Saturday, July 18, 2015

Red Richards - Echoes Of Spring

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:48
Size: 150.6 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 1998
Art: Front

[9:39] 1. There Will Never Be Another You
[6:11] 2. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
[4:52] 3. Them There Eyes
[6:28] 4. S'wonderful
[7:55] 5. Isn't It Romantic
[7:25] 6. Daydream
[4:59] 7. I'm In The Market For You
[4:43] 8. Echoes Of Spring
[6:48] 9. It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing
[6:43] 10. Things Ain't What They Used To Be

Red Richards (vocals, piano); Claude "Fiddler" Williams (vocals, violin); Norris Turney (alto saxophone); Joe Ascione (drums). Recorded live at Nick Vollebregts Jazzcafe, Laren, Holland in 1997.

Richards began playing classical piano at age ten, and concentrated on jazz from age 16 after hearing Fats Waller. His first major professional gig was with Tab Smith at New York's Savoy Ballroom from 1945 to 1949. following this he played with Bob Wilber (1950–51) and Sidney Bechet (1951). He toured Italy and France in 1953 with Mezz Mezzrow's band alongside Buck Clayton and Big Chief Moore, also accompanying Frank Sinatra during his time in Italy. He played with Muggsy Spanier on and off from 1953 through the end of the decade, and with Fletcher Henderson in 1957-58. In 1958 he did some time as a solo performer in Columbus, Ohio, then played with Wild Bill Davison in 1958-59 and again in 1962.

In 1960 he formed Saints & Sinners with Vic Dickenson, playing with this ensemble until 1970. He joined Jazz drummer Chuck Slate and his band in 1971 and stayed with him most of the year. He recorded an album with Chuck called "Bix 'N All That Jazz" Following this he did work with Eddie Condon (1975–77), then played with his own trio in 1977-78. He played with Panama Francis's group, the Savoy Sultans, worldwide from 1979 through the 1980s. He recorded with Bill Coleman in 1980. He continued to tour almost up until the time of his death.

Echoes Of Spring

Tom Ball - Solo Guitar: Music From Films

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:08
Size: 103.4 MB
Styles: Guitar jazz
Year: 2007
Art: Front

[2:28] 1. Manha De Carnaval
[3:01] 2. The Water Is Wide
[2:50] 3. Secret Love
[2:11] 4. The Way You Look Tonight
[3:43] 5. To Kill A Mockingbird
[3:23] 6. The Long Riders
[3:20] 7. Yesterday
[2:43] 8. Wild Mountain Thyme
[2:37] 9. Funeral March Of A Marionette
[2:59] 10. Pelagia's Song
[2:18] 11. Blue Bell
[3:26] 12. The Maestro And Margarita
[2:46] 13. Jump In The Line
[3:38] 14. Once Upon A Time In The West
[3:38] 15. Over The Rainbow

On this CD Ball tackles some of the most memorable film music ever composed. Alongside new arrangements of such beloved pieces as Over the Rainbow, Manhá de Carnaval and Yesterday, the guitarist has also chosen several lesser known obscurities such as the sublime Wild Mountain Thyme and the hauntingly radiant themes to Once Upon a Time in the West and To Kill a Mockingbird.

In addition to the varied material, another standout aspect of this recording is the use of a vintage steel stringed instrument in this case a 1936 Gibson. While other players have recorded some of these pieces on the classical (nylon string) guitar, very few of these selections have ever been rendered on steel strings. The result is an ultra-warm resonance, with an unusual clarity of attack and an often shimmering presence.

Expertly played and recorded with tube microphones over the span of a year, Solo Guitar ~ Music From Films transports the listener to a musical world where Catalan composers can live next door to Celtic harpers; where contemporary Hollywood film scorers shake hands with Bahamian street musicians; and where Tin Pan Alley can peacefully exist within the favelas of Rio. Once again, in Tom Ball’s capable hands it’s all simply guitar music and fine guitar music indeed.

Solo Guitar Music From Films

Melinda Whitaker - Lucky So-And-So!

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:26
Size: 99.4 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[3:21] 1. The Song Is You
[6:18] 2. My Foolish Heart
[5:26] 3. I'm A Lucky So And So
[4:35] 4. Overjoyed
[4:14] 5. A Felicidade
[6:00] 6. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry
[4:45] 7. Creepin'
[3:00] 8. Just Friends
[5:43] 9. You've Changed

With Juno-winning saxophonist Phil Dwyer in the producer's chair, Melinda Whitaker is in good hands here. Along with such other ace players as Brad Turner and Ian MacDougall, he helps frame Whitaker's adventurous yet assured vocal performances. Great American Songbook selections dominate, but covers of Stevie Wonder ("Overjoyed") and Jobim ( album highlight "Happiness") help add variety. Whitaker has worked as a session vocalist in a wide range of genres, but jazz is her real love. That shows here. ~Kerry Doole

Lucky So-And-So!

Blue Mitchell - Graffiti Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:15
Size: 115.0 MB
Styles: Hard bop, Trumpet jazz
Year: 1974/1991
Art: Front

[7:15] 1. Graffiti Blues
[5:28] 2. Yeah Ya Right
[5:05] 3. Express
[7:23] 4. Asso-Kam
[8:58] 5. Dorado
[3:22] 6. Alone Again (Naturally)
[3:30] 7. Where It's At
[4:33] 8. Funky Walk
[4:38] 9. Blue Funk

The fourth of five Mainstream sets led by Blue Mitchell (which has been reissued on CD) finds the flexible hard bop trumpeter joined by a soulful and funky rhythm section (either Joe Sample or Walter Bishop Jr. on keyboards, guitarist Freddie Robinson, electric bassist Darrell Clayborn and drummer Ray Pounds) and tenor saxophonist Herman Riley. The group plays three straight funky blues, including the title cut which features Don Bailey on harmonica, as well as a couple of basic Sample originals and a Mitchell ballad feature on "Alone Again, Naturally." Although not up to the same level as Blue Mitchell's earlier Blue Note dates, this accessible set does a good job of balancing worthwhile solos with catchy rhythms and has dated surprisingly well. ~Scott Yanow

Graffiti Blues

Mary Foster Conklin - You'd Be Paradise

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 2001
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:32
Size: 113,7 MB
Art: Front

(4:19)  1. Devil May Care
(4:00)  2. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
(3:22)  3. Don't Get Scared
(4:08)  4. But For Now
(6:06)  5. Baby, You Should Know It
(4:34)  6. Broken Bicycles
(5:38)  7. Everything Happens To Me
(4:42)  8. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
(4:22)  9. The Windmills Of Your Mind/Theme From "The Thomas Crowne Affair"
(4:05) 10. Nirvana
(4:10) 11. Right On My Way Home

Hip singer, splendid album. To elaborate  New York–based songstress Mary Foster Conklin, who obviously loves what she does, goes around the block and back to avoid the obvious on You’d Be Paradise, complementing no less than four sophisticated tunes by the inimitable Bob Dorough with one each by David Cantor (“Nirvana”), Tom Waits (“Broken Bicycles”) and Michel Legrand (“The Windmills of Your Mind”), King Pleasure’s wry commentary on Stan Getz’s opus “Don’t Get Scared,” a brace of venerable Cole Porter standards (“My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To”) and Matt Dennis / Thomas Adair’s plaintive lament, “Everything Happens to Me” (set to a pleasant Latin beat, but one that fails to capture the essence of Dennis’ heart rending version). 

Conklin has a clear and charming mid–range voice, knows how to sell a lyric, and is reinforced by the presence of a world class rhythm section that knows when to press and when to ease up. She has chosen some lovely melodies, none of which has been restated enough to grow stale, even Porter’s classics from the first half of the twentieth century. Dorough’s insouciant “Devil May Care” is a tantalizing curtain raiser, and his lovely ballad “But for Now” is no less agreeable, nor are Waits’ perceptive “Broken Bicycles,” Cantor’s touching “Nirvana” or the better–known “Windmills of Your Mind,” which Conklin says she heard Legrand sing in French on a July 4 evening in the Big Apple. Conklin wraps the package neatly with Dorough / Lynn Gibson’s witty “Right on My Way Home,” ably abetted, as she is on every number, by the impressively compatible foursome of Mays, Vignola, Burr and Ascione who commit themselves uncompromisingly to the task at hand. Playing time is less than fifty minutes, but Conklin and her companions make each of them shine. Hip singer, splendid album. ~ Jack Bowers  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/youd-be-paradise-mary-foster-conklin-mock-turtle-music-review-by-jack-bowers.php 

Personnel: Mary Foster Conklin, vocals; Bill Mays, piano; Frank Vignola, guitar; Jon Burr, bass; Joe Ascione, drums.

You'd Be Paradise

Scott Hamilton - East of the Sun

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1993
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:12
Size: 145,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:21)  1. Autumn Leaves
(4:03)  2. Stardust
(6:08)  3. It Could Happen to You
(5:36)  4. It Never Entered My Mind
(5:44)  5. Bernie's Tune
(5:38)  6. East of the Sun (And West of the Moon)
(4:32)  7. Time After Time
(6:12)  8. Setagaya Serenade
(4:59)  9. That's All
(8:50) 10. All the Things You Are
(6:04) 11. (Back Home Again In) Indiana

For this Concord CD, tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton gave the readers of Japan's Swing Journal the opportunity to vote on which songs they would like him to record. With the exception of his original "Setagaya Serenade" (a stomping blues that Hamilton took the liberty of performing) and "Autumn Leaves," he had recorded all of these veteran songs previously, but Hamilton's melodic improvisations do not copy the earlier versions. With the assistance of an English rhythm section (pianist Brian Lemon, bassist Dave Green, and drummer Allan Ganley), Hamilton is in typically swinging form on this fine set of standards and ballads. ~ Scott Yanow  http://www.allmusic.com/album/east-of-the-sun-mw0000622252

Personnel: Scott Hamilton (tenor saxophone); Brian Lemon (piano); Dave Green (bass); Allan Ganley (drums).

East of the Sun

Shirley Horn - You Won't Forget Me

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 1990
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:12
Size: 164,4 MB
Art: Front

(6:31)  1. The Music That Makes Me Dance
(2:52)  2. Come Dance With Me
(6:03)  3. Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin'
(3:39)  4. Beautiful Love
(3:47)  5. Come Back To Me
(6:04)  6. Too Late Now
(2:26)  7. I Just Found Out About Love
(6:54)  8. It Had To Be You
(3:33)  9. Soothe Me
(2:50) 10. Foolin' Myself
(9:02) 11. If You Go
(3:47) 12. You Stepped Out Of A Dream
(7:13) 13. You Won't Forget Me
(6:25) 14. All My Tomorrows

With 1991's You Won't Forget Me, Shirley Horn's star continued to rise. While mostly ballads, this recording also includes swinging takes on "I Just Found Out About Love" and "Foolin' Myself." Toots Thielemans stars with his distinctive harmonica sound on "Beautiful Love" and "Soothe Me," and the unmistakable trumpet of Miles Davis weaves around Horn's vocal on the title track. The opening medley moves from the almost-whispered ballad "The Music That Makes Me Dance," to a funkily midtempo "Come Dance with Me." "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" is absolutely gorgeous, with Wynton Marsalis stepping in to trade phrases with Horn's voice. 

The music here is mostly taken at a very leisurely tempo, and the spare arrangements allow plenty of room for the music to breathe, proving that less is often more. The only complaint is that such spaciousness generates is a certain sameness to the material, but this is leavened by the guest appearances of Thielemans, Davis, the brothers Marsalis, and tenorman Buck Hill. ~ Jim Newsom  http://www.allmusic.com/album/you-wont-forget-me-mw0000267263

You Won't Forget Me

Stryker-Slagle Band - Latest Outlook

Styles: Guitar And Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:08
Size: 140,3 MB
Art: Front

( 5:00)  1. Knew Hold
( 7:06)  2. Latest Outlook
( 8:12)  3. Bird Flew
( 7:52)  4. Hartland
(11:42)  5. Dear Mr. Hicks
( 6:40)  6. Self-Portrait in Three Colors
( 8:36)  7. Turning Point
( 6:00)  8. In Just Time

After last year's Live at The Jazz Standard, the Slagle/Stryker band reconvened in the studio to record a batch of new compositions. The general sound of Latest Outlook is completely different from the previous recording the leaders are the only two musicians to appear this time around, and the quartet is enhanced by the presence of Joe Lovano's tenor saxophone on two tracks. The first impression you get is that they seem to swing harder in the confines of a studio without the time constraints of a "set," the group seems to play more freely and the improvisations sound a bit more spontaneous. Just check out Billy Hart's drum solo on "Latest Outlook and the dueling leads of the two saxophones on "Bird Flew, a Stryker original dedicated to Charlie Parker.

One track that immediately stands out is "Hartland, on which Stryker plays with a steel-string acoustic (though he overdubs an electric solo), providing a background to create more improvised moments; listen how bassist Jay Anderson takes advantage of this by playing subtler notes on his instrument and also engaging in a beautiful duet with Slagle during the main melody. Lovano joins the quartet once again for "Dear Mr. Hicks, a Slagle original written in tribute to pianist John Hicks, who had recently passed at the time of the recording. As the liners state, Slagle played with him in the Mingus Big Band and the Joe Lovano Nonet, and the tune is intended "to represent his musical personality starting with an elegy that leads into some hard swing. He reaches that goal, and hearing the two saxophonists exchange jabs, backed by Anderson's steady walking bass, is a pleasure. The highlight of this album is Charles Mingus' "Self-Portrait in Three Colors, the only cover on the disc. The tune's simple changes give the musicians a chance to explore their chops. Stryker is in his element, playing a song he knows well and doing it in his own way. ~ Ernest Barteldes  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/latest-outlook-stryker-slagle-band-zoho-music-review-by-ernest-barteldes.php

Personnel: Dave Stryker: guitar; Steve Slagle: alto and soprano saxophone; Jay Anderson: bass; Billy Hart: drums; Joe Lovano: tenor saxophone (3,5).

Latest Outlook

Oli Silk - So Many Ways

Styles: Smooth Jazz
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:28
Size: 117,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:38)  1. Eve's Song
(4:12)  2. So Many Ways
(4:51)  3. London to L.A. Express
(4:24)  4. Deuces Wild
(3:44)  5. San Carlos Approach
(3:44)  6. Easy Does It
(4:21)  7. Hats Off
(5:44)  8. Summer Fling
(5:37)  9. Lazy Sunday Groove
(4:50) 10. Pen to Paper
(5:17) 11. Rushmoor Café

This twenty-something British composer/keyboardist who made his initial splash in the U.K. in the early 2000s as part of the duo Sugar & Silk, may have been a new face on the U.S. smooth jazz scene in 2006, but Oli Silk's solo debut perfectly summarizes what the genre is all about. He starts with a sweet blend of laid-back atmospheres and a beautiful acoustic piano melody on "Eve's Song," then goes slightly funkier and urban on "So Many Ways" (featuring the soaring chorus vocals of Yvonne John-Lewis). Like something out of the Jeff Lorber school of soulful keyboarding, the Fender Rhodes-driven "London to L.A. Express" captures the popular old school vibe the genre is often known for. And just when he's getting a bit too laid back, he grooves it up with guest saxman Jaared for the disc's most lively cut "Deuces." Sadly, that track was too adventurous for the "don't want to offend anyone" vibe of the modern format, so the lush but less remarkable "Easy Does It" was chosen as the debut single. 

Jaared makes a repeat visit on "Summer Fling," yet another song which fulfills a genre requisite, having a R&B-flavored vocal (by Bruce Parker) on the album. Ironically, while there are truly no innovations to be found and Silk seems the whole time to simply try to keep the smooth customer satisfied with stuff that goes down easy, So Many Ways is also one of the most likeable genre discs of the year and holds up after repeated listens. It'll surely give ammo to those who hate the genre, and probably won't overly excite fans of more entrenched keyboard artists (like Lorber or Silk's labelmate Gregg Karukas). But it's still a gem in its own way and, in what almost seems revolutionary in the modern smooth jazz climate it doesn't have a cover tune! ~ Jonathan Widran  http://www.allmusic.com/album/so-many-ways-mw0000735545

Personnel: Oli Silk (vocals, keyboards, programming); Yvonne John Lewis, Bruce Parker (vocals); Matt Park (guitar); Julian Crampton (bass guitar); Damon Sawyer (drums).

So Many Ways