Thursday, December 6, 2018

Dana Robbins - 11

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:08
Size: 90,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:19)  1. Let's Find Out
(3:44)  2. It's So Fine Knowing You
(5:06)  3. Dreamland
(3:18)  4. Soul Serenade
(3:51)  5. Life Is Better With You
(3:11)  6. I'm Yours, You're Mine
(4:45)  7. We're Gonna Work It Out
(4:05)  8. Stomp
(3:59)  9. Emergency Whiskey
(3:47) 10. Hinkin' About Angels

“Dana Robbins is Music City's saxophone MVP,with a fluent, commanding and original approachto R&B, soul, rock, jazz, funk and off-the-cuff improvisation. And through it all her bold, warm tone is ever ready to shift from slow burn to utter conflagrance  whatever it takes to get to a song's emotional core."~ Ted Drozdowski, Nashville Scene https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/danarobbins3

11

Marlene VerPlanck - A Quiet Storm

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:23
Size: 119,5 MB
Art: Front

(3:07)  1. I Wished on the Moon
(3:15)  2. Things Are Looking Up
(5:33)  3. Medley: Soft Lights and Sweet Music/When Lights Are Low
(3:35)  4. The Lies of Handsome Men
(3:54)  5. Sister Moon
(3:37)  6. A Quiet Storm
(2:42)  7. Lovers in New York
(2:01)  8. Cinnamon and Clove
(3:25)  9. Taking a Chance on Love
(2:28) 10. Dream Dancing
(2:57) 11. Who Can I Turn To?
(2:39) 12. I've Got Just About Everything
(3:14) 13. To Late Now
(4:42) 14. Medley: I Love to Dance/The Last Dance
(4:07) 15. So Long Sadness

Marlene VerPlanck paid tribute to the Great American Songbook. VerPlanck, who grew up in Newark, New Jersey listening to Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald on WNEW radio, collaborated throughout her long career with her husband, arranger, composer, and conductor Billy VerPlanck. Her 17th album, 2000's My Impetuous Heart, reunited her with some old friends, including jazz pianist Hank Jones and special guests jazz pianists George Shearing and Marian McPartland and guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. VerPlanck's career was a long string of success stories, which showcased her as a versatile singer with a gorgeous, pliable voice that knew how to tell a story. She started singing at age 19. Her career stretched back to the '50s when she worked with Tex Beneke and Charlie Spivak. Her first big break came in 1955 when she teamed up with pianist Hank Jones, flutist Herbie Mann, trumpeter Joe Wilder, bassist Wendell Marshall, and drummer Kenny Clarke on I Think of You with Every Breath I Take on Savoy Records. She met her husband while performing with Charlie Spivak's band, then both moved over to the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. Tommy Dorsey died in 1956, so the VerPlancks decided to stay in New York City to pursue studio work with the likes of Sinatra, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and even Kiss. Millions of people outside the jazz world first heard VerPlanck's voice, though, doing jingles in the '60s: "Weekends were made for Michelob/Yeah!" and "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!" and "Mmm good/Mm-mm good/That's what Campbell's Soups are/Mm-mm good." After thousands of commercial jingles and hours and hours of studio session work in New York, the VerPlancks decided to settle down in their house in Clifton, New Jersey, and began performing and recording together. Their first recording together was A Breath of Fresh Air, arranged, produced, and conducted by Billy VerPlanck in 1968. 

In 1976, Marlene VerPlanck hooked up with North Carolina-based composer/pianist Loonis McGlohon, who hired her to do two installments of a radio show he co-hosted called Alec Wilder's American Popular Song. Afterwards, she recorded Marlene VerPlanck Sings Alec Wilder, and later, after Wilder's death, she appeared on the radio show The American Popular Singers, co-hosted by McGlohon and opera singer Eileen Farrell. Ver Planck performed at Carnegie Hall, Michael's Pub, and the Rainbow Room in New York City. She appeared on Entertainment Tonight, The Today Show, and CBS Sunday Morning. In the Digital Mood, featuring VerPlanck, Mel Tormé, and Julius La Rosa with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, became the first big-band CD to go gold in the '90s. VerPlanck remained active as a live performer and recording artist in the 2000s and 2010s, following up the aforementioned My Impetuous Heart with such albums as Once There Was a Moon (2008), One Dream at a Time (2010), Ballads... Mostly (2013), and The Mood I'm In (2016), all released by the Audiophile Records label. Marlene VerPlanck died in January 2018 in Manhattan at the age of 84. ~ Robert Hicks https://itunes.apple.com/lk/album/a-quiet-storm/826266784

A Quiet Storm

Joe Diorio, Steve Bagby - Straight Ahead to the Light

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:41
Size: 81,9 MB
Art: Front

(10:27)  1. Straight Ahead to the Light
( 8:05)  2. Gong
(10:13)  3. India
( 6:55)  4. Bagbito

This is the third in a series of five CD reissues from guitar legend Joe Diorio's classic Spitball Records recordings from the mid-70s. Originally released in 1976 on Spitball Records, Straight Ahead to the Light was recorded on May 23, 1976 at The First Unitarian Church in Miami, Florida and features Joe Diorio on guitar and Steve Bagby on percussion. Now available for the first time on CD including the original album cover artwork from the LP release. The album contains four original compositions by Joe Diorio and Steve Bagby which include “Straight Ahead to the Light", clocking in at over ten minutes long, “Gong", “India", another extended song that lasts for over ten minutes and “Bagbito" which features an extended percussion/drum solo by Steve Bagby. 24-bit digital remastering by Paul G. Kohler at Art of Life Studios in Charleston, South Carolina in March 2018. Art of Life Records is pleased to make this long out-of-print recording available to the world once again. Stay tuned for more Joe Diorio CD reissues from Art of Life Records. https://news.allaboutjazz.com/joe-diorio-and-steve-bagbys-straight-ahead-to-the-light-reissued-on-cd-wav-flac-and-mp3-from-art-of-life-records.ph

Personnel:  Joe Diorio - guitar; Steve Bagby - percussion

Straight Ahead to the Light

Andrew Rathbun - Character Study

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:20
Size: 141,5 MB
Art: Front

(6:08)  1. The Golden Fool
(6:49)  2. Team of Rivals
(8:49)  3. Alphabet Deaf and Forever Blind
(7:09)  4. His Quiet Determination
(7:09)  5. Etcetera
(9:28)  6. The Long Awakening
(6:40)  7. Character Study
(9:05)  8. Turmoil

Jazz saxophonist Andrew Rathbun was born and raised in Toronto, in 1991 earning a Canada Council for the Arts grant to study in Boston, where he attended the New England Conservatory under the tutelege of Jimmy Guiffre and George Russell. Playing and recording with artists including Jeff Hirshfield, Kenny Wheeler, John Abercrombie and Ingrid Jensen, from 1994 to 1997 Rathbun also taught at the University of Maine before moving on to the Amadeus Conservatory in Westchester, NY; his solo debut Scatter Some Stones followed in 1999. The experimental True Stories came out the next year, offering two Margaret Atwood poems set to music. The heady and complex Sculptures was released two years later.~ Jason Ankeny https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/character-study/1444115015

Personnel:  Andrew Rathbun -  tenor saxophone; Tim Hagans -  trumpet; Gary Versace -  piano; Jay Anderson - bass; Bill Stewart - drums

Character Study