Dave Stryker Quartet - Blue Degrees

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:07
Size: 153.7 MB
Styles: Blues/jazz guitar
Year: 1993
Art: Front

[10:54] 1. Blue Degrees
[ 8:17] 2. Scorpian Dance
[ 5:29] 3. Alfie
[ 7:56] 4. Out Of Bounds
[ 9:40] 5. Spirit In The Wind
[10:39] 6. Talkin' About J.C.
[ 7:12] 7. Stella By Starlight
[ 6:57] 8. Blues For Brother Jack

Whether you’ve heard guitarist Dave Stryker leading his own group (with 26 CD’s as a leader to date), co-leading The Stryker/Slagle Band, or as a featured sideman with Stanley Turrentine, Jack McDuff, and many others, you know why the Village Voice calls him “one of the most distinctive guitarists to come along in recent years.”

Early on Stryker realized that as much as he loved playing standards and the jazz repertoire he had to have something of his own to give to the music. He feels that his writing combined with his playing is what shapes his musical expression. He has recorded and published over 150 of his own compositions and has released “The Dave Stryker Songbook” with most of his original music. Also 18 of the compositions (from the first five SteepleChase CD’s) are compiled in the book: “The Music of Dave Stryker”.

Blue Degrees

---

Ranee Lee - Ranee Lee Lives Upstairs

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:21
Size: 142.7 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2009
Art: Front

[3:37] 1. I Just Found Out About Love
[6:01] 2. In Love In Vain
[6:26] 3. A Time For Love
[8:49] 4. A Crooked Road
[5:30] 5. Four
[9:36] 6. Gershwin Medley
[6:09] 7. Fire And Rain
[4:42] 8. Beautiful Love
[6:05] 9. The Storm
[5:21] 10. Dearly Beloved

Ranee Lee has been Canada's most enjoyable, reliable jazz singer for many decades running, and shows no signs of slowing down over nearly a dozen albums. This live effort at the nightclub Upstairs in Montreal, Quebec, shows Lee still loves standards done her way, and adds a few tunes with a more contemporary tag placed on them. Her voice still holds the perfect tonal values of her idol Sarah Vaughan, shaded with soulful phrasings closely linked to Ernestine Anderson. But Lee has always been her own woman in personalizing whatever song she sings with only a hint of drama, bravado, or vibrato. She's as strait-laced a singer in jazz as anyone worldwide, and swings with the best alongside her band of local heroes, including her husband/guitarist Richard Ring. When Lee sings "In Love in Vain," you know the spirit of Vaughan is present and accounted for, while her take on "Four" is a bit more elongated, not as clipped as the staccato notes of the melody line. Her unusual choice of Pat Metheny's "A Crooked Road" contrasts in an underground, mysterious manner unlike the other selections, while her lone original, "The Storm," is a blues that only foreshadows the clouds, rain, and thunder. Ring's guitar provides supple support, but is much more resonant during "Beautiful Love," showing a dexterity that perhaps should be showcased on his own date. It's somewhat criminal that Ranee Lee is not ranked among the best jazz singers in the world by polls and record sales, but Lives Upstairs proves beyond a doubt she belongs in that upper echelon. ~Michael G. Nastos

Ranee Lee Lives Upstairs

---

Clark Terry - Daylight Express

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:52
Size: 146.2 MB
Styles: Bop, Trumpet jazz
Year: 1998
Art: Front

[2:00] 1. Caravan
[2:20] 2. Candy
[2:28] 3. Clark's Expedition
[4:04] 4. Trumpet Mouthpiece Blues
[3:01] 5. Phalanges
[4:31] 6. Blues For Daddy-O's Jazz Patio Blues
[2:43] 7. Basin Street Blues
[2:15] 8. Daylight Express
[2:18] 9. Taking A Chance On Love
[6:52] 10. Festival
[3:36] 11. Clark's Bars
[2:14] 12. Daddy-O's Patrio
[4:58] 13. Blues
[4:18] 14. Impeccable
[2:46] 15. Paul's Idea
[3:16] 16. Phat Bach
[2:31] 17. Milli Terry
[4:00] 18. Funky
[3:31] 19. The Girl I Call Baby

Bass – Jimmy Woode; Drums – Sam Woodyard; Flute, Saxophone – Mike Simpson (5) (tracks: 1 to 9); Guitar – Remo Biondi (tracks: 1 to 9); Piano – Willie Jones (7); Tenor Saxophone – Paul Gonsalves (tracks: 10 to 19); Trumpet – Clark Terry.

Two obscure but very enjoyable and complementary former Lps are reissued in full on this generous CD. The first half of the disc is primarily a showcase for trumpeter Clark Terry who is joined by Mike Simpson (on tenor and flute) in a sextet. C.T. sounds a bit more influenced by Dizzy Gillespie at this time than he would but he was already quite distinctive on such numbers as "Candy," "Blues For Daddy O's Jazz Patio Blues" and "Basin Street Blues." "Phalanges" is a hot bop line (by Louie Bellson) that deserves to be revived while "Trumpet Mouthpiece Blues" sounds like an ancestor of "Mumbles." The second half of the album matches Terry with tenor-saxophonist Paul Gonsalves (who is actually the leader) and a rhythm section that features some surprisingly advanced piano from Willie Jones that sometimes hints strongly at both Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra! Terry and Gonsalves (who were both with Duke Ellington at the time) always made for a good team. The tenor revisits the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival with his long solo on "Festival" and other tunes (all originals by one of the horn players) are basic and swinging; a previously unissued ballad, "The Girl I Call Baby" closes the rewarding and memorable set. Highly recommended. ~Scott Yanow

Daylight Express

---

Abdullah Ibrahim - Cape Town Flowers

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1996
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:57
Size: 118,9 MB
Art: Front

(2:52)  1. Excursions
(4:22)  2. Eleventh Hour
(2:38)  3. Kofifi Blue
(3:59)  4. Chisa
(3:28)  5. Song For Aggerey
(3:20)  6. The Stride
(4:45)  7. The Call
(5:25)  8. African Marketplace
(9:30)  9. Joan - Cape Town Flower
(4:35) 10. Maraba Blue
(6:02) 11. Monk In Harlem

Cape Town Flowers is an enchanting effort from Abdullah Ibrahim, finding the pianist in a trio setting performing 11 original compositions. With the exception of the nine-minute title track and "Monk In Harlem," most of the album's songs clock in at under five minutes, many under four. Each of the pieces is understated, lovely, and nearly dreamlike. The length of the tracks may make Cape Town Flowers seem like a slight record, but the truth is, that very brevity and the way the songs form a sonic tapestry is exactly what makes the record a modest gem.

~Stephen Thomas Erlewine http://www.allmusic.com/album/cape-town-flowers-mw0000025041

Personnel: Abdullah Ibrahim (piano); Marcus McLaurine (bass); George Gray (drums).

Cape Town Flowers

---

Nick Colionne - Feel The Heat

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:22
Size: 97,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:30)  1. Some Funky
(3:32)  2. The Windy Dance
(4:24)  3. Let's Spend Some Time
(4:55)  4. The Connection
(3:39)  5. There It Is
(4:39)  6. Midnight And You
(4:02)  7. It's Gonna Be Alright
(5:06)  8. Wessin'
(4:13)  9. Can't Let Go
(4:18) 10. Po' House

In 2006, guitarist Nick Colionne released an album called Keepin' It Cool; five years later, this one is called Feel the Heat. (In between came one called No Limits.) The alternating temperature descriptions are not so much an indication of different styles as of a similarity in conceiving clichés and a way of suggesting that Feel the Heat is a collection of more of the same from Colionne. Happily, that is no bad thing. Though lumped in with smooth jazz musicians, Colionne actually harks back to earlier styles. His hero is Wes Montgomery, and he demonstrates that by putting a Montgomery-like track on every album and labeling it as such. This time there's a tune called "Wessin'." Colionne hails from Chicago, and he usually finds a way of indicating that, too. (Another number is called "The Windy Dance.") The importance of his hometown lies in his musical influences. He is quite cognizant of the city's blues and R&B heritage, and he employs a Chicago funk style to open ("Some Funky") and close ("Po' House") the disc, in between applying himself to a straight electric blues on "Can't Let Go." Keyboard player James Lloyd brings in a pop influence on compositions such as "It's Gonna Be Alright." And when he isn't playing, Colionne is singing in a grainy baritone, contributing vocals to four of the ten tracks, most memorably the loverman ballad "Let's Spend Some Time." There are passages during the album that sound like smooth jazz, but most of the time this sounds like another diverse and rootsy Nick Colionne album, one that ranks with its predecessors.

~William Ruhlmann http://www.allmusic.com/album/feel-the-heat-mw0002155308

Feel The Heat

---

Cleo Laine & Tubby Hayes - Palladium Jazz Date

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:31
Size: 97,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:53)  1. Old Devil Moon
(3:29)  2. Just A-Sittin' And A-Rockin'
(2:46)  3. Mean To Me
(4:17)  4. 'Round Midnight
(2:37)  5. Hand Me Down Love
(3:03)  6. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
(7:39)  7. Ah-Leu-Cha
(7:55)  8. Young And Foolish
(6:47)  9. All Members

With a multi-octave voice similar to Betty Carter's, incredible scatting ability, and ease of transition from a throaty whisper to high-pitched trills, Cleo Laine was born in 1927 in the Southall section of London, the daughter of a Jamaican father and English mother. Her parents sent her to vocal and dance lessons as a teenager, but she was 25 when she first sang professionally, after a successful audition with the big band led by Johnny Dankworth. Both Laine and the band recorded for Esquire, MGM and Pye during the late '50s, and by 1958, she was married to Dankworth. With Dankworth by her side, Laine began her solo career in earnest with a 1964 album of Shakespeare lyrics set to Dankworth's arrangements, Shakespeare: And All That Jazz. Laine also gained renown for the first of three concert albums recorded at New York's Carnegie Hall, 1973's Cleo Laine Live! At Carnegie Hall. She also recorded two follow-ups (Return to Carnegie and The 10th Anniversary Concert) the latter of which in 1983 won her the first Grammy award by a Briton. She has proved a rugged stage actress as well, winning a Theater World award for her role in the Broadway musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, (in addition to Tony and Drama Desk nominations as well). In 1976 she recorded a jazz version of Porgy and Bess with Ray Charles, and also recorded duets with James Galway and guitarist John Williams. Laine and Dankworth continued to tour into the 1990s, and she received perhaps her greatest honor when she became the first jazz artist to receive the highest title available in the performing arts: Dame Commander.
John Bush https://itunes.apple.com/nz/artist/cleo-laine/id2214762#fullText

Palladium Jazz Date

---

Archie Shepp - Live In San Francisco

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1966
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 75:02
Size: 172,8 MB
Art: Front

( 1:18)  1. Keep Your Heart Right
( 7:31)  2. The Lady Sings The Blues
( 5:37)  3. Sylvia
( 2:56)  4. The Wedding
(10:25)  5. Wherever June Bugs Go
( 6:17)  6. In A Sentimental Mood
( 7:59)  7. Things Ain't What They Used To Be
(32:54)  8. Three For A Quarter, One For A Dime

A great counterpart to some of Archie Shepp's studio albums for Impulse a live date recorded in San Francisco, with a slightly freer, sharper edge! The sound is almost free at times, but always with that strong sense of focus that Archie brought to his brilliant work of the time and the group's a well-honed ensemble who really understand each others motivations and inspirations Roswell Rudd on trombone, Donald Garrett and Lewis Worrell on bass, and Beaver Harris on drums all almost working at an ESP level together. Shepp plays a bit of piano on the record in sharply angular tones that are almost more modern than his tenor and titles include "The Wedding", "Wherever June Bugs Go", and "Keep Your Heart Right". https://www.dustygroove.com/item/742818

Personnel: Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone, piano); Roswell Rudd (trombone); Donald Garrett, Lewis Worrell (bass); Beaver Harris (drums).

Live In San Francisco

---