David Newman - House Of David

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:05
Size: 87.2 MB
Styles: Soul jazz, Saxophone jazz
Year: 1967/2005
Art: Front

[6:06] 1. I Wish You Love
[1:35] 2. One Room Paradise
[8:18] 3. Little Sister
[2:26] 4. Miss Minnie
[4:32] 5. Just Like A Woman
[3:45] 6. House Of David
[3:58] 7. Blue New
[7:21] 8. The Holy Land

Drums – Milt Turner; Guitar – Ted Dunbar; Organ – Kossie Gardner; Tenor Saxophone, Flute – David Newman.

The House of David was David "Fathead" Newman's comeback album of sorts, marking his first release after the end of his association with Ray Charles and a few years spent with his family in his hometown of Dallas. Organist Kossie Gardner, guitarist Ted Dunbar, and drummer Milt Turner support Newman's gritty "Texas tenor" sound, which captures the straightforwardness of R&B pop and the improvisational elements of jazz. Newman plays the flute on the spunky "Miss Minnie," but one of the most interesting songs on the album is the untypical rendition of a Bob Dylan tune, "Just Like a Woman." the artist's warm tenor lifts this song to angelic heights, and it's fathomed that he had only heard the song a few times before laying down this recording. Other standouts on the album include the Cedar Walton penned closer, "The Holy Land," and the original blues numbers such as the title track and "New Blues." This album boils with inventive hooks and the soulful combination of organ and guitar that would become more pop-oriented on subsequent Newman recordings. ~Jeff Schwachter

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The Cleftones - The Best Of The Cleftones

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:53
Size: 105.1 MB
Styles: R&B, Doo-wop
Year: 1990
Art: Front

[2:44] 1. You Baby You
[3:12] 2. Little Girl Of Mine
[3:05] 3. You're Driving Me Mad
[2:56] 4. Can't We Be Sweethearts
[2:25] 5. Neki-Hokey
[2:54] 6. Happy Memories
[2:47] 7. String Around My Heart
[2:03] 8. Why You Do Me Like You Do
[2:36] 9. I Like Your Style Of Making Love
[2:32] 10. See You Next Year
[2:51] 11. Lover Boy
[2:13] 12. Beginners At Love
[2:20] 13. She's So Fine
[1:53] 14. Heart And Soul
[2:00] 15. How Do You Feel
[2:29] 16. Please Say You Want Me
[2:36] 17. For Sentimental Reasons
[2:07] 18. Lover Come Back To Me

Beginning their career as The Silvertones while high school students at New York City's Jamaica High School, lead Herbie Cox, first tenor (and guitarist) Charlie James, second tenor and sometimes lead Berman Patterson, baritone William McClain and bass Warren Corbin had changed their name to The Cleftones by the time of their first single for George Goldner's Gee Records, then functioning as a subsidiary of Roulette Records. With the backing of the Jimmy Wright orchestra, You Baby You edged into the Billboard Pop Top 100 at # 78 in February 1956 b/w I Was Dreaming, but made no impact whatsoever in the national R&B market. The label number, Gee 1000, marked a new numbering system for Gee after numbers 1 to 12, a ploy used by many small record companies at the time to give the "illusion" of having been around longer. The follow-up Little Girl Of Mine which, again with Wright backing, rose to # 8 R&B and did much better than their debut hit on the Pop charts, reaching # 57 in May/June on Gee 1011 b/w You're Driving Me Mad. Of these four sides, only I Was Dreaming is omitted in this Collectables volume.

There then followed a string of releases that, even though presenting what is now regarded as classic Doo-Wop, failed to make any mark on any national charts, right into 1958 (those in this release are receded by an asterisk (*):*Can't We Be Sweethearts?/*Niki-Hoeky ( Gee 1016) and *String Around My Heart/*Happy Memories (Gee 1025), both in 1956; *Why Do You Do Me Like You Do?/*I Like Your Style Of Making Love (Gee 1031), *See You Next Year/Ten Pairs Of Shoes (Gee 1038), and Hey Babe/What Did I Do That Was Wrong? (Gee 1041), all in 1957; and in early 1958 (by which time McClain had quit), *Lover Boy/*Beginners At Love (Gee 1048). Nor did a switch to the parent Roulette label help with *She's So Fine/Trudy in July 1958 on Roulette 4094, Cuzin Casanova/Mish Mash Baby on Roulette 4161 in June 1959 and, with Patterson departed and newcomers Gene Pearson and female vocalist Georgianna "Pat" Spann added, She's Gone/Shadows In The Very Last Row on Roulette 4302 in September 1960. In May 1961, Vacation In The Mountains/Leave My Woman Along came out on another of Goldner's labels, Rama, credited only to Herb Cox, although the entire group took part (Rama 233). By now Cox was sharing he lead from time to time with Pearson and Spann.

With Gee having been resurrected by Roulette as an active label in 1959, their next single was released there, with their cover of the old 1938 Larry Clinton & His Orchestra # 1 Heart And Soul becoming their best hit ever at # 10 R&B and # 18 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in June/July 1961 b/w How Do You Feel on Gee 1064 (both sides here). Since that worked they tried next with another cover, this time of the 1946 # 1 for Nat "King" Cole, (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons which topped out at # 60 Hot 100 in September 1961 b/w another oldie, Deed I Do (which is omitted here) on Gee 1067. The next two, however, both failed, the first a cover of the 1954 smash by The Penguins, Earth Angel b/w the old standard, Blues In The Night (Gee 1074), and Again/Do You? (Gee 1077) later in 1961 (none of the four sides are here). It was also in 1961 that Roulette released their two albums on the Gee label, the first "Heart And Soul" (Gee GLP-705) appearing in June with these tracks: 1. Heart And Soul; 2. How Do You Feel?; 3. 100 Pounds Of Clay; 4. Please Say You Want Me; 5. Can't We Be Sweethearts?; 6. Time Is Running Out On Our Love; 7. Little Girl Of Mine; 8. Heavenly Father; 9. The Glory Of Love; 10, You And I Can Climb; 11. You, Baby, You; 12. String Around My Heart. Tracks 15 and 16 in this release are from that LP. The other, issued in December, was "For Sentimental Reasons" (Gee GLP-707) containing: 1. For Sentimental Reasons; 2. Blues In The Night; 3. Red Sails In The Sunset; 4. She's Gone; 5. Vacation In The Mountains; 6. My Babe; 7. She's A Rollin' Stone; 8. Earth Angel; 9. Deed I Do; 10. Shadows In The Very Last Row; 11. What Did I Do That Was Wrong?; 12. Hey Babe; 13. Leave My Woman Alone. None of the sides not already mentioned above and included in this LP were included in this CD.

Their final Gee release, coming in 1962, was another old standard, How Deep Is The Ocean? b/w Some Kinda Blue (Gee 1080) but it failed. In 1964 Roulette released He's Forgotten You/Right From The Git Go on another of their subsidiaries, Ware 6001 with the same result. None of the four sides is here. If what you want are their 5 national charters, all are in this release which has excellent sound reproduction and informative liner notes written by Michael Redmond. However, as noted, just two B-sides are here and if you want those as well you will have to scour the other CDs covering the group. ~George O'Leary

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Radha Botofasina - Songs Of The Urbane Ancestors

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:41
Size: 125.2 MB
Styles: Avant garde jazz
Year: 2009
Art: Front

[ 4:44] 1. God Bless The Child
[ 5:18] 2. Lush Life
[ 4:10] 3. Naima
[ 7:00] 4. Little Sunflower
[10:49] 5. Estate
[ 4:02] 6. Night In Tunisia
[ 1:46] 7. Trinkle Tinkle
[ 6:01] 8. Sidewinder
[ 4:44] 9. Mis Suenos
[ 6:03] 10. Urbane Ancestors

A native of the New York metropolitan area, Radha made her mark early in her career in music as the co-leader of a jazz group, the Spirits of Rhythm.

During a trip to London, Radha's interest in world music began. She was encouraged to develop her talents in this direction by the West African band Osibisa and former Fleetwood Mac founding member Peter Green. Over the years, her love of the indigenous music of many cultures has grown through her extensive travel to Eastern Europe, India, South America, Africa, the Philippines, Australian outback,Cuba and the Caribbean. As an ardent seeker of Truth, Radha has combined world music and devotion, singing in English, Sanskrit and—reflective of her Cuban heritage in Spanish. During her two decade long association with Alice Coltrane, her spiritual and musical mentor, Radha has learned how to sing beyond what her "mind" allows and to go vocally where her "heart" takes her.

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John Pizzarelli - Double Exposure

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:00
Size: 123.6 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals, Guitar jazz
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[3:49] 1. I Feel Fine/Sidewinder
[5:15] 2. Harvest Moon
[3:27] 3. Traffic Jam/The Kicker
[4:51] 4. Ruby Baby
[3:54] 5. Alison
[4:00] 6. Rosalinda's Eyes
[4:16] 7. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
[4:25] 8. Drunk On The Moon/Lush Life
[5:08] 9. Walk Between The Raindrops
[4:09] 10. Free Man In Paris
[3:58] 11. Take A Lot Of Pictures
[2:44] 12. I Can Let Go Now
[3:59] 13. Diamond Girl

On this album, jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli pays simultaneous tribute to the pop music of his adolescence (Steely Dan, Billy Joel, the Allman Brothers, Elvis Costello) and the jazz tradition in which he, as a member of the celebrated Pizzarelli dynasty, was steeped from his earliest years. The album title refers to the fact that the program takes classic pop songs and puts them in jazz settings: thus you'll hear a cool bossa nova arrangement of Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in Paris," a completely natural lounge-lizard setting of Tom Waits' "Drunk on the Moon," and a hard-swinging, boppish version of James Taylor's "Traffic Jam" that sounds like it was written for the Manhattan Transfer and incorporates the Joe Henderson composition "The Kicker." There's nothing particularly revolutionary about this idea: the line separating pop music and jazz has always been fuzzy anyway, and many jazz standards are actually show tunes. But Pizzarelli is an unusually gifted arranger as well as a drop-dead wonderful guitarist, and on several of these arrangements he suggests entirely new ways of thinking about these familiar songs. Consider, for example, his subtly elegant use of organ and violin on Neil Young's "Harvest Moon," or the way he sneaks material from Wes Montgomery's "Four on Six" into a snappy rendition of the Allman Brothers' instrumental "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed." It's also true that Pizzarelli is not gifted with a conventionally beautiful voice. He is, however, an excellent singer: listen the how he makes the most of what he's got on his voice-and-guitar bossa nova setting of Billy Joel's "Rosalinda's Eyes." What's charming about this album, beyond the sheer quality of the songs and the arrangements, is Pizzarelli's obvious and genuine love for this really broad gamut of material, and his insight into the varied qualities that make them all great songs. ~Rick Anderson

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The Eddie Daniels Quartet - Mean What You Say

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:25
Size: 156.6 MB
Styles: Mainstream jazz, Clarinet jazz
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[6:24] 1. Mean What You Say
[7:12] 2. It Had To Be You
[6:15] 3. Passion Flower
[2:49] 4. Nagasaki
[7:23] 5. My One And Only Love
[3:01] 6. Why You...
[6:56] 7. Azure
[6:09] 8. The Touch Of Your Lips
[5:27] 9. You And The Night And The Music
[6:46] 10. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
[4:07] 11. My Little Suede Shoes
[5:51] 12. How Deep Is The Ocean

Eddie Daniels: clarinet, tenor saxophone; Hank Jones: piano; Richard Davis: bass; Kenny Washington: drums.

The presence of Hank Jones permeates this recording so much that the Eddie Daniels Quartet may be better titled the Hank Jones-Eddie Daniels Quartet on Mean What You Say. In fact, the whole quartet, rounded out with bassist Richard Davis and drummer Kenny Washington, is top-drawer, which goes a long way in making Mean What You Say one of the finest mainstream jazz recordings of the year. Covering the Swing Era and bebop, Mean What You Say is no mere blowing session. The performances are precise and houghtful.

Eddie Daniels is considered foremost among performing clarinetists. He also plays a pretty mean tenor saxophone. Daniels opens the recording with Thad Jones's "Mean What You Say, allowing Jones' elder brother Hank an extended introduction. The piece provides a microcosm of the rest of the recording. Daniels plays tenor with a tightly focused, cylindrically dense tone. He navigates the head and solo fluidly. Jones's piano contains the history of jazz, from Lil Hardin Armstrong and Earl Hines to Junior Mance and Gene Harris. The piece sports traded eights among everyone, with a nuclear swing.

That was just the beginning. Daniels plays clarinet on the lion's share of the disc, beginning with a beautifully nostalgic "It Had to be You. Jones bounces with stride accents while Washington's ride cymbal dictates the swing time. Billy Strayhorn's "Passion Flower is delicately supported by Washington's supple brushwork and Richard Davis's fat bass notes. "Why You...," based on a simple blues motif, is an original penned by Daniels and Jones that allows the principals to stretch out. The eights traded in this piece are thrilling. The two also attack bebop on the Charlie Parker vehicle "My Little Suede Shoes. Mean What You Say is a superb recording which deserves consideration as one of the best of the year. ~C. Michael Bailey

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Beth Orton - Kidsticks

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 37:35
Size: 86,9 MB
Art: Front

(4:12)  1. Snow
(4:02)  2. Moon
(3:58)  3. Petals
(2:53)  4. 1973
(3:16)  5. Wave
(4:47)  6. Dawnstar
(4:22)  7. Falling
(3:01)  8. Corduroy Legs
(5:43)  9. Flesh and Blood
(1:16) 10. Kidsticks

Back in the 1990s, Beth Orton gained a rep as the comedown queen: her folksy music boasted an electronic edge and her involvement with Heavenly’s dance crew she collaborated with the Chemical Brothers ensured that her music could serve as a gentle passage back to reality. Since that heyday she has pursued more traditional singer-songwriter territory, but Kidsticks is a real reinvention: not so much a return to her electronic roots as a bold exploration of fresh territory. A collaboration with Fuck Buttons’ Andrew Hung, this sixth solo album embraces inventive rhythm patterns, tsunamis of synth and, on 1973, the metronomic influence of Kraftwerk. Dawnstar is particularly dreamy, a giant cloud of a song to lose yourself in. Such a radical redesign should be imposing, yet Orton’s vocals plaintive and soulful as ever still take centre stage.....More...https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/26/beth-orton-kidsticks-review-radical-reinvention-is-as-dreamy-as-ever

Kidsticks

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Wes Montgomery - Complete Live In Paris 1965

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 1965
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 103:02
Size: 236,2 MB
Art: Front

( 6:26)  1. Four On Six
(13:35)  2. Twisted Blues
(10:05)  3. Impressions
(11:04)  4. To When
(12:32)  5. Jingles
( 6:46)  6. The Girl Next Door
( 8:29)  7. Here's That Rainy Day
( 9:30)  8. Round About Midnight
(10:59)  9. Full House
(13:32) 10. Blue And Boogie/West Coast Blues

Wes Montgomery’s 1965 concert at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris is one of the greatest live dates ever recorded from the decade. Here, Montgomery, pianist Harold Mabern, drummer Jimmy Lovelace, bassist Arthur Harper, and saxophonist Johnny Griffin who guested on three selections at the end of the gig tore the City of Light apart with an elegant yet raw and immediate jazz of incomparable musicianship and communication. Montgomery was literally on fire and Mabern has never, ever been heard better on record. From the opening bars of “Four on Six,” Montgomery is playing full-on, doing a long solo entirely based on chord voicings that is as stellar as any plectrum solo he ever recorded. Mabern’s ostinato and legato phrasing is not only blinding in speed, but completely gorgeous in its melodic counterpoint. And while the bop and hard bop phrasing here is in abundance, Montgomery does not leave the funk behind. It’s as if he never played with George Shearing, so aggressive is his playing here. Nowhere is this more evident than in the tonal inquiry that goes on in the band’s read of John Coltrane’s “Impressions,” in which the entire harmonic palette is required by Montgomery’s series of staggered intervals and architectural peaks in the restructuring of the head. Likewise, in Griffin Montgomery finds a worthy foil on “‘Round Midnight” and the medley of “Blue and Boogie/West Coast Blues.” Montgomery assumes the contrapuntal role as Mabern floods the bottom with rich, bright chords and killer vamps in the choruses. Highly recommended. ~ Thom Jurek

Personnel:  Wes Montgomery (guitar); Harold Mabern (piano);  Arthur Harper  (contrabass);  Jimmy Lovelace (drums).

Complete Live In Paris 1965

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Claude Williamson - 'Round Midnight

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1956
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:29
Size: 94,2 MB
Art: Front

(4:03)  1. Stella By Starlight
(3:06)  2. Somebody Loves Me
(3:21)  3. I'll Know
(2:53)  4. The Surrey With The Fringe On Top
(3:05)  5. Polka Dots And Moonbeams
(3:04)  6. Hippy
(3:20)  7. Tea For Two
(3:30)  8. Stompin' At The Savoy
(3:53)  9. 'round Midnight
(3:00) 10. Just One Of Those Things
(3:00) 11. Love Is Here To Stay
(2:09) 12. The Song Is You

Claude Williamson was one of the better bebop-oriented pianists to be active during the 1950s. This trio set with bassist Red Mitchell and drummer Mel Lewis has been reissued on CD. With the exception of four-minute renditions of "Stella by Starlight" and Horace Silver's "Hippy," all of the numbers clock in around the three-minute mark. The repertoire (which includes such tunes as "Somebody Loves Me," "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top," "Just One of Those Things" and "The Song Is You") is typical for the time period and Williamson brings to the music his own approach to playing bop. The set is quite enjoyable and, even if the program (which is around 39 minute) is a bit brief, it should appeal to straightahead jazz fans. ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/round-midnight-mw0000100034

Personnel: Claude Williamson (piano); Red Mitchell (bass); Mel Lewis (drums).

'Round Midnight

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Chick Corea - Piano Improvisations, Vol. 1

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1971
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:51
Size: 98,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:13)  1. Noon Song
(3:49)  2. Song For Sally
(2:30)  3. Ballad For Anna
(3:15)  4. Song Of The Wind
(8:27)  5. Sometime Ago
(4:55)  6. Where Are You Now? Picture 1
(2:06)  7. Where Are You Now? Picture 2
(2:34)  8. Where Are You Now? Picture 3
(2:47)  9. Where Are You Now? Picture 4
(0:36) 10. Where Are You Now? Picture 5
(3:56) 11. Where Are You Now? Picture 6
(2:02) 12. Where Are You Now? Picture 7
(1:36) 13. Where Are You Now? Picture 8

After spending a year with the avant-garde quartet Circle, Chick Corea's desire to communicate to a wider audience led to him deciding to break up the unit. His first post-Circle recordings were two LPs of piano solos. Vol. 1 features six of his originals including the eight sketches of "Where Are You Now?," and the debut of the future standard "Sometime Ago." These performances are sometimes a bit precious, but they succeed in being acccessible and serve as a transition between Circle and Return to Forever. ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/piano-improvisations-vol-1-mw0000191662

Solo performer: Chick Corea (piano)

Piano Improvisations, Vol. 1

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Halie Loren - From The Wild Sky

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:26
Size: 104,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:00)  1. Roots
(3:15)  2. How To Dismantle A Life
(4:14)  3. Wild Birds
(4:04)  4. Paper Man
(4:21)  5. I Can't Land
(3:07)  6. Well-loved Woman
(4:36)  7. Painter's Song.
(4:15)  8. August Moon
(3:32)  9. Noah
(4:06) 10. Wisdom
(3:50) 11. A Mi Manera

The album features 10 of Loren’s original songs, as well as a stunning rendition of Roberto Livi’s ‘A Mi Manera’. “From the Wild Sky” puts the spotlight on Loren’s songwriter side, exploring themes of letting go, flight, finding the heart’s “True North”, and seeing beauty within the chaos of life. It is both her most personal and creatively dynamic release to-date, and the project that has pulled from the farthest reaches of the music world: The album was recorded and mixed in London and New York, and produced by acclaimed British producer Troy Miller (Gregory Porter, Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum). Fun fact: many of the songs were inspired by travel, and written in hotel rooms, trains, and planes while Loren was on tour across the globe in 2016/2017. The album was funded by pledges from Halie’s fans around the world through her successful Kickstarter campaign last fall. http://halieloren.com/

The recording features performances from an international group of all-star musicians: Troy Miller (drums), Femi Temowo (guitars), Michael Olatuja (bass), Ben Williams (bass), Becca Stevens (guest artist), and Nathan Schram and  Andrew Yee (viola and cello – 1/2 of the Attacca String Quartet)

From The Wild Sky

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