Ernie Watts - Chariots of Fire

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1981
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:56
Size: 82,7 MB
Art: Front

(5:55)  1. Chariots of Fire (Theme) (Dance Version)
(4:25)  2. Hold On
(3:49)  3. Lady
(4:36)  4. Gigolo
(5:14)  5. Valdez in the Country
(3:46)  6. Abraham's Theme
(3:40)  7. Five Circles
(4:27)  8. Chariots of Fire (Theme) (Slow Version)

Inexplicably, Ernie Watts thought it a good idea to record an album dedicated to the movie Chariots of Fire, while having very little to do with the overall plot of the film. The opening number is indeed the theme to Chariots of Fire, but sped up to be danceable. The result is what disco connoisseur Morgan Geist might deem to be an "unclassic"really bad but in a very laughable way (it also could double as the fine theme to an afternoon syndicated talk show). James Ingram also makes an appearance on the smooth rocker "Hold On," and there's a ridiculous cover of the Lionel Richie/Kenny Rogers hit "Lady" and one of Donny Hathaway's "Valdez in the Country," which would be appropriate music bedding for your local cable weather forecast. The album is finally put out of its misery with a "slower" and more reggae-based interpretation of "Chariots of Fire" that is just as amusing as the album's opener, if not more so. Proceed with caution. ~ Rob Theaskton https://www.allmusic.com/album/chariots-of-fire-mw0000206731

Personnel: Ernie Watts - Tenor Saxophone; Michael Omartian - Acoustic Piano; Richard Tee - Electric Piano; Carlos Rios - Guitar; Neil Stubbenhaus - Bass; John Robinson - Drums;  Paulinho Da Costa - Percussion;  Ian Underwood - Synthesizer

Chariots of Fire

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Rosemary Clooney - Thanks for Nothing

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1964
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 34:07
Size: 78,5 MB
Art: Front

(2:19)  1. Hello Faithless
(2:34)  2. The Rules of the Road
(2:32)  3. Just One of Those Things
(2:27)  4. All Alone
(3:43)  5. Black Coffee
(2:28)  6. A Good Man Is Hard to Find
(2:11)  7. Baby, The Ball Is Over
(4:16)  8. The Man That Got Away
(3:16)  9. I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues
(3:03) 10. Miss Otis Regrets
(3:06) 11. Thanks for Nothing (At All)
(2:07) 12. Careless Love

Thanks for Nothing was Rosemary Clooney's only album recorded for Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records. (Love, released by Reprise in 1963, actually had been recorded for RCA Victor in 1961.) It was also her last full-length LP project until she began recording for Concord Records in 1977. In his discography included in Clooney's autobiography, Girl Singer, Michael Feinstein notes that Clooney "isn't very fond of this album because the stresses of her personal life are audible on many of the tracks." But those very stresses, which included marital discord and a dependence on prescription drugs, may have contributed favorably to the final product on an album devoted to songs of love gone wrong, much in the mold of Sinatra's Only the Lonely. Arranger/conductor Bob Thompson isn't interested in making all the tunes into saloon ballads, however. True, here you get Clooney's take on "The Man That Got Away," and it isn't very different from Judy Garland's, while Clooney's interpretation of "Black Coffee" resembles Peggy Lee's. But the album opens and closes with country songs of a type Garland and Lee would never imagine trying, while Clooney sounds right at home. And "Just One of Those Things" (complete with introductory verse) and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" are taken at a jaunty pace that suggests the singer is going to be able to pick herself up off the barroom floor without assistance. Best of all are Carolyn Leigh and Cy Coleman's "The Rules of the Road" and the title song, which Clooney handles with her clear-spoken matter-of-factness. She may have been fading away personally and professionally at this point in her life, but she had one good album left in her, and this is it. ~ William Ryhlmann https://www.allmusic.com/album/thanks-for-nothing-mw0000662910

Thanks for Nothing

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Randy Weston - Saga

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1995
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 74:46
Size: 174,2 MB
Art: Front

(6:17)  1. The Beauty Of It All
(7:19)  2. Loose Wing
(8:47)  3. Tangier Bay
(6:45)  4. F.E.W. Blues
(8:06)  5. Uncle Neemo
(4:21)  6. Lagos
(4:41)  7. A Night In Mbari
(6:39)  8. Saucer Eyes
(6:14)  9. The Three Pyramids And The Sphynx
(2:58) 10. Casbah Kids
(5:30) 11. Jahjuka
(7:03) 12. The Gathering

Randy Weston was still at the peak of his powers, despite nearing his 70th birthday, for this set recorded with a septet in 1995. Weston's writing and playing have long drawn from a combination of American jazz and African traditions. This set celebrates that rich and entwined heritage, and Weston fearlessly juxtaposes dissonant note clusters with sweetly inviting melodies. "Tangier Bay," is, for example, relentlessly propulsive with undulating counter-rhythms.  His three front-line soloists are distinct and inventive: tenor saxophonist Billy Harper, alto saxophonist Talib Kibwe, and trombonist Benny Powell. This album, along with Earth Birth and the Portraits series, made the '90s an expansive and productive decade for Weston. https://www.allmusic.com/album/saga-mw0000183236

Personnel:  Piano, Composed By – Randy Weston;  Alto Saxophone, Flute – Talib Kibwe;  Double Bass – Alex Blake;  Drums – Billy Higgins;  Percussion – Neil Clarke; Tenor Saxophone – Billy Harper;  Trombone – Benny Powell

Saga

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Young Gun Silver Fox - West End Coast

Styles: Vocal, Guitar, Pop/Rock 
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:26
Size: 93,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:19)  1. You Can Feel It
(4:06)  2. Emilia
(4:02)  3. Better
(3:35)  4. Distance Between Us
(3:19)  5. See Me Slumer
(4:58)  6. In My Pocket
(4:02)  7. So Bad
(3:48)  8. Spiral
(3:46)  9. Saturday
(5:26) 10. Long Way Back

“Whenever I’m feeling blue, you make me better. Whatever I’m going through, you make me feel better.”~ “Better,” Young Gun Silver Fox

Good things come to those who wait. In 2012, Andy Platts (U.K. soul-rock band, Mamas Gun) and Shawn Lee, a multi-instrumentalist producer (AM & Shawn Lee; Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra “Kiss the Sky” feat. Nino Moschella) began to work on an album they had wanted to make for nearly 10 years. The result: West End Coast, a soon-to-be critically acclaimed album that pays homage to the warm, analogue So-Cal pop-rock classics of the mid-to-late 1970s. Classified as Yacht Rock, Young Gun Silver Fox have created a debut album that is a testament to the AOR Studio Sound. Hands down, West End Coast is sonic gold. Young Gun Silver Fox is the talented UK-based duo comprised of Platts, a.k.a. Young Gun, and Lee, the “Silver Fox” who hails from Wichita, Kansas. Independently, Platts and Lee have over forty album credits to their names (Lee leads with about 33 albums) including work with Jeff Buckley, Kelis, Amy Winehouse, Rod Temperton, John Oates, Brian Jackson and Ben Oncle Soul. “Tasteful, soulful and very real” are words Lee, who relocated to London, England after spending seven years in Los Angeles, uses to describe the album. “Speaking for myself, this is an album I’ve wanted to make for some time and Andy was the only person I felt I could make it with. Andy understands the classic melodic pop side as well as the soul funky side that was absolutely vital to the creation of this music. What a voice!” Platts calls Lee a “mechanic” for his ability to take a pop song apart and put it back together. Together, Young Gun Silver Fox have created a “musician’s album”, rich with complex instrumental melodies, smooth vocals, and positive lyrics.

West End Coast has been compared to America, Hall & Oates, Loggins & Messina, Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon, and Ambrosia. The album’s vocal harmonies, lyrics, and production echo Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Earth Wind and Fire. Platts and Lee’s infectious chemistry deliver again and again. What’s old is definitely new again in West End Coast’s original material. It’s hard to pick favourite tracks from such a solid album. As soon as I hear Lee’s smooth guitar riff in the opening track “You Can Feel It”, a smile creeps over my face and induces a fuzzy, heart-warming buzz that recalls the seemingly more simple times of yesteryear. This was actually the last song written for the album, inspired by a riff and some chords Lee texted to Platts one night.  “By the morning, Andy had written and demo’d the song ready for production,” Lee explains. The lyrics and hook from “Better” are contagious and make you want to cruise down California’s Highway 1. The lush orchestration and wah-wah syncopation in “Long Way Back” recalls Curtis Mayfield. The harmonica riffs, horn lines, fat bass lines from “In My Pocket” evoke Hall & Oates, Prince, and Earth Wind and Fire. But Young Gun Silver Fox make the catchy synth pop licks and short electric guitar solo digestible. West End Coast is a warm ray of sunshine on a dreary day. It soothes some of life’s harsh edges through its laid-back west coast vibe. Ironically, the album’s title references both sunny California, as well as grey West London, where the album was written and recorded at Lee’s Trans-Yank Studio. “The most important thing is to make good music that you love and put it out into the world,” Lee, the “Silver Fox”, explains in an online video. “When your music lives out in the world, independently of you, that’s a beautiful thing.” Many iconic musicians may have left us in 2016, but we also gained West End Coast. As we shake off troubling headlines and over-produced, digitized pop, Young Gun Silver Fox brings back cozy love songs and hopeful anthems to help us glide over the snares that life throws at us, reminding us there is hope in life’s chaotic ups and downs. Whatever your personal connection to Yacht Rock or the ‘70s, West End Coast is a much needed audio-ceutical for many. It will warm you up, open your heart, and take you back to the simple things. Young Gun Silver Fox is wrapping up a European tour and will hopefully visit us across the pond by next summer. Live, the band includes Adrian Meehan (drums) and David Page (bass and vocals). Platts plays the Rhodes and does lead vocals while Lee plays the smooth, lead guitar. http://spillmagazine.com/spill-album-review-young-gun-silver-fox-west-end-coast/

Personnel:  Andy Platts (Young Gun): lead & harmony vocals, guitar;  Shawn Lee (Silver Fox): drums, bass, keyboards, vocals and many more guests

West End Coast

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Willie Nelson - Last Man Standing

Styles: Vocal, Guitar, Country
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:40
Size: 79,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:00)  1. Last Man Standing
(2:28)  2. Don't Tell Noah
(3:03)  3. Bad Breath
(2:49)  4. Me And You
(3:53)  5. Something You Get Through
(2:35)  6. Ready To Roar
(3:16)  7. Heaven Is Closed
(3:00)  8. I Ain't Got Nothin'
(2:43)  9. She Made My Day
(2:59) 10. I'll Try To Do Better Next Time
(3:48) 11. Very Far To Crawl

Willie Nelson started singing about the end of the line a while back but now that he's in his mid-eighties, he's so accustomed to having death lurking around the corner that he can kid about it. That's precisely what he does throughout Last Man Standing, an album that serves as a jocular counterpart to its predecessor, God's Problem Child. Nelson didn't avoid humor on that record, but the vibe seemed haunted by a looming sense that the clock is ticking away. Willie shakes off this spookiness on Last Man Standing, whose title track finds him singing that "it's getting hard to watch my pals check out" to a jaunty rhythm. Ultimately, he decides he wants to be the last man standing, a sentiment that's reiterated a few tracks later, when Willie looks into the mirror and determines it's "better to have bad breath than no breath at all." Nelson isn't seizing the day so much as shrugging off worries, and decides just to have a good time. Despite being riddled with songs about death and aging, Last Man Standing is ridiculously fun, thanks not just to Nelson's jocularity it's not just gallows humor, either; the swinging honky tonk of "She Made My Day" is filled with sly one-liners  but to the nimbleness of his band. It's no secret that his bandmembers are pros, but it's still a pleasure to hear them play they're as compelling sliding into the shimmering jazz overtones of "Something You Get Through" as they are kicking out the blues of "I Ain't Got Nothin'" and they give Nelson plenty of cover for working with his weathered voice. No longer able to croon as he once did, Nelson opts for playing around with the rhythms of his delivery, a move that makes him seem limber, adding a sense of vitality to Last Man Standing. Willie realizes he's not going to be here forever but he's made up his mind to make the most of his time here, and that's why Last Man Standing feels richer than so many self-conscious meditations on mortality. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine https://www.allmusic.com/album/last-man-standing-mw0003151298

Personnel:  Willie Nelson – vocals, guitar;  Alison Krauss – background vocals, fiddle;  Mickey Raphael – harmonica;  James Mitchell – guitar

Last Man Standing

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