Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Cynthia Miller - A Simple Christmas

Size: 103,5 MB
Time: 41:22
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Jazz/Pop Vocals, Xmas
Art: Front

01. O Come All Ye Faithful (4:03)
02. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (3:23)
03. I'll Be Home For Christmas (3:26)
04. Little Drummer Boy (3:58)
05. O Holy Night (4:41)
06. Heaven Everywhere (3:26)
07. Mary Did You Know (4:11)
08. My Favorite Things (3:57)
09. What Child Is This (3:53)
10. The Christmas Song (Feat. Calvin Norton) (3:01)
11. Go Tell It On The Mountain (3:18)

Cynthia Miller grew up singing with her sister and family around the piano as her father played and taught her to sing harmony. As a little girl in California she volunteered as much as she could in school to sing the song “This Land” after the Pledge. Her family relocated to Texas after her grandfather passed away. He pastored a church in Houston.

Cynthia always loved singing but like every artist she had her challenges. Early on she recognized her need to learn how to accept compliments while at the same time finding her place in music. And that she did find.

From her basic training to a professional career, she found herself on stage singing. Her voice opened many doors to sing the National Anthem for almost every major Houston sporting event, including The Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show, Houston’s Freedom Over Texas 4th of July events, and even NASCAR.

She recorded a five-song demo in 2003 titled “Reflections” with more of a gospel sound. This was followed by a self-titled CD in 2008 showcasing a jazzy-pop sound. In 2014, her Christmas CD entitled “A Simple Christmas” got back to basics and allowed the dynamic range of her voice to carry the emotion and nostalgia of Christmas.

A Simple Christmas

Ruby Braff & Dick Hyman - Fireworks

Size: 104,8 MB
Time: 44:57
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1983/2016
Styles: Jazz
Art: Front

01. Somebody Loves Me (6:14)
02. Bidin My Time (4:30)
03. High Society (3:57)
04. They Cant Take That Away From Me (7:21)
05. Lady Be Good (5:42)
06. Liza (Piano Solo) (5:38)
07. Swan Lake (5:23)
08. Sugar (6:09)

This 1983 concert performance at the New School in New York City by cornet player Ruby Braff and pianist Dick Hyman is one where fortune smiled on the two swing era-styled jazz musicians. Performing as a duet since 1975, calling tunes here on-stage, with no P.A. system and nothing but a cassette player to document the performance, Braff and Hyman winged it with a fairly satisfying result. The tape changed hands several times before being mastered and turned into this original Inner City LP, now available on CD. A program consisting mainly of Gershwin tunes, the honesty and mutual trust between these great traditional jazz masters clearly shines through, even if the sound is a bit muffled. Well-known songs like "Somebody Loves Me," "They Can't Take That Away from Me," and "Lady Be Good" are all masterfully done, respectively with luscious interplay and Braff stepping up in pronounced volume levels, working on an easygoing chamber level, or in the case of the cornetist, using vocal-type, chatty techniques that are his signature sound. Hyman is really the ultimate versatile jazz piano genius in his ability to support, supplant, or supercharge these tunes. He hops up the remarkably hot "High Society" in stride fashion, goes deep in post-worry blues during the simple and easy "Sugar," and plays solo in various keys, mixed pacings, phrasings, and tempos on the Gershwin evergreen "Liza" which could never sound staid or stale in his hands. A five-minute version of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" is adapted and arranged into a form reminiscent of "St. Louis Blues" with Braff's chortling and guffawing horn again striking a singing pose. Digitally cleaned up, Fireworks is an improvement on the vinyl version, and is a good reminder of how swing was still valid 50 years after the fact, and in very good hands via Braff and Hyman. ~by Michael G. Nastos

The Fireworks

Diane Armesto - The Intimate Side

Size: 121,1 MB
Time: 52:17
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Jazz Vocals
Art: Front

01. The Nearness Of You (Radio Edit) (3:39)
02. I Don't Want To Love You (Radio Edit) (3:38)
03. If You Could See Me Now (Radio Edit) (3:03)
04. My Dear Friend (Radio Edit) (3:34)
05. For All We Know (Radio Edit) (4:14)
06. The Nearness Of You (7:06)
07. I Don't Want To Love You (6:45)
08. If You Could See Me Now (5:59)
09. My Dear Friend (6:15)
10. For All We Know (7:59)

The daughter of composer/Eastman School of Music graduate, John Armesto (John Burke), and of soprano, Isabelle Rinker Armesto (prior manager of Buffalo Chamber Music Society), Diane Armesto has an early back ground in classical music. At six years old Diane started piano lessons. At around age nine she was playing violin. Around this same time, Diane began listening to Peggy Lee and Cannonball Adderley. As a teenager, Diane’s record collection included LPs by Mile Davis, Chet Baker, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans — and recordings with arrangements by Ernie Wilkins, Torre Zito, Claus Ogerman, and Quincy Jones's "Walking In Space”.

In her twenties, Diane Armesto moved from New York to California with aspirations of attending UCLA to study screen-writing. It was then that she met and eventually became involved with jazz trombonist Frank Rosolino who at the time was living with mutual friends of theirs in the San Fernando Valley.

Appreciative of Armesto’s keen ear for music, Rosolino delighted in exposing Diane to the many greats he knew and for whom he had the highest regard. At a very early age Diane Armesto had the honor and privilege of listening to and being in the company of band leaders and arrangers such as Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Quincy Jones, Michelle LeGrand; pianists Horace Silver, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans; vibraphonist Milt Jackson who had been a school mate of Frank’s at Miller High in Detroit; bassists Ray Brown; drummers Art Blakey, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones; saxophonists James Moody, Stan Getz, “Cannonball” Adderley; trumpet players Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Chet Baker; trombonists Kai Winding, JJ Johnson, Jimmy Cleveland; harmonica player Toots Thielemans; singers Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughan, June Christy, Carmen McRae — the list is endless. Conversations with musicians and singers such as this would prove to be invaluable.

Recognizing Diane Armesto’s talent for writing, Frank Rosolino also encouraged her to compose a lyric to an orchestral composition, “Violets”, written by Dutch composer Jerry Van Rooyen. This music, dedicated to Mr. Rosolino, had been recorded by him with the Metropole Orchestra in Holland, 1975. Diane Armesto (AKA Diane Rosolino), was present during this session. Afterward, Frank repeatedly told his fiancé the music was calling for words. With time, Diane created a lyric and “Violets”, became “Once I loved". After listening, Rosolino enthusiastically took Armesto to Sage & Sound Recording studios in Hollywood, California to overdub the words. This would be Diane’s first attempt at singing. Diane's vocal rendition of this song has yet to be released.

A self--taught burgeoning, Jazz drummer, but not interested in pursuing a career in music herself, Diane Armesto was content to be Frank Rosolino’s manager. With time, she became a booking agent, serving other renowned musicians such as trumpeter Conte Candoli, saxophonists Rudolf Johnson (with Ray Charles), Bob Berg and Joe Farrell, pianists Larry Willis and Cedar Walton, drummer Billy Higgins, organist Jimmy McGriff — and more.

It was during her protracted recovery from the tragic death of Frank Rosolino, that Diane Armesto eventually returned to the world of music she loves. With a passion now to express herself as a vocalist, Armesto formed her own group. With time and enough experience, Diane Armesto would become known by many musicians, critics and fans for her expressive contralto voice, her unique approach to singing jazz, her talent for writing lyrics - and eventually music.

The Intimate Side

Boots Randolph - Boots With Strings

Size: 103,1 MB
Time: 36:16
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1966/2016
Styles: Jazz, Easy Listening
Art: Front

01. The Shadow Of Your Smile (3:10)
02. What Now My Love (2:57)
03. Days Of Wine & Roses (3:00)
04. Yesterday (2:14)
05. You've Lost That Loving Feeling (4:04)
06. What Kind Of Fool Am I (2:39)
07. Moon River (2:45)
08. Michelle (2:44)
09. Stranger On The Shore (3:48)
10. I Left My Heart In San Francisco (2:38)
11. Dear Hearts (3:04)
12. Unchained Melody (3:07)

Tenor saxophonist Boots Randolph was an important contributor to the Nashville sound, the set of pop-flavored textures that dominated country music in the late '50s and early '60s. He was born in Paducah, KY, but grew up in small-town Cadiz, in Trigg County. Born Homer Louis Randolph III, he acquired the nickname "Boots" in childhood from his brother Bob. Randolph began playing the trombone in school and learned several other instruments, but by the time he was 16 he had begun to focus seriously on the sax. He honed his chops as a member of the U.S. Army Band during World War II.

After the war, Randolph returned home and performed semi-professionally for some years around Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. In the late '50s, Jethro Burns heard him play and suggested he move to Nashville. Burns introduced Randolph to Chet Atkins, who signed him to the RCA label. Randolph also quickly made the acquaintance of Atkins rival Owen Bradley and performed on many recordings Bradley helmed as producer. Nashville's new corps of session musicians spent its leisure time in the Printer's Alley section of the city's downtown, an actual alley (between First and Second avenues) that offered entrance to various basement barrooms, and Randolph became one of the group. Like other Nashville players, he took enthusiastically to jazz and rock & roll in addition to country music.

One single, the 1963 instrumental "Yakety Sax," showed Randolph putting all these influences together and delivering an extremely catchy tune; it became his only real hit. But Randolph was a consistent seller of LP albums (with 13 charted releases) in the 1960s and 1970s; offering pleasant saxophone covers of material from various genres of music, he became a counterpart to Atkins on guitar and Floyd Cramer on piano. He moved from RCA to the Monument label in 1966. For well over a decade, in addition, he averaged 200-300 studio sessions a year on recordings made by others. The saxophone heard on Elvis Presley's later records is likely to be Randolph's.

In 1977, Randolph opened a successful club of his own in Printer's Alley; it endured into the 1990s and spawned another club in the Opryland U.S.A. area. Randolph remained active as an entertainer into the 2000s, and in 1994 the original Yakety Sax album was admitted into the unofficial country canon; it was reissued by Germany's Bear Family label. Randolph suffered a brain hemorrhage in late June 2007 and remained in a coma until his passing at the age of 80 on July 3, 2007. ~by James Manheim

Boots With Strings

Julie London - Easy Does It

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:17
Size: 87.7 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 1968/2012
Art: Front

[2:40] 1. Show Me The Way To Go Home
[3:00] 2. Me And My Shadow
[3:28] 3. This Can't Be Love
[2:58] 4. Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year
[2:38] 5. Soon It's Gonna Rain
[3:40] 6. I'll See You In My Dreams
[3:20] 7. April In Paris
[3:53] 8. Bidin' My Time
[3:29] 9. The Man I Love
[3:36] 10. It Had To Be You
[3:03] 11. We'll Be Together Again
[2:27] 12. The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else)

There are singers who let it fly from deep within and pour out red-faced bellows complete with bulging eyes and pulsating neck cords. They rip it up with big bands and belt it out until the sun comes up, then follow with swashbuckling encores that bring down the house with slaps-on-the-back and flamenco table top dances.

Then there's Julie. No gala musical fanfare or big-sound glitter. No jokes, no jugglers, no soft-shoe. Just a blues guitar, a well-placed bass, a drummer's light brush... and Julie. The combo provides a mere musical skeleton, a framework that serves only to complement the singer; it doesn't try to compete. The combination is distinctively blues... and distinctively Julie.

Julie is a mysterious, sultry woman with a moist-eyed singing style and real feeling for loneliness. She can take a variety of material and adapt it perfectly to her nostalgic blue mood. Her rendition of "This Can't Be Love" is one of the best examples. The slight musical accompaniment serves only to enhance Julie's vocal mood. Even old timers like "Me And My Shadow" and "Bidin' My Time" come across like they were written especially for her. Julie won't change her style with the whims of the musical world - her "It Had To Be You" and "The Man I Love" will always be provoking and easy to understand. And people will always want to hear her. .. whenever they get in that Julie mood. No, she doesn't strain above the percussion and brass, and she has no aspirations to win the battle of the bands or shatter fine crystal with her vocal vibrations. Her music is for the candlelight people - people who light fires in fireplaces and pull down bottles of Spanish Port from musty cupboards. She sings the way lonely people feel. And there's not a grin in the place. ~Al Stoffel

Easy Does It

Oliver Jones - Just 88

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:57
Size: 151.0 MB
Styles: Bop, Piano jazz
Year: 1993
Art: Front

[5:21] 1. It Could Happen To You
[7:19] 2. Willow Weep For Me
[4:09] 3. But Not For Me
[3:59] 4. Blues For Laurentian U
[6:19] 5. My Old Flame
[4:21] 6. Dizzy-Nest
[4:47] 7. Insensitive
[6:28] 8. After All These Years
[4:33] 9. You Stepped Out Of A Dream
[5:33] 10. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
[7:53] 11. Passing Thoughts
[5:11] 12. How High The Moon

Oliver Jones was already in his fifties when he was discovered by the jazz world. He had started playing piano when he was seven and at nine, he studied with Oscar Peterson's sister Daisy; the Peterson influence is still felt in his style. Jones played with show bands and worked with pop singer Ken Hamilton (1963-1980), much of the time in Puerto Rico. It was not until he returned to Montreal in 1980 that he committed himself to playing jazz full-time. Since the mid-'80s, Oliver Jones has recorded extensively for Justin Time and established himself as a major modern mainstream player with impressive technique and a hard-swinging style. ~bio by Scott Yanow

Just 88

Tinez Roots Club - Something You Got

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:46
Size: 88.8 MB
Styles: Jump blues, R&B
Year: 2009
Art: Front

[3:25] 1. Just Be Cool
[2:10] 2. Something You Got
[3:19] 3. I Long For You
[3:19] 4. Lovely Latina
[2:36] 5. Flat Rat
[1:46] 6. High Jump
[3:44] 7. Buick '53
[3:04] 8. I Don't Want You No More
[3:38] 9. More Happiness
[2:23] 10. She's So Fine
[2:24] 11. Sweet And 17
[3:43] 12. If I Could
[3:08] 13. Crazy Mule

Tinez Roots Club has been founded by Martijn 'Tinez' van Toor in 2009. His 1st cd entitled "Something You Got" (with Jan Kanis - guitar, Frans Hellemans - double and hoffner bass, Pieter Bakker - drums), is very well received everywhere and has been reissued by the German label Rhythm Bomb. This band plays a raw and high energy mix of 50's Rhythm 'n Blues, 60's Soul, jazzy licks and wild Rock 'n Roll.

Something You Got

Caetano Veloso - A Foreign Sound

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 75:16
Size: 172.3 MB
Styles: Standards, Traditional pop
Year: 2004
Art: Front

[3:31] 1. The Carioca
[5:30] 2. So In Love
[3:42] 3. Always
[4:16] 4. Come As You Are
[4:32] 5. Feelings
[2:37] 6. Love For Sale
[4:09] 7. The Man I Love
[2:38] 8. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
[3:10] 9. Cry Me A River
[2:44] 10. Jamaica Farewell
[1:58] 11. Nature Boy
[4:18] 12. [nothing But] Flowers
[3:58] 13. Manhattan
[3:29] 14. Diana
[2:33] 15. Summertime
[6:07] 16. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
[3:22] 17. Love Me Tender
[3:31] 18. Body And Soul
[3:05] 19. If It's Magic
[1:31] 20. Detached
[1:38] 21. Something Good
[2:46] 22. Blue Skies

When an international artist records an English-language album, crossover is usually in the cards. For Caetano Veloso, however, it's an entirely different matter. The statesman of Brazilian pop, a musical giant who is on track to record more in his fifth decade of artistic striving than in any other (not to mention his accompanying exploits in literature), Veloso has no need to begin an American campaign. He also has shown no wish to. Caetano Veloso has never courted an American audience, though he has drawn a sizeable one because of his prescient, emotionally charged songwriting and a performance style that can be studied or unhinged depending on the circumstances required. A Foreign Sound is not only an English-language album but an American songbook, one that explores Veloso's long fascination with the greatest composers in American history. It began when he was a child in the '40s and '50s enamored of American culture, was strengthened when his hero João Gilberto began championing the great American songbook, and has remained steady if not continuous through his artistic career. The record is perhaps his most ambitious project ever, a 22-song album that ranges for its material from emperors of Broadway to the denizens of folk music, from the cultured (Rodgers & Hart's "Manhattan") to the torchy (Jerome Kern's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes") to the gritty (Nirvana's "Come as You Are"). Veloso's high tenor has only strengthened 30 years after his other English-language record -- an eponymous 1971 LP, recorded in London as a forlorn postcard to the country he had been forcibly removed from by Brazil's fascist-leaning government. Although few recordings in his discography (or any other's) can rival that one's emotional power, A Foreign Sound comes very close. Veloso transforms these standards by a clever combination of his subtle interpretive gifts, his precise, literate delivery, and his ability to frame each song with an arrangement that fits perfectly (usually either a small group led by his acoustic guitar or a small string group, though "Love for Sale" is given a spine-tingling a cappella treatment). Out of 22 songs, only Bob Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" sounds like a mistake; every other performance here is nearly irresistible, the perfect valentine to a country with a strong songwriting tradition that Veloso unites and celebrates with this album. ~John Bush

A Foreign Sound

Mal Waldron - My Dear Family

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1994
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:45
Size: 123,8 MB
Art: Front

(4:48)  1. Foot Prints
(8:18)  2. Left Alone
(4:02)  3. Sassy
(9:03)  4. Sakura Sakura
(7:43)  5. Here's That Rainy Day
(6:30)  6. Jeann Pierre
(7:59)  7. Red Shoes
(5:19)  8. My Dear Family

This date is notable for the pairing of pianist Mal Waldron and smooth jazz reedman Grover Washington, Jr.. Washington was always over-qualified to play his particular brand of instrumental pop, and it is a joy to hear him stretch out a bit on this straight-ahead session. His supple tone mixes well with trumpeter Eddie Henderson and both musicians take full harmonic advantage of performing with the moody and expansive Waldron. The only disappointment here is the overall somber quality of the selections. Despite an inspired version of "Footprints" and an unexpected choice in the funky "Jean Pierre" off Miles Davis' 1981 We Want Miles -- the album lags. "Left Alone" features Washington's trademark soprano sax sound and is a pretty ballad, but is followed up with the mid-tempo "Sassy" negating the prior tune's impact. Waldron could have earned more kudos with his inclusion of the Japanese traditional song "Sakura Sakura"  an interesting foray into world jazz -- if he had only bookended it with some bright up-tempo numbers. Still, this is a superbly performed album by stellar, world-class musicans and should please most hardcore jazz fans. ~ Matt Collar http://www.allmusic.com/album/my-dear-family-mw0000186671

Personnel: Mal Waldron (piano); Grover Washington, Jr. (soprano saxophone); Eddie Henderson (trumpet, flugelhorn); Pheeroan akLaff (drums).

My Dear Family

Barbara Cook - You Make Me Feel So Young: Live At Feinstein's

Styles: Vocal, Cabaret
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:28
Size: 116,2 MB
Art: Front

(2:11)  1. Are You Havin' Any Fun?
(2:56)  2. You Make Me Feel So Young
(3:05)  3. I've Grown Accustomed To His Face
(2:16)  4. Wait 'Til You're Sixty-Five
(3:18)  5. The Frim Fram Sauce
(3:52)  6. When I Look In Your Eyes
(3:25)  7. What Did I Have That I Don't Have
(3:20)  8. Live Alone And Like It
(2:22)  9. This Can't Be Love
(3:32) 10. I've Got You Under My Skin
(1:43) 11. Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You
(5:26) 12. I'm A Fool To Want You
(4:57) 13. Here's To Life
(4:03) 14. I Got Rhythm
(3:55) 15. Imagine

Barbara Cook confesses at the outset of this live recording, made in June 2011 at Feinstein's at the Regency in New York, that she has run out of ideas for themes for her nightclub sets and this time has just picked a batch of good songs she's never sung before. This isn't quite true, but it is understandable that Cook wouldn't want to state the show's theme specifically since, as the title You Make Me Feel So Young suggests, that theme concerns aging, and the perpetually young singer is 83. But why should she acknowledge that if she doesn't feel it or, especially, sound like it? Cook's voice is remarkably intact on these songs, whether she is intoning the long lines of a sad ballad like "I'm a Fool to Want You" or bouncing along to the lively rhythms of the opener, "Are You Havin' Any Fun?" But that song states the evening's throughline when the singer reminds her listeners, "You aren't gonna live forever." Other songs, such as Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane's "Wait ‘Til You're Sixty-Five" and "Here's to Life" also explore the matter of seniority, and even when the point is not made in so many words, it often is by implication, as in "What Did I Have That I Don't Have?," another Lerner/Lane composition. Cook makes a point of dedicating Stephen Sondheim's "Live Alone and Like It" to her divorced listeners, including herself in the category. It's true that not every song is about the concerns of getting and being old, but those that aren't tend to be change-of-pace palate clearers like Nat King Cole's "The Frim Fram Sauce," for which Cook breaks out a kazoo and does a solo. Even before then, her backup band has given much of the music a 1920s hot jazz feel, especially in the woodwind work of Steve Kenyon. Musical director Lee Musiker, meanwhile, has his own fast solo in "This Can't Be Love." The entire band gets a workout on a closing version of "I Got Rhythm" that might be called "The ‘I Got Rhythm' Variations." As a coda, Cook reasonably looks to a hopeful future with a songwriter outside her usual realm, turning in a precise and unadorned version of John Lennon's "Imagine" over Musiker's piano. It shows that, at whatever age one may be, idealism is still possible. ~ William Ruhlmann http://www.allmusic.com/album/you-make-me-feel-so-young-mw0002197372

Personnel: Barbara Cook (vocals, kazoo); Steve Kenyon (woodwinds); Lee Musiker (piano); Warren Odze (drums).

You Make Me Feel So Young: Live At Feinstein's

Chris Byars Octet - Lucky Strikes Again: Plays The Music Of Lucky Thompson

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@256K/s
Time: 62:41
Size: 117,2 MB
Art: Front

(1:30)  1. Theme
(5:39)  2. Munsoon
(6:46)  3. Old Reliable
(4:59)  4. Passionately You
(4:27)  5. Tiptop
(4:02)  6. Fanfare
(6:09)  7. Minik Koosh
(3:48)  8. Notorious Love
(5:48)  9. Another Whirl
(3:51) 10. Could I Meet You Later
(3:41) 11. Just One More Chance
(4:25) 12. Two Steps Out
(7:30) 13. Down The Stretch

If a theorem states: "three harmonizing saxophones create compelling, rich, sonic textures," then the proof is the Chris Byars Octet's homage to saxophonist Lucky Thompson, Lucky Strikes Again. Lucky Thompson (1924-2005) is primarily remembered as a bebop saxophonist, but he was also a fine and underrated composer, leading small and mid-sized bands. Byars has collected ten of Thompson's compositions using the same small big band instrumental mix: three sax's, two brass, and the rhythm section. The instrumental mix is crucial to the sound of this album, which is defined by the harmonics of that three-sax frontline. The greatest challenge to performing this music was the lack of written scores. To recreate them, Byars resorted to transcribing fifty-year-old NDR radio broadcast tapes. According to Byars' liner notes, "When you transcribe like that it is the most sincere form of listening and learning experience because you are in the chair of the composer and you can see and understand the decisions he made in slow motion."  The transcription effort pays off with a jumping set highlighting powerful, complex harmonies. "Could I Meet You Later" uses the full instrumentation to build the melody, and then applies it as background for the reed solos. The beauty of the horns isn't simply the harmonies, but the way those harmonies are staggered, building into chords in rolling sequences.  There is plenty of room for the individuals to shine here as well. Byars' work on both tenor and soprano saxophone is faultless, and Mark Lopeman's baritone is a double threat a standout soloist, he also anchors the reed section with rock-solid bass weight.  Lucky Strikes Again coaxes a huge sound out of five horns, a credit to the quality of the arrangements. They're musically expansive, getting the most out of the instruments at hand, but are also compact and well-organized, with only one running more than seven minutes. Byars has put together a set of concise, rewarding tracks with a band that turns in a terrific performance of outstanding material. ~ Greg Simmons https://www.allaboutjazz.com/lucky-strikes-again-steeplechase-records-review-by-greg-simmons.php
Personnel: Chris Byars: tenor and soprano saxophone; Scott Wendholt: trumpet; John Mosca: trombone; Zaid Nasser: alto saxophone; Mark Lopeman: baritone saxophone; Sacha Perry: piano; Ari Roland: bass; Stefan Schatz: drums.

Lucky Strikes Again: Plays The Music Of Lucky Thompson

Bobby Scott - The Compositions Of Bobby Scott

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1955
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:21
Size: 105,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:38)  1. Dot
(2:57)  2. Kwan Youen
(3:49)  3. Moon Tan
(4:16)  4. Betty
(4:10)  5. Aunt Sarah
(4:09)  6. Cerebellum
(2:19)  7. Wigwam
(4:03)  8. The Creed
(2:59)  9. Table Cloth Stomp
(2:59) 10. A Parable
(2:35) 11. The Wig
(2:45) 12. Count Bill
(4:36) 13. Makin' Whoopee (bonus track)

29 January 1937, New York City, New York, USA, d. 5 November 1990, New York City, New York, USA. Scott was a pianist, singer, composer, arranger, teacher and record producer. He also played several other instruments such as cello, bass, vibraphone, accordion and clarinet, but was mainly known for his jazz piano work and vocals. He attended Dorothea Anderson Follette’s School of Music, and then in 1949 studied composition with Edward Moritz, a former pupil of Claude Debussy. Despite his early classical training, Scott turned to jazz in his teens, and played with small bands led by the likes of Louis Prima, Tony Scott and Gene Krupa, with whom he cut some sides for Verve Records. From 1954, he recorded under his own name for labels such as Bethlehem, Savoy, Atlantic and ABC, and in 1956 had a US Top 20 hit with ‘Chain Gang’, written by Sol Quasha and Hank Yakus (not the Sam Cooke song). In 1960, Scott wrote the title theme for Shelagh Delaney’s play A Taste Of Honey, which became popular for pianist Martin Denny and, when Ric Marlow added a lyric, for Tony Bennett. It was also included on the Beatles’ first UK album. The song won a Grammy in 1962, and three more when Herb Alpert took it into the US Top 10 in 1965. In the early 60s Scott was the musical director for Dick Haymes for a time, and, as a pianist, arranger and record producer for Mercury Records, also maintained a close working relationship with Quincy Jones. Scott played piano on most of Jones’ Mercury albums, and accompanied Tania Vega and John Lee Hooker on Jones’ soundtrack music for the film The Color Purple (1986). As a producer, Scott supervised sessions for important artists such as Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Bobby Darin, Harry Belafonte and Sarah Vaughan. He discovered and recorded guitarist/vocalist Perry Miller, who changed his name to Jesse Colin Young, and he is also credited with taking singer Bobby Hebb back to Mercury, although Scott left the label before Hebb released his biggest hit, ‘Sunny’, in 1966.

Scott’s compositions included ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ (lyrics by Bob Russell), a hit for Neil Diamond (in 1970) and for the Hollies a year earlier and again in 1988, when it featured impressively in a UK television commercial for Miller Lite Lager; ‘Where Are You Going?’ (with Danny Meehan), sung by Joe Butler in the film Joe (1970); and ‘Slaves (Don’t You Know My Name?)’, performed by Dionne Warwick in the movie Slaves (1969). Scott also composed incidental music for the play Dinny And The Witches, and several pieces for harp and string trios, including ‘The Giacometti Variations’, so-called because it was part-used as a radio advertisement for the Giacometti Exhibition held at the New York Museum of Modern Art. His compositions for guitar included ‘Solitude Book’ and ‘The Book Of Hours’, the latter recorded with Brazilian guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima. For Sentimental Reasons displayed Scott simply as an accomplished pianist, who also sang. He died of lung cancer in the year of its release. http://www.oldies.com/artist-biography/Bobby-Scott.html

Personnel: Bobby Scott (arranger, piano); Hal McKusick, Charlie Mariano (alto saxophone); Bill Holman (tenor saxophone); Al Epstein, Jimmy Giuffre (baritone saxophone); Ronnie Woellmer, Conte Candoli (trumpet); Eddie Bert, Frank Rosolino (trombone); Milt Hinton, Max Bennett (bass); Osie Johnson, Stan Levey (drums).

The Compositions Of Bobby Scott

Jeff Richman & Chatterbox - The Line Up

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:28
Size: 150,6 MB
Art: Front

(4:49)  1. The Line Up
(3:31)  2. Window To He Heart
(4:25)  3. Rule Of Thumb
(5:47)  4. It's All One (Jam #1)
(5:18)  5. That Trick
(5:59)  6. Cross My Heart
(6:16)  7. Once More Twice
(4:25)  8. Square Root (Jam #2)
(5:05)  9. Smoke Ring
(4:49) 10. Point Of You
(5:26) 11. Right Here,Right Now (Jam #3)
(2:32) 12. Window To The Heart (Reprise)

Contemporary jazz guitarist Jeff Richman announces the release date of his upcoming CD, Jeff Richman and Chatterbox: The Line Up for October 18. The Nefer Records release is Richman's 16th solo project and features Mitchel Forman on keyboards, Joel Taylor on drums and Dean Taba on bass guitar. The new CD is distributed by City Hall Records and songs will be available online at iTunes, Amazon and other music websites. The Line Up consists of 12 new tracks exploring and expanding the boundaries of contemporary jazz. Together, the odd metered time signatures, key changes, rhythm variations, polyphony, improvisation and tempos are overcome by the band as they weave in and out of these original compositions by Richman. On three of the tracks Richman, Forman, Taylor and Taba take artistic liberties into their own hands with their shared composition of jam tracks "It's All One", "Square Root" and "Right Here, Right Now". While recording, Richman imposes challenges on himself and the band to grow and capture a bigger audience; to include them in on the musical journey. There is an inherent sense throughout the CD that gives the listener the impression that Richman and the band want the listener to experience the same fun, challenges, joy, conflict and sorrow as they do when performing. It's not forced and it happens organically, as if each song is a conversation. The melody masquerades as the topic, ideas get passed around between the artists and the audience is allowed to eavesdrop; the invisible barrier between talent and audience being removed. Guitarist Jeff Richman has enjoyed success on the jazz scene for nearly 35 years. His guitar playing is cited as tasteful and articulate, with room to breathe. 

He is recognized by and associated with the other luminaries of the fusion and contemporary jazz. His guitar is heard the world over. On this new release, his tone rises above with something unique that can't quite be described. It is the impression of a barebones approach that has simplified his tone but made it gigantic. He uses his go to Fender Strats and Teles, a Jim Hall Sadowsky, a silver faced Marshall Jubilee but this time there is something else in the water. Throughout his career, Richman has recorded and performed with the crème de la crème of talent. He has discovered and forged a solid rapport with each member of the band. Now he successfully brings them together to form one cohesive unit that seems untouchable on this recording. As Richman sums it up, "This is the band. This is what I've wanted to achieve. I know I can go anywhere in the world with these guys and it will be an amazing time for us and the fans. It feels good, it sounds good, and I can't wait to take this show out on the road." http://www.jazzreview.com/new-jazz-releases/the-line-up-by-jeff-richman-and-chatterbox.html

Personnel:  Bass – Dean Taba;  Drums – Joel Taylor;  Guitar – Jeff Richman;  Keyboards – Mitchel Forman

The Line Up