Sonny Rollins - What's New

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1962
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:53
Size: 114,6 MB
Art: Front

(12:06)  1. If ever I would leave you
( 6:09)  2. Don't Stop The Carnival
(10:54)  3. Jungoso
( 4:43)  4. Bluesongo
( 9:13)  5. Tha Night Has a Thousand Eyes
( 6:46)  6. Brownskin Girl

Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins returned from a self-imposed two-year sabbatical in 1962 with a fury, recording prolifically and exploring various directions from outside to inside. The five cuts on this LP were originally recorded in New York, with Rollins mixing standards and originals and providing his take on what was then an exploding trend, the bossa nova. Rollins' characteristically huge tone, relentless harmonic and rhythmic inventiveness, and fierce solos were consistently impressive. Not only did he state the melody clearly and superbly, but his ideas and pacing were remarkable; no solo rambled and his phrases were lean, thick and furious. While this wasn't in the class of Rollins' late-'50s epics, it was a well-done date.~ Ron Wynn https://www.allmusic.com/album/whats-new-mw0000099423

Personnel:  Sonny Rollins – tenor saxophone;  Jim Hall – guitar;  Bob Cranshaw – bass;  Ben Riley – drums;  Denis Charles, Frank Charles, Willie Rodriguez – percussion;  Candido – percussion.

What's New

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Bettye LaVette - Thankful N' Thoughtful

Styles: Vocal, Soul
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:23
Size: 115,7 MB
Art: Front

(3:44)  1. Everything Is Broken
(3:34)  2. I'm Not The One
(3:55)  3. Dirty Old Town
(4:21)  4. The More I Search (The More I Die)
(3:18)  5. I'm Tired
(5:47)  6. Crazy
(3:38)  7. Yesterday Is Here
(4:21)  8. Thankful N' Thoughtful
(3:15)  9. Fair Enough
(4:05) 10. Time Will Do The Talking
(3:20) 11. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
(7:00) 12. Dirty Old Town (Slow Version)

Bettye LaVette gets classified as an R&B singer, which she is, of course, but her newest album, the Craig Street-produced Thankful N' Thoughtful, finds her taking her blues, gospel, and soul-influenced singing style into deep, swampy, and edgy American roots territory, and she makes it all work with a sting and bite to her phrasing that ranks her as one of the best living soul singers. She gives Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" a little jump of joy, moving the song away from being plaintive and lonely to something closer to anxious homesickness. Tom Waits' "Yesterday Is Here," complete with brass and reeds, loses some of its clang and becomes a poignant blues. The most stunning track here is LaVette's reinvention of the old folk song "Dirty Old Town," best known in the version by the Pogues. She fills it with disgust and ominous menace  there's also a slower version of "Dirty Old Town" that lets a measure of sadness creep back in at the close of the album. Thankful N' Thoughtful is a solid outing from an outstanding singer who knows how to growl, croon, grumble, praise, and jump for joy with her vocal phrasing whatever makes the song live and breathe. She is still a marvel. ~ Steve Leggett https://www.allmusic.com/album/thankful-n-thoughtful-mw0002410225

Thankful N' Thoughtful

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David 'Fathead' Newman - I Remember Brother Ray

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2005
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:44
Size: 116,4 MB
Art: Front

(5:44)  1. Hit the Road Jack
(7:20)  2. Georgia on My Mind
(5:05)  3. When Your Lover Has Gone
(6:16)  4. Drown in My Tears
(5:27)  5. Deed I Do
(5:32)  6. It Had to Be You
(9:44)  7. Ruby
(5:32)  8. Them That Got (I Ain't Got Nothing Yet)

When Ray Charles passed away last June, his influence was so far reaching that there was little doubt all manner of tributes would soon follow. While there are bound to be attempts to capitalize on his death, nothing could be further from the truth in this case. Saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman got his first big break with Charles in the early '50s, playing in his band from '54 through '64 and making numerous guest appearances in the years to come. And so "Fathead" a nickname Charles never liked, preferring to call him "Brains" entered the studio of another legend engineer Rudy van Gelder just two months after Charles' death to record I Remember Brother Ray, a tribute to the jazzier side of a man who always regarded himself as a jazz singer anyway.  Some music is meant to stretch boundaries, and some is meant purely as a salve for the soul. Newman has never been considered a particularly adventurous tenor player, yet his warm tone, occasionally terse phrasing, and always heartfelt delivery has placed him in high demand by artists as diverse as B.B. King, Herbie Mann, Jane Monheit, and Gregg Allman. In fact, one look at his discography and it becomes evident that his career has been marked more by appearances as a guest than as a leader. Still, with over twenty recordings to his name, I Remember Brother Ray stands as an understated highlight, a record that doesn't so much jump out at you as it does gently sidle up beside you and caress you with its warmth and affability. Like saxophonist Houston Person, who coproduces the disc with Newman and delivered his own heartfelt tribute to longtime collaborator Etta Jones last year with To Etta With Love, I Remember Brother Ray evokes the ambience of a smoky bar in the early hours of the morning. 

Never getting much past a medium tempo "Hit the Road Jack" is about as lively as things get, and even then, it's more a finger-snapping number than a foot-moving one Newman has assembled a quintet as comfortable with the tender balladry of "Georgia on My Mind" as it is the soul-drenched blues of "Drown in My Tears." Charles believed that the ability to play jazz permits the ability to cross over into other genres, and the playing on I Remember Brother Ray clearly supports his conviction. One sometimes forgets that vibraphonist Steve Nelson, heard most often these days in the more modernistic Dave Holland Quintet and Big Band, comes from a mainstream background, but his playing on the relaxed swing of "Ruby" and "It Had to Be You" proves that even the most forward-thinking of players have to have roots. While there will undoubtedly be many tributes in the near future, few discs will equal I Remember Brother Ray for its grace, honesty, and pure connection to the true essence of Charles' legacy.~ John Kelman https://www.allaboutjazz.com/i-remember-brother-ray-david-fathead-newman-highnote-records-review-by-john-kelman.php

Personnel:  Tenor Saxophone – David "Fathead" Newman;  Bass – John Menegon;  Drums – Winard Harper;  Piano – John Hicks;  Vibraphone – Steve Nelson

I Remember Brother Ray

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Jack DeJohnette - Made in Chicago

Styles: Avant-Garde Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 77:38
Size: 179,4 MB
Art: Front

(16:56)  1. Chant
(14:53)  2. Jack 5
(12:13)  3. This
(13:37)  4. Museum of Time
(10:19)  5. Leave Don't Go Away
( 3:29)  6. Announcement
( 6:09)  7. Ten Minutes

At one point on Made In Chicago, drummer and occasional pianist Jack DeJohnette announces, "We'd like to do something spontaneous for you." By then, spontaneity is a foregone conclusion. With a discography that includes almost two-hundred recordings, DeJohnette is best known among more casual listeners as one third of pianist Keith Jarrett's long-time trio. Significant though the role has been, it hardly represents the scope of his career or his musical proclivities. In 1965, along a group of local Chicago musicians and composers, DeJohnette helped found the still active Association for the Advancement of Creative Music. At the forefront of the original AACM were pianist Muhal Richard Abrams saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and saxophonist and flautist Henry Threadgill. Together with the aforementioned, the quintet on Made In Chicago is filled by the versatile Chicago bassist Larry Gray whose work spans from the Chicago Symphony to saxophonist Branford Marsalis.  With this reunion of South Side friends and colleagues, DeJohnette has documented his purpose of re-connecting with his musical roots. Those roots are connected in the experimental and free jazz scene in Chicago of the 1960's, a time when free jazz was still widely vilified, even within the jazz community. However, there is nothing nostalgic in this live recording from the 2013 Chicago Jazz Festival. Of the seven tracks on Made In Chicago, one, "Announcement" is just that; a verbal set up to the closing number. The remaining six tracks clock in at well over ten minutes each, with the ironic exception of "Ten Minutes."  

The set opens with the Mitchell penned "Chant" which moves from Abrams simple, dignified lines to forceful and enthralling group improvisations where melody minimized and the ensuing session builds to a feverish pitch. DeJohnette uses a hand-held mic to pick up the overtones of the cymbals on "Jack Five," an Abrams composition. The slower tempo piece has a warped floating feeling, anchored just slightly by Abrams and Threadgill's alto but once again, the piece takes off. DeJohnette's extended solo with its polyrhythmic intonations and variety of tones is exceptionally musical. Threadgill takes up the bass flute on Mitchell's neo-classically influenced "Think." Mitchell's bass recorder, Gray's cello and DeJohnette's disembodied thunder give the composition and ethereal feel. Abrams rolling blues and open harmonies dominate the early stage of DeJohnette's "Museum of Time," the most lyrical of the pieces on Made In Chicago. As on all the pieces in this collection, it eventually heads into abstract territory. There isn't a venue that regularly gathers a more prestigious collection of progressive artists than does the Chicago Jazz Festival. DeJohnette, was given free rein to assemble a band and create a program and with the fiftieth anniversary of the AACM at hand he could not have paid a more fitting tribute to an organization that fosters imaginative thinking. More to the point of the music, to hear these veterans express the love of their work in a powerful, forward looking set that's not likely to be repeated. ~ Karl Ackermann https://www.allaboutjazz.com/made-in-chicago-jack-dejohnette-ecm-records-review-by-karl-ackermann.php

Personnel:  Jack DeJohnette: batteria;  Henry Threadgill: sax alto, flauto basso;   Roscoe Mitchell: sax soprano, sax alto, flauto a becco;  Muhal Richard Abrams: pianoforte;   Larry Gray: contrabbasso, violoncello.

Made in Chicago

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