Bill Evans - The Sideman Years

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:36
Size: 163.9 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2011
Art: Front

[3:37] 1. Kimona My House
[5:17] 2. Like Someone In Love
[2:49] 3. Ev'ry Night About This Time
[4:36] 4. I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
[4:33] 5. Mother Of Earl
[7:09] 6. Indian Summer
[1:51] 7. Deep Purple
[6:05] 8. Aeolian Drinking Song
[3:23] 9. 'round About Midnight
[3:56] 10. Vanilla Frosting On A Beef Pie
[4:41] 11. You Stepped Out Of A Dream
[3:58] 12. How High The Moon
[5:47] 13. Idol Of The Flies
[3:43] 14. Ogling Ogre
[5:06] 15. Love Letters
[4:58] 16. Avid Admirer

Bill Evans (p), Tony Scott (cl), Jimmy Knepper (tb), Gene Quill (as), Dick Garcia, Joe Puma (g), Jerry Bruno, Oscar Pettiford, Les Grinage, Teddy Kotick (b), Camille Morin, Paul Motian, Lennie McBrowne, Dannie Richmond (d), Eddie Costa (vb).

Bill Evans has been one of the most influential pianists—if not one of the most influential musicians—in the history of modern jazz. Everybody who likes piano music enjoys listening to Bill’s playing, and that is why he is so big today, more than 25 years after he died in 1980. When in 1956 he joined the quartet of the acclaimed clarinetist Tony Scott, Bill’s playing caused much talk among musicians and big things were predicted for him. “When I started out, I worked very simply, but I always knew what I was doing,” said Evans of that time. In these early recordings as a sideman, Bill Evans demonstrates, with apparent effortlessness and without straining for gimmicks, what a strong and intelligent improviser he already was in those early years.

The Sideman Years

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Helen Merrill - S/T

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 32:38
Size: 74.7 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz, Standards
Year: 1955/1999
Art: Front

[5:09] 1. Don't Explain
[4:17] 2. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
[4:58] 3. What's New
[3:51] 4. Falling In Love With Love
[5:57] 5. Yesterdays
[5:12] 6. Born To Be Blue
[3:12] 7. 's Wonderful

Recording Date: December 22, 1954 - December 24, 1954.

Though she eventually came to be known as a "singer's singer," Helen Merrill's 1954 debut is an unmitigated success of mainstream jazz. Besides introducing the uniquely talented young singer, the date also featured small-group arrangements by Quincy Jones and marks the introduction of another future star, trumpeter Clifford Brown. Formidable as his playing is, Brown never overshadows Merrill. She is fully up to the challenge on all fronts and enthusiastically tackles uptempo numbers such as "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" and "Falling in Love with Love" with aplomb. A winning stylistic combination of cool jazz and hard bop, Merrill particularly excels on Mel Tormé's "Born to Be Blue," making the sophisticated tune her own as she revels in Tormé's down-and-out lyric. ~Richard Mortifoglio

Helen Merrill

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Donald Fagen - Sunken Condos

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:44
Size: 100.1 MB
Styles: Jazz-blues
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[5:08] 1. Slinky Thing
[4:28] 2. I'm Not The Same Without You
[4:13] 3. Memorabilia
[5:25] 4. Weather In My Head
[4:33] 5. The New Breed
[4:51] 6. Out Of The Ghetto
[4:40] 7. Miss Marlene
[4:51] 8. Good Stuff
[5:33] 9. Planet D'rhonda

It took Donald Fagen nearly a quarter century to release his Nightfly Trilogy, which started with 1982’s ‘The Nightfly’ and wrapped up with 2006’s ‘Morph the Cat.’ ‘Sunken Condos,’ the fourth solo album by the Steely Dan singer, is a slightly looser record than its predecessors, with more emphasis on groove this time around. And it sounds like it could be the next chapter in the solo odyssey Fagen started 30 years ago. Maybe it has something to do with his recent tour with the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue, which included soulful old friends Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs, or maybe it has to do with the 64-year-old Fagen settling into his AARP years, but he doesn’t sound so uptight here. And let’s face it: Steely Dan were one of the ‘70s fussiest bands, so obsessed with getting every single detail right in their songs that they quit touring in the middle of their peak decade (they finally hit the road again in support of Fagen’s 1993 album ‘Kamakiriad’ and Steely Dan’s 2000 comeback LP ‘Two Against Nature’).

Either way, ‘Sunken Condos’ is jazzy, bluesy and as musically precise as anything Fagen has recorded, with or without Steely Dan. No surprise, since many of the musicians have played with him in one form or another over the years. And he still doesn’t take the short way around. Most of the nine songs make room for efficient solos, tasteful backing vocals and the cleanest production this side of the late 1970s. ~Michael Galucci

Sunken Condos

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Earl 'Fatha' Hines Quartet - Lost 1971 Studio Masterpiece

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:57
Size: 91.5 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2010
Art: Front

[2:43] 1. Little Girl
[5:14] 2. You're Mine, You
[4:35] 3. Coquette
[4:25] 4. Sometimes I'm Happy
[4:16] 5. More Than You Know
[9:49] 6. Texas Ruby Red
[4:49] 7. Ramona
[4:01] 8. Cavernism

Once called "the first modern jazz pianist," Earl Hines differed from the stride pianists of the 1920s by breaking up the stride rhythms with unusual accents from his left hand. While his right hand often played octaves so as to ring clearly over ensembles, Hines had the trickiest left hand in the business, often suspending time recklessly but without ever losing the beat. One of the all-time great pianists, Hines was a major influence on Teddy Wilson, Jess Stacy, Joe Sullivan, Nat King Cole, and even to an extent on Art Tatum. He was also an underrated composer responsible for "Rosetta," "My Monday Date," and "You Can Depend on Me," among others.

Lost 1971 Studio Masterpiece

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Rory Block - 2 albums: Shake 'em On Down / I'm Every Woman

Album: Shake 'em On Down
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:27
Size: 115.9 MB
Styles: Contemporary blues
Year: 2011
Art: Full

[4:40] 1. Steady Freddy
[4:53] 2. Mississippi Man
[4:02] 3. Kokomo Blues
[5:17] 4. Good Morning Little School Girl
[4:53] 5. What's The Matter Now?
[4:15] 6. Shake 'em On Down
[3:43] 7. Worried Mind
[3:41] 8. The Man That I'm Lovin'
[3:11] 9. Ancestral Home
[4:21] 10. The Breadline
[3:30] 11. Woke Up This Morning
[3:55] 12. Write Me A Few Of Your Lines

When she paid tribute to Robert Johnson on her 2006 album The Lady and Mr. Johnson, Rory Block tried to replicate Johnson's style exactly. She was not so reverent on 2008's Blues Walkin' Like a Man, a tribute to Son House, and on the third album she considers part of her Mentor Series, she takes some creative license with Mississippi Fred McDowell on Shake ‘Em on Down. One difference is that she actually met House and McDowell, which seems to have freed her to take a more creative approach. She acknowledges that McDowell's driving, repetitive playing also served as a challenge, noting that he played more for dancing, intent on keeping a constant rhythm, than with any sense of virtuosity. And while she has counted the number of times a given figure might have been repeated in a particular performance of one of his songs, in her own versions she has added solo guitar lines to the basic riffs and also included other features, such as overdubbed vocal choruses. She also has written songs concerning McDowell, such as the leadoff track, "Steady Freddy," an imagined autobiography, and its successor, "Mississippi Man," her account of meeting the bluesman when she was 15. And she has adapted some of his songs, switching gender on "Good Morning Little School Girl" (which she acknowledges uneasily as being about "child predation") and "The Girl That I'm Lovin'." All of this is to say that she has applied a fan and scholar's attention as well as an artist's vision to McDowell and his work, demonstrating that a tribute requires both. ~William Ruhlmann

thank you kempen.
Shake 'em On Down

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Album: I'm Every Woman
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:33
Size: 113.5 MB
Styles: Contemporary blues
Year: 2002
Art: Full

[1:14] 1. Guitar Ditty 1
[3:43] 2. I'm Every Woman
[3:05] 3. Fool For You
[1:26] 4. Sea Lion Woman (& Gaye Adegbalola)
[3:57] 5. Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down (& Jordan Block Valdina)
[3:39] 6. Tired Of Being Alone
[4:27] 7. Love Tko
[2:22] 8. Rock Island Line (& Paul Rishell & Annie Raines)
[5:45] 9. Talkin' 'bout My Man
[3:30] 10. Ain't Nothin' Like The Real Thing (& Keb' Mo')
[5:14] 11. Pretty Polly
[5:06] 12. Hold On-Change Is Coming (& Rev. Herb Sheldon).
[5:34] 13. I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home.
[0:24] 14. Guitar Ditty 2

After listening to the opening track of I'm Every Woman, one might be inclined to expect 45 minutes of acoustic blues to follow. "Guitar Ditty" features no more than a girl and her guitar with a great big sound. It's quite surprising, then, when Rory Block cuts loose on the title cut, a pastiche of slide guitar, disco beat, and funky '70s orchestra. Clearly, the listener isn't in the Delta anymore. Indeed, Block pretty much keeps her guitar in the corner of the studio for most of the album, trading her deep blues for a healthy dose of soul, a bit of gospel, and few other odds and ends. It's probably impossible to compare I'm Every Woman to Confessions of a Blues Singer, Block's 1998 recording. One features songs by Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, and Blind Willie McTell; the other, by Al Green and Ashford-Simpson. One maintains a fairly straightforward production, centering on acoustic guitar and vocals; the other jumps from guitar ditties to a cappella gospel to full-tilt boogie. Kelly Joe Phelps lends his vocals and a nice bit of guitar to "Pretty Polly," while Annie Raines and Paul Rishell help out on a stirring vocal version of "Rock Island Line." Block also successfully tackles Bonnie Raitt/Toni Price territory with the vibrant "I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home." While there are several memorable moments on I'm Every Woman, the overall approach seems more scattershot than eclectic, and will confuse and perhaps anger Block's fans. ~Ronnie D. Lankford Jr.

thank you kempen.
I'm Every Woman

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Benny Golson - My Funny Valentine

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 78:51
Size: 180.5 MB
Styles: Hard bop, Saxophone jazz
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[4:32] 1. My Funny Valentine
[3:31] 2. Lament
[6:03] 3. Blues On Down
[5:49] 4. Hi-Fly
[3:02] 5. The Cool One
[5:53] 6. Wonder Why
[4:52] 7. Bean Bag
[3:17] 8. Five Spot After Dark
[5:00] 9. Con Alma
[2:45] 10. The Best Thing For You Is Me
[4:09] 11. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
[3:01] 12. Impromptune
[3:33] 13. Little Karin
[1:33] 14. You're My Thrill
[4:24] 15. Swing It
[4:45] 16. I Fall In Love Too Easily
[5:13] 17. The Touch
[3:33] 18. Time
[3:46] 19. Out Of This World

This 1960 session from the Jazztet, featuring tenor saxophonist Benny Golson and trumpeter Art Farmer, is a swinging, straight-ahead date. The follow-up to the ensemble's debut, 1960's Meet the Jazztet, Big City Sounds includes the midtempo groover "The Cool One," which echoes Golson's previous hit, "Killer Joe." ~Matt Collar

My Funny Valentine

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Nicki Parrott - Angel Eyes

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:59
Size: 136,5 MB
Art: Front

(4:08)  1. I Wanna Be Around
(3:23)  2. You Make Me Feel So Young
(4:39)  3. The Nearness Of You
(3:11)  4. I'll Never Be The Same
(4:34)  5. The Very Thought Of You
(4:10)  6. One For My Baby
(4:06)  7. I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues
(4:53)  8. I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out
(3:50)  9. I'm Beginning To See The Light
(3:17) 10. Can Anyone Explain (No, No, No)
(2:11) 11. Something's Gotta Give
(4:59) 12. I'm Glad There Is You
(2:46) 13. I Cried For You
(3:02) 14. You Don't Know
(5:45) 15. Angel Eyes

Born in Newcastle, Australia, Nicki started her musical training at age four with the piano, followed by the flute, soon after. Nicki switched to double bass at the age of 15.  After graduating high school she moved to Sydney to study jazz at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music where she began to play with Australian musicians such as Mike Nock, Dale Barlow, Paul Grabowsky, Bernie McGann, and Ten Part Invention. She also toured Australia with Russian musicians Daniel Kramer and Alexander Fischer and American trumpeters Bobby Shew and Chuck Findley. She continued her studies with various bassists including visiting artists Ray Brown and John Clayton. Nicki was the recipient of two awards, a scholarship to Pan Pacific Music Camps at the age of 16, and first place in the 1992 Jazz Action Society’s Annual Song Competition for her composition “Come and Get It”, which is the opening track of Nicki and her sister Lisa’s debut CD, “Awabakal Suite”. She was also nominated for the annual Australian Young Achievers Award by the Arts Council of Australia who granted her the funds to come to New York to study with Rufus Reid. Nicki came to New York in May 1994. In June 2000, Nicki began performing on Monday nights at the Iridium Jazz Club with the legendary guitarist and inventor, Les Paul. 

As part of the Les Paul Trio, Nicki worked side-by-side with guitar greats from Paul McCartney, Slash, Steve Miller to fellow Aussie, Tommy Emmanuel. Since then she has performed with such notable musicians as Michel Legrand, Joe Wilder, Randy Brecker, Clark Terry, Jose Feliciano, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Dick Hyman, Patti Labelle & the New York Pops Orchestra, Harry Allen, Warren Vache, Marlena Shaw, David Krakauer, Ken Peplowski, Ann Hampton Callaway, Bill Mays, Scott Hamilton, Lillian Boutte, Larry Carlton and Houston Person, to name a few.  

In 2007 and 2008, Nicki received back to back honors for Swing Journal’s Best Jazz Vocal Album (“Moon River” and “Fly Me to The Moon”, respectively). In 2010 her album Black Coffee (Venus) received Swing Journal’s Gold Disc award. In 2012, Nicki headlined the Fujitsu Concorde Jazz festival after the release of her eighth CD from Venus Records, “Sakura Sakura”.Nicki has performed at most major festivals around the globe including the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz in July at the 92nd Street Y, Litchfield Jazz Festival, Detroit Jazz Festival, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival and the Newport Beach Jazz Party, Jazz Ascona and Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland and many others. Nicki has also performed in several Broadway shows such as “Avenue Q”, “Imaginary Friends”, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”, “Summer of ’42” and “Jekyll and Hyde” and has made several television and documentary appearances including “The Gossip Girls”, “Chasing Sound” and “Thank You Les”, which recently debuted on PBS.  http://www.nickiparrott.com/about-us.html

Personnel:  Nicki Parrott, vocals & bass;  John Di Martino, piano

Angel Eyes

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John Scofield - Hand Jive

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 1994
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:48
Size: 146,5 MB
Art: Front

(7:00)  1. I'll Take Les
(7:43)  2. Dark Blue
(8:08)  3. Do Like Eddie
(5:53)  4. She's So Lucky
(5:28)  5. Checkered Past
(4:47)  6. 7th Floor
(7:38)  7. Golden Daze
(6:11)  8. Don't Shoot The Messenger
(5:39)  9. Whip The Mule
(5:16) 10. Out Of The City

Guitarist John Scofield and tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris make a very complementary team on this upbeat set of funky jazz, for both have immediately identifiable sounds and adventurous spirits. Along with a fine rhythm section that includes Larry Goldings on piano and organ, Scofield and Harris interact joyfully on ten of the guitarist's originals. 

~ Scott Yanow  http://www.allmusic.com/album/hand-jive-mw0000626033

Personnel: John Scofield (guitar); Eddie Harris (tenor saxophone); Larry Goldings (piano, organ); Dennis Irwin (bass); Bill Stewart (drums); Don Alias (percussion).

Hand Jive

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The Dutch Jazz Orchestra - You Go To My Head: Strayhorn And Standards

Styles: Jazz, Big Band
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:44
Size: 144,8 MB
Art: Front

(7:50)  1. Autumn in New York
(3:40)  2. Where or When
(5:49)  3. The Man I Love
(4:41)  4. I'll Remember April
(4:48)  5. I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance
(3:25)  6. Moon River
(6:30)  7. Lover Man
(5:16)  8. You Go To My Head
(2:58)  9. Night and Day
(3:19) 10. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
(2:56) 11. I'll Buy That Dream
(4:18) 12. Skylark
(4:33) 13. I've Got the World on a String
(2:35) 14. Yesterdays

The ballad component of the Great American Songbook has seldom sounded better than it does on this marvelous collaboration between the superlative Dutch Jazz Orchestra and the brilliant composer / arranger Billy Strayhorn, who wrote these exquisite charts for the Duke Ellington Orchestra over two decades beginning in the early ’40s. Eight of the arrangements are presented here for the first time, with four others preserved solely on hard-to-find radio broadcasts, and only two “Where or When” and “Lover Man” ever recorded commercially, the last in an abridged form. The most recent, a delightfully brisk cruise along Henry Mancini’s “Moon River,” dates from around 1962, five years before Strayhorn’s death at age fifty one. “Where or When” and “Lover Man” are sung by Marjorie Barnes, as are Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark” and Jerome Kern’s “Yesterdays.” Nothing is said about Barnes in the liner notes, but if she’s not an American living in the Netherlands she fashions one of the most remarkable impressions of one I’ve ever heard.

The DJO is loaded with world-class soloists, several of whom  flugel Ack van Rooyen (“Moon River,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”), clarinetist John Ruocco (“Ghost of a Chance,” “I’ve Got the World on a String”), tenor Toon Roos (“I’ll Remember April”), alto Albert Beltman (“Night and Day”), baritone Nils van Haften (“I’ll Buy That Dream”), pianist Rob van Bavel (“You Go to My Head”) are showcased on the various instrumentals. Van Rooyen escorts Ruocco on “Autumn in New York,” trombonist Martijn Sohier on “The Man I Love,” while Roos adds shapely commentary on three of the four vocal tracks. Strayhorn was nearly as prolific as he was gifted, and close to six hundred of his elegant arrangements survive. Thanks to the DJO and Strayhorn scholar Walter van de Leur, at least some of them are now accessible in state-of-the-art digital sound. This is the second DJO / Strayhorn album I’ve heard (the other is Portrait of a Silk Thread, Dutch Jazz 95001). Challenge Records has apparently produced two others, So This Is Love (CHR 70091) and Something to Live For (CHR 70092). If they are anywhere near as grand and rewarding as You Go to My Head, they're worth your attention. 

~Jack Bowers 

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/you-go-to-my-head-billy-strayhorn-and-standards-challenge-records-review-by-jack-bowers.php

Personnel: Marjorie Barnes (vocals); Mieke Honingh (violin); Erica Korthals Altes (viola); Olaf Groesz (cello); Albert Beltman (clarinet, alto saxophone); John Ruocco (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Nils Van Haften (bass clarinet, baritone saxophone); Hans Meijdam (alto saxophone); Toon Roos, Ab Schaap (tenor saxophone); Ack Van Rooijen, Ack Van Rooyen (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jan Hollander, Jan Wessels, Jan Oosthof, Ruud Breuls, Peter Van Soest (trumpet); Bert Van Dijk, Ilja Reijngoud, Martijn Sohier, Hansjörg Fink (trombone); Rob van Bavel (piano); Eric Ineke, Martijn Vink (drums).

You Go To My Head: Strayhorn And Standards

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