Andrew Hill - Nefertiti

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1976
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:32
Size: 98,4 MB
Art: Front

(14:10)  1. Blue Black
( 5:29)  2. Relativity
( 8:08)  3. Nefertiti
( 3:47)  4. Hattie
( 7:33)  5. Mudflower
( 3:23)  6. Unnatural Man

Originally recorded for the Japanese East Wind label and only made available domestically on a 1979 Inner City LP, this trio outing by pianist Andrew Hill also features bassist Richard Davis and drummer Roger Blank. Hill performs six of his unpredictable originals ("Nefertiti" is his tune, not the more famous composition by Wayne Shorter) and, although the music seems slightly more conservative than usual for a Hill set, the music is consistently stimulating; too bad it's so difficult to locate. ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/nefertiti-mw0000311943

Personnel:  Andrew Hill, piano;  Richard Davis, bass;  Roger Blank, drums.

Nefertiti

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Rosemary Clooney - The Girl Singer

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:52
Size: 93,8 MB
Art: Front

(2:20)  1. Clap Hands! Here Comes Rosie
(2:59)  2. Without Love
(3:16)  3. How About You ?
(2:55)  4. How Am I To Know ?
(2:06)  5. Corazn De Melon (Watermelon Heart)
(2:27)  6. Angry
(1:47)  7. Buffalo Gals (with Bing Crosby)
(1:54)  8. Sweet Besty From Pike
(2:15)  9. Get Me To The Church On Time
(2:46) 10. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
(2:20) 11. Aren't You Glad You're You ?
(2:23) 12. Shine On Harvest Moon
(2:42) 13. Sway
(2:37) 14. Cabin In The Sky
(2:24) 15. Something's Gotta Give
(3:36) 16. Love Won't Let You Get Away (with Bing Crosby)

The Girl Singer, Rosemary Clooney's volume in the Bluebird's Best series, spotlights her talents as a swinging post-big band vocalist between 1958 and 1961, when she was basically hitless but still recording some great material (including many arrangements by Nelson Riddle and excellent duet albums recorded with Bing Crosby and Pérez Prado). Although 16 tracks for a digital-era compilation is basically short shrift, there are highlights galore  starting with "Clap Hands! Here Comes Rosie," a nice piece of fluff that introduced an album of the same name. Also great is an update (with Crosby) of "How About You?" to include references to Gypsy, Marlon Brando, and the Pittsburgh Pirates (Crosby was a co-owner). The two tracks with Prado find the exuberant Clooney matching the outboard orchestra. The Girl Singer also includes a version of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" recorded in Nashville with Floyd Cramer and (probably) a Chet Atkins arrangement. (No, Cassandra Wilson wasn't the first to treat it as a vocal standard.) For jazz or vocal fans curious about a great vocalist but with no wish to revisit "Come on-a My House" or "This Ole House," The Girl Singer is a solid collection. 

~ John Bush https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-girl-singer-bluebird-mw0000979054

The Girl Singer

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Keith Brown - The Journey

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:02
Size: 156,5 MB
Art: Front

(6:24)  1. 4G
(5:14)  2. Close Your Eyes and Believe
(4:19)  3. Human Nature
(6:13)  4. Capt'n Kirk
(5:48)  5. Prelude for the One
(7:40)  6. The Journey
(4:50)  7. The Narrow Road
(7:33)  8. Ten Years of Turmoil
(6:02)  9. Deception of the Heart
(6:03) 10. F.R.C.
(3:02) 11. The Biscuit Man
(4:48) 12. (I've Got a) Golden Ticket

Son of Donald, one of the countless talents discovered by Art Blakey, and like him pianist, Keith Brown is not a well-known name. He has worked as a session man in various areas of black music, from soul to jazz, and has already recorded a good record in trio a few years ago. With 'The Journey', the young Brown raises the shot and offers us an ambitious job, a real journey through all his experiences as a musician, synthesized in a fresh jazz with a contemporary cut, innervated by soul, neo-soul, funk , hip-hop - colors, melodies, rhythms and arrangements are clear, even if the group is often acoustic. From this point of view, we can think of points of reference such as Lafayette Gilchrist and especially Russell Gunn , two true master predecessors in the synthesis between jazz and the rest of contemporary black music. 'The Journey' is a complex work, but never difficult: on the contrary, the themes are always very catchy, improvisations, certainly imaginative, work within the harmonic outline, unhinging it gradually, almost without attracting attention. Great importance of the prodigious battery of Terreon Gully, which makes an insistent use of rim-shot in short repeated, broken and recombined polyrhythm patterns, reproducing in this way the typical effect of hip-hop rhythms. On the sax we find musicians in the world such as Kenneth Whalum III, Greg Tardy and Jamal Mitchell, while the bass by Clint Mullican and the Mike Seal guitar complete the training by adding jazz-funk pulsations and further colors to the ensemble moments, arranged in a new way. soul. Ah, and Keith Brown? His style, percussive and bluesy, with considerable independence in his hands and a marked taste for melodic ornamentation and chiselling, is the direct son of musicians such as John Hicks and Kenny Kirkland (to whom 'Capt'n Kirk' is dedicated), to the youngest Marc Cary. Almost all the compositions - except for the 'Human Nature', where for the most part the sax repeat the theme while the rhythm section is unleashed, dictating the dynamics and the development of the piece, then releasing the tension at the time of the sax solos, and '(I've Got a) Golden Ticket' (yes, that of the classic 'Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory'!), enunciated by the piano that alludes to the stride, slowed in a wrap-around soul jazz by the band and finally closed by a suspended electric piano tail. To have heard it before, 'The Journey' would have finished straight into the top 10 of the past year. Patience. Beautiful album of pure modern jazz at the highest level, excellent also to bring neophytes closer to this music. (Negrodeath) Translate by Google http://freefalljazz.altervista.org/blog/?p=14914
 

Personnel:  Keith Brown on piano;  Terreon "Tank" Gully on drums;  Gregory Tardy on saxophones;  Kenneth Whalum III on saxophones;  Jamel Mitchell on saxophones;  Mike Seal on guitar;  Clint Mullican on bass

The Journey

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Chico Freeman - Tangents

Styles: Post-Bop, Progressive Jazz
Year: 1984
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:06
Size: 109,6 MB
Art: Front

(7:52)  1. Tangents
(5:40)  2. Sir Tashi And The Yetti
(3:23)  3. Ballad For Hakima
(5:12)  4. Fifty Tenth Street
(5:42)  5. Computerized Indifference
(4:59)  6. Sangoma And Nelly
(7:22)  7. You Are The One
(6:53)  8. Spook And Fade

An interesting if quite diverse set, this album is best remembered for featuring up-and-coming singer Bobby McFerrin on a few selections. McFerrin has his moments, as does tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman and such notable sidemen as altoist Steve Coleman, John Purcell on reeds, either Kenny Werner or Mark Thompson on piano, Freeman's longtime bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Billy Hart, among others. 

The material (by Freeman, Thompson and Werner) is actually not that significant, and the date on a whole is less memorable than many of Chico Freeman's earlier sets, but it has its enjoyable spots. ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/tangents-mw0000800513

Personnel:  Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Steve Coleman;  Bass – Cecil McBee, John Koenig;  Drums – Billy Hart, James Bradley, Jr.;  Drums, Percussion – Frederick Waits;  Piano – Mark Thompson ;  Piano, Synthesizer – Kenny Werner;  Vibraphone – Jay Hoggard;  Vocals – Bobby McFerrin;  Woodwind – John Purcell;  Woodwind, Percussion – Chico Freeman

Tangents

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Eli Degibri - Soul Station (A Tribute to Hank Mobley)

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@256K/s
Time: 38:25
Size: 70,6 MB
Art: Front

(5:58)  1. Remember
(4:51)  2. This I Dig of You
(4:45)  3. Dig Dis
(8:32)  4. If I Should Lose You
(3:54)  5. Split Feelings
(4:58)  6. Soul Station
(5:23)  7. Dear Hank

You can understand why musicians cover entire albums when the subject is an epic like Kind of Blue or A Love Supreme. It’s a little harder to see what would prompt someone to do a track-by-track remake of saxophonist Hank Mobley’s Soul Station. It may be Mobley’s best record, but it doesn’t crack the 200 recommended recordings in either Ben Ratliff’s book of essential LPs or The Rough Guide to Jazz, and Mobley merits barely a passing mention in Ted Gioia’s landmark book The History of Jazz. Israeli saxophonist Eli Degibri, however, says Soul Station is his touchstone and lifelong inspiration. His challenge in covering the whole thing is to find something new to say through it. Degibri’s timbre is slighter and more pointed than Mobley’s round, warm tone, but his performance is no less expressive. His blowing is often reserved, to the point where one sometimes strains to hear him cut through the rhythm section. He takes several tunes at a slightly faster tempo than Mobley did, though one selection “If I Should Lose You,” the best tune here is slowed to a lush ballad. He switches to soprano sax a couple of times, whereas Mobley stuck to tenor. It would be hard to top Mobley’s rhythm section of pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Art Blakey, but Mobley’s group steps up. Pianist Tom Oren and bassist Tamir Shmerling both turn in nifty solos on the title tune, and drummer Eviatar Slivnik throws in extra fills on “Remember” rather than trying to imitate the legend who preceded him. Degibri adds an original composition, a nice piece called “Dear Hank” that sounds like it might be derived from “Blues in the Night.” Degibri’s is a good album, but aside from that gorgeously languid cover of “If I Should Lose You,” he hasn’t done enough to make Soul Station his own. 

~ Steve Greenlee https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/eli-degibri-soul-station/

Personnel: Eli Degibri:Tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone; Tom Oren: Piano; Tamir Shmerling: Bass; Eviatar Slivnik: Drums

Soul Station (A Tribute to Hank Mobley)

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