Kenny Garrett - Happy People

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2002
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:28
Size: 140,8 MB
Art: Front

(5:25)  1. Song For DiFang
(5:12)  2. Happy People
(5:52)  3. Tango In 6
(5:11)  4. Ain't Nothing But The Blues
(3:41)  5. Song #8
(5:32)  6. Halima's Story
(4:41)  7. Monk-ing Around
(5:59)  8. A Hole in One
(4:49)  9. Thessalonika
(7:03) 10. Asian Medley
(7:59) 11. Brother B. Harper

Just going over the press material for this album, I got the distinct impression that there was a pretentious sense of crossover appeal in the mix with verbiage that in effect claimed Garrett was trying to bridge the gap between jazz, hip hop, and world music. As for the music itself, let's just say that too much of what constitutes this mixed bag is simply unbecoming to an artist of Garrett's stature. Co-producer Marcus Miller shares much of the responsibility for this cloying affair, with slap bass and banal vocals as part of the minefield, not to mention a pretentious dedication to Tiger Woods. Only when Bobby Hutcherson is present and on the cathartic "Brother B. Harper" do we really get a sense of Garrett's great talent, a talent that seems to have been sublimated for the most part since 1996's Pursuance. ~ C.Andrew Hovan https://www.allaboutjazz.com/happy-people-kenny-garrett-warner-bros-review-by-c-andrew-hovan.php

Personnel: Kenny Garrett (saxophones), Marcus Miller (bass), Charnett Moffett (bass), Vernon Brown (piano), Chris Dave (drums), Marcus Baylor (drums), Bobby Hutcherson (vibes), Jean Norris (vocals)

Happy People

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John Beasley - MONK'estra, Vol. 2

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:21
Size: 134,1 MB
Art: Front

(7:05)  1. Brake's Sake feat. Dontae Winslow
(3:54)  2. Played Twice
(4:30)  3. Crepuscule With Nellie
(7:20)  4. Evidence
(5:18)  5. Ugly Beauty/Pannonica
(6:22)  6. I Mean You
(5:24)  7. Light Blue
(6:10)  8. Dear Ruby
(6:20)  9. Criss Cross
(5:53) 10. Work

GRAMMY®- and Emmy-nominated recording artist John Beasley leads a smashing big band project MONK’estra. The feel and sound of MONK’estra captures the spirit of Thelonious Monk’s singular style with its off-beat melodies, humor, strange beauty and unbounded swing in fresh arrangements flavored with hints of New Orleans, hip-hop, Afro-Cuban, contemporary and atmospheric rhythms and colors. “Some of the most mesmerizing big band music of recent memory.” Beasley a far-ranging pianist, composer, and arranger who has performed with Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Dianne Reeves, Steely Dan, Marcus Miller, Christian McBride is easily one of the most versatile musicians in jazz. He leads a sparkling career as a bandleader, a first-call keyboardist, composer and arranger for bands and film and television projects. He is the Music Director for the Thelonious Monk Institute, International Jazz Day concerts. In 2016, he earned an Emmy nomination for “Jazz at the White House” for Best Musical Direction on ABC TV. MONK’estra Vol. 2 was released in Sep 2017 to immediate critical acclaim earning 4.5/5 stars in DownBeat. Vol 1 was Beasley’s 11th recording which earned two 2017 GRAMMY nominations for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and Best Arrangement for “Ask Me Now”. MONK’estra re-imagines Monk’s compositions with an eye to the future with a killer contemporary big band that pays loving tribute to the master’s music while infusing it with contemporary harmonies, unstoppable grooves, and a contagious sense of fun. http://johnbeasleymusic.com/monkestra/

Personnel:  Conductor, Piano, Synthesizer – John Beasley;  Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass – Ben Shepherd;  Drums – Gene Coye, Terreon Gully;  Trombone – Francisco Torres ;  Trumpet – Bijon Watson , Brian Swartz , James Ford , Jamie Hovorka?;  Woodwind – Bob Sheppard, Danny Janklow, Tom Luer          

MONK'estra, Vol. 2

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George Garzone - The Fringe in New York

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2000
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:12
Size: 191,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:03)  1. Tribute To Trane
(6:06)  2. Between Two Cities
(6:29)  3. Slip + Slide
(7:45)  4. Anthony Goes To Mardi Gras
(4:50)  5. Plus One
(7:42)  6. A Fox In The Woods
(2:03)  7. Ultra Tempo
(5:23)  8. We Don't Know Why
(5:48)  9. Central Park West

Sometime after the death of John Coltrane and before the rise of the conservative button-down star as repertoire performer, the influence that Trane had over jazz waned. It’s not that he was forgotten, but that his music required such a commitment from a musician that it must have scared away most by sheer intimidation. Within the past twenty years, musicians like Joe Lovano, Dewey Redman, Pharoah Sanders, David S. Ware, Roy Campbell, Julius Hemphill, and George Garzone have taken up the challenge and beauty of Coltrane. In George Garzone’s case, Coltrane has never been far afield from his own voice. With his band (of 25 years), The Fringe, he exercised the more free improvisational aspects of Coltrane. As a sideman to Danilo Perez, Joe Lovano, George Russell, Gunther Schuller, Rachel Z, Jack DeJohnette, Billy Hart, and even Jamaaladeen Tacuma I always heard the Coltrane spirit in his playing. Garzone has always possessed an expansive warm tone that moves from inside to out-jazz with relative ease. Like Trane, his music resonates from what must be a warm and beautiful soul.

Garzone augments his Fringe trio with vibraphonist Mike Mainieri of Steps Ahead fame. Mainieri of late, has acted as producer and label chief for NYC Records and he recorded two glorious (Frisell-like) American Diary records which presents jazz as quasi-folk/classical music. Let’s talk about how this disc opens and closes, it is of course bookended by Trane. Garzone’s composition “Tribute To Trane” starts this affair and a six-minute (by my count way too short) “Central Park West” ends it. 

In between Garzone delivers music of varied Coltrane influence, like the Dolphy-esque “Plus One” and a taste for the outside on “We Don’t Know Why.” Mainieri’s influence harkens back to the Blue Note sound, both the bop and post-bop of Bobby Hutcherson, even sounding like the piano of McCoy Tyner. Garzone knows the calm and the fury. He quells the thunderous drumming Bob Lockwood on “A Fox In The Woods” with a pacific ‘Stellar Regions’ saxophone chant and runs the energy jams down on “Ultra Tempo” in an expected (and anticipated) Fringe fashion. Recorded in studio, this music begs for a live venue, extended soloing, and a voltage meter. ~ Mark Corroto https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-fringe-in-new-york-george-garzone-nyc-records-review-by-mark-corroto.php

Personnel: George Garzone: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone; John Lockwood: bass; Bob Gullotti: drums; Mike Mainieri: vibraphone.

The Fringe in New York

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Jon Hendricks - A Good Git-Together

Styles: Vocal

Year: 1959

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 38:00

Size: 89,3 MB

Art: Front

(1:03)  1. Everything Started In The House Of The Lord

(3:58)  2. Music In The Air

(3:50)  3. Feed Me

(2:22)  4. I'll Die Happy

(2:53)  5. Pretty Strange

(5:03)  6. The Shouter

(5:21)  7. Minor Catastrophe

(2:22)  8. Social Call

(4:55)  9. Out Of The Past

(3:41) 10. A Good Git-Together

(2:26) 11. I'm Gonna Shout (Everything Started In The House Of The Lord)

On various tracks, Jon Hendricks' first album as a leader, released in 1959, features such major sidemen as altoist Pony Poindexter, guitarist Wes Montgomery, and both Nat and Cannonball Adderley. Hendricks who was riding high in Lambert, Hendricks & Ross at the time is in superb form on such numbers as "I'm Gonna Shout (Everything Started in the House of the Lord)," a couple of songs that Hendricks had written for Louis Jordan, Randy Weston's "Pretty Strange," "Social Call," and the jubilant "A Good Git-Together." ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-good-git-together-mw0000551672

Personnel:  Jon Hendricks - vocal;  Ike Isaacs – double bass;  Monk Montgomery – bass;  Nat Adderley – cornet;  Walter Bolden – drums; Walter Tolgen – drums;  Wes Montgomery – guitar;  Gildo Mahones – piano;  Pony Poindexter – alto saxophone, vocals;  Cannonball Adderley – alto saxophone;  Bill Perkins – tambourine;  Buddy Montgomery – vibraphone

R.I.P.
Born: September 16, 1921
Died: November 22, 2017

A Good Git-Together

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