Barbara Martin - Eyes on the Horizon

Styles: Vocal 
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:10
Size: 99,8 MB
Art: Front

(4:04)  1. Since You've Been Here
(6:31)  2. Too Late to Die Young
(4:41)  3. Eyes on the Horizon
(4:07)  4. Same Old World
(3:17)  5. Taking a Chance
(5:14)  6. The Fire Burning in Me
(2:41)  7. I'm OK
(3:28)  8. One for Me
(4:44)  9. Blue Storm
(4:19) 10. Painting a Picture

“I wanna be James Dean with insolent lips” writes jazz and blues singer-songwriter Barbara Martin in her song “It’s Too Late to Die Young,” from her Eyes on the Horizon recording, and the lyrics and song title couldn’t be more descriptive of a musician known for being an accomplished vocal interpreter of the great jazz and blues standards yet brave enough to stretch the boundaries of the female jazz and blues singer stereotype. Eyes on the Horizon was two years in the making. Part of the reason for this was Barbara's decision to use all original songs. She also wanted to use only the finest jazz musicians and was willing to wait till her and their busy schedules had openings. Robert Redd is on the piano with his brother, Chuck Redd on drums and vibes. Barbara's bassist from her Rare Bird Quartet of the 1990's, Steve Wolf returns on this album. Duo partner and recording engineer, Mac Walter, adds a classical guitar lead on "I'm OK" and the CD ends with a co-write with Mac the guitar/vocal "Painting a Picture". Bruce Swaim on saxophone, John Jensen on trombone and Matt Finley on flugel horn round out the roster of musicians. The songs range from bossas and a samba to swing, blues and ballads. From Jim Newsom, Portfolio Magazine: "The ten-song setlist is all originals, filled with a lyrical sophistication and playfulness that continues to unfold with each listening. The band includes some of the best players from the DC/Annapolis/Baltimore jazz scene, including veteran Charlie Byrd sideman Chuck Redd on drums and vibes, and his brother Robert on piano. Martin’s regular bassist Steve Wolf anchors the core trio but longtime collaborator Mac Walter, whose magnificent acoustic guitarwork is always a marvel to hear, appears in only a few places. This time out, Martin has chosen a more traditional piano trio motif with occasional horn accents. “Since You’ve Been Here” kicks things off with a blissfully light-hearted celebration of the myriad ways that life changes when you let another person into your life. “Too Late to Die Young” takes a bluesy ride over Wolf’s walking bassline: “I want to be James Dean with insolent lips,” the singer intones, “but it’s too late to die young.” John Jensen’s boogie-woogie trombone solo accentuates Robert Redd’s muscular piano comping. 

The title track is pure cocktail lounge you can almost smell the cigar smoke wafting up from the back. The mood shifts to a playfully swinging samba on “Same Old World,” followed by “Taking a Chance,” a tune that starts off like a Vince Guaraldi theme for Charlie Brown before bouncing along on a smoothly melodic carpet of swing. Martin gets slow and sultry on “The Fire Burning in Me.” Chuck Redd then picks up his mallets for some sweet vibraphonics on “I’m OK,” setting up Walter’s first appearance. The lyrics here define the tone of this record: “When life doesn’t follow my wish-it-would-be’s…I’m OK.” “One for Me” is a jaunty stroll through loneliness tempered with an optimistically hopeful tinge. The last two cuts on the album accentuate Walter’s gorgeous guitar playing, reminding a longtime listener of previous Barbara Martin outings. In fact, “Blue Storm” originally appeared on Different View, and the arrangements are similar though this version feels gentler, reflecting the subtle shift that Martin’s vocal delivery has undergone in the intervening years. The disc closes with its most beautiful song, “Painting a Picture,” a voice and guitar duet the two cowrote, built on James Taylor-esque chording and a wistfully yearning from-the-road lyric. It’s the perfect denouement to a pleasurable outing from one of Virginia’s finest. https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/BarbaraMartin

Eyes on the Horizon

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Spyro Gyra - The Deep End

Styles: Fusion, Smooth Jazz
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 64:53
Size: 152,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:58)  1. Summer Fling
(5:02)  2. Eastlake Shuffle
(7:00)  3. Monsoon
(4:36)  4. As You Wish
(6:10)  5. Soburg Sam
(7:17)  6. The Crossing
(6:48)  7. Wiggle Room
(6:15)  8. Wind Warriors
(4:46)  9. In Your Arms
(5:46) 10. Chippewa Street
(6:09) 11. Beyond The Rain

With their third label release, the longtime contemporary jazz powerhouse ensemble led by fluid and funky sax legend Jay Beckenstein celebrates 30 years of a consistent mix of making instrumental pop hits and pushing the musical envelopes into fusion territory. The title promises a plunge into something deep, or at least a little stretching, and the band showcasing new drummer Ludwig Alfonso on a few tunes more than delivers. But not right away. They open smooth and light-funky with the playful, sax-driven "Summer Fling," which is breezy and fun but only digs deep with Tom Schuman's heavily retro key solo. "Eastlake Shuffle" balances Beckenstein's adventurous sax punch with a heavy blues mood driven by Schuman and the rockin' guitar harmonies and solo of Julio Fernandez. Things don't really heat up until the exotic fusion jam "Monsoon," a live show crowd-pleaser that builds from an Indian-flavored meditation (complete with distant chance and bird calls) into a moody sitar-laced melody before exploding into a powerful, blues-drenched extravaganza featuring some of Beckenstein's most powerful lines blended with Fernandez's brimming, ready-to-explode guitar on the hook. From this point, the band alternates its light moods ("As You Wish") with more aggressive and sometimes blistering rock-flavored explorations ("Joburg Jam," one of the four tracks featuring the shimmering vibes action of Dave Samuels, "Wiggle Room"). Most veteran bands would gasp for survival in the culture of stricter radio formats by playing it ever safer and trendy, but Spyro Gyra has never been most bands. Each release has a few sweet pleasantries (and even these feature magnificent musicianship) but a great deal more energy and blowing than today's average smooth jazz listener is used to. It's worth the plunge. ~ Jonathan Widran https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-deep-end-mw0000458674

Personnel:  Jay Beckenstein – saxophones; Tom Schuman – keyboards; Scott Ambush – bass guitar; Julio Fernandez – guitars, vocals on "The Crossing"

The Deep End

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Mack Avenue SuperBand - Live from the Detroit Jazz Festival

Styles: Jazz, Big Band
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:16
Size: 136,5 MB
Art: Front

( 0:59)  1. Introduction
( 9:49)  2. Riot
(10:31)  3. The Struggle
( 7:53)  4. A Mother's Cry
(11:25)  5. Santa Maria
( 7:01)  6. For Stephane
( 1:17)  7. Introduction to Bipolar Blues Blues
(10:17)  8. Bipolar Blues Blues

Bands fostered by labels and sourced from their stables are nothing new. The concept itself has always carried great possibility, but many a label has dropped the ball on the artistic responsibility side of the equation. At their worst, these types of get-togethers have come off as incongruous gatherings that are crudely slapped together. The concerts and/or albums that often fall into that category typically have one thing in common: they're there to make a quick buck and nothing else really matters. But not every label gathering is made for that purpose. A label band, when done right, can help to showcase artists while displaying and furthering a sense of community. The Mack Avenue Superband projects prove that point.  So what exactly makes this album and its two antecedents work while other such projects have failed miserably? There's no easy answer, but organization and attention to detail may very well be the keys to success. This gathering may take place on one fine day, but the band's music director bassist Rodney Whitaker starts to formulate a plan several months ahead of time, reaching out to the musicians to put together a program where everybody has input. So while the seven musicians featured on this album may not be the most stylistically well-matched on paper, with relatively straight ahead players, a gypsy jazz guitarist, and a smooth-gospel saxophone star joining forces, they're all on the same page from beginning to end and there's a spirit of togetherness here that's refreshing to encounter on such an offering.  

Everybody involved with this album knows the drill and comes prepared. Whitaker, his longtime drumming partner Carl Allen, Hot Club of Detroit guitarist Evan Perri, and pianist Aaron Diehl have all been on board for both of the previous incarnations of this group; vibraphonist Warren Wolf and saxophonists Tia Fuller and Kirk Whalum have each taken part in one of these gatherings before. Here, they all gel beautifully in various combinations. Whalum and Fuller blow atop the rhythm section with vim and vigor on the former's "Bipolar Blues Blues"; Wolf and Perri prove to be surprisingly well-matched partners, locking in together on Herbie Hancock's "Riot" and pulling from the same stylistic bag on Perri's Spanish-tinged, Chick Corea-esque "For Stephanie"; Wolf's vibes, Fuller's soprano, and Whalum's flute meld and move gently atop the light Latin flow below on Whitaker's "A Mother's Cry"; and Diehl's gifts as a genre-blind player with exquisite taste and an enormous musical vocabulary come to the surface on his own "Santa Maria," a piece which opens on three-and-a-half minutes of expression-rich piano exploration before taking shape as a swinger that vacillates between lightheartedness and resoluteness. This edition of the Mack Avenue Superband has much to offer, proving that the difference between success and failure with label bands rests with the execution and the chemistry. With sound planning and the right participants, a label concoction can be a very good thing. ~ Dan Bilawsky https://www.allaboutjazz.com/live-from-the-detroit-jazz-festival-2014-mack-avenue-superband-mack-avenue-records-review-by-dan-bilawsky.php

Personnel: Rodney Whitaker: music director, acoustic bass; Carl Allen: drums; Aaron Diehl: piano; Tia Fuller: alto saxophone, soprano saxophone; Evan Perri: guitar; Kirk Whalum: tenor saxophone, flute; Warren Wolf: vibraphone.

Live from the Detroit Jazz Festival

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