Pat LaBarbera - Deep In A Dream

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 70:46
Size: 162.0 MB
Styles: Saxophone jazz
Year: 2007
Art: Front

[6:33] 1. Deep In A Dream
[3:52] 2. Something To Live For
[6:49] 3. There's A Lull In My Life
[5:38] 4. It Shouldn't Happen To A Dream
[4:54] 5. Maybe You'll Be There
[4:12] 6. Here's To My Lady
[9:11] 7. Moon And Sand
[5:57] 8. What Good Would The Moon Be
[5:36] 9. Why Try To Change Me Now
[5:38] 10. Some Other Spring
[7:19] 11. I Heard You Cried Last Night
[5:01] 12. As Long As I Am Dreaming

Last September tenor/soprano saxophonist Pat LaBarbera appeared at the Forest City Jazz Festival with the same rhythm section featured on this CD. At the time, he alluded to the fact that he had always wanted to record an all-ballads album. Thanks to Bill King and Greg Sutherland of RadioLand Jazz, Pat's dream has become a reality. Deep In A Dream is a 12-track collection of lovely, slow burners that is perfect for late-night listening. While some of the tunes are well-known standards (Something To Live For and There's A Lull In My Life), a number of Pat's hand-picked favourites are more obscure. Indeed, Pat states in the liner notes that master balladeer Frank Sinatra's early recordings, Maybe You'll Be There, Why Try To Change Me Now and Deep In A Dream, were the source for these song choices.

Although Pat has always been known for his up-tempo, Coltrane-influenced screamers, Deep In A Dream shows that Stan Getz and Lester Young have also inspired him. Brother Joe LaBarbera's brush work is light and feathery, Neil Swainson pulls deep, rich tones from his bass and pianist Don Thompson's occasional solo spots are suitably restrained. Break out the candles and wine and enjoy! ~John Sharpe

Deep In A Dream

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Kenny Dorham Quartet - Two Horns, Two Rhythms

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 42:20
Size: 96.9 MB
Styles: Hard bop, Trumpet jazz
Year: 1993/2008
Art: Front

[5:20] 1. Lotus Blossom
[6:10] 2. 'sposin'
[2:54] 3. Soon
[4:38] 4. Is It True What They Say About Dixie
[4:23] 5. The End Of A Love Affair
[4:19] 6. I'll Be Seeing You
[6:33] 7. Noosebloos
[3:10] 8. Jazz-Classic
[4:49] 9. 'Sposin' (Alternate Take)

Trumpeter Kenny Dorham was one of the most underrated talents of the bop and hard bop eras. Although he did not hit high note or influence a lot of players, Dorham's appealing sound and consistently creative ideas should have made him a star in the jazz world instead of just a journeyman. On this CD reissue (which adds an alternate take of "'Sposin'" to the original eight-song LP program), Dorham and altoist Ernie Henry (on his final session) are heard in a pianoless quartet (with either Eddie Mathias or Wilbur Ware on bass and drummer G.T. Hogan) playing three of the trumpeter's originals (including "Lotus Blossom") and four standards. Highlights include "I'll Be Seeing You" and a rare revival of "Is It True What They Say About Dixie?" The sparse setting (unusual for a Dorham session) works quite well. ~Scott Yanow

Two Horns, Two Rhythms

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Felicia Sanders - That Certain Feeling

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 31:27
Size: 72,4 MB
Art: Front

(2:08)  1. Dancing In The Dark
(2:33)  2. Summertime
(1:35)  3. Nobody Else But Me
(3:28)  4. Music, Maestro, Please
(3:31)  5. A Woman's Love Is Never Done
(1:44)  6. La Bonne Cuisine - Rabbit At Top Speed
(1:47)  7. I Happen To Like New York
(3:40)  8. Summer Love
(3:21)  9. That Certain Feeling
(4:26) 10. I Had Myself A True Love
(3:08) 11. What Have You Done All Day

Felicia Sanders (c. 1922 – February 7, 1975) was a singer of traditional pop music. Born Felice Schwartz in Mount Vernon, New York, she sang in the 1940s, with big bands and on the radio, based in Los Angeles, California. She stopped singing professionally to get married to Michael Snider (who was in the army), and had a son, Jefferson with him. They eventually got divorced both having part-time custody of their child. In 1950 she returned to singing in a nightclub in Hollywood, Café Gala. She was heard there by Benny Carter, who thought enough of her talent to recommend her to Mitch Miller, Columbia Records' artist and repertory director. She was picked, in 1953, by Columbia's biggest orchestra leader, Percy Faith, to sing vocal on a song he was recording, taken from the film Moulin Rouge a biographical film about Toulouse-Lautrec.

The song, known as "The Song from Moulin Rouge" was recorded on January 22, 1953 and released by Columbia with the credits shown as "Percy Faith and his Orchestra featuring Felicia Sanders." She had been paid only union scale and her name appeared below Faith's in small letters, but she had a success. The song scored #1 on all the record charts and was to be her greatest success.

Just before the record was released she was hired by New York's famous Blue Angel nightclub, and she played there for a long time, being the first singer to do the song "In Other Words (Fly Me to the Moon)" although she did not record it until several other singers had done so. When she recorded "In Other Words" at Decca Recording studio, it was backed with "Summer Love" (composed by Victor Young) in1959.

Miller kept finding other songs to have her sing, but only one other scored among the Top 30: "Blue Star", based on the theme from a well-known television series, Medic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felicia_Sanders

That Certain Feeling

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Eric Alexander - Two Of A Kind

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1997
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:58
Size: 128,3 MB
Art: Front

(8:25)  1. Happy Song
(7:56)  2. Pentimento
(7:14)  3. Mr. Harris
(6:12)  4. I Can't Get Started
(8:26)  5. Cecil's Slide
(6:08)  6. Angel Eyes
(5:16)  7. Beautiful Things
(6:18)  8. Kick-A-Poo

Eric Alexander is a high-powered tenor saxophonist whose style falls between hard bop and post-bop. On this set he splits his time between quartet numbers with pianist David Hazeltine, bassist John Webber, and drummer Joe Farnsworth and quintet pieces that co-star baritonist Cecil Payne. Unfortunately, Payne (74 at the time) sounds past his prime, displaying a weaker tone than he had previously although he tries his best during his three appearances (two Payne originals plus "I Can't Get Started"). Alexander (who brought in three originals of his own) sounds fine throughout and he helps to revitalize the straight-ahead tradition with his passionate playing. ~ Scott Yanow  http://www.allmusic.com/album/release/two-of-a-kind-mr0000763180

Personnel: Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone); Cecil Payne (baritone saxophone); David Hazeltine (piano); John Webber (bass); Joe Farnsworth (drums).

Two Of A Kind

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David Liebman - Lieb Plays Wilder

Styles: Flute And Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:07
Size: 142,7 MB
Art: Front

(7:53)  1. Where Is The One?
(6:26)  2. A Long Night
(6:32)  3. Winter Of My Discontent
(4:48)  4. Trouble Is A Man
(6:06)  5. If Love´s Like A Lark
(4:04)  6. The Wrong Blues
(5:32)  7. The Lady Sings The Blues
(5:44)  8. Moon And Sand
(8:13)  9. Just As Though You Were Here
(6:45) 10. While We're Young

Saxophonist Dave Liebman has covered a lot of territory in a career now well into its fourth decade, but his approach has never resembled anything conventional. Much has been written about Liebman mining territory first explored by Coltrane; and in his expressionist approach that is nevertheless capable of rich subtlety, the lineage is clear. Towards the untimely end to his life, Coltrane travelled inexorably away from structure into extended improvisations that had little in the way of conventional foundation, but Liebman has continued to explore improvisational possibilities within more defined frameworks. Sometimes those frameworks can be quite complex, as on recent recordings involving his quartet featuring guitarist Vic Juris; but they can also be looser, as on his duet recording with pianist Marc Copland, Bookends. While Liebman has a stellar reputation, he curiously remains less of a household name than contemporaries like Michael Brecker and Joe Lovano with whom he teamed for last year's excellent Saxophone Summit. His general avoidance of major labels has actually been liberating as with Copland allowing him to release far more recordings as a leader than such contracts would permit.  

And without the interference of a label looking for an easy route to mass appeal, Liebman has been able to make recordings like Lieb Plays Wilder. It's clearly accessible, mining material that feels like standards, but it's more off the beaten path. Alec Wilder, in fact, wrote one of the definitive books on other composers more typically associated with the Great American Songbook, The American Popular Song, but based on the compositions here, he was at least some of the time working similar territory himself. On this largely trio recording with bassist Marius Beets and Eric Ineke who he rightfully says "is one of the most swinging drummers I know" Liebman alternates between tenor and soprano saxophones, bringing out a wooden flute for the intro to the darkly balladic "Trouble is a Man." Liebman has spent many years focusing on the soprano, only recently bringing out the tenor more regularly, but that's a good thing, because his musical personality is equally distinctive on the bigger horn. 

The material ranges from the bright "Where is the One" and the up-tempo swing of "A Long Night" one of two tracks featuring guest pianist Marc Van Roon to the bossa feel of "Winter of My Discontent" and the bluesy jazz waltz "If Love's Like a Lark." Throughout, Liebman honours the intent of the compositions, but he's liberal enough to demonstrate their myriad possibilities by extending into passages where textural flurries replace simpler lyric concerns. Recording standards is nothing new to Liebman, but with Lieb Plays Wilder he introduces his audience to material that, by all rights, should have been considered part of the Great American Songbook. ~ John Kelman  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/lieb-plays-wilder-dave-liebman-challenge-records-review-by-john-kelman.php#.VHzQ_8mHmtg
 

Personnel: Dave Liebman: tenor and soprano saxophones, flute; Marius Beets: bass; Eric Ineke: drums; Marc Van Roon: piano (4, 10).

Lieb Plays Wilder

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Eric Johnson & Mike Stern - Eclectic

Styles: Guitar, Jazz, Rock
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 72:02
Size: 167,4 MB
Art: Front

(5:23)  1. Roll With It
(3:08)  2. Hullabaloo
(6:06)  3. Wherever You Go - With Intro
(4:50)  4. Red House
(6:24)  5. Remember
(4:27)  6. Benny Man’s Blues
(7:34)  7. Wishing Well
(7:06)  8. Big Foot - With Intro
(5:26)  9. Tidal
(6:38) 10. You Never Know
(6:48) 11. Dry Ice
(8:05) 12. Sometimes

Two bona fide guitar heroes in their respective fields; Eric Johnson in the rock realm and Mike Stern in the jazz world join forces to produce the explosive Eclectic, a scintillating musical showcase that brings together their disparate influences in one potent package. Fans of both artists and guitar aficionados will want to hear this unique collaboration. Backed by Anton Fig (James Brown, Miles Davis, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder) on drums and Chris Maresh on bass the group impresses throughout the albums 12 tracks with writing contributions from both guitarists and even a cover of Jimi Hendrix Red House where Mike makes his vocal debut trading lines with Eric on this event record.  ~ Editorial Reviews  http://www.amazon.com/Eclectic-Eric-Johnson/dp/B00MKKZVXO

Eclectic

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