Ernie Wilkins & His Orchestra - Here Comes The Swingin' Mr. Wilkins

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 31:29
Size: 72.1 MB
Styles: Swing
Year: 1960/2009
Art: Front

[2:32] 1. Broadway
[2:46] 2. Surrey With The Fringe On Top
[3:10] 3. Falling In Love With Love
[2:22] 4. The Continental
[2:31] 5. Makin' Whoopee
[3:05] 6. Stompin' At The Savoy
[3:19] 7. You're Driving Me Crazy
[2:15] 8. Baubles, Bangles And Beads
[2:32] 9. Somebody Loves Me
[2:22] 10. All Of You
[2:37] 11. Gone With The Wind
[1:53] 12. It Don't Mean A Thing

Thad Jones (tp), Joe Newman (tp), Ernie Royal (tp), Snooky Young (tp), Paul Felice (tb), Al Grey (tb), Mickey Graume (tb), Jack Rains (tb), Marshall Royal (cl, as), Frank Wess (fl, as, ts), Benny Golson (ts), Zoot Sims (ts), Charlie Fowlkes (bs).

One of the most consistently rewarding arranger-writers in jazz history, it was with the great Count Basie band of the 50's that Ernie Wilkins first established his reputation as a skillful, unpretentious arranger with a particularly strong feeling for the blues. His masterful arrangements for Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Dinah Washington and many others has resulted in some of the greatest classic jazz albums of all time. These special sessions recorded at the dawning of the sixties featured an all star line up, hand picked by Mr. Wilkins to showcase his superb arrangements.

Here Comes The Swingin' Mr. Wilkins

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Kathleen Grace Band - Songbird

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:08
Size: 87.3 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2007
Art: Front

[4:28] 1. Do You Want To Know A Secret
[5:15] 2. I'll Be Seeing You
[5:04] 3. Songbird
[4:32] 4. I Return To You
[4:20] 5. Surrey With The Fringe
[3:36] 6. Sunrise Sunset
[5:23] 7. Red Sails In The Sunset
[5:27] 8. Away With Me

What happens when a lover of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell gets a jazz education? The answer is found in the music of Kathleen Grace. Her repertoire is often often compared to the work of Madeleine Peyroux and Bill Frisel; and her voice to the pure sound of a bell ringing. Grace released her critically acclaimed debut CD “Sunrise” in 2005. All About Jazz called it one the debuts of the year, JazzTimes called on major-labels to "step up." For her new project Grace has now embarked on an innovative collaborative ensemble The Kathleen Grace Band.

The band grew out of a two-year musical collaboration with guitarist Perry Smith. Their first recording, Songbird features a mix of co-written band numbers as well as acoustic vocal/guitar fairy tales. Grace and Smith joined their writing skills on the title track which pairs his beautiful melody with her lyrics of new love. The song have been selected as a finalist for the 2007 International Songwriting Competition in the jazz category. In addition to original material, the CD highlights important influences on the young composers. The opening track transforms the wide-eyed early Beatles tune "Do You Want to Know a Secret" into an adult Brazilian rendevous. The closing song, "Away with Me" written by Grace, highlights the pair’s musical chemistry and vulnerable approach to storytelling.

Kathleen Grace and Perry Smith are each award-winning composers in their own right: Grace was awarded a spot at the 2004 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead residency at the Kennedy Center and was a finalist in the 2004 Montreux Jazz Festival International Vocal Competition. Smith won ASCAP’s 2006 Young Composer Award in Jazz for his composition "Peace Park."

Songbird

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Stephen Dunwoody - Night Shift

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 37:18
Size: 85.4 MB
Styles: Blues-jazz
Year: 2014
Art: Front

[4:19] 1. Nobody's Fault But Mine
[4:04] 2. Nobody Wants To Know A Bum
[3:48] 3. Black Coffee
[4:32] 4. Good Thing Goin' On
[4:21] 5. Fighting Without Fire
[4:33] 6. Tripping Off Your Tongue
[3:28] 7. Going To Get You Back
[4:35] 8. Love Will Overcome
[3:34] 9. Mercy Me

Night Shift is a blues and jazz album. Two years ago I started to work on a series of demos under the working title of 33rpm. As it progressed I started to listen to more and more of Nina Simone and the jazz singers of the 50s and 60s. I often worked late into the night rehearsing a set that would become the album. I wanted to be able to play it live with minimalist accompanyment - just piano and vocal with perhaps bass and percussion.

A big thank you to Emily Olive Boyd who sang on Going To Get You Back and to Ruth Trimble at Chicken Shack recording studio. Thank you also to Andy at Blackdog Studios in Florida and all the support from the lovely paople at Lagan Sessions.

Night Shift

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Joe Beck, Laura Theodore - Golden Earrings

Styles: Vocal and Guitar Jazz
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:32
Size: 109,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:25)  1. Johnny Guitar
(2:25)  2. Why Don't You Do Right?
(3:10)  3. Take a Little Time To Smile
(3:55)  4. Fever
(2:31)  5. My Small Senor
(2:23)  6. Don't Smoke In Bed
(3:35)  7. I Get Along Without You Very Well
(2:32)  8. You Was Right Baby
(2:56)  9. I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me
(3:08) 10. Solitude
(2:04) 11. Everything Is Moving Too Fast
(3:17) 12. When You Speak With Your Eyes
(3:15) 13. Golden Earrings
(2:59) 14. I Don't Know Enough About You
(3:20) 15. What More Can a Woman Do?
(2:27) 16. Manana

The duet program Golden Earrings is Laura Theodore's ode to Peggy Lee's standard-setting duets with her husband, guitarist and co-composer Dave Barbour. Subsequent circumstances have added a sadder tribute to Theodore's instrumental partner, guitarist Joe Beck, who recorded his final work on Golden Earrings before he succumbed to cancer in July 2008. Tribute offerings can be tricky propositions. If you stay too close to the originals, critics say that you're simply "aping" them; change them too much and critics complain that you've strayed too far. Golden Earrings shows how Theodore and Beck mastered both approaches. Theodore delivers her most confident and flirty vocal on Lee's famous cougar growl "Why Don't You Do Right," keeping its sultry beat with Beck. But they completely reinvent "Fever" by highlighting its "off rhythms" and trading a vamped ending that blasts the original tune into a completely different universe. 

Theodore and Beck consistently sound like they're simply having a ball working this material out. Beck strums out a sunny bossa nova to walk with Theodore's bright and warm vocal in "Take a Little Time to Smile." His accompaniment in "Don't Smoke in Bed" seems played in no discernable rhythm; he simply follows the vocal in whatever time Theodore chooses to sing the perfect accompanist. Theodore snaps off "I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me" like she's popping bubble gum, and she reshapes the melody and rhythm of "I Get Along Without You Very Well" like Ella Fitzgerald would, transforming Hoagy Carmichael's original into a lilting, soft blue haze. It seems entirely appropriate in retrospect that Beck's electric guitar haunts the first verses to introduce Theodore's voice and open "Johnny Guitar." No writer or speaker could craft a finer eulogy than Beck's own guitar voice. Theodore and Beck may use different instruments, but they sing in one voice. The final line of the title track, a mysterious tale of romantic gypsy legend, presents your invitation to enjoy this offering: "Let this pair of golden earrings cast their spell tonight."~ Chris M. Slawecki http://www.allaboutjazz.com/golden-earrings-laura-theodore-whaling-city-sound-review-by-chris-m-slawecki.php

Personnel: Laura Theodore: vocals; Joe Beck: guitars.

Golden Earrings

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Peter Fessler - Eastside Moments

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1999
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:49
Size: 116,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:16)  1. All The Things That You Are
(5:16)  2. September Song
(3:24)  3. Shadow Of Your Smile
(2:56)  4. Give Me One More Chance
(3:54)  5. What Now My Love
(6:12)  6. Love And Laughter
(4:59)  7. Remembering
(2:16)  8. Só Danço Samba
(5:16)  9. Oh Sonho
(4:50) 10. Rainbow Songs
(4:36) 11. Dindi
(3:49) 12. Night Song

Although Peter Fessler last usually appeared with his trio and recorded, so it really does not require a band around. Randy Crawford have their sleeper combo better not brought in the past year for their tour of Germany. Fessler it made the American the opening act before namely, how enraptured only with voice and guitar an audience. He creates with his new CD also. Discreetly accompanied by two guests, percussionist Café and Saxer Vincent Henry, it is the acoustic guitar and especially the voice Fesslers standing in the foreground. 

Has the singer demonstrates his last albums again, what extraordinary vocal acrobat he may be, he is setting its focus on the soulful and "conventional" singing the lyrics. No wild tongue twister inserts So, at best occasional disciplined scats. Half of the songs comes from his own pen and fits to choose from the Standards. Fesslers affinity for Brazilian music is unmistakable and makes sure that this disk is at least as good as a caipirinha tastes. © Jazzthing - Christoph Giese -Jazz Thing (11/99) Translate by google http://www.amazon.de/Eastside-Moments-Peter-Fessler/dp/B00002R31D

Eastside Moments

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John Basile - Time Will Reveal

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:47
Size: 112,4 MB
Art: Front

(5:30)  1. Up Up and Away
(3:13)  2. Killer Joe
(4:35)  3. La Samba
(5:24)  4. Betcha By Golly Wow
(5:21)  5. Morning
(4:36)  6. Time Will Reveal
(5:55)  7. Superstar
(3:11)  8. Groovin'
(2:48)  9. Jordu
(4:43) 10. For the Love of You
(3:25) 11. Mambo Inn

Set aside, for a moment, the classic venues like the Montreux Jazz Festival and to truly appreciate jazz you have to understand it's not a form of music that was ever intended to be heard in the great outdoors and in football stadiums. To truly groove on jazz it should be listened to indoors. Preferably, in concert halls with superb acoustics and cozy clubs where the musicians can not only be seen, but heard. Which is where guys like John Basile comes in. It's not likely Basile is ever going to fill stadiums with thousands of rabidly enthusiastic fans who have traveled for miles and camped out for days just to hear the Boston-based guitarist play. That kind of mass hysteria is limited to dinosaur rock bands like The Rolling Stones lumbering through "Jumpin' Jack Flash" for the umpteenth time. Jazz thrives in the quiet, not the loud and so does John Basile. He plays in a smaller league where bombast and big sound is neither expected nor enjoyed. Basile is part of the overlooked and unappreciated group of pros going about the serious business of keeping the idiom alive. Basile's Time Will Reveal is a showcase for his deft and melodic guitar playing as he's supported by a group of savvy sidemen tight as a drumhead and a perfect compliment to his sensitive and supple performance on 11 compositions.

Basile and producer/bassist David Finck selected songs for Time Will Reveal that will instantly be familiar to anyone who listened to AM or FM radio from the '50s through to the '80s. In some ways when a musician covers well-known pop hits like The 5th Dimension's "Up, Up and Away" or The Isley Brothers "For the Love of You" they are opening themselves up to be compared unfavorably to the original. The listener who is familiar with the song being covered comes to the table with a certain anticipation of how faithful to the original the new interpretation should be. Too often producers treat covering pop tunes as an exercise for bored musicians to warm up over before tackling the "serious" music. Wisely, Finck's production avoids the trap of slavishly trying to recreate, note-by-note, Benny Golson's classic "Killer Joe," made popular by Quincy Jones and Duke Jordan's "Jordu," or suffocating the songs under a glob of strings, synthesizers, background vocals or lumbering solos. The music here is traditional jazz with the arrangements featuring acoustic instruments (drums, bass, vibes, piano) and Basile's genial guitar at the center. It's a delight to hear musicians respect the original material instead of trying to radically reinvent it. Time Will Reveal offers a fine showcase of Basile's facile and flowing guitar style and a tastefully restrained group of musicians playing expressively without embellishment. It's the kind of album that keeps sneaking back into your CD player.~ Jeff Winbush http://www.allaboutjazz.com/time-will-reveal-john-basile-underhill-jazz-review-by-jeff-winbush.php

Personnel: John Basile: guitars; David Finck: bass; Clint DeGanon: drums; Roger Squitero: percussion; Joe Locke: vibes; Bill O'Connell: piano; Barry Danielian: trumpet; Bob Mallach: tenor saxophone; Byron Olsen: piano (10); Jeff Kievit: trumpet (6).

Time Will Reveal

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