Engelbert Wrobel's Swing Society - Sophisticated Swing

Size: 156,7 MB
Time: 66:57
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2000
Styles: Jazz
Art: Front

01. Coquette (3:47)
02. Rose Room (4:30)
03. El Salon De Gutbucket (5:12)
04. Gilly (4:07)
05. Manoir De Mes Reves (5:14)
06. Shoe Shine Boy (4:46)
07. Hop, Skip And Jump (3:43)
08. Nine O'clock Beer (4:33)
09. Promenade Aux Champs Elysees (5:20)
10. Sophisticated Swing (3:43)
11. Thou Swell (3:27)
12. New Orleans (4:51)
13. 9.20 Special (3:56)
14. Jubilee (3:14)
15. I Love Paris (6:28)

Engelbert Wrobel may be an unknown name in the United States but he has recorded five CDs in Europe with his Swing Society (based in Germany) and can certainly hold his own with any mainstream swing player around today. Wrobel, who sounds equally adept on clarinet, soprano, alto and tenor, is joiend by a strong four-piece rhythm section which includes pianist Chris Hopkins, plus special guest Dan Barrett. Somehow the blend of the two horns often makes the group sound as if it has four. The arranged ensembels (which alternate with solos and jammed passages) are colorful and creative within the genre of prebop. "Coquette" has the group sounding like John Kirby's Sextet, "Gilly" is close to the Benny Goodman Sextet, the ghost of Sidney Bechet emerges during "Promenade Aux Champs Elysees" and other numbers find Wroble ranging in styles from early Coleman Hawkins to Pete Fountain. Barrett, who is equally skilled on cornet and trombone, is a major asset and the rhythm section is both tight and loose. Wonderful and very enjoyable music. ~by Scott Yanow

Sophisticated Swing

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LaVon Hardison - Come Together

Size: 80,9 MB
Time: 34:18
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Jazz/Soul Vocals
Art: Front

01. Tomorrow (3:13)
02. Sunny (4:32)
03. Maybe (2:27)
04. Come Together (2:57)
05. Alfie (5:25)
06. Unchain My Heart (3:54)
07. Better Than Anything (3:45)
08. They Long To Be Close To You (3:31)
09. Some Other Time (4:30)

Personnel:
LaVon Hardison: Vocals
David Joyner: Piano & Organ
Osama Afifi: Bass
Jeff Busch: Drums & Percussion
Brad Schrandt: Flute & Sax

Come Together is Hardison’s third album, but it truly marks a new beginning for the wildly talented singer. Building on the jazz interpretations of Choices (2006) and the inspirational bent of Everyday Gifts (2008), this long-awaited recording finds Hardison using her ineffable presence to tie together a wonderfully diverse selection of tunes with a first-class group of musicians.

“I was really excited to be able to mix jazz standards with other songs,” Hardison says. “Instead of trying to choose songs from a particular genre, I chose songs that have a melody or meaning that tell a story.”
With ease, Hardison erases the boundaries between jazz, funk, and soul, re-inventing well-loved tunes including “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” “Sunny,” and “Tomorrow.” She infuses The Beatles’ “Come Together” with rhythms that would be at home in New Orleans, and you can hardly imagine anything better than her version of the jazz standard “Better Than Anything.”

When Hardison smolderingly implores you to “Unchain My Heart,” you’ll gladly comply, if only because you sense her affection for the 1964 Ray Charles version of the song. “Ray Charles is a huge influence for me,” she enthuses. “He managed to do country, R&B, whatever – and he always understood the song and made it his own.”

What emanates from Hardison is not merely an admixture of those who came before. It’s everything she’s done, heard, seen and felt, plus a huge helping of musicianship, all drawn into her very own musical time machine. The result? An irresistibly distinct take on life and the living of it —from raucous to somber, gleeful to introspective. And there’s joy. Always joy.

Come Together

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Joel Evans & Friends - Just What The Doctor Ordered

Size: 151,9 MB
Time: 64:36
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Jazz/Blues/Pop Vocals
Label: Cinemasters
Art: Front

01. Just What The Doctor Ordered (Feat. Tim Hockenberry) (3:45)
02. Changing My Tune (Feat. Dante Marchi) (3:21)
03. I Still Believe In The Blues (Feat. John Lee Sanders) (4:17)
04. Anytime That I'm With You (Feat. Michael Dees) (3:03)
05. Sunday Morning (Feat. Roberta Donnay) (4:05)
06. The Devil's Daughter (Feat. Patrick Maier) (3:57)
07. Someone's Fav'rite Someone (Feat. Michael Dees) (3:51)
08. Now That You're Gone (Feat. Shanna Carlson) (4:02)
09. Probably The Sunny Day (Feat. Patrick Tuzzolino) (4:02)
10. Jump Right In (Feat. Patrick Maier) (3:12)
11. One Of A Kind, Kind Of Love (Feat. Patrick Tuzzolino) (4:29)
12. I Like The Way (Feat. David Sparkman) (4:31)
13. Out On A Limb (Feat. Adam James) (2:57)
14. Boogie With My Baby (Feat. Tami Damiano) (3:43)
15. Star Bright (Feat. Laurie Gunning Grossman) (3:43)
16. You Made A Believer Out Of Me (Feat. Mark Winkler) (3:42)
17. Do That (Feat. Patrick Maier) (3:47)

With his unique brand of swing and jazz songs, prolific composer Joel Evans delivers a marvelous offering: seventeen new and original tracks in classic and retro styles - Just What The Doctor Ordered!

Tim Hockenberry, semifinalist on NBC's "America's Got Talent" competition, sings the title track. The song was also covered as a duet by Roberta Donnay and Nicolas Bearde on Roberta's 2015 DownBeat Magazine TOP 50 album (4-5 star reviews). The song's co-writer is the marvelous writer/performer Barbara Martin.

Track #8, "Now That You're Gone", was licensed for acclaimed Writer/Director Joss Whedon's indy film, "In Your Eyes", starring Zoe Kazan. Lyric by hit songwriter Andre Pessis.

Track #9, "Probably the Sunny Day", is heard in episode #407 of Showtime's hit series, "Shameless". The song was co-written by Nashville songwriter extraordinaire, Lisa Aschmann.

Track #14, "Boogie with my Baby", is an homage to the Andrews Sisters. Its wonderful lyric is by LA's multi-talented Adryan Russ, writer of lyrics and music for film, television, musical theater and the pop world. It was featured on CBS' "Young & Restless".

Featuring wonderfully talented male and female guest vocal artists, Just What The Doctor Ordered provides an entertaining variety of styles. Songs like the up-tempo 50s-60s Vegas lounge track “Changing My Tune” and the bright, brisk, spirited jazz combo “Anytime That I’m With You” are standouts.

Just What The Doctor Ordered

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Diane Nalini - After Dusk

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2000
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:26
Size: 102,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:37)  1. Stars Fell On Alabama
(5:24)  2. My Funny Valentine
(4:02)  3. Quand Elle Rit Aux Eclats
(5:49)  4. After Dusk
(4:01)  5. Carolina
(3:36)  6. La Mer
(3:38)  7. The Portrait On The Wall
(5:04)  8. La Maison Sous Les Arbres
(4:21)  9. How Long Has This Been Going On
(4:50) 10. Every Time We Say Goodbye

Diane Nalini’s new album, 'Kiss Me Like That,' is a collection of 13 songs celebrating humanity's fascination with the sky. From the title track's infectious rhythms, to ‘Cuando sale la luna’ - Diane’s sultry ode to the moon, her original compositions on this album are all influenced by the wonders of the sky and stars. Her six original songs are perfectly complemented by classic jazz standards chosen carefully for this project, like “Stardust”, “Skylark”, “They All Laughed”, as well as her intimate interpretations of folk & pop songs such as James Taylor's “Sweet Baby James” and Sting's “Valparaiso.” Songs from Kiss Me Like That have already attracted considerable interest in the media, being previewed nationally on CBC Radio's “The Sunday Edition”, “Fresh Air”, “As It Happens”, “Metro Morning” and CBC Radio Two's documentary programme, “Inside the music.” It has also garnered praise and airplay on Radio-Canada's “Espace Musique.” Maclean’s Magazine, Canada's national news magazine, also did a full-page article on her recently. Singer/songwriter Diane Nalini's previous album put a uniquely modern spin on the words of William Shakespeare. Her latest CD “Songs of Sweet Fire” is a collection of fifteen sonnets and songs from the plays set to her original jazz, funk, and blues music. “It was very important to me to let the phrasing of the words dictate the style of music I wrote for each song. I decided to set only those songs which were in more modern sounding English, to highlight the timelessness of Shakespeare's words,” says the singer of her compositions. “Songs of Sweet Fire” is Diane's third album. In a review of Diane's recent performance at the Guelph River Run Center, the Kitchener-Waterloo Record wrote: “A gifted arranger and vocalist... Nalini made an auspicious Guelph concert debut... the highlights were three passages from literature she set to jazz - “Sigh No More” from Much Ado About Nothing, and “The Lover and His Lass” from As You Like It, as well as Alfred Lord Tennyson's “Cradle Song.”

Diane started singing at the age of three. She was born in Montreal, Canada, and is of Belgian and Goan descent. “She captures jazz at its most sophisticated and joyous level,” writes Elle Magazine Canada. In a recent review of “Tales... My Mama Told Me”, Irwin Block of the Montreal Gazette wrote: “Diane Nalini has the voice, the phrasing, confidence, clarity and control to make a tune her own and turn it into a nuanced thing of beauty.” Her debut album “After dusk” was described by London's Time Out magazine as “a gorgeous collection, sung with quiet enunciated power”. “Her artistry shines through on two wide- ranging albums, After Dusk and the newly released Tales... My Mama Told Me”, writes Canada's Globe and Mail. While breathing new life into jazz standards, she also performs her own compositions, as well as Brazilian songs and French chanson. She has performed for President Bill Clinton, Sir Paul McCartney, the President of Malta, the Canadian High Commissioner to London, and former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and recently gave concerts at the London, Montreal and Malta Jazz festivals. Diane was nominated for the Grand Prix de Jazz General Motors at the 2002 Montreal International Jazz Festival, and was one of two finalists for the UK's Young Jazz Vocalist of the Year awards for 2001. In October 2005, she opened for legendary 3-time Grammy winning songwriter Jimmy Webb at Guelph's River Run Center. More recently, she had the pleasure to perform with the wonderful David Knopfler (founder of 'Dire Straits') for the North American launch of his new album Ship of Dreams.

Other highlights have included performances at the London Jazz Festival (2001), the Montreal International Jazz Festival (2002, 2001, 1994), the Celebrate Toronto Festival (2005), as well as Montreal’s 350th Anniversary Festival (1992). Her songs have received airplay in the UK (BBC Radio 3), as well as Denmark and Brazil. In Canada, her music has been heard coast- to-coast on the CBC programs 'Jazzbeat', 'After Hours', 'Disc Drive', and 'This Morning' with Shelagh Rogers. She has also been featured on Radio-Canada by radio personalities Dan Behrman, Stanley Péan, Dorothée Berryman and André Vigean, on the Espace Musique channel. Diane was interviewed several times on CBC Radio’s 'Morningside' by the late, great Peter Gzowski. She has taught jazz singing and given jazz workshops at the University of Oxford, and conducted a songwriting workshop at the 3rd annual Millenium Scholarphip “Think Again” conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada. 

She was recently invited to chair a pannel discussion at the Guelph International Jazz Festival Colloquium (2005) on “Improvisation: risks and responsibilities.” Earlier in the summer, she was a guest presenter at a one-day conference on “Art and democracy,” hosted by Concordia University's Center for Continuing Education. Diane studied Chinese watercolour painting and caligraphy for 10 years with the late Virginia Chang. She exhibited and sold paintings with the Montreal-based Ting Sung Group. For her new album, Songs Of Sweet Fire, she painted 16 original watercolour paintings inspired by the mood of the songs. They accompany Shakespeare's lyrics in a full-colour, deluxe 20 page booklet. “I wanted to give something extra to all my wonderful, supportive fans. Something connected to the songs in a unique way.” She is also an accomplished dancer, having performed and studied classical ballet, jazz and modern dance for over 15 years. She was a soloist with Les Ballets de la jeunesse in her late teens. She also studied jazz ballet and modern dance for several years, and performed as a soloist in various shows by Montreal choreographers Sheila Lawrence and Claudine Bouchard. Her most recent performance combining dance and singing was as the female lead in GLA Productions’ staging of “Fame - the musical”, at the Old Fire Station Theatre in Oxford in 2000. Diane went to England on a Rhodes Scholarship and obtained a doctorate from the University of Oxford. She has since returned to Canada and has taken up a faculty position at the University of Guelph, Ontario. http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/dianenalini

Awards:  Nominated, Grand Prix de Jazz, Montreal International Jazz Festival 2002 - Runner-up, Young jazz vocalist of the year award, UK, 2001

After Dusk

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Ruby Braff Feat. Coleman Hawkins - Braff!

Styles: Trumpet And Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1989
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:51
Size: 94,1 MB
Art: Front

(3:08)  1. Stardust
(4:48)  2. Here's Freddie
(4:05)  3. Indian Summer
(2:56)  4. Blue Turning Grey Over You
(3:40)  5. Just One More Chance
(3:24)  6. When My Dreamboat Comes Home
(3:10)  7. You're Lucky To Me
(3:22)  8. Moonglow
(3:12)  9. It's Been So Long
(2:38) 10. Too Marvelous For Words
(3:31) 11. How Long Has This Been Going On?
(2:50) 12. 'S Wonderful

This reissue LP from 1989 in CBS's short-lived Portrait series features the great trumpeter Ruby Braff playing with three very different but equally swinging groups. Four of the best performances, including "Stardust" and "It's Been So Long," showcase Braff with a rhythm section that includes pianist Dave McKenna. 

Braff also meets up with tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, baritonist Ernie Caceres and trombonist Lawrence Brown in an all-star nonet and with vibraphonist Don Elliott in a sextet. The emphasis is on veteran swing standards (Braff does contribute the original "Here's Freddie") and jamming ensembles. This enjoyable program, which is worth searching for, will hopefully be reissued on CD. ~ Scott Yanow  http://www.allmusic.com/album/braff!-mw0000727631

Personnel: Ruby Braff (trumpet);  Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone);  Don Elliot (trumpet);  Dave McKenna (piano).

Braff!

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Eddie Harris - Exodus to Jazz

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1961
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:45
Size: 91,6 MB
Art: Front

(6:43)  1. Exodus
(3:43)  2. Alicia
(2:53)  3. Gone Home
(5:34)  4. A.T.C.
(2:48)  5. A.M. Blues
(3:24)  6. Little Girl Blue
(5:12)  7. Velocity
(4:34)  8. W.P.
(2:02)  9. Exodus (Single Version)
(2:48) 10. Alicia (Single Version)

One of the biggest hit jazz LPs of the post-rock & roll era, Eddie Harris' Exodus to Jazz seemed to come completely out of left field. It was the debut album by a previously unknown artist from an under-publicized scene in Chicago, and it was released on the primarily R&B-oriented Vee Jay label, which had originally signed Harris as a pianist, not a tenor saxophonist. The impetus for its breakthrough was equally unlikely; Harris adapted Ernest Gold's stately, somber theme from the Biblical film Exodus which had been covered for an easy listening hit by Ferrante & Teicher and made it into a laid-back jazz tune. Edited down to 45-rpm length, it became a smash, reaching the pop Top 40 and pushing the album to the upper reaches of the charts a nearly unprecedented feat for instrumental jazz in 1961. 

Its stunning popularity sent jazz critics into a tizzy after all, if it was that accessible to a mass audience, there just had to be something wrong with it, didn't there? In hindsight, the answer is no. Exodus to Jazz is full of concise, easy-swinging grooves that maintain the appealing quality of the strikingly reimagined title track (particularly Harris' four originals). Far removed from his later, funkier days, Harris plays a cool-toned tenor who owes his biggest debt to Stan Getz's bop recordings, though there are touches of soul-jazz as well. He's no slouch technically, either; he plays so far and so sweetly in the upper register of his horn that some still mistakenly believe he was using an alto sax on parts of the record. Exodus to Jazz paved the way for numerous other crossover successes during the '60s (many in the soul-jazz realm), and while that may not be a credibility-boosting trend to start, the music still speaks for itself. ~ Steve Huey  http://www.allmusic.com/album/exodus-to-jazz-mw0000117010

Personnel: Eddie Harris (tenor saxophone); Joe Diorio (guitar); Willie Pickens (piano); Harold Jones (drums).

Exodus to Jazz

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David Kikoski - Combinations

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2001
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:35
Size: 120,6 MB
Art: Front

(5:50)  1. Improvisations
(6:43)  2. Cecilia
(5:50)  3. Duo, Part I
(1:33)  4. Bass Interlude
(7:51)  5. Tamami
(6:42)  6. Harmonizing Instincts
(8:01)  7. Blues For Us
(5:13)  8. Duo, Part II
(4:47)  9. Trio Improvisation, Part II

The victim of corporate disregard for an artist's work, pianist David Kikoski has recorded many records as a leader over the years, although all but his most recent string of releases for Criss Cross are currently unavailable. This fact, along with his extensive work as a sideman, meant that until 1998's Inner Trust, few were aware of Kiksoki's talents as a leader. 

Reaching a pinnacle on his previous set, Surf's Up, Kikoski has honed a particularly incisive musical relationship with drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts which is no less palpable on Combinations. This time out, we also get to hear Seamus Blake return to the fold on two of the nine pieces, all written by Kikoski. The premise for Combinations is simply stated by the album title, Kikoski engaging in different sized ensemble combinations taken from the pool of musicians on hand. There are two duo tracks with only the pianist and bassist Boris Kozlov as the leads. 

Aside from a brief bass interlude and the pair of quartet tracks with Blake, the remaining cuts feature the trio and it's a potent one, capable of great flights of fancy be it on the blues or more advanced forms. While it might be said that we have somewhat of a mixed bag here taken as a whole, the majority of the individual parts are distinctive enough to merit attention. ~ C.Andrew Hovan  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/combinations-david-kikoski-criss-cross-review-by-c-andrew-hovan.php
 

Personnel: David Kikoski: piano; Boris Kozlov: bass; Jeff "Tain" Watts: drums; Seamus Blake: tenor sax (2, 6).

Combinations

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