Kenny Dorham - 'Round About Midnight At The Cafe Bohemia (2-Disc Set)

Kenny Dorham: trumpet; J. R. Monterose: tenor sax; Kenny Burrell: guitar; Bobby Timmons: piano; Sam Jones: bass; Arthur Edgehill: drums.

There's a thickness to the sound of this 1956 Kenny Dorham set as reissued by Music Matters on two 45-rpm records—a density that blows from the speakers and settles in the room like smoke. Which is to say the fidelity of the Music Matters product proves itself as strong on live recordings as it has on their Blue Note studio reissues. Here, the club acoustics are palpable, requiring only the cracking of a favorite beverage to complete the scene.

Not long from his stint with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and their recorded blasts at the Cafe Bohemia, trumpeter Dorham gathered a tight group of young musicians to have his own go at the legendary Greenwich Village establishment. Dorham and guitarist Kenny Burrell would both go on to attain considerable success as leaders, while the others remained mostly in supporting roles, never becoming household names as leaders, even to jazz fans. Still, tenor saxophonist J.R. Monterose is a nice foil for the trumpeter, often following Dorham's bright, ballooning sound with a thinner, abrasive take—flowing where Dorham stutters ("Monaco," "Mexico City"), squeaking and giving space after the leader sprints ("Hill's Edge"). There's a nice, if unsurprising, flow to the program, with the bop burners cooled and dimmed by the interspersed "'Round About Midnight" and "Autumn in New York," the latter a solo vehicle for Dorham in which he captures a delicious, crisp moment of solitude within the Big Apple. "Monaco," a Dorham original, opens the record on a thick loping beat that showcases Sam Jones' fat, insistent bass work, which accounts for much of the record's full cloud of sound. (Eat your heart out, Phil Spector.) Dorham enters on extended phrases, but soon picks up the pace and begins punching out fast but articulated lines—the type of well-constructed progression for which he'd become known. Burrell channels Charlie Christian on his opening-track solo, but later shows sparks of his developing individual voice, most notably on "Mexico City" and "A Night in Tunisia."

Drummer Arthur Edgehill rarely steps out of his supporting role, though the flurry of his sticks is in evidence throughout "Mexico City"; his cow bell pronounced on "Tunisia"; and he's obviously given room to stretch on the Dorham-penned nod to the drummer, "Hill's Edge." Pianist Bobby Timmons solos on most tunes, but he often makes more of a statement when fashioning blunt chordal motifs beneath the horns or emerging, as in "Mexico City," to walk in thrilling harmonic step with Dorham.

'Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia is a full and often exhilarating set of mid-'50s bop. It also proves, in the three Dorham originals, that the trumpeter was a quality composer, capable of rendering more than just Latin-tinged themes like "Blue Bossa" and "Una Mas." And the excellent fidelity of this vinyl reissue boosts the session's composed but inventive ambience. ~Matt Marshall

Album: 'Round About Midnight At The Cafe Bohemia (Disc 1)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:28
Size: 154.4 MB
Styles: Bop, Trumpet jazz
Year: 1956/2002

[10:40] 1. K.D.'s Blues
[ 4:38] 2. Autumn In New York
[ 5:33] 3. Monaco
[ 5:36] 4. N.Y. Theme
[ 9:30] 5. K.D.'s Blues
[ 8:16] 6. Hill's Edge
[ 9:32] 7. A Night In Tunisia
[ 4:59] 8. Who Cares
[ 8:39] 9. Royal Roost

'Round About Midnight At The Cafe Bohemia (Disc 1)

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Album: 'Round About Midnight At The Cafe Bohemia (Disc 2)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:19
Size: 126.6 MB
Styles: Bop, Trumpet jazz
Year: 1956/2002
Art: Front

[6:02] 1. Mexico City
[7:44] 2. 'round About Midnight
[6:38] 3. Monaco
[6:21] 4. Who Cares
[7:50] 5. My Heart Stood Still
[7:51] 6. Riffin'
[6:33] 7. Mexico City
[6:17] 8. The Prophet

'Round About Midnight At The Cafe Bohemia (Disc 2)

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Suzy Bogguss - American Folk Songs

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 60:54
Size: 139.4 MB
Styles: Folk
Year: 2011
Art: Front

[2:36] 1. Shady Grove
[2:43] 2. Shenandoah
[3:52] 3. Red River Valley
[3:34] 4. Froggy Went A-Courtin'
[4:21] 5. Waywaring Stranger
[4:08] 6. Banks Of The Ohio
[3:13] 7. Joohnny Has Gone For A Soldier
[2:26] 8. Old Dan Tucker
[3:18] 9. Rock Island Line
[4:22] 10. Sweet Betsy From Pike
[4:18] 11. Swing Low Sweet Chariot
[4:02] 12. Careless Love
[3:24] 13. All The Pretty Little Horses
[4:21] 14. Git Along Little Dogies
[3:39] 15. Erie Canal
[3:21] 16. Wildwood Flower
[3:08] 17. Beautiful Dreamer

Suzy reveals that the idea for the project first came to her while on tour with Garrison Keillor. She realized that while everyone loves to sing along to such enduring folk tunes as ‘Red River Valley,’ with music education disappearing from public schools, many children aren’t being exposed to the folk songs that have been a vivid scrapbook of the American experience.

“Music has always been my purest joy even as a child,” Suzy writes in the introduction to the songbook. “One of my favorite memories is my grade-school music teacher pounding on the piano and leading the class in rousing renditions of folk songs from all around the world. In the summer of 2008, I toured with the brilliant and engaging Garrison Keillor. The energy that passed between the audience and Garrison was overwhelming at times. Several thousand people standing and singing together-old songs, hymns, the Beatles and the Everly Brothers. People of all ages, sharing music. Ahhh, pure joy.”

American Folk Songs

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Jerri Winters - Winters Again

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 27:30
Size: 63.0 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 1955/2012
Art: Front

[3:02] 1. The Lost And The Lonely
[1:57] 2. I'm Afraid To Love You
[2:15] 3. Elmer's Tune
[2:42] 4. This Is Our Song Of Love
[2:04] 5. Gal In Calico
[2:26] 6. It's A Wonderful World
[3:40] 7. I'm Gonna Laugh You Out Of My Life
[2:50] 8. Through Again
[2:55] 9. In The Wee Small Hours
[3:35] 10. Did I Remember

Romeo Penque (ww), Anthony Miranda (frh), Eddie Costa (vib, p), Howard Collins (g), Mundell Lowe (g, dir), George Duvivier (b), Ed Shaughnessy (d), Felix Giglio, Leo Kruczek, Charles Libove, Gene Orloff, Frank Siegfried (vn), Sid Brucher, Morris 'Lefty' Lefkowitz (vl), Seymour Barab (vc), Abe Rosen (hrp), Jerri Winters (v).

A true alto, with a lovely rich, yet light touch. Wonderful tasteful arrangements on not-so-well-known standards. I'd check her out. Another forgotten voice, and she shouldn't be. ~Mia

Winters Again

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The Johnny Coles Quartet - The Warm Sound

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s

Time: 49:54

Size: 114.2 MB

Styles: Hard bop, Trumpet jazz

Year: 1961/2007

Art: Front

[5:41] 1. Room 3

[7:47] 2. Where

[5:31] 3. Come Rain Or Come Shine

[5:37] 4. Hi-Fly

[5:47] 5. Pretty Strange

[5:21] 6. If I Should Lose You

[5:14] 7. Babe's Blues

[8:52] 8. Hi-Fly

Trumpeter Johnny Coles, best-known for his association with Charles Mingus in 1964, made his recording debut as a leader on this Epic session which was reissued on CD in 1995 by Koch. A bop-based trumpeter with a lyrical sound of his own, Coles is showcased here with an excellent quartet (Kenny Drew or Randy Weston on piano, bassist Peck Morrison and drummer Charlie Persip). He is in top form on a pair of standards (including "If I Should Lose You"), his own blues "Room 3" and four Weston originals; the reissue adds an alternate take of "Hi-Fly" to the original program. A fine outing. ~Scott Yanow

The Warm Sound

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Lee Konitz,Brad Mehldau,Charlie Haden,Paul Motian - Live At Birdland

Styles: Saxophone And Piano Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:21
Size: 163,7 MB
Art: Front

(11:58)  1. Lover Man
(10:16)  2. Lullaby Of Birdland
(11:39)  3. Solar
(10:17)  4. I Fall In Love Too Easily
(11:49)  5. You Stepped Out Of A Dream
(15:19)  6. Oleo

Grist for what seems like an endless flow of recordings, The Great American Songbook has, ultimately, become as much a crutch as it is an inspiration. There's no denying the staying power of music that's near-Jungian in its collective familiarity, but if an artist is simply running down the tunes, à la Real Book head, solo, head the music too easily becomes nothing more than a tired retread, a kind of whitewashing that, rather than moving jazz forward, stops it in its tracks. But there are exceptions: pianist Keith Jarrett, for example, whose near three-decade old Standards Trio continues to demonstrate there's plenty of life, still, in these iconic tunes. And there are others. Pianist Brad Mehldau may spend equal time on his own writing, and interpreting more contemporary fare from artists like Nick Drake, Soundgarden and Radiohead, but he's also been steadfastly recreating The Great American Songbook in his own image since the 1990s. And when octogenarian altoist Lee Konitz performed at the 2008 Ottawa Jazz Festival, his hour-long set of off-the-cuff standards was a whirlwind of invention and reinvention, where the material itself might almost have been irrelevant, except that it was chosen for a reason: its inherent potential.

As artists with separate and highly successful careers, Mehldau and Konitz have been linked, in the past, through their participation on recordings for Germany's ECM Records: Mehldau, on a session for saxophonist Charles Lloyd that yielded both The Water is Wide (2000) and Hyperion with Higgins (2001); Konitz, on trumpeter Kenny Wheeler's classic Angel Song (1997). More importantly, however, the two collaborated on Alone Together (Blue Note, 1997), a live trio date with bassist Charlie Haden. Live at Birdland reunites that trio, augmented by drummer Paul Motian, another player intimately familiar with the blurry nexus of form and freedom. There's nothing in the set that hasn't been played endless times before, but as old a warhorse as "Loverman" may be, this quartet's immediacy and flexibility lends it the relentless unpredictability that, despite its gentle delivery, strikes a perfect balance between respect and irreverence, and a relaxed feeling that nobody has anything left to prove. Comfort can sometimes lead to complacency, but not with these players. Instead, George Shearing's "Lullaby of Birdland" swings amiably, but not from any single player acting as anchor; instead, traditional delineations are thoroughly blurred as it becomes increasingly clear, when Mehldau pushes and pulls near the end of his solo, that time is suggested rather than defined coming, as it does, from a magical confluence of collective implication.

If there's any other well-known touchstone for this kind of open-minded use of popular song as jumping-off point, it's trumpeter Miles Davis' Plugged Nickel recordings of the mid-1960s. Not that anyone here plays anything like the members of Davis' quintet; these are all players with individual personalities far too strong. But the way that the trumpeter's "Solar" is stretched, almost beyond recognition Mehldau barely alluding to its theme, as he picks up the baton from Konitz, who reorganizes the opening melody into a quirky, contrapuntal jigsaw puzzle with the pianist speaks to a similarly unfettered approach,where everything is possible but nothing presupposed. Konitz delivers the familiar head to "Oleo" relatively faithfully, in duet with Motian, but that's about all there is to link the quartet's version to saxophonist Sonny Rollins' classic. As Mehldau enters, and Haden gradually finds his way in, it turns into a liberated tour de force, and the album's clear highlight, as Mehldau's solo builds towards a fugue-like climax that stops unexpectedly, leading to Haden's strongest solo of the set as ever the epitome of economy. Konitz's dry, soft-toned delivery makes a tender look at "I Fall in Love Too Easily" another highpoint, the interplay between the altoist and Mehldau exhilarating, paradoxical though that might seem when talking about the album's softest ballad. But it's this quartet's ability to interconnect at the deepest level that makes Live at Birdland a new benchmark for standards interpretation. Konitz, Mehldau, Haden and Motian may have done absolutely nothing to prepare for this specific gig at the legendary New York venue near the end of 2009, but they've been preparing for moments like these their entire lives.~John Kelman https://www.allaboutjazz.com/konitz-mehldau-haden-motian-live-at-birdland-by-john-kelman.php

Personnel: Lee Konitz: alto saxophone; Brad Mehldau: piano; Charlie Haden: bass; Paul Motian: drums.

Live At Birdland

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Eydie Gorme - Swings The Blues

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1957
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:19
Size: 87,8 MB
Art: Front

(2:58)  1. I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues
(2:51)  2. When Your Lover Has Gone
(3:15)  3. I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
(3:14)  4. When The Sun Comes Out
(2:37)  5. After You've Gone
(2:18)  6. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
(3:55)  7. Blues In The Night
(2:51)  8. The Man I Love
(3:33)  9. Stormy Weather
(3:24) 10. You Don't Know What Love Is
(3:33) 11. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
(3:45) 12. A Nightingale Can Sing The Blues

The success of "Eydie Gorme" my "first album" was so extraordinary that I became an instant headliner and with Don Costa as my musical arranger and conductor I began working the big night clubs all over the country. Steve Allen my TV boss, would allow me from time to time to go out on personal appearances and then return to the show where I could sing my songs on his "Tonight Show"... the TV exposure was astounding. Those were the days of swing and jazz clubs in every city we played. After the show, we would stop in to listen to the "greats" playing after hours... Oscar Peterson, Count Base and Joe Williams, George Shearing, Erroll Garner, Sarah Vaughn (my idol) and as many others as we could. Woody Herman, one of my mentors, came to see me one night and after the sow he took me to several secret clubs some of which required 3 knocks on the door to get in. When they saw Woody, the doors swung wide open, and the music blew us away.

Don and I were preparing our second album, and when I told Costa about my "after midnight" excursions with Woody and the music, he said" perfect"... Don and I had a close understanding with each other and parallel views on the treatment of each song. He knew about my proclivity for jazz and swing. This then became a labor of love, for the two of us. There was little doubt in his mind that the effort he put forth in his sparkling arrangements would be equaled by his admiring protégé... that would be me! So I said to Don upon completion of this album... "Do I have a right to sing the blues" ... he said, "Baby... You gotta right to sing anything". Enjoy, 

http://steve-eydie.com/eg_swingstheblues.html

Personnel: Eydie Gorme (vocals).

Swings The Blues

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Raphael Wressnig & Enrico Crivellaro - Mosquito Bite

Styles: Organ Jazz
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:14
Size: 131,7 MB
Art: Front

(4:12)  1. Speedin'
(3:05)  2. Mosquito Bite
(6:27)  3. Wally's March
(6:32)  4. Boom Bello
(4:51)  5. West 43rd St. Blues
(7:39)  6. Cherokee
(6:28)  7. Frankie Lee Goes Uptown
(3:59)  8. Banana Boogaloo
(5:50)  9. A-Level
(7:07) 10. Sugar

Raphael Wressnig, based in Austria but frequently on the road, is not your ordinary B-3 organ player. He’s actually one of a kind: a young master of the imposing, large instrument who is expansive in his breadth of expertise. He’s technically fluent in the blues, in jazz, in soul, and in funk, and he concocts exciting mixed-genre music from his fervid imagination. Versatile Wressnig doesn’t flaunt his virtuosic talent for the sake of spectacle but rather backs up his every movement on the keyboards, the drawbar and the bass pedal boards with a fierce emotional commitment. Influenced by royal predecessors like Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott, Booker T. Jones and Joe Zawinul, Wressnig has taken his music throughout Europe and all over the world, from North Africa and Asia to the Middle East to the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the Caribbean. This self-effacing musician, a native of Graz in southeast Austria, has recorded at least 16 feature albums and appeared as a guest on about 30 others. In 2013, 2015 & 2016, he was honored with a nomination for best organ player of the year in Downbeat Magazine.

A fine composer with a gift for searching out splendid classic material to rearrange, Wressnig confidently brings out the inherent pyrotechnic power and mightiness of the large B-3 console. Yet he’s also comfortable with slowing down the pace and lowering the heat in order to achieve colorful passages of quieter music. Not unlike a musician born and bred in New Orleans, the B-3 player possesses special knowledge about conjuring “groove.” As his many fans know so well, this surging or swinging rhythmic “vibe” is vastly important to the success of Wressnig’s sui generis music. In the 2010’s, Wressnig has solidified his standing as a solo artist. The sheer force of his artistic development has been a wonder to behold, whether encountered on albums or, better yet, at concerts. Live performances are particularly memorable for the happy collision of wild entertainment and focused artistry. In January of 2014 the B-3 groove master made a trip to New Orleans, literally and spiritually, to cook some Gumbo. Soul Gumbo, that is. For spice, he brought along loyal partners Alex Schultz on guitar and sax-extraordinaire Craig Handy. To bring the heat, he called on one of the funkiest drummers around, New Orleans' own, Stanton Moore. Wressnig's exciting music – a special hybrid of soul, funk, r&b, blues and jazz – benefits from the expert, soulful playing of Crescent City dignitaries Walter “Wolfman” Washington, The Meter’s George Porter, Jr. and Eric Bloom. Piano-man and soulful troubadour Jon Cleary was a special guest, as well as bayou-blues man Larry Garner from Baton Rouge and Midwestern testifier Tad Robinson. After all, Wressnig and the coterie of American and European musicians supporting him always give their best and it shows.http://raphaelwressnig.com/biography/

Personnel:  Raphael Wressnig - Hammond B-3 organ;  Enrico Crivellaro – guitar;  Lukas Knöfler – drums;  Special guest: Scott Steen – trumpet 3, 9

Mosquito Bite

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Wolfgang Puschnig - Faces and Stories

Styles: Saxofone Jazz, Big Band
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 99:47
Size: 231,3 MB
Art: Front + Back

(3:56)  1. In Another Time
(4:11)  2. Breath
(3:26)  3. Rivulets
(4:57)  4. Towards East
(2:45)  5. Jeli Don
(4:01)  6. Soundscape
(4:35)  7. In A Sentimental Mood
(3:57)  8. Dialogue
(5:34)  9. Armenian Longing
(4:32) 10. Little Suite
(3:59) 11. Out Of Somewhere
(4:58) 12. The Balsam Project
(4:17) 13. Of Other Lifes
(3:20) 14. Paul‘s Delight
(3:46) 15. Noah‘s Lullabye
(3:17) 16. Surroundings
(3:22) 17. Hommages
(3:59) 18. A Long Way From Home
(3:08) 19. Al Aylughs
(3:18) 20. Lonely Woman
(5:18) 21. Ivanka‘s World
(3:32) 22. And Then
(4:03) 23. Time Illusion
(3:46) 24. Naima
(3:39) 25. Valosn

Wolfgang Puschnig and Duos: A deja vu. An album full of dialogues with changing musical partners - like the time 1988. "Pieces of the Dream" was the plate. She was a special: Puschnig debut under his own name. 32 years old, he was at that time, known as one of the leading soloists of the "Vienna Art Orchestra", the internationally successful big band flagship of young Austrian jazz postmodernism. Wolfgang Puschnig should be a year later, in 1989, left to to embark on a solo career paths. Well prepared by band projects like "Part of Art", "Air Mail" and the "Pat Brothers", which were hailed in the 1980s in Europe Festival stages, and where Puschnig played a leading role. "Pieces of the Dream" signaled departure, initial spark, joy to our future.

28 years later, the signs are different. "Faces & Stories" sounds left, almost sober. The view is partly a retrospective, rekapitulierender. Wolfgang Puschnig is gone his way, has left deep marks in the European jazz course. Projects such as "Red Sun & Samul Nori" are on record, mainly in the 1990s, caring furore cooperation with master drummers from South Korea. The groundbreaking confrontation of deep black, from Ornette Coleman's "harmolodics" Funk-influenced jazz and traditional Austrian brass music in "Alpine Aspects". From the recent past was "For The Love of It" called a many-voiced, genre cross-experiment in musical poetry, the sounds of jazz, folk and classical music combined - and Puschnig there led back to where he himself and much of the comes from, which makes it unmistakable as a musician: Are his cantabile lines and sigh on alto saxophone but deeply marked by melancholy Slavic Melos of songs Carinthia. Wolfgang Puschnig, which is now the wonderful model case of a European musician, reflecting its origins in the rapidly identifiable sound and yet proves cosmopolitan openness. Successively it has mutated over the years and the much respected "elder statesman" of the Austrian Jazz, who willingly Younger passes on his knowledge.

A full circle. Duo is the most intensive form of interaction, because one relatively 'naked' is in this constellation. One must with much more energy act as in the context of a band, so Wolfgang Puschnig said years ago. And also that it is the most intimate, most personal form of musical exchanges. "Faces & Stories" because also has something of a sounding Photo Album, are in the meetings held with close people. A collection of acoustic stories and memories. Some of DuopartnerInnen were already present on "Pieces of The Dream": The legendary pianist and composer Carla Bley, Puschnig participates in the Big Band since the 1980s as a soloist. Singer Linda Sharrock, with many years linked him an equally intense as fruitful partnership. The once active in Ornette Coleman electric bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Puschnig "twin brother" from Philadelphia. Or saxophonist Hans Koller, 2003 82-year deceased father figure of modern Austrian Jazz.

Other pieces with the New York violinist Mark Feldman, the Moravian singer-violinist Iva Bittová, the once living in Vienna Tunisian singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef or the late Indian master percussionist Pandit Arjun Shejwal who raises his voice brittle here - are Puschnig overgrown over the years. In still another is long-standing and still current companion: The 75-year-old electric bassist Steve Swallow poet should be mentioned. Or Jon Sass, who lives in Vienna, New York tuba, the Puschnig still knows "Vienna Art Orchestra" days. The Armenian pianist Karen Asatrian and his Viennese colleague Paul Urbanek. . And also the Carinthian vocal quartet "intersection vowel" Puschnig would not however Puschnig, were it not for some new faces at his side: Approximately Croatian cellist Asja Valcic, known from the "radio.string.quartet.vienna". A native of Burkina Faso balafon virtuoso Mamadou Diabaté. As Puschnig 17-year-old son Samo Weidinger. There are very personal, almost private snapshots that divides Wolfgang Puschnig here with the audience. Where a part of the message in the openness and respect are, with the alto saxophonist and flutist such different characters on opposite eye level occurs. Original sound Wolfgang Puschnig: "What is most important for me, and what is hopefully also be felt in the music, this is the love - as energy. The need to be there. She gives the music an extra dimension.” Translate by Google https://www.amazon.de/Faces-Stories-Wolfgang-Puschnig/dp/B01E9N1HFK

Faces and Stories

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