Lou Donaldson - Sunny Side Up

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1960
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:55
Size: 103,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:41)  1. Blues for J.P.
(5:16)  2. The Man I Love
(5:53)  3. Politely
(3:58)  4. It's You or No One
(5:22)  5. The Truth
(6:10)  6. Goose Grease
(6:34)  7. Softly as in a Morning Sunrise
(5:58)  8. Way Down Upon the Swanee River

Sunny Side Up is closer to hard bop than the straight-ahead bop that characterized Lou Donaldson's '50s Blue Note records. There's a bit more soul to the songs here, which pianist Horace Parlan helps emphasize with his lightly swinging grooves. The pair help lead the group which also features trumpeter Bill Hardman, drummer Al Harewood and bassist Sam Jones (Laymon Jackson plays bass on two of the eight songs) through a mellow set of standards and bluesy originals from Donaldson and Parlan. Even the uptempo numbers sound relaxed, never fiery. Despite the general smoothness of the session, Donaldson stumbles a little the quotation of "Flight of the Bumblebee" on "Blues for J.P." is awkward, as is the snippet of "Pop Goes the Weasel" on "Politely," and "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" sounds lazy but there's enough solid material to make Sunny Side Up a worthwhile listen for fans of Donaldson and early-'60s hard bop. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine https://www.allmusic.com/album/sunny-side-up-mw0000176137

Personnel:  Lou Donaldson - alto saxophone; Horace Parlan - piano; Bill Hardman - trumpet;  Laymon Jackson - bass Sam Jones - bass;  Al Harewood - drums

Sunny Side Up

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Ella Fitzgerald - Ella

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 1969
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 29:07
Size: 68,2 MB
Art: Front

(2:35)  1. Get Ready
(3:01)  2. The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game
(2:20)  3. Yellow Man
(2:51)  4. I'll Never Fall In Love Again
(3:06)  5. Got To Get You Into My Life
(3:11)  6. I Wonder Why
(2:43)  7. Ooo Baby Baby
(2:47)  8. Savoy Truffle
(2:49)  9. Open Your Window
(3:38) 10. Knock On Wood

Ella is a 1969 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and the first of two albums she recorded for the Warner Bros. owned Reprise label. This album continues the theme set on Fitzgerald's previous album, consisting in the main part of cover versions of popular songs from the late 1960s. The production of this recording was in the hands of Richard Perry, who had joined the Reprise label in 1967. Perry later went on the produce albums by Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross. The album was re-issued on CD with alternative artwork, in 1989. Released together on one CD with Ella's final album recorded for Reprise label, Things Ain't What They Used to Be (And You Better Believe It).

The late 1960s saw Fitzgerald's recording career change greatly, the success of her Verve years (1956 to 1966) was never repeated. After the sale of Verve records to MGM Records in 1961, Norman Granz continued to manage live performances, bookings and produce Ella Fitzgerald's recordings for the label. Granz had semi-retired to Switzerland in 1960 and when Fitzgerald's contract at Verve-MGM ended in 1967 he actively sought a new label. John Hammond of Columbia Records showed interest in signing Fitzgerald, as did Capitol Records and in September 1967 Granz signed Fitzgerald with Capitol Records. The four albums recorded at Capitol Records are the most diverse albums of Fitzgerald's career, they included a country music album; Misty Blue and one of spiritual music; Brighten the Corner. Norman Granz was not involved in the production of these albums or the choice of material. Later in 1969 Granz again began producing Fitzgerald's albums, taking up this position on the live album Sunshine of Your Love recorded for the Prestige Records label, and distributed on the MPS Records label. In late 1969 Fitzgerald signed to Reprise Records and recorded two albums for the label, before returning to a Norman Granz owned label in 1972, when Granz began the Pablo Records label. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_(Ella_Fitzgerald_album)

Ella

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Kenny Burrell - Stormy Monday Blues

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2001
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 69:33
Size: 160,6 MB
Art: Front

( 5:37)  1. Stormy Monday Blues
( 6:57)  2. Azure Te (Paris Blues)
( 5:41) 3. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
( 5:59)  4. (I'm Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over
( 1:55)  5. Why Did I Choose You?
( 9:46)  6. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
( 7:39)  7. Three Thousand Miles Back Home
(10:12)  8. Kim-den Strut
( 8:19)  9. Habiba
( 7:23) 10. Quiet Lady

Over the years Kenny Burrell has largely remained true to his roots. Ranked among the most revered jazz artists of his generation he’s waxed a wealth of sessions both as leader and sideman that approaches the countless. The two dates combined on this two-fer visit him in the lean years of the Seventies and suggest that even a bop disciple of Burrell’s relative purity was susceptible to encroaching trends and influences. Stormy Monday, the first in the pair of records reissued herein, hearkens back to Burrell’s Blue Note days with only Heard’s amplified bass tipping off its later vintage. The crisp cerulean single note lines remain intact and Burrell’s emotive blues-based figures make routine forays around the melodic signposts of the standards on hand. Wyand’s sensitive comping and the light traps reinforcement of McBrowne (and Goldberg on a pair of cuts) completes the portrait of jazz men in their element spinning off riffs like smoke rings from a leisurely lit cigarette. There’s not much room for chance-taking in the arrangements, but the players seem at ease with cultivating a mood than testing the boundaries of their adopted repertoire. Burrell recognizes the date as an ensemble affair and as such his sidemen garner substantial solo space as well. 

Heard’s corpulent walking improvisation on “Azure Te” is but one instance where the leader’s faith is repaid. Burrell’s Ellington appreciation, which was to become even more pronounced in later recordings, is accorded space in the choice of a lengthy take on “I Got It Bad” as a closer. As the companion date Sky Street is quite different both in terms of content and attitude. Trafficking in torpid grooves via Gilbert’s punchy bass lines and Marshall’s gentle syncopations the session is very much embroiled in fusion-tinged impulses. Burrell’s usually clean chords are dressed up in often largely submerged in Lightsey’s electric piano. Richardson, who was easily capable of injecting fervent emotion into his improvisations sounds in other settings sounds much of the time like he’s treating things as a by the numbers studio date. Despite these demerits on the jazz score card, the quintet still manages to rack up moments of musical intrigue as on the closing minutes of “Three Thousand Miles Back Home” where Richardson’s plaintive flute weaves with Burrell’s melancholy counterpoint. Lightsey’s opening on the Latin-flavored “Habiba” is likewise effective, but the piece eventually devolves into showy noodling on the part of the leader and overheated soprano excess on the part of Richardson. “Kim-Den Strut” attempts a balance between sections of contemplative reverie and fatback funk, but ultimately ends up crumpling under the collision of disparate elements. The two sessions together offer up Burrell both in his element and in the less flattering environs of more commercial fusion, but overall the music is strong enough to support recommendation.~  Derek Taylor https://www.allaboutjazz.com/stormy-monday-blues-kenny-burrell-fantasy-jazz-review-by-derek-taylor.php

Personnel: Kenny Burrell- guitar; Richard Wyands- piano; John Heard- bass; Lenny McBrowne- drums; Richie Goldberg- drums; Jerome Richardson- tenor & soprano saxophones, flute; Kirk Lightsey- acoustic & electric piano; Stanley Gilbert- acoustic & electric bass; Eddie Marshall- drums.

Stormy Monday Blues

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Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah - Ruler Rebel

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:44
Size: 81,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:45)  1. Ruler Rebel
(2:33)  2. New Orleanian Love Song
(4:56)  3. New Orleanian Love Song II (X. aTunde Adjuah Remix)
(4:15)  4. Phases (feat. Sarah Elizabeth Charles)
(3:42)  5. Rise Again (Allmos Remix)
(5:38)  6. Encryption (feat. Elena Pinderhughes)
(5:36)  7. The Coronation of X. aTunde Adjuah (feat. Elena Pinderhughes)
(3:16)  8. The Reckoning

Ruler Rebel is the first of a trilogy to be released this year by the imaginative and increasingly popular 33-year-old New Orleans trumpeter Christian Scott as a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first jazz record in 1917, and a typical Scott genre mash with a undisguised socio-political subtext in African American history. Scott’s reverence for Miles Davis is soon plain in his softly exhaled, muted sounds against the silky orchestral synth textures on the title track opener. Two New Orleanian Love Songs embrace open-trumpet sweeps over keys loops and hip-hop grooves. 

The soul-jazz sound of vocalist Sarah Elizabeth Charles (for whom Scott has previously produced) mingles with ghostly brass tones on Phases, and the sensational young jazz flautist Elena Pinderhughes commandingly swoops through the handclap-driven Encryption and the church-bell synth mimicry and terse percussion of The Coronation of X aTunde Adjuah. 

It’s imaginative, studio-produced jazz in the tradition of Marcus Miller’s 1980s work with Miles Davis, but in its references it feels as contemporary as today’s date. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/20/christian-scott-ruler-rebel-review-edgy-reinventions-of-the-jazz-tradition

Personnel: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah - Trumpet, Siren, Sirenette, Reverse Flugelhorn, SPD-SX, Sampling, Sonic Architecture; Elena Pinderhughes - Flute; Lawrence Fields - Piano, Fender Rhodes; Luques Curtis - Bass; Kris Funn - Bass; Joshua Crumbly - Bass; Cliff Hines - Guitar; Corey Fonville - Drums, SPD-SX; Joe Dyson Jr. - Pan African Drums, SPD-SX; Weedie Braimah - Djembe, Bata, Congas ; Chief Shaka Shaka - Dununba, Sangban, Kenikeni

Ruler Rebel

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The Liam Sillery Quintet - Minor Changes

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:38
Size: 114,8 MB
Art: Front

(7:42)  1. Minor Change
(7:45)  2. For Jane
(6:57)  3. Terry's Blues
(7:39)  4. Prana
(7:59)  5. Cecil's Bridge
(4:37)  6. You Are So Beautiful
(6:57)  7. Dial D For Dial

Trumpeter/flugelhornist Liam Sillery invites tenor saxophonist David Sills into the front line on this straight-ahead quintet outing for a sound reminiscent of Blue Note's heyday. The leader's musical mentors are Red Rodney, Ira Sullivan, and especially tenor man Joe Henderson. The influences show as the band opens with a lively Sillery original, "Minor Change," featuring some sparkling unison blowing to kick things off, leading into a freewheeling trumpet solo. Sillery's tone is warm and bright, and the rhythm section elevates the proceedings with a buoyant insistence. Then tenor saxophonist David Sills blows in, more intense than Sillery, smoldering, seemingly holding back a bit, sounding full of Blue Note-ish soul. "For Jane" follows the opener. It's a mid-tempo beauty with, again, some fine soling, and the rhythm team pianist Jesse Stacken, bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Richard Huntley shines on an extended turn. For those who grew up on the sixties mainstream sounds by the likes of Joe Henderson, Hank Mobley, Art Blakey, and a hundred other Blue Note artists, Sillery's approach sounds familiar yet fresh for example, the trumpeter trading solos with the tenor man, the bouncing rhythms. Sillery wrote all of the tunes except Billy Preston's "You Are So Beautiful" (made famous by Joe Cocker). His horn sounds a tad fragile here, achingly, and befittingly so. It's a beautiful tune, treated well by the band, with a pint-of-ale-in-the-hand, look-you-in-the-eye confessional feeling. Sillery and the quintet finish up with "Dial D For Dial," a bright romp, with the rhythm team kicking things forward behind the trumpeter; and again, Sills comes in with a relatively restrained but still burning turn of his own. A fine debut. ~ Dan McClenaghan  https://www.allaboutjazz.com/minor-changes-liam-sillery-oa2-records-review-by-dan-mcclenaghan.php

Personnel: Liam Sillery: trumpet/flugelhorn; David Sills: tenor saxopone; Jesse Stacken: piano; Thomas Morgan: bass; Richard Huntley: drums.

Minor Changes

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