Bill Perkins & Richie Kamuca - Tenors Head On

Styles: Saxophone, Clarinet And Flute Jazz
Year: 1956
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:34
Size: 143,6 MB
Art:

(4:37)  1. Cotton Tail
(5:57)  2. I Want A Little Girl
(4:30)  3. Blues For Two
(4:40)  4. Indian Summer
(5:06)  5. Don't Be That Way
(5:38)  6. Oh! Look At Me Now
(5:02)  7. Spain
(4:25)  8. Pick A Dilly
(4:32)  9. Solid De Sylva
(5:10) 10. Just Friends
(4:32) 11. All Of Me
(3:19) 12. Limehouse Blues
(5:02) 13. Sweet And Lovely

The Lester Young-influenced tenors of Bill Perkins (who later developed a more Coltrane-oriented style) and Richie Kamuca are matched on this 1956 set. The music comprises hard-swinging but light-toned run-throughs on standards with the two complementary tenors both in excellent form. The material is taken from two former LPs and feature a pair of all-star rhythm sections (pianist Pete Jolly, bassist Red Mitchell, drummer Stan Levey, or pianist Hampton Hawes, Mitchell, and drummer Mel Lewis). Lovers of bebop and solidly swinging music will find much to enjoy on the set including some rare (if conventional) bass clarinet and flute from Perkins on a colorful version of "Sweet and Lovely." ~ Scott Yanow http://www.allmusic.com/album/tenors-head-on-mw0000277343

Personnel:  Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Flute – Bill Perkins;  Tenor Saxophone – Richie Kamuca;  Bass – Red Mitchell;  Drums – Mel Lewis (tracks: 9 to 13), Stan Levey (tracks: 1 to 8);  Piano – Hampton Hawes (tracks: 9 to 13), Pete Jolly (tracks: 1 to 8)

Tenors Head On

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Diana Panton - I Believe in Little Things

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:48
Size: 125,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:58)  1. In a World of My Own
(5:37)  2. Alice in Wonderland
(4:15)  3. Pure Imagination
(3:31)  4. Imagination
(4:42)  5. Sing
(3:19)  6. I’m Going to Go Back There Someday
(3:19)  7. The Rainbow Connection
(2:48)  8. Little Things
(5:48)  9. When You Wish Upon a Star
(2:12) 10. Halfway Down the Stairs
(3:38) 11. Everybody Sleeps
(4:53) 12. Sleep Is a Precious Thing
(4:14) 13. Hushabye Mountain
(2:26) 14. Slumber My Darling

I Believe in Little Things highlights Diana Panton's enchanting vocals on obscure gems and children's classics from Disney, Sesame Street, Willa Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with a unique jazz twist. Don Thompson, Reg Schwager and Coenraad Bloemendal provide delightful accompaniment to Diana's sweet voice. Although destined for children, this album speaks to the child in all of us. There is a carefree aura of freedom and hope in this gentle musical world where dreams can come true. ~ Editorial Reviews https://www.amazon.com/Believe-Little-Things-Diana-Panton/dp/B013RCQROU

Personnel:  Vocals – Diana Panton;  Bass, Piano, Vibraphone – Don Thompson;  Cello – Coenraad Bloemendal;  Guitar – Reg Schwager

I Believe in Little Things

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Kirk Lightsey Quartet - First Affairs

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1986
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:33
Size: 99,5 MB
Art: Front

(5:52)  1. Eighty One
(5:12)  2. From Dream To Dream
(9:58)  3. Habiba
(6:00)  4. Blues On The Corner
(3:10)  5. One Finger Snap
(4:53)  6. Up Jumped Spring
(7:24)  7. For Albert

A pianist who is not a trendsetter but is consistently excellent, Kirk Lightsey long ago developed his own sound within the hard bop tradition. He started playing piano when he was five, although he also played clarinet while in high school. Lightsey worked in Detroit and California in the early '60s, often accompanying singers. He gained some attention in 1965 when he recorded with Sonny Stitt and was on five Prestige records with Chet Baker. However, Lightsey mostly had low-profile gigs until he toured with Dexter Gordon (1979-1983) and became part of the Leaders (starting in the late '80s). Kirk Lightsey has recorded with Jimmy Raney, Clifford Jordan, Woody Shaw, David Murray, and Harold Land, among others, and has led his own sessions for Criss Cross and Sunnyside, including piano duets with Harold Danko. He released the duo album, The Nights of Bradleys with bassist Rufus Reid on Sunnyside in 2004. ~ Scott Yanow http://www.allmusic.com/artist/kirk-lightsey-mn0000101038/biography

Personnel:  Kirk Lightsey – piano;  Santi Debriano – bass;  Eddie Gladden – drums;  Jerry Gonzalez - congas

First Affairs

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Taylor Eigsti - Daylight at Midnight

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:03
Size: 128,7 MB
Art: Front

(5:56)  1. Daylight
(6:39)  2. Magnolia
(4:56)  3. The Art Teacher
(5:31)  4. The Water
(3:28)  5. Pink Moon
(4:18)  6. Little Bird
(3:03)  7. Secreto
(4:41)  8. Chaos
(4:00)  9. Between the Bars
(7:36) 10. Speaking Song
(5:50) 11. Midnight After Noon

It's official: pianist Taylor Eigsti has finally outgrown his "prodigy" label.  At 26, with two Concord CDs and numerous sideman recordings behind him, Eigsti has finally made the artistic statement he's intended since his career began at the age of 11. Raised on the American songbook, and indoctrinated early into concerns about the continued viability of jazz, Eigsti has always wanted to create new audiences by embracing the favorite material of the iPod generation. In his previous CDs he has covered Hacke Bjorksten and The Gels, as well as recording his own "Fallback Plan Suite," in three movements, on Let it Come to You (Concord, 2008). With Daylight at Midnight, Eigsti goes even further, not only interpreting contemporary artists like Coldplay, Rufus Wainwright, MuteMath and Imogen Heap, but featuring a vocalist for the first time: the transcendentally pure and soulful Becca Stevens, with whom he wrote two of the songs. He also plays with the instrumentation adding Fender Rhodes, Rhodes PianoBass, electric piano and Melliotron samples and mixes the terrific trio tracks (with bassist Harash Rhagavan and drummer Eric Harland) with a duo featuring long-time colleague and friend, the wonderful guitarist Julian Lage. Eigsti's powerful technique always informs his playing, but on this recording the spotlight is on his musical range. Especially notable is the one solo track ("Secreto"), which is simple and elegant, yet deeply moving a difficult combination for players of any age. For the rest, however unfamiliar Eigsti's selections may be to a jazz audience, his love for melody and his deep and expanding artistry are always evident. The side effect of introducing jazz to a younger audience is to introduce the, well, more mature audience to the newer material. It works so beautifully both ways that Daylight at Midnight may finally make Taylor Eigsti as widely-known as he deserves to be, as consummate player, composer, and now songwriter and ambassador as well. ~ Dr Judith Schlesinger https://www.allaboutjazz.com/daylight-at-midnight-taylor-eigsti-concord-music-group-review-by-dr-judith-schlesinger.php

Personnel: Taylor Eigsti: piano, rhythm piano, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer electric piano, Melliotron samples; Harish Raghavan: acoustic and electric bass; Eric Harland: drums; Julian Lage: guitars; Becca Stevens: vocals.

Daylight at Midnight

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Andrew Hill - Point of Departure

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1964
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:59
Size: 116,9 MB
Art: Front

(12:18)  1. Refuge
( 7:05)  2. New Monastery
( 9:49)  3. Spectrum
( 4:12)  4. Flight 19
( 3:49)  5. Flight 19 - alternate take
( 6:43)  6. Dedication
( 7:01)  7. Dedication - alternate take

The folks at Music Matters have been reissuing classic Blue Note albums of the 1950s and 1960s at an aggressive clip, and have been careful to include virtually every style of music the label recorded, including some of its more challenging material. Pianist Andrew Hill's Point of Departure (1964) will never be mistaken for light cocktail jazz, but it's inclusion in this reissue series displays Music Matters' commitment to more adventurous material. In 1964, the term avant-garde could have been applied to any number of different musical angles in jazz. The free experiments of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, with their pure emotional howling set within very limited contextual framework, are perhaps the most notorious. But there was another avenue that retained a significant structural environment with greater emphasis on composition,even if those compositions were themselves quite a stretch. Hill's third recording as a leader, the diabolically brilliant Point of Departure, may be the apex of this school. This album includes some of the fiercest, high density writing of the era, with each track featuring tight, byzantine written statements and full-throated blending of timbres. The music includes dissonant harmonies, often employing multiple melodic ideas, and often played very fast. It would be easy to imagine the musicians scratching their heads on the first run through, struggling with music that reached for new levels of complexity. Nevertheless, and despite the very complicated, wrought compositions, the band plays rather loosely. They're all there, but a perfect precision performance does not appear to have been Hill's core demand. Instead, people come in and out slightly ahead or behind the beats, and even when they're harmonizing, cacophonous filigrees abound. On top of all that and that's already a lot Point of Departure features extraordinary improvising. Eric Dolphy on alto sax, flute and his trademark bass clarinet pursues pathways that make perfect sense within the music, but still sound like they've arrived from another planet. Joe Henderson's tenor work is right out there with Dolphy, and Kenny Dorham's trumpet adds a bright brass blare over all of it. Hill's piano is all over the map, and he plays the way he writes: inventive, unpredictable, and fearless. Notably, although the improvising is very aggressive and forward-looking, everyone still keeps his statements within the context of the music. Nothing on this record ever veers off into free territory. As with all of Music Matters' reissues, Point of Departure comes as two 45 RPM LPs. A decent turntable is a necessity. But the vinyl itself is pressed with tremendous quality control, so with good equipment these records reveal details that no CD will ever approach. It also helps that the original session, engineered by Rudy Van Gelder, was particularly well-recorded, with excellent clarity and instrument scale. Point of Departure is a cornerstone jazz recording that every serious jazz listener should hear. The Music Matters pressing simply adds elevated sound quality to what was already a musical masterpiece. ~ Greg Simmons https://www.allaboutjazz.com/point-of-departure-andrew-hill-blue-note-records-review-by-greg-simmons.php

Personnel: Andrew Hill: piano; Kenny Dorham: trumpet; Eric Dolphy: alto sax, flute, bass clarinet; Joe Henderson: tenor saxophone; Richard Davis: bass; Tony Williams: drums.

Point of Departure

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