Red Norvo Quintet - The Forward Look

Styles: Vibraphone Jazz
Year: 1957
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:26
Size: 162,2 MB
Art: Front

(6:31)  1. Rhee Waahnee
(7:24)  2. The Forward Look
(6:02)  3. Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
(4:00)  4. My Funny Valentine
(6:42)  5. How's Your Mother-In-Law?
(3:27)  6. Saturday Night
(3:19)  7. Mountain Greenery
(6:34)  8. I'm Beginning To See The Light
(7:46)  9. When Your Smiling
(4:31) 10. Room 608
(4:52) 11. Foe Lena And Lennie
(9:13) 12. Cookin' At The Continental

The music on this CD, taken from a New Year's Eve concert, had never been issued prior to the release of this CD by Reference in 1991. With Jerry Dodgion (mostly on alto and flute), guitarist Jimmy Wyble, bassist Red Wooten and drummer John Markham being his sidemen, this was a well-integrated group despite the lack of major names. 

Norvo's vibe playing was in its prime and he is in excellent form during a wide-ranging set that ranges from "My Funny Valentine" and "When You're Smiling" to Quincy Jones's "For Lena and Lennie" and "How's Your Mother in Law"; the repertoire includes quite a few obscurities. This surprisingly well-recorded CD is well worth picking up as an example of Red Norvo's playing in the latter half of the 1950s. ~ Scott Yanow http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-forward-look-mw0000096135

Personnel: Red Norvo (vibraphone, background vocals); Jimmy Wyble (guitar); John Markham, Red Wootten (drums).

The Forward Look

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Helen Sheppard - Hello Tomorrow

Styles: Vocal, Swing
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:49
Size: 109,7 MB
Art: Front

(4:07)  1. Don't Say Goodbye
(4:51)  2. You Don't Love Me
(3:22)  3. In Your Eyes
(4:54)  4. Lazarus
(0:28)  5. Reeling
(5:40)  6. All the Best Men
(4:24)  7. Hello Tomorrow
(2:54)  8. Troubles Inside
(6:07)  9. Three O'Clock
(3:11) 10. Walk Ten Miles
(6:00) 11. Never Too Late
(0:47) 12. One in a Million

This is an eclectic collection of smoky ballads and swing numbers, which co-exist quite happily alongside more soulful songs and others which could easily live on a superior pop album. It also suits vocalist Helen Sheppard's humor there are some cheeky little touches to make you smile, and at 25 seconds, "All the Best Men" must be the shortest album track ever. "Hello Tomorrow" was recorded live with no overdubs in 2003 at Trident West (Malcolm Toft's new studio in Torquay) with local players: Gary Evans - drums, Riaan Vosloo - bass, Tom Unwin - piano, Mick Green - sax, Martin Holland - trumpet with special guest Marc Walpot on accordion. Recorded and produced by Leo Feigin, owner of Leo Records. ~ Editorial Reviews https://www.amazon.com/Hello-Tomorrow-HELEN-SHEPPARD/dp/B0000ARNE9

Personnel: Helen Sheppard (vocal); Tom Unwin (piano); Riaan Vosloo (bass instrument); Gary Evans (drums);  Mick Green (sax); Martin Holland (trumpet);  Marc Walpot (accordion).

Hello Tomorrow

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Steve Khan - Subtext

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:20
Size: 161,3 MB
Art: Front

(9:08)  1. Bird Food
(6:58)  2. Blue Subtext
(7:18)  3. Baraka Saza
(8:34)  4. Infant Eyes
(8:14)  5. Heard
(7:53)  6. Never Let Me Go
(7:05)  7. Cada Gota de Mar
(5:50)  8. Hackensack
(9:17)  9. Bait and Switch

Guitarist Steve Khan's latter day work has been increasingly focused on Latin jazz fusion of various shapes, so the scope and direction of Subtext should come as no surprise to his longtime followers. This album arrives three years after Parting Shot (Tone Center, 2011) and runs along similar lines. That one was an originals-heavy, percussively-coated session that dipped into the songbooks of Thelonious Monk ("Bye-Ya") and Ornette Coleman ("Blues Connotation" and "Chronology"); this one is a mostly covers companion piece that also touches on the work of those same iconic artists.  On Subtext, fronting a percussion-heavy quintet, Khan refashions some classics, unearths some rarely covered gems, and delivers a trio of originals that fit nicely into the mix. Khan works with a highly capable crew drummer Dennis Chambers, bassist Ruben Rodriguez, and percussionists Bobby Allende and Marc Quinones. Together, these men could wreak havoc and set four-alarm fires, but the guitarist mostly holds everybody in check, preferring to create a rhythmic mesh instead of a blazing inferno. That quintet defines the sound of the record, but several guests drop in to add their two cents. Trumpeter Randy Brecker wields his flugelhorn on Coleman's "Bird Food"; Rob Mounsey provides orchestrations for a few numbers and appears twice on keyboards (the too-sleek title track and just-right, M-Base-meets-Santana rewrite of saxophonist Greg Osby's "Heard"); while accordionist Gil Goldstein and vocalist Mariana Ingold appear on "Cada Gota De Mar," a number influenced by Colombian Vallenato music co-written by the vocalist and Khan. The remaining tracks all find Khan in fine form. He cooks on Freddie Hubbard's infrequently explored "Baraka Sasa," delivers a spicy songo-influenced take on Monk's "Hackensack," imagines "Never Let Me Go" as a relaxed-and-moody bolero, turns Wayne Shorter's "Infant Eyes" into a 6/8 Afro-Cuban vehicle, and closes out the program with the simmering cha-cha original, "Bait And Switch." Subtext is a pleasing, low-flame Latin outing delivered by some of the best in the business. It's occasionally wanting for a bit more bite and flight, but the balance of restraint and strength demonstrated has always been a Khan calling card; his desire to flow rather than fly has often kept him under the radar with the public, though most musicians know the score when it come to this venerable guitarist: Khan kills in his own special way. 

~ Dan Bilawsky https://www.allaboutjazz.com/subtext-steve-khan-tone-center-review-by-dan-bilawsky.php

Personnel: Steve Khan: guitar; Ruben Rodriguez: electric bass, baby bass; Dennis Chambers; drums; Marc Quinones: timbal, bongo, percussion; Bobby Allende: conga, bongo (1); Randy Brecker: flugelhorn (1); Rob Mounsey: keyboards (2, 5); orchestrations (3, 4, 6, 7), coro (7); Gil Goldstein: accordion (7); Mariana Ingold: vocals (7).

Subtext

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Eddie Calvert - Latin Festival

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 1960
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 32:11
Size: 75,7 MB
Art: Front

(2:51)  1. Siboney
(3:16)  2. Besame Mucho
(3:17)  3. Por Favor ...
(2:28)  4. Flamingo
(2:24)  5. La ultima noche
(2:23)  6. Copacabana
(2:50)  7. Nicolasa
(3:23)  8. Venezuela
(2:20)  9. Adios Mariquita Linda
(2:07) 10. Aurora
(2:34) 11. You belong to my heart
(2:14) 12. The Three Caballeros

Eddie Calvert, known as the man with the golden trumpet, was born in Preston, Lancashire on the 15th March 1922 as Albert Edward Calvert. As a child he was exposed to his family's love of brass band music and he learned to play many brass instruments but concentrated on the trumpet. He joined the Preston Town Silver Band at the age of 11 but the war interrupted his musical career and by the late 1940s he returned to play in various amateur brass bands, eventually moving to the professional circuit with the dance bands Geraldo and Billy Ternet. Going solo, he appeared on TV with the Stanley Black Orchestra. He signed to the Columbia label, part of the EMI group and released an instrumental trumpet version of the German song Oh Mein Papa which had most famously been covered in English as Oh My Papa by Eddie Fisher. Calvert's instrumental easily won the chart battle in the UK and it remained at no.1 for nine weeks at the beginning of 1954. Over a year later he was involved in another chart battle for supremacy with the song Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White and this time it was much closer with both his and a very similar trumpet version by Perez Prado reaching no.1 in the Spring of 1955. Several other hits followed including a version of Stranger In Paradise, John And Julie and Mandy, while Little Serenade was his final hit in June 1958. When the 1960s provided no change of fortune, Calvert moved away to settle in South Africa where he lived out the remainder of his life, dying on the 7th of August 1978. 

~ Sharon Mawer http://www.allmusic.com/artist/eddie-calvert-mn0000793645

Personnel:  Trumpet – Eddie Calvert;  Orchestra – The Martin Slavin Orchestra

Latin Festival

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Stanton Moore - Emphasis on parenthesis

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:53
Size: 108,2 MB
Art: Front

(6:27)  1. (Late night at the) Maple Leaf
(2:56)  2. (Proper) Gander
(3:22)  3. Wissions (Of vu)
(5:10)  4. (Sifting through the) African Diaspora
(4:37)  5. Over (Compensatin)
(5:39)  6. (Smell my) Special Ingredients
(3:48)  7. (I have) Super Strength
(4:28)  8. (Who ate the) Layer Cake
(2:57)  9. Thanks! (Again)
(4:07) 10. (Put on your) Big People Shoes
(3:19) 11. (Here come) The Brown Police

When New Orleans native son Stanton Moore settles down behind his drum kit, what's sure to follow is enough electrifying energy and raw power to rebuild The Crescent City all by its own bad self.  Moore's rocking and rolling drums are pushed upfront in the mix, but they don't drown out Will Bernard's guitar and Robert Walter's keyboards. This trio is very much a democracy and there's plenty of room for each musician to go off on his own, while still staying within the framework of the band. Nothing here is meant to be taken too seriously, as Emphasis! (On Parenthesis) is all about the grooving and jamming. The real difference between "(Put On Your) Big People Shoes" and "Proper (Gander)" may be nothing more than how much longer or shorter one song is, compared to the other. Walter's deliciously bent toy piano on the loopy "Wissions (of Vu)" and Moore's funky timekeeping sound as thought they were written for an over-the-top Quentin Tarantino flick. "(Sifting Through the) African Diaspora" features a reverberating bass line that will have you searching the liner notes for the musician, but it's only Walter working the bass pedals on the Hammond B3 to perfection. "(Who Ate the) Layer Cake?" is straight-up, Jeff Beck-ish dirty rock n' roll complete with guitar riffs and thundering drum rolls. "Proper (Gander)" allows Bernard to go off on some high-flying solos as Moore anchors it all, bashing the hell out of his drums. All that's missing is a shaggy, long-haired blond lead singer (which isn't all bad). Moore can change up from funk to rock and back to jazz seamlessly, and seems equally at home with any genre he chooses. The problem for any critic with an album like Emphasis! (On Parenthesis) is they risk exposing the reader to paralysis by analysis. This isn't the kind of album you have to think about too much. Moore, Bernard and Walter are clearly having a good time and they want you to as well. This lean, mean and sassy album is meant to be played and enjoyed, not pondered. There's not a wasted moment or a bad song on this album. It's a solid contender to be on many end of the year "Best of" lists. ~ Jeff Winbush https://www.allaboutjazz.com/emphasis-on-parenthesis-stanton-moore-telarc-records-review-by-jeff-winbush.php

Personnel: Stanton Moore: drums; Will Bernard: guitar; Robert Walter: Hammond B3, piano, toy piano and clavinet; Michael Skinkus: shakere (6); Robert Wilmott Walter: vocals (7).

Emphasis on parenthesis

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