration recalls shades of an era in which the legendary Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown broke ground in jazz by recording with string ensembles. Here's hoping My Old Flame becomes a recorded inferno, and gives the man with the horn the international recognition he deserves. ~BP

My Old Flame

Lionel Hampton - American Swinging In Paris

Styles: Vibraphone Jazz
Year: 2002
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:40
Size: 150,5 MB
Art: Front

(6:27)  1. Panama
(2:44)  2. What's new (take 2)
(4:35)  3. What's new
(5:09)  4. Jam for Brigitte
(6:01)  5. Blues for Lorraine
(8:44)  6. Geneviève
(4:44)  7. Le piège
(5:19)  8. Jazz stars news
(4:26)  9. Sweethearts on parade
(3:49) 10. Hamp swings the bells (ring dem bells)
(7:02) 11. Honeysuckle rose
(6:35) 12. Body and soul

Lionel Hampton was the first jazz vibraphonist and was one of the jazz giants beginning in the mid-'30s. He has achieved the difficult feat of being musically open-minded (even recording "Giant Steps") without changing his basic swing style. Hamp started out as a drummer, playing with the Chicago Defender Newsboys' Band as a youth. His original idol was Jimmy Bertrand, a '20s drummer who occasionally played xylophone. Hampton played on the West Coast with such groups as Curtis Mosby's Blue Blowers, Reb Spikes, and Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders (with whom he made his recording debut in 1929) before joining Les Hite's band, which for a period accompanied Louis Armstrong. At a recording session in 1930, a vibraphone happened to be in the studio, and Armstrong asked Hampton (who had practiced on one previously) if he could play a little bit behind him and on "Memories of You" and "Shine"; Hamp became the first jazz improviser to record on vibes.  It would be another six years before he found fame. 

Lionel Hampton, after leaving Hite, had his own band in Los Angeles' Paradise Cafe, until one night in 1936 when Benny Goodman came into the club and discovered him. Soon, Hampton recorded with B.G., Teddy Wilson, and Gene Krupa as the Benny Goodman Quartet, and six weeks later he officially joined Goodman. An exciting soloist whose enthusiasm even caused B.G. to smile, Hampton became one of the stars of his organization, appearing in films with Goodman, at the famous 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, and nightly on the radio. In 1937, he started recording regularly as a leader for Victor with specially assembled all-star groups that formed a who's who of swing; all of these timeless performances (1937-1941) were reissued by Bluebird on a six-LP set, although in piecemeal fashion on CD. Hampton stayed with Goodman until 1940, sometimes substituting on drums and taking vocals. In 1940, Lionel Hampton formed his first big band, and in 1942 had a huge hit with "Flying Home," featuring a classic Illinois Jacquet tenor spot (one of the first R&B solos).

During the remainder of the decade, Hampton's extroverted orchestra was a big favorite, leaning toward R&B, showing the influence of bebop after 1944, and sometimes getting pretty exhibitionistic. Among his sidemen, in addition to Jacquet, were Arnett Cobb, Dinah Washington (who Hampton helped discover), Cat Anderson, Marshall Royal, Dexter Gordon, Milt Buckner, Earl Bostic, Snooky Young, Johnny Griffin, Joe Wilder, Benny Bailey, Charles Mingus, Fats Navarro, Al Gray, and even Wes Montgomery and Betty Carter. Hampton's popularity allowed him to continue leading big bands off and on into the mid-'90s, and the 1953 edition that visited Paris (with Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, Quincy Jones, Jimmy Cleveland, Gigi Gryce, George Wallington, and Annie Ross) would be difficult to top, although fights over money and the right of the sideman to record led to its breakup. Hampton appeared and recorded with many all-star groups in the 1950s including reunions with Benny Goodman, meetings with the Oscar Peterson Trio, Stan Getz, Buddy DeFranco, and as part of a trio with Art Tatum and Buddy Rich. 

He also was featured in The Benny Goodman Story (1956). Since the 1950s, Lionel Hampton has mostly repeated past triumphs, always playing "Hamp's Boogie Woogie" (which features his very rapid two-finger piano playing), "Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop," and "Flying Home." However, his enthusiasm still causes excitement and he remains a household name. Hampton has recorded through the years for nearly every label, including two of his own (Glad Hamp and Who's Who). Despite strokes and the ravages of age, Lionel Hampton remained a vital force into the 1990s. In January 2001, a vibraphone he had played for 15 years was put into the National Museum of American History. On August 31, 2002, at age 94, Lionel Hampton suffered major heart failure and passed away. 
Bio ~ https://itunes.apple.com/au/artist/lionel-hampton/id119925#fullText

Mari Wilson - The Rhythm Romance

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:09
Size: 142,9 MB
Art: Front

(0:43)  1. Cielo
(4:33)  2. And I Love Him
(1:49)  3. Let There Be Love
(3:44)  4. Someone to Watch Over Me
(4:18)  5. Loverman
(4:14)  6. My Funny Valentine
(5:03)  7. Out of the Blue
(3:51)  8. Got to Be You
(5:08)  9. The Rhythm
(3:41) 10. I'm Comin' Home
(2:15) 11. No Moon At All
(6:13) 12. For Your Freedom
(4:39) 13. La La Peace Song
(3:08) 14. Cry Me a River
(4:15) 15. This Town
(4:29) 16. Yeh Yeh

Born Mari MacMillan Ramsey Wilson, 29 September 1957, London, England. In the mid-80s, Mari Wilson single-handedly led a revival of the world of late 50s/early 60s English kitsch. Sporting a beehive hairdo, wearing a pencil skirt and fake mink stole, her publicity photos depicted a world of long-lost suburban curtain and furniture styles, Tupperware, garish colours (often pink) and graphic designs from the period. The songs were treated in the same way, only affectionately and with genuine feeling. The whole image was the idea of Tot Taylor who, composing under the name of Teddy Johns and gifted with the ability to write pastiche songs from almost any era of popular music, also ran the Compact Organisation label. The label’s sense of hype excelled itself as they immediately released a box set of Compact Organisation artists, all of which, with the exception of Wilson, failed to attract the public’s attention. (Although ‘model agent’ Virna Lindt was a music press favourite.)

Wilson was quickly adopted by press, television and radio as a curiosity, all aiding her early 1982 singles ‘Beat The Beat’ and ‘Baby It’s True’ to have a minor effect on the chart. ‘Just What I Always Wanted’ a Top 10 hit, fully encapsulated the Wilson style. However, it was the following year’s cover of the Julie London torch-song number, ‘Cry Me A River’ which, despite only reaching number 27, most people have come to associate with the singer. The song also generated a revival of interest in London’s recordings, resulting in many long-lost (and forgotten) albums being re-released. After touring the world with her backing vocal group, the Wilsations - which included future solo artist Julia Fordham - the return home saw a slowing-down in activity. Although for the most part Wilson was out of the limelight, she provided the vocals to the soundtrack to the Ruth Ellis biopic Dance With A Stranger.

In 1985, Wilson started playing small clubs with her jazz quartet performing standards, as well as writing her own material which led to her appearance with Stan Getz at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Although still affectionately remembered for her beehive, she has been able to put that period behind her and is now taken more seriously as a jazz/pop singer, and is able to regularly fill Ronnie Scott’s club for a season. She also moved into theatre, appearing in the fringe musical Sweet Charity and the Dusty Springfield biopic Dusty, The Musical. Wilson also appears with fellow singers Claire Martin and Barb Jungr (Jungr And Parker) in the sparkling show Girl Talk. 
Bio ~ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mari-wilson-mn0000550583/biography

Lucky Thompson - Star Chaser

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 78:29
Size: 181,0 MB
Art: Front

( 9:15)  1. One O'Clock Jump
( 3:39)  2. Tenderly
( 4:52)  3. The World Awakes
( 8:28)  4. Cherokee
( 7:41)  5. Yesterdays
( 3:08)  6. East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon)
( 5:05)  7. Lover Man
( 7:56)  8. Strike Up The Band
( 5:38)  9. Sophisticated Lady
( 3:39) 10. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
( 4:49) 11. Don't Blame Me
(11:25) 12. Satin Doll
( 2:50) 13. Lester Leaps In

A legendary tenor and soprano saxophonist who took his place among the elite improvisers of jazz from the 1940's to the 1960's and then quit music. Lucky Thompson connected the swing era to the more cerebral and complex bebop style. His sophisticated, harmonically abstract approach to the tenor saxophone endeared him to the beboppers, but he was also a beautiful balladeer.Thompson was born in Columbia, South Carolina, but grew up on Detroit's East Side. He saved to buy a saxophone study book, practicing on a simulated instrument carved from a broomstick. He finally acquired a saxophone when he was 15, practiced eight hours a day and, within a month, was playing around town, most notably with the King's Aces big band, among who was vibraphonist Milt Jackson, later a frequent associate. Thompson left Cass high school early to join ex-Lunceford altoist Ted Buckner at Club 666, a top spot in the black section of Detroit. 

He left the city in August 1943 with Lionel Hampton's orchestra, touring for four months before settling in New York. He was soon playing for exacting bandleaders such as Don Redman and Lucky Millinder, performing on 52nd street with drummer Big Sid Catlett, and making his recording debut in March 1944 with trumpeter Hot Lips Page. After a run with Billy Eckstine's big band, then a hotbed of modernism, Thompson spent a fruitful year with the Count Basie orchestra. By October 1945, he was in Los Angeles, and stayed for two years, taking on the mantle of local hero and participating in more than 100 recording sessions, with everyone from Dinah Washington to Boyd Raeburn. When Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker made their legendary visit to Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles, Thompson was retained to cover for the errant Parker. Lucky played on one of Parker's most celebrated recording sessions, for Dial Records on March 28, 1946. Back in New York by 1948, Thompson began a period of varied activity, fronting groups at the Savoy Ballroom, appearing at the Nice festival, recording with Thelonious Monk and playing on the heralded Miles Davis album, “Walkin'.” In 1956, he toured Europe with Stan Kenton, then chose to live abroad for extended periods, from 1957 to 1962, making a number of recordings with groups while overseas. 

His skepticism about the jazz business may have kept him from a broader career recording as a bandleader; but there was “Tricotism,” from 1953, with the Lucky Seven. Then in 1962 Thompson came back to New York, where he signed with Prestige and recorded the sessions for albums “Happy Days Are Here Again,” “Plays Jerome Kern and No More,” and “Lucky Strikes,” from 1964, thought to be his highlight album. He did other sides for various labels as in the ’65 joining with Tommy Flanagan “Lucky Meets Tommy.” His last recordings were “Goodbye Yesterday,” (1972) and “I Offer You,” (1973), made for the Groove Merchant label. After returning to New York for a few years, he lived in Lausanne, Switzerland, from late 1968 to 1970. He came back to New York again, taught at Dartmouth in 1973 and 1974, then disappeared from the Northeast, and soon from music entirely. By the early 90's he was in Seattle, mostly living in the woods or in shelter offered by friends. He did not own a saxophone. He was hospitalized a number of times in 1994, and finally entered an Assisted Living Center, where he lived from 1994 until his death in July 2005. 
Bio ~ http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/luckythompson

Leslie Pintchik - In The Nature Of Things

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:18
Size: 115,7 MB
Art: Front

(5:55)  1. With You in Mind
(4:10)  2. I'd Turn Back If I Were You
(7:37)  3. I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face
(4:53)  4. Luscious
(5:06)  5. Sparkle
(3:48)  6. Terse Tune
(5:53)  7. Ripe
(5:13)  8. Ready!
(7:38)  9. There You Go (Performed Live)

Pianist Leslie Pintchik takes advantage her her New York home base on her recordings by enlisting some of the city's most innovative musicians to help her share her vision. On previous three CD releases Pintchik has sculpted a seductive sound that combines the cerebral with engaging and beautiful, much in the mode of piano legend Herbie Hancock. And here, on her In the Nature of Things she treads softly on more of a Hancock influence, that of his exceptional 1968 Blue Note Records album, Speak Like a Child. Under the influence of composer/arranger Gil Evans, Hancock used flugelhorn, bass trombone and alto flute to float satiny harmonies behind his core trio. Pintchik, expanding her quartet mode to a sextet, adds Steve Wilson's alto saxophone and Ron Horton's flugelhorn, arranged by the set's bassist, Scott Hardy, for a similar effect. Opening with her original "With You In Mind," the horns paint subtle colors as a backdrop for the rest of the group, including drummer Michael Sarin and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi. 

Pintchik's touch is sparklingly exquisite, and Wilson gets a brief sax solo on this gorgeous five minutes of music. "I'd Turn Back If I Were You," another Pintchik tune, brings to mind one of of Herbie Hancock's more overlooked albums, the rhythm-heavy Inventions and Dimensions (Blue Note Records, 1963), a trio outing with an added percussionist, Oscavaldo "Chihuahua" Martinez. Here, the rhythms of Takeishi, Sarin and Hardy are fabulous, and maybe they're Latin-flavored, maybe not, but they definitely keep the effervescence popping in the rhythmic stew. The standard "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" is the only non-Pintchik tune of the set. Pintchik lays it down with a deceptive simplicity, no horns added, with her and bassist Hardy acting as equal partner in the exploration of the pure loveliness of the melody. "Luscious" opens with Pintchik's stellar pianism of full display. The band is locked in. Wilson solos superbly. 

The lush, cool horn harmonies kick in, and then the ebullient "Sparkle" glimmers to life, with a warm flugelhorn solo from Ron Horton, followed by Sarin on alto, and by now it's obvious that Pinchik has crafted her most ambitious and beautiful outing to date.
 ~ Dan McClenaghan  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/in-the-nature-of-things-leslie-pintchik-pintch-hard-records-review-by-dan-mcclenaghan.php#.VF5YrcmHmth

Personnel: Leslie Pintchik: piano; Steve Wilson: alto and soprano saxophones (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7); Ron Horton: trumpet and flugelhorn (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7); Scott Hardy: bass; Michael Sarin: drums; Satoshi Takeishi: percussion