Andy Fusco - Joy-Riding

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:54
Size: 151,6 MB
Art: Front

( 9:07)  1. Ezz-Thetic
( 5:39)  2. Tender Leaves
( 8:08)  3. Today
( 7:35)  4. Skylark
(10:18)  5. Erin's Blues
( 4:38)  6. What a Difference a Day Makes
( 6:45)  7. Relaxin' with Andy
( 6:24)  8. Joy-Riding
( 7:16)  9. Hot House

Veteran NYC altoist Andy Fusco returns to the Steeplechase label, and the result is Joy-Riding, a post hard bop date with a good mix of originals and classic jazz anthems. Having done long stints with the likes of drummers Buddy Rich and Steve Smith's Vital Information, Fusco has also appeared and recorded with Don Sebesky and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. His sidemen include tenorist and composer Walt Weiskopf, and his younger brother, pianist Joel Weiskopf. Louisville-born and bred  drummer Jason Tieman, and bassist Mike Karn complete the sterling rhythm section.  A first class date by all hands, indeed, with Fusco keeping the spirits of Jackie and Charles Mac (McClean and McPherson) thriving well into the millenium. Andy's rich and liquid sound is imbued with a snakelike bendy-ness in his phrasing that is unique and endearingly warm and comforting to boot. Dig his reading of Hoagy Carmichael's Skylark with his moist melodicism coupled with his biting rhythmic acuity on Walt Weiskopf's Joy-Riding, spelling out long and serpentine lines for evidence of this.  A top mod bop date indeed that will elate and please listeners from many different camps. http://www.londonjazznews.com/2017/10/cd-review-andy-fusco-joy-riding.html

Personnel: Andy Fusco - alto saxophone;  Walt Weiskopf - tenor saxophone;  Joel Weiskopf - piano;  Mike Karn - bass;  Jason Tiemann - drums.

Joy-Riding

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Charito - American Gold Standards: Charito Meets Tamir Hendelman

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:39
Size: 158,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:21)  1. I've Got the World on a String
(4:16)  2. Dearly Beloved
(6:42)  3. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry
(4:46)  4. Blue Skies
(5:33)  5. I Get a Kick Out of You
(5:25)  6. Do It Again
(5:02)  7. Cheek to Cheek
(5:59)  8. Blues in the Night
(5:23)  9. It's Magic
(4:14) 10. A Fine Romance
(6:18) 11. Dreamer
(5:36) 12. The Man I Love
(5:58) 13. Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye

Excited to share the upcoming Japanese release of vocalist Charito’s American Gold Standards: Charito meets Tamir Hendelman. I first met Manila-born, Tokyo-based jazz vocalist Charito in Japan when she sat in with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. Her soulful spark, the way she sings from the heart- stayed with me.  Years later, we finally got to collaborate and it was truly a joyous occasion. Charito has recorded with Ivan Lins, Michel Legrand and Harvey Mason on some special projects.  This was a chance to pay tribute to the Great American Songbook. It was all about breathing new life to this classic songs by Irving Berlin,Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jobim and more. We hope you enjoy the music…

Personnel:  Charito (Vocals); Tamir Hendelman (Piano); John Clayton (Bass); Jeff Hamilton (Drums); Lori Bell (Flute); Gilbert Castellanos (Trumpet); Graham Dechter (Guitar).

American Gold Standards: Charito Meets Tamir Hendelman

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Tal Farlow - Cookin' on all Burners

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 1982
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:01
Size: 96,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:34)  1. You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To
(5:05)  2. If I Should Lose You
(5:28)  3. I Wished on the Moon
(6:29)  4. I've Got the World on a String
(4:04)  5. Love Letters
(3:14)  6. Why Shouldn't I
(5:46)  7. Lullaby of the Leaves
(3:54)  8. Just Friends
(4:23)  9. I Thought About You

On the fifth of six Concord albums (a surprising amount of activity considering that he only played locally in the New England area during most of 1957-1975), the brilliant bop-based guitarist Tal Farlow performs concise renditions (none over six and a half minutes in length) of nine standards with pianist James Williams, bassist Gary Mazzaroppi, and drummer Vinnie Johnson. Highlights of the excellent straight-ahead date include "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," "I've Got the World on a String," "Love Letters," and "Just Friends." ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/cookin-on-all-burners-mw0000184177

Personnel:  Tal Farlow – guitar;  James Williams – piano;  Gary Mazzaroppi – bass;  Vinnie Johnson – drums

Cookin' on all Burners

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Young Gun Silver Fox - AM Waves

Styles: Vocal, Guitar, Pop/Rock
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:21
Size: 97,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:11)  1. Midnight in Richmond
(4:01)  2. Lenny
(4:02)  3. Take It or Leave It
(4:40)  4. Underdog
(3:33)  5. Mojo Rising
(3:48)  6. Just a Man
(4:20)  7. Love Guarantee
(4:00)  8. Caroline
(5:06)  9. Kingston Boogie
(4:36) 10. Lolita

The 1990s saw a mostly UK based nostalgia of American 70s RnB and jazz-funk, demonstrated by the rise of acid jazz acts like Jamiroquai, The James Taylor Quartet, Brand New Heavies and Incognito. As the 90’s turned into the Aughts, another figure in that general space emerged, the insanely talented producer and instrumentalist Shawn Lee. He’s not a household name, but with his work for video, movie and TV soundtracks like Desperate Housewives and Malcolm in the Middle, he’s certainly been widely heard. Furthermore, Lee has mastered as many music styles as he’s mastered musical instruments, which is to say, a whole lot of them. Lately, one of Lee’s main projects has been a collaboration with Andy Platts (Mama’s Gun), a composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist too, and a gifted singer to boot. As the two-man act Young Gun Silver Fox, Lee and Platts seeks to serve a slightly different kind of nostalgia, for late 70s Southern California pop. The smooth, rich, analog-washed sounds of Young Gun Silver Fox began with 2016’s West End Coast, an album particularly well received in the Netherlands. Two years after that album, which reflected an inviting Fleetwood Mac/Philly Soul vibe, Young Gun Silver Fox returns with AM Waves. Fender Rhodes, clavinets, tight bass lines, and smooth harmonies…all the hallmarks (the good ones, anyway) from that era are present. Apart from the horns, Lee and Platts handle virtually all the instruments and craft some catchy tunes. There isn’t a single track lacking hooks, and Platts is a rather solid lyricist: On the opener “Midnight in Richmond” he spins off stanzas like passages in a best selling novel (“Cross the bridge where the river threads silently like footsteps in the dark/where my mind comes alive with a new memory igniting up another spark”) or the kind of lines that are very much of the time being celebrated (“I wanna be so high, so free/Where I can feel my mojo rising”). “Take It Or Leave It” (video above) is a virtual rewrite of “What A Fool Believes” and “Mojo Rising” lifts its groove from “How Long,” that 1974 hit from the Paul Carrack-fronted band from England, Ace. A good depiction of RnB inflected rock from the Jimmy Carter years isn’t complete without a horn section on at least a few numbers and Young Gun Silver Fox take care of that by bringing in a platoon of brass and reeds dubbed the “Seaweed Horns,” making “Love Guarantee” a lost Earth, Wind & Fire gem and give the funky “Underdog” a hard, uplifting kick in the pants. Another 70s nostalgia act Lenny Kravitz figures into a couple of songs: Platts imagines him as a bartender serving him liquid salve for his pain on the Hall & Oates-like “Lenny” and again as the namesake for a festive bar sung about on the four-on-the-floor dance tune “Kingston Boogie.” Anyone who liked the MOR music coming from the radio forty years ago will find everything to like about Young Gun Silver Fox’s AM Waves, from Fat Beats. Yacht rock has a new soundtrack, and it’s a good one. http://somethingelsereviews.com/2018/07/06/young-gun-silver-fox-am-waves-2018/

AM Waves

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Steve Coleman And Five Elements - Live At The Village Vanguard, Vol. 1

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 152:34
Size: 351,0 MB
Art: Front

( 7:49)  1. Horda
( 6:35)  2. Djw
(16:50)  3. Little Girl I'll Miss You | Embedded #1
( 6:46)  4. idHw
( 7:08)  5. twf
( 8:25)  6. Figit Time
( 8:21)  7. Nfr
( 7:02)  8. Little Girl I'll Miss You
( 7:01)  9. Change The Guard
(16:34) 10. rmT | Figit Time
( 9:47) 11. Nfr
( 6:55) 12. idHw
( 7:22) 13. twf
( 6:26) 14. Horda
( 6:58) 15. Embedded #1
( 7:33) 16. Djw
(14:52) 17. rmT | 9 to 5

Do you long for the days when jazz was punk? Not meaning music that is loud and out-of-control. but punk as in innovative, nonconformist, and seditious. One hundred years ago, the music of Louis Armstrong was punk, and a few decades later so was Charlie Parker's revolutionary bebop. You probably did not witness those rebellions, nor Ornette Coleman's free jazz of the 1960s. What would you give to be there for the "what-did-I-just-hear" moment?  Steve Coleman and Five Elements deliver that double-take experience with their performance on Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 (The Embedded Sets). But then again, Steve Coleman's music, beginning with his first releases in the mid-1980s, has always turned heads. Like the music of Charlie Parker, Coleman's sound is simultaneously contemporary, futuristic, and ancient. The unusual titles here are transliterations of Egyptian hieroglyphics utilized to develop his sound, which is very much related to spoken passages. Coleman has explained that he knits together chains of tonal dyads to create embedded melodic structures. Simply stated, the quintet engages in a conversation. These improvised colloquies though, can only be had within a very tight working group. Five Elements are composed of Coleman on alto saxophone, bassist Anthony Tidd, drummer Sean Rickman, and band leaders in their own right trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and guitarist Miles Okazaki. The music is culled from three nights of recording at The Village Vanguard in 2017, a yearly residency Coleman began in 2015. The sounds grab hold from the first track "Horda" with Coleman introducing his composition (as he does often here) unaccompanied. He shapes much of the music with visual and sonic cues. His band, ever ready to follow, parlay and push back. There is a fluidity to the music here and a boldness. Finlayson plays the perfect foil, negotiating the complexities of the compositions and acting as counterpoint to Coleman, while Okazaki threads the needle to tie the music together. Live might be the best way to experience Coleman's music. He has released several live sessions, the first being The Tao Of Mad Phat < Fringe Zones > (RCA, 1993) and the last Resistance Is Futile (Label Bleau, 2001). Outside of a studio his staccato lines, metamorphosing thoughts, and threads of sound come alive against his signature M-BASE grooves. You might find yourself turning the volume dial up louder and still louder. ~ Mark Corroto https://www.allaboutjazz.com/live-at-the-village-vanguard-vol-1-the-embedded-sets-steve-coleman-pi-recordings-review-by-mark-corroto.php

Personnel:  Steve Coleman: alto saxophone;  Jonathan Finlayson: trumpet;  Miles Okazaki: guitar;  Anthony Tidd: bass;  Sean Rickman: drums.

Live At The Village Vanguard, Vol. 1

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