Friday, April 7, 2017

Charlie Haden, Kenny Barron - Night And The City

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:47
Size: 162.0 MB
Styles: Piano jazz, Easy Listening
Year: 1998
Art: Front

[12:44] 1. Twilight Song
[10:46] 2. For Heaven's Sake
[10:20] 3. Spring Is Here
[10:25] 4. Body And Soul
[ 7:00] 5. You Don't Know What Love Is
[ 8:28] 6. Waltz For Ruth
[11:01] 7. The Very Thought Of You

Bass – Charlie Haden; Piano – Kenny Barron. Recorded live on September 20, 21, 22, 1996 at The Iridium, N.Y.C.

The third in a series of Charlie Haden duet projects for Verve in the 1990s finds the increasingly nostalgia-minded bass player working New York City's Iridium jazz club with pianist Kenny Barron. Moreover, it is entirely possible that we are getting a skewed view of the gig; according to Haden, he and his co-producer wife Ruth tilted this album heavily in the direction of romantic ballads, eliminating the bebop and avant-garde numbers that the two may have also played at the club. Be that as it may, this is still a thoughtful, intensely musical, sometimes haunting set of performances, with Barron displaying a high level of lyrical sensitivity and Haden applying his massive tone sparingly. Most of the seven tracks are fantasias on well-known standards, although one of the most eloquent performances on the disc is Barron's playing on his own "Twilight Song." If Haden deliberately set out to create a single reflective mood, he certainly succeeded, although those coming to Haden for the first time through this and most of his other '90s CDs would never suspect that this man once played such a fire-breathing role in the jazz avant-garde. ~Richard S. Ginnell

Night And The City

Curtis Stigers & The Danish Radio Big Band - One More For The Road

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:34
Size: 76.9 MB
Styles: Jazz-pop, Adult Contemporary
Year: Jazz
Art: Front

[3:20] 1. Come Fly With Me
[3:50] 2. I’ve Got You Under My Skin
[3:38] 3. Don’t Worry ‘bout Me
[3:03] 4. You Make Me Feel So Young
[2:44] 5. My Kind Of Town
[2:57] 6. Fly Me To The Moon
[3:19] 7. Summer Wind
[3:12] 8. They Can’t Take That Away From Me
[3:16] 9. The Lady Is A Tramp
[4:12] 10. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)

Just in case the title One More for the Road didn't suggest Sinatra, Curtis Stigers underscores his debt to the Chairman of the Board by patterning the artwork for this 2017 collaboration with the Danish Radio Big Band after 1966's Sinatra at The Sands. In fact, One More for the Road is something of a salute to that 1966 record, containing eight songs from that double album and adhering to the snazzy swing of late-period Frank. Stigers even channels that sensibility into "Summer Wind," a gentle breeze of a single, and that's one of the distinguishing factors of One More for the Road. Another distinguishing factor is the cheerful blare of the Dutch Radio Big Band, who are big and brassy without overwhelming the singer. For his part, Stigers doesn't mimic Sinatra, appropriating just a bit of swagger -- and, sometimes, the arrangements -- but plays with his phrasing and alternates between crisp enunciation and elongated notes. This is enough to make One More for the Road something a bit different than a straight-up tribute to Ol' Blue Eyes because it shows how Stigers can hold his presence on-stage while sharing the spotlight with his idol. ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine

One More For The Road

Fay Victor - Darker Than Blue

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:40
Size: 154.9 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2001
Art: Front

[4:13] 1. Eclipse
[5:58] 2. Zootoon
[8:14] 3. Tonight (House Party Starting)
[4:26] 4. My Reverie
[4:47] 5. Strollin' (Nostalgia In Times Square)
[7:00] 6. Last Night's Dinner
[9:12] 7. Star Eyes
[4:47] 8. What A Little Moonlight Can Do
[4:15] 9. Sometimes
[7:09] 10. In The City (Sham Time)
[7:35] 11. Detour Ahead

Fay Victor: Vocals; Anton Goudsmit: Guitar; Vijay Lyer: Piano; John Herbert Bass; Steve Hass: Drums; Marc Mommaas: Tenor Saxophone.

If American expatriate Fay Victor assimilates the grace of Nancy Wilson, the delivery of Betty Carter, and the courage of Cassandra Wilson, her guitarist, Anton Goudsmit channels the tone of Kenny Burrell, the image of Charlie Christian and the attitude of James Blood Ulmer. This is fairly well illustrated on "Tonight," Ms. Victor's take on Herbie Nichols' "House Party Starting." This song is populated with Victor's elastic vocals and Goudsmit's elastic plectra. Goudsmit's extended solo is full of crags and hallows, devoid of regard for time or rhythm. In short, refreshing and daring. This delivery is reminiscent of Cassandra Wilson's Miles Davis deconstructive vision. Not a mere copy, but certainly influenced by it.

So it is with Ms. Victor's delivery. She and her band take this most ill behaved composition and spank it into total rebellion before turning it into the quiet eight-minute tour de force it is. "Tonight" also illustrates another core characteristic of this disc, that of "less is more." The majority of the instrumentation is spare and spread out, as on the voice, bass, drum treatment of Debussy's "My Reverie." The music is almost self propelled, sporting a sharp efficiency, music stripped to the bone. Even upbeat pieces like "Strollin'" a characterized by a certain economy that can only derive from practice and reference. If the earlier Herbie Nichols piece was not challenging enough, Victor bases "Strollin'" on Mingus' ("Nostalgia in Times Square").

Fay Victor shows she knows her way around standards on "Star Eyes" and "What A Little Moonlight Can Do." She sings these not so much straight as expelling them with some creative entropy. She possesses a voice and a style that will have to be honestly confronted by the astute listener. Fay victor is a thinking person's jazz vocalist. ~C. Michael Bailey

Darker Than Blue

Paul Bryant - Groove Essence

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:27
Size: 81.2 MB
Styles: Blues-jazz guitar
Year: 2014
Art: Front

[3:46] 1. Doesn't Really Matter
[3:52] 2. Smoothus Groovus
[2:37] 3. She's Trouble
[3:56] 4. Gettin' Funky
[3:25] 5. Stylin'
[4:27] 6. Other Things To Do
[3:56] 7. Shake What Ya Got
[3:24] 8. Don't Waste Away
[3:03] 9. Father Time
[2:56] 10. The Cat Walk

A premier Blues guitarist from Los Angeles, Paul is highly regarded as an authentic Blues player. He is proficient in all styles of Blues and is a leading innovator of West Coast Swing and Jump. Paul got his first "break" in 1982, when "PeeWee" Crayton asked him to join his band. During this period he got a real education, working with such Blues Legends as "Big Joe" Turner, Lowell Fulson, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Lee Allen, Guitar Shorty, Joe Houston, and Harmonica Fats. Paul hit the National Blues Scene in 1986 as Grand Prize Winners of the Long Beach Blues Festival Talent Search, with "Luke & The Locomotives," a band he co-founded with Audioquest Recording Artist Robert Lucas.

Since then, he has toured internationally with "Canned Heat", William Clarke, King Ernest, Robert Lucas, "Luke & The Locomotives," and Smokey Wilson, to name a few. Paul can be heard on the "Luke & The Locomotives" CD release on Audioquest Records, the Robert Lucas CD release, "Layaway," also on Audioquest Records, the King Ernest CD release, "King of Hearts," on Evidence Records, the Jimmy Morello CD release, "Can't Be Denied," on JSP Records, and the Lester Butler CD release "13", on High Tone Records. Paul has also shared the stage with Carey Bell, Frankie Lee Sims, Finis Tasby, Slash, "Big Daddy" Kinsey, Johnny Dyer, Frank Frost, Lester Davenport, Big Jack Johnson, Charlie Musselwhite, George Thoroughgood, James "Supe" Bradshaw, Henry Butler, Mitch Kashmar, Johnny Rivers, Phillip Walker, Jimmy Vivino, Spencer Davis, R.J. Mischo, A.C. Reed, Janiva Magness, Harvey Mandel, Debbie Davies, Rod Piazza, James Harman, and many others.

Groove Essence

Bobby Timmons - From The Bottom

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:08
Size: 75.9 MB
Styles: Bop, Piano jazz
Year: 1964/2000
Art: Front

[4:59] 1. From The Bottom
[4:17] 2. Corcovado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars)
[3:37] 3. Medley: You're Blase/Bewitched
[4:51] 4. If I Should Lose You
[3:20] 5. Samba Triste
[6:31] 6. Someone To Watch Over Me
[5:31] 7. Moanin'

Bass – Sam Jones; Drums – Jimmy Cobb; Organ – Bobby Timmons; Piano – Bobby Timmons; Vibraphone [Vibraharp] – Bobby Timmons.

Pianist Bobby Timmons final recording for Riverside (cut right before the label went broke) was not released for the first time until 1970. Bobby Timmons, a highly influential funk pianist, is in generally excellent form. Most of the songs feature his trio with bassist Sam Jones and drummer Jimmy Cobb, but a ballad medley of "You're Blase" and "Bewitched" finds Timmons unaccompanied and he surprisingly switches to organ on his old hit "Moanin'" (his only recorded appearance ever on that instrument) and vibes on "Quiet Nights" and "Someone to Watch over Me." ~Scott Yanow

From The Bottom

Cinzia Roncelli - Cinzia Roncelli Sings Swallow - Willow: A Jazz Suite

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:25
Size: 116,2 MB
Art: Front

(1:18)  1. Introducing
(4:45)  2. 1st movement - Muddy In The Bank
(4:45)  3. 1st movement - Ponytail
(0:19)  4. 1st movement - Interlude #1
(2:36)  5. 1st movement - Thinking Out Loud
(0:46)  6. 1st movement - Interlude #2
(1:29)  7. 1st movement - Sunset
(3:45)  8. 2nd movement - Playing With Water
(0:35)  9. 2nd movement - Hey Miss
(2:00) 10. 2nd movement - Outfits
(5:07) 11. 2nd movement - Better Times
(1:18) 12. 2nd movement - In The Dark
(7:02) 13. 3rd movement - Wrong Together
(0:41) 14. 3rd movement - Let's Go
(3:21) 15. 3rd movement - Please Let's Go
(4:05) 16. 3rd movement - Falling Grace
(6:27) 17. Finale - Willow

The Vocalist Cinzia Roncelli, which is experiencing a time of great successes and great collaborations, presents his latest work in which celebrates one of the most important contemporary jazz musicians in the world: Steve Swallow bass player, and it does so using just the great musician, together another outstanding overseas musician, drummer Adam Nussbaum, saxophonist and pianist Nicolò Ricci Giovanni Mazzarino, true architect of this musical meeting. A true, authentic and today philological work on Unique Music of the great bassist / American composer Steve Swallow. The art project that already exists since 2001 (Mazzarino / Swallow / Nussbaum) is embellished using the extraordinary artistic caliber of singer Cinzia Roncelli. A suite divided into five movements written by the composer Giovanni Mazzarino. The Suite explores not only the music of the American composer but also his solos turning them into authentic songs with lyrics written by the talented Sicilian singer Daniela Spalletta, thus taking the form of a vocalese. The work record came out attached to the prestigious JAZZ magazine in the month of February 2014.  Translate by Google  https://www.wikieventi.it/milano/index.php?id_evento=67771
amp;evento=Cinzia_Roncelli_sings_Steve_Swallow_Willow_a_Jazz_Suite

Cinzia Roncelli Sings Swallow - Willow: A Jazz Suite

Joe Bonner Quartet - The Lost Melody

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1987
File: MP3@224K/s
Time: 53:21
Size: 86,9 MB
Art: Front

(7:14)  1. You And The Night And The Music
(9:11)  2. Easy Living
(7:57)  3. Vibeke
(4:57)  4. Have You Met Miss Jones?
(7:22)  5. The Lost Melody
(7:25)  6. The Song Is You
(9:12)  7. Manuella

A fine pianist who was originally heavily influenced by McCoy Tyner, Joe Bonner is an excellent interpreter of modal-based music and advanced hard bop. He studied music at Virginia State College and early on played with Roy Haynes (1970-1971), Freddie Hubbard (1971-1972), Pharoah Sanders (1972-1974), and Billy Harper (late '70s). Bonner, who recorded as a leader for Muse, Theresa, and most prominently Steeplechase, has been based in Colorado since the 1980s and remains a talented improviser. ~ Scott Yanow http://www.allmusic.com/artist/joe-bonner-mn0000785721/biography

Personnel: Joe Bonner (piano); Bob Rockwell (soprano & tenor saxophones); Jesper Lundgaard (bass); Jukkis Uotila (drums).

The Lost Melody

Don Cherry - Home Boy

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1985
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:57
Size: 95,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:44)  1. Butterfly Friend
(3:11)  2. I Walk
(6:48)  3. Rappin Recipe
(4:11)  4. Reggae To The High Tower
(2:52)  5. Art Deco
(4:35)  6. Call Me
(6:08)  7. Treat Your Lady Right
(3:43)  8. Alphabet City
(5:41)  9. Bamako Love

Imagination and a passion for exploration made Don Cherry one of the most influential jazz musicians of the late 20th century. A founding member of Ornette Coleman's groundbreaking quartet of the late '50s, Cherry continued to expand his musical vocabulary until his death in 1995. In addition to performing and recording with his own bands, Cherry worked with such top-ranked jazz musicians as Steve Lacy, Sonny Rollins, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, and Gato Barbieri. Cherry's most prolific period came in the late '70s and early '80s when he joined Nana Vasconcelos and Collin Walcott in the worldbeat group Codona, and with former bandmates Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell, and saxophonist Dewey Redman in the Coleman-inspired group Old and New Dreams. Cherry later worked with Vasconcelos and saxophonist Carlos Ward in the short-lived group Nu. Born in Oklahoma City in 1936, he first attained prominence with Coleman, with whom he began playing around 1957. At that time Cherry's instrument of choice was a pocket trumpet (or cornet) a miniature version of the full-sized model. The smaller instrument  in Cherry's hands, at least got a smaller, slightly more nasal sound than is typical of the larger horn. Though he would play a regular cornet off and on throughout his career, Cherry remained most closely identified with the pocket instrument. Cherry stayed with Coleman through the early '60s, playing on the first seven (and most influential) of the saxophonist's albums. In 1960, he recorded The Avant-Garde with John Coltrane. After leaving Coleman's band, Cherry played with Steve Lacy, Sonny Rollins, Archie Shepp, and Albert Ayler. In 1963-1964, Cherry co-led the New York Contemporary Five with Shepp and John Tchicai. With Gato Barbieri, Cherry led a band in Europe from 1964-1966, recording two of his most highly regarded albums, Complete Communion and Symphony for Improvisers. Cherry began the '70s by teaching at Dartmouth College in 1970, and recorded with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra in 1973. He lived in Sweden for four years, and used the country as a base for his travels around Europe and the Middle East. Cherry became increasingly interested in other, mostly non-Western styles of music. 

In the late '70s and early '80s, he performed and recorded with Codona, a cooperative group with percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and multi-instrumentalist Collin Walcott. Codona's sound was a pastiche of African, Asian, and other indigenous musics. Concurrently, Cherry joined with ex-Coleman associates Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, and Dewey Redman to form Old and New Dreams, a band dedicated to playing the compositions of their former employer. After the dissolution of Codona, Cherry formed Nu with Vasconcelos and saxophonist Carlos Ward. In 1988, he made Art Deco, a more traditional album of acoustic jazz, with Haden, Billy Higgins, and saxophonist James Clay. Until his death in 1995, Cherry continued to combine disparate musical genres; his interest in world music never abated. Cherry learned to play and compose for wood flutes, tambura, gamelan, and various other non-Western instruments. Elements of these musics inevitably found their way into his later compositions and performances, as on 1990's Multi Kulti, a characteristic celebration of musical diversity. As a live performer, Cherry was notoriously uneven. It was not unheard of for him to arrive very late for gigs, and his technique never great to begin with showed on occasion a considerable, perhaps inexcusable, decline. In his last years, especially, Cherry seemed less self-possessed as a musician. Yet his musical legacy is one of such influence that his personal failings fade in relative significance. ~ Chris Kelsey & Craig Harris https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/don-cherry/id394729#fullText

Personnel:  Don Cherry - pocket trumpet, vocals, doussn’ gouni, piano, synthesizer, melodica;  Ramuntcho Matta – guitar;  Jannick Top – bass;  Negrito Trasante - bongos, congas, talking drum, rhythm box;  Polo Lombardo – konks;  Claude Salmieri – drums;  Fil Mong – bass;  Jean-Pierre Coco - congas; Abdoulaye Prosper Niang – drums; Elli Medeiros - backing vocals

Home Boy

Kevin Hays - Go Round

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1995
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:17
Size: 156,7 MB
Art: Front

( 7:55)  1. Daybreak
(10:23)  2. Early Evening
(10:33)  3. Go Round
( 5:59)  4. When I Wake
( 6:01)  5. The Run
( 5:54)  6. Sutra
( 8:14)  7. Quiet
(10:19)  8. Invitation
( 2:55)  9. Sutra (Reprise)

Pianist Kevin Hays shows individuality on this CD and he certainly takes chances. The compositions (all but "Invitation" were penned by Hays) must be quite difficult to play because according to the liners "Daybreak" is 12 bars with a couple of bars in 5/4, "The Run" has sections in 5/4, 4/4 and 3/4 in every chorus and "Invitation" is completely altered. Both of the tenors (the obscure Steve Hall and Seemus Blake) somehow manage to sound comfortable and creative in this format which is an extension of the controlled freedom of Wayne Shorter and Andrew Hill. On some tracks Hays plays an electric piano and, with Hall's Shorter-influenced tenor, one thinks of early Weather Report or 1970s Herbie Hancock; Blake adds to the atmosphere by sometimes electrifying his sax. The alert and versatile playing of bassist Doug Weiss and drummer Billy Hart is also quite impressive. This is thought-provoking music that grows in interest over time. ~ Scott Yanow http://www.allmusic.com/album/go-round-mw0000174907

Kevin Hays (piano & Fender Rhodes), Steve Hall (tenor saxophone), Seamus Blake (tenor & soprano saxophone), Doug Weiss (bass), Billy Hart (drums) & Daniel Sadownick (percussion).

Go Round