Johnny 'Hammond' Smith - Opus De Funk

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:05
Size: 160.5 MB
Styles: Hard bop, Soul-jazz-funk
Year: 1961/2004
Art: Front

[4:29] 1. Sticks And Stones
[5:26] 2. Because You Left Me
[7:56] 3. Ribs An' Chips
[4:39] 4. Cry Me A River
[3:50] 5. Que Pasa
[3:04] 6. Invitation
[4:16] 7. Spring Is Here
[2:53] 8. Stimulation
[5:17] 9. Opus De Funk
[4:24] 10. Almost Like Being In Love
[4:07] 11. Autumn Leaves
[4:48] 12. Sad Eyes
[5:42] 13. Gone With The Wind
[4:28] 14. If Someone Had Told Me
[4:38] 15. Shirley's Theme

While organist Johnny "Hammond" Smith never attained the status of Jimmy Smith, he nonetheless fronted first-rate bands and accumulated a fine discography. Recorded in 1961, Opus de Funk brings together two Smith albums in one package, Stimulation and Opus de Funk. Since the same band -- vibraphonist Freddie McCoy, guitarist Eddie McFadden, bassist Wendell Marshall, and drummer Leo Stevens -- played on both sets, and since both albums aren't very long by contemporary standards, the pair fit snuggly on the same CD. The really unusual element here is the presence of McCoy, because one doesn't usually associate vibes with jazz organ combos. The vibes work, however, and give the resonance of Smith's organ a lighter counterpoint that brightens up the overall sound. The band delivers fine versions of familiar pieces -- "Cry Me a River," "Autumn Leaves," and "Gone With the Wind" -- alongside newer pieces like "Ribs an' Chips" and "Que Pasa?" With a couple of exceptions, this snappy unit likes to keep things tight, and seldom extends a piece for over five minutes. The one big exception is Smith's "Ribs an' Chips," a breezy eight-minute bit of blues with fine solos by McFadden and McCoy. Opus de Funk is a welcome reissue and will be greeted warmly by jazz organ fans. ~Ronnie D. Lankford Jr.

Opus De Funk

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Connie Russell - Alone With You

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 28:24
Size: 65.0 MB
Styles: jazz-pop vocals
Year: 1995/2011
Art: Front

[1:57] 1. Alone With You
[2:15] 2. Close Your Eyes
[2:31] 3. Near You
[2:31] 4. All I Do Is Dream Of You
[2:29] 5. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
[2:22] 6. Take Me In Your Arms
[2:13] 7. Dream A Little Dream Of Me
[2:19] 8. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
[2:09] 9. You And The Night And The Music
[2:44] 10. That Old Feeling
[2:22] 11. The Touch Of Your Lips
[2:26] 12. You're My Man

A wonderful set from vocalist Connie Russell – a sexy singer whose sound perfectly matches her bottomless look on the cover of the record! Arrangements are relatively soft, but with a nice touch of jazz – and Connie's dusky vocals move effortlessly through the tunes – with nice little inflections that make the familiar tunes her own, and which really illuminate some of the lesser-known numbers. Ian Bernard handles the backings – and titles include “You're My Man”, “You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To”, “Take Me In Your Arms”, “All I Do Is Dream Of You”, “You & The Night & The Music”, and “That Old Feeling”.

Alone With You

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Yakov Okun - New York Encounter

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:21
Size: 129.0 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2011
Art: Front

[5:48] 1. Pent-Up Chaos
[8:19] 2. Kind Bug
[6:00] 3. Spillikins
[7:26] 4. Jitterbug Waltz
[6:29] 5. Eric Dolphy's Tomb
[5:09] 6. Falling In Love Again
[6:27] 7. Plain Jane
[5:33] 8. Giant Steps
[5:07] 9. Heaven

Yakov Okun (P); Ben Street (B); Billy Drummond (D). Recorded November 11, 2010 in Brooklyn, NY, USA by Joe Marciano.

A major force in Russian Jazz since the mid ‘90s, pianist Yakov Okun, finally places himself on the international stage with his Criss Cross debut, a trio date with world-class bass-drum team Ben Street and Billy Drummond, on which he mixes challenging original material with strong arrangements and less traveled Songbook repertoire and tunes by Sonny Rollins and Fats Waller.

At 38, Okun is an individualistic voice, an important player, able in his improvisations to refract an entire timeline of jazz vocabulary in a cogent, compositional manner.

New York Encounter

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Richard Harris - A Tramp Shining

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 31:30
Size: 72.1 MB
Styles: Vocal
Year: 1968/2016
Art: Front

[2:54] 1. Didn't We
[2:47] 2. Paper Chase
[3:50] 3. Name Of My Sorrow
[4:03] 4. Lovers Such As I
[2:40] 5. In The Final Hours
[7:24] 6. MacArthur Park
[2:09] 7. Dancing Girl
[3:14] 8. If You Must Leave My Life
[2:26] 9. A Tramp Shining

The artist's first collaboration with composer/producer Jimmy Webb is a great record, even 35 years later, encompassing pop, rock, elements of classical music, and even pop-soul in a body of brilliant, bittersweet romantic songs by Webb, all presented in a consistently affecting and powerful vocal performance by Harris. Harris treaded onto Frank Sinatra territory here, and he did it with a voice not remotely as good or well trained as his, yet he pulled it off by sheer bravado and his ability as an actor, coupled with his vocal talents -- his performance was manly and vulnerable enough to make women swoon, but powerful and manly enough to allow their husbands and boyfriends to feel okay listening to a man's man like Harris singing on such matters. The production and arrangements by Webb were some of the lushest ever heard on a pop album of the period, with a 35-piece orchestra whose presence was more influenced by the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album than it was by any of Nelson Riddle's work with Sinatra. Strangely enough, "MacArthur Park" -- the massive hit off the album -- isn't all that representative of the rest of the record, which relies much more on strings than brass and horns, and has a somewhat lower-key feel but also a great deal more subtlety. One can also hear the influence of Webb's then-recent work with the Fifth Dimension in the presence of the muted female chorus on "In the Final Hours" and, much more so, on "If You Must Leave My Life" (perhaps the best song on the album, and the most complex, with heavy rhythm guitar, a great beat, and lush orchestrations), which almost sounds like a lost Fifth Dimension cut. None of the support musicians are credited, though it's a safe bet that Larry Knechtel, Hal Blaine, and Joe Osborn are among those present. The domestic CD sounds amazingly good, considering that it was mastered in the 1980s, but serious fans may want to opt for Raven Records' The Webb Sessions, which contains this album plus its follow-up, The Yard Went on Forever. ~Bruce Eder

A Tramp Shining

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