Coleman Hawkins - The Hawk In Hi-Fi

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:11
Size: 156.1 MB
Styles: Bop, Saxophone jazz
Year: 1956/1999
Art: Front

[4:57] 1. Body And Soul
[3:02] 2. Little Girl Blue
[3:05] 3. I Never Knew
[3:09] 4. Dinner For One Please, James
[3:22] 5. The Bean Stalks Again
[2:59] 6. His Very Own Blues
[4:07] 7. The Day You Came Along
[3:03] 8. Jumping For Jane
[3:28] 9. Essence Of Jazz
[2:58] 10. There Will Never Be Another You
[2:34] 11. I'm Shooting High
[2:40] 12. Bean And The Boys (39- 25- 39)
[3:09] 13. There Will Never Be Another You (2)
[3:26] 14. There Will Never Be Another You (3)
[3:10] 15. Little Girl Blue
[3:17] 16. Dinner For One Please, James
[3:12] 17. I Never Knew
[3:13] 18. Have You Met Miss Jones (Alt 1)
[3:14] 19. Have You Met Miss Jones
[2:26] 20. Have You Met Miss Jones
[3:32] 21. The Day You Came Along

In January 1956, veteran tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins recorded a dozen songs, eight with a string orchestra and four accompanied by a big band, all arranged by Billy Byers. Hawkins is the main soloist throughout the CD reissue, and he was still very much in his prime 33 years after he first joined Fletcher Henderson's orchestra; in fact, the upcoming 1957 would be one of his finest years. However, Byers' arrangements are more functional than inspired, and some of these selections are more easy listening than they are swinging. Still, there are some strong moments (particularly on "The Bean Stalks Again" and "His Very Own Blues") and, although not classic, this is a pleasing release, augmented by nine previously unreleased alternate takes, all but one of which are complete. ~Scott Yanow

The Hawk In Hi-Fi

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Various - Adios Amigo: A Tribute To Arthur Alexander

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s

Time: 52:53

Size: 121.1 MB

Styles: R&B, Country, Rock

Year: 1994

Art: Front

[3:05] 1. Roger McGuinn - Anna

[2:14] 2. Elvis Costello - Sally Sue Brown

[3:59] 3. Robert Plant - If It's Really Got To Be This Way

[3:10] 4. Graham Parker - Every Day I Have To Cry

[3:40] 5. Chuck Jackson & Mark Knopfler - You Better Move On

[2:22] 6. Frank Black - Old John Amos

[2:30] 7. Marshall Crenshaw - Adios Amigo

[3:34] 8. Sir Mac Rice, Michael Hill - Let's Think About It

[3:05] 9. John Prine - Lonely Just Like Me

[2:52] 10. Corey Glover - Johnny Heartbreak

[3:01] 11. Nick Lowe - In The Middle Of It All

[3:58] 12. Zucchero - From Now On

[2:57] 13. Frank Black, Gary U.S. Bonds - Go Home Girl

[3:01] 14. Felix Cavalieri - I Love You So

[4:18] 15. James Hudson - Baby Can't You Wait

[2:34] 16. Gary U.S. Bonds - Genie In The Jug

[2:25] 17. Dann Penn, Donnie Fritts - Adios Amigo

Among musicians, Arthur Alexander was always considered one of the greatest R&B songwriters. Both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones covered his songs, "Anna (Go to Him)" and "You Better Move On," respectively, early in their careers. But they weren't the only ones -- throughout the years, his work was rich source material for many blues, soul, rock, and country artists. He may have earned the recognition of his peers, but he remained relatively unknown to the general public, right up to his death in 1993. In order to raise his profile, Razor & Tie released Adios Amigo: A Tribute to Arthur Alexander in 1994, assembling a stellar and diverse lineup to record new versions of his songs. The diversity and the fresh arrangements illustrates the depth of Alexander's songs and how well they lent themselves to new readings. Like any tribute album, Adios Amigo is uneven, with a few tracks falling flat, but the best moments Elvis Costello's "Sally Sue Brown," Robert Plant's "If It's Really Got to Be This Way," Chuck Jackson's "You Better Move On," Frank Black's "Old John Amos," John Prine's "Lonely Just Like Me," Gary U.S. Bonds' "Genie in the Jug," Graham Parker's "Every Day I Have to Cry" and Nick Lowe's "In the Middle of It All" are affectionate salutes to a departed master, and they're damn enjoyable in their own right as well. ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Adios Amigo: A Tribute To Arthur Alexander

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Christina Gustafsson - My Move

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:00
Size: 100.7 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2009
Art: Front

[3:10] 1. Your Smiling Face
[5:06] 2. Take A Fall
[4:12] 3. My Move
[2:57] 4. I've Got The World On A String
[4:59] 5. Standing Where The Changes Begin
[4:27] 6. Winter Has Gone
[2:55] 7. Smile
[1:03] 8. Happy Talk
[5:15] 9. Stormy Weather
[4:49] 10. In The Light Of New York
[5:03] 11. Smiling Hour

Christina Gustafsson is sister of the better known Swedish jazz vocalist Rigmor Gustafsson. This is her second album, a follow-up to Moments Free (Prophone, 2007). Gustafsson feels herself to be part of the singer/songwriter tradition but employs a team of three text writers—Cecilia Åse, Helena Davidsson and Stefan Danielsson—who, she says, "have worked close together and talked about me (sic) thoughts of life right now and what the contents of the lyrics should be. That's the reason why the lyrics became very personal and intimate." The obvious question is: "Wouldn't they be still more personal and intimate if you wrote them yourself?"

There is the nasty suspicion that—having worked the trick with Rigmor—Svengalian forces are now trying to make the same formula succeed all over again with her sister. Not that Christina Gustafsson doesn't have some vocal and, perhaps, musical talent. It's just that she hasn't developed it a great deal. Maybe this is the fault of her homeland. Swedes often refer to it derisorily as ankdammen, "the duckpond." And the impression here is of a small coterie of people doing their thing, then telling each other they've achieved a great result. Had a little more thought and care been taken, and had an outside, more cynical eye been allowed to focus on the proceedings, who knows; perhaps Gustafsson could have been prodded into coming up with something truly original. As it is, there is really nothing here that you haven't heard before, many times over.

The feeling of déja vu sets in right from the start with James Taylor's "Your Smiling Face," and continues through three of Gustafsson's "personal and intimate" collaborations with Åse and Davidsson ("Take A Fall," "My Move," "Winter Has Gone" and "In the Light of New York") and one with Danielsson ("Standing Where The Changes Begin"). The impression is of bits and pieces taken from various popular musical forms and stitched together. To this are added English lyrics that are almost but not totally there ("Look at her—she's moving in New York"... "The road is about to wind"). Guitarists Max Schultz and Erik Söderlind are both gifted but are rarely given a chance to cut loose. There are the obligatory standards: Harold Arlen's "I've Got The World On A String" and a rather edgy 5/4 version of "Stormy Weather," and Charlie Chaplin's "Smile," which Gustafsson does as a sometimes out-of-sync duet with bassist Martin Höper. Then there is a surprisingly good version of "Happy Talk" from South Pacific (1949), also performed as a duet with Höper, who this time wisely restricts himself to a purely instrumental role. Everything climaxes with a rather shy sing-along—with sister Rigmor and vocalists Sofia Pettersson and Lina Nyberg—of "Smiling Hour," taken from Sarah Vaughan's album, Copacabana (Pablo, 1979). ~Chris Mosey

Christina Gustafsson: vocals; Max Schultz, Erik Söderlind: guitars; Martin Höper, bass; Calle Rasmusson, drums.

My Move

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Jose James & Jef Neve - For All We Know

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:44
Size: 116.1 MB
Styles: Piano jazz, Contemporary jazz vocals
Year: 2010
Art: Front

[3:18] 1. Autumn In New York
[6:13] 2. Embraceable You
[5:18] 3. Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You
[6:24] 4. Body And Soul
[5:12] 5. When I Fall In Love
[7:24] 6. Tenderly
[4:13] 7. Just Squeeze Me
[7:26] 8. Lush Life
[5:11] 9. For All We Know

Fans of vocalist José James have hardly had time to catch their breath in 2010. His new-school R&B album Blackmagic (a sophomore effort released in March 2010 on Gilles Peterson's Brownswood imprint) was still being fired by DJs in clubs and on European and Japanese radio, while garnering acclaim globally. Barely two months later, James popped this set out in May. For All We Know is a duet recording with Belgian jazz pianist Jef Neve. It's James' first album to be released in the United States -- his home country -- and the first of newly recorded material on Impulse! Records in six years. Musically, this set couldn’t be more different from his two preceding offerings. There are no star productions by Flying Lotus, Nicola Conte, Moodymann, or Jazzanova this time out. This intimate nine-track collection of standards from the Great American Songbook was produced by the duo who made it. All but one cut was recorded in a single six-hour session, and the majority of these performances are first takes. This is a “pure” jazz recording. James and Neve pull out heavy hitters from the repertoire, "Autumn in New York," the Gershwins' "Embraceable You," "Body and Soul," and Duke Ellington's "Just Squeeze Me" among them. James -- who studied and played with jazz greats Chico Hamilton and Junior Mance -- is not overly reverent, but he is disciplined as well as innovative. Neve’s pianism pushes that envelope a little further still. His light touch, elegant harmonics, and subtly innovative fills and solos give James all the support and room he needs. Listen to this version of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life." At over seven minutes, its graceful melody is taken deeply inside his rich, warm, sometimes arid baritone (the same way John Coltrane took it inside his horn -- this tune is a tribute to him) and brought out again as a compact universe of mystery, imagination, and marvelously diverse ethereal textures with Neve creating enough intuitive space around it to make it possible. The duo’s reading of "When I Fall in Love" is downright moving. It holds no trace of the nostalgia usually associated with its many interpretations. James is able to express the deep yearning in the lyric and melody without over-emoting. For jazz fans who’ve not heard him, this album is a very new turn on some well-worn music by a major talent. For James' fans -- who all knew he could sing like this -- For All We Know adds a different kind of depth and dimension to his established recorded oeuvre thus far. ~Thom Jurek

For All We Know

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Bud Shank - The Doctor Is In

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:52
Size: 144,6 MB
Art: Front

(5:37)  1. The Doctor Is In
(6:09)  2. Embraceable You
(6:05)  3. If I Shoul Lose You
(4:27)  4. J.P.'s Afternoon
(7:53)  5. I Can't Get Started
(6:51)  6. I'm Old Fashioned
(4:23)  7. Once I Had A Secret Love
(6:43)  8. Sonatina For Melissa
(8:30)  9. Over The Rainbow
(6:10) 10. The Doctor Is In

Good '91 session featuring the steady cool and bop-tinged alto sax solos of Bud Shank in a combo setting. He's backed by pianist Mike Wofford, bassist Bob Magnusson, and drummer Sherman Ferguson. They tackle familiar standards and a few originals, and make satisfying, if unchallenging, music. ~ Ron Wynn  http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-doctor-is-in-mw0000092501

Personnel: Bud Shank (alto saxophone), Mike Wofford (piano), Bob Magnusson (bass), Sherman Ferguson (drums).

The Doctor Is In

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Eddie Daniels & Roger Kellaway - Live at the Library of Congress

Styles: Clarinet And Piano Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:31
Size: 143,4 MB
Art: Front

(8:29)  1. Strike Up the Band
(7:22)  2. Capriccio Twilight
(5:33)  3. Somewhere
(6:14)  4. Rhythm-a-ning
(6:34)  5. America the Beautiful
(6:12)  6. Etude of a Woman / Pretty Women
(6:28)  7. Just Friends
(7:10)  8. A Place That You Want to Call Home
(4:27)  9. 50 State Rambler

The Library Of Congress is a repository for important cultural artifacts, so it seems only fitting that it should serve as the stage for a duo recital from two of jazz's greatest treasures. Clarinetist Eddie Daniels and pianist Roger Kellaway have built their individual careers and reputations as genre-blind artists with near-unmatched technical prowess on their respective instruments, making them ideally suited as duo partners. Daniels' place in jazz history was sealed when he joined up with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra as the group came into being in the mid-'60s, but his career path which has involved straight-ahead outings, soundtrack recordings, session work with artists like Paul Simon, Chaka Khan, and Billy Joel, and solo albums that blur genre lines has never been limited to jazz. In fact, Daniels is one of only a handful of artists who are equally respected on both sides of the classical-jazz divide.

Kellaway, in similar fashion, is recognized as a giant-sized talent that can't be bound by any category. He served as Bobby Darin's musical director in the late '60s, participated in sessions with artists like Wes Montgomery, Sonny Rollins, and Ben Webster, wrote music for the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, and Los Angeles Philharmonic even finding time to make the occasional leader date to show off his dazzling chops and engaging compositions. While both men came together for Daniels' Memos From Paradise (GRP, 1988), their partnership really blossomed two decades later when they became label mates and joined forces for A Duet Of One (IPO, 2009). Now, two years later, they've reunited for an even more impressive set. While both albums paint this pair as a twosome with limitless imagination and skill, capable of shifting gears with ease and willing to go wherever the music takes them, this set has the slight edge, with its crowd-pleasing repertoire ("America The Beautiful," "Somewhere"), ease in musical conversation, and the occasional playful moment that helps make this a meeting for the ages.

The pair mixes impressionistic tendencies and rhapsodic ideals with more conventional notions on the show-opening "Strike Up The Band," which also highlights Daniels' puckish wit, but that's only the beginning. Elsewhere, they touch on Thelonious Monk in lighthearted fashion ("Rhythm-a-ning"), have a brief dalliance with the unknown before launching into a thrilling run-through of "Just Friends," and deliver a touching rendition of Kellaway's "A Place That You Want To Call Home." While it seems that no combination or style has been left untried in jazz, clarinet-piano combinations are truly rare, and this one may well set the standard for those that follow. ~ Dan Bilawasky  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/live-at-the-library-of-congress-eddie-daniels-ipo-recordings-review-by-dan-bilawsky.php
 

Personnel: Eddie Daniels: clarinet; Roger Kellaway: piano.

Live at the Library of Congress

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