Ernie Watts - Analog Man

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:25
Size: 162,2 MB
Art: Front

(11:15)  1. Analog Man
(10:33)  2. Elements
( 6:45)  3. Paseando
( 6:59)  4. Clinton Parkview
( 5:37)  5. Company
(10:05)  6. Joshua
( 9:44)  7. A Lilac Grows
( 6:26)  8. Gee Baby
( 2:58)  9. Morning Prayer

The opening two-note piano riff, the crisp rim shots from the drums and the walking bass line on the opening number and title track get Analog Man off to the most swinging of starts. Saxophonist Ernie Watts introduces the melody and proceeds to craft a solo so full of invention, strength and lyricism that when he lays out to allow pianist Christof Saenger his turn the surprise is that only three minutes have passed.Watts' playing on "Analog Man is fluid and elegant and he raises the bar high for the musicians in his quartet. First pianist Saenger and then bassist Rudi Engel prove that they are up to the challenge of playing with one of jazz's premier saxophonists."Elements opens with drummer Heinrich Koebberling and Watts engaging in a highly charged duet, or rather duel, as the two seem to stoke each other's fire, recalling saxophonist John Coltrane and drummer Rashied Ali's sparring of forty years ago. Saenger maintains the tempo with a brief but lightning solo before the tune turns a corner and emerges into a short free-form, quasi-psychedelic passage with bowed bass, bird-like squawks from the saxophone and splashes of high register piano. Watts then steers the quartet into slightly more conventional territory but the tension never dips on the album's most ambitious track. Saenger's beautiful "Paseando sees Watts switch to soprano , and his gently soaring, snaking solo evokes the magic of Wayne Shorter, one of his primary influences. Saenger responds with a solo full of blues, space and teasing runs. 

There are three non-originals on Analog Man: French bassist Francois Moutin's "Clinton Parkview, Victor Feldman's classic "Joshua and, sandwiched between the two, Rickie Lee Jones' tender ballad, "Company. On "Joshua Watts plays some of his most inspired lines, a breathless, exciting and full-blooded tenor assault which sets the tone for his excellent quartet to follow. It is the Watts originals, however, which stand out. "A Lilac Grows shows that the saxophonist can pen a ballad as well as anybody, and the soulful, uplifting melody and elegant playing again recall Blue Note-era Shorter. The quartet turns to the blues on "Gee Baby, which bounces and shuffles along propelled by Engel's bass line. Watts serves up a typically robust, colorful solo before drums and piano enter and swing the tune all the way home. "Morning Prayer succeeds in capturing the essence of the sacred, that indefinable beauty particular to so much devotional music; Patricia Watts on Burmese temple bells sets off her husband's heartfelt unaccompanied improvisations. Analog Man is Watts' third quartet album on his own Flying Dolphin Records label and perhaps his strongest to date. Watts' writing and playing is better than ever. At least two tracks, the title track and "A Lilac Grows bear the hallmarks of instant classics, compositions which will inspire current and future generations of musicians, and there can surely be no higher compliment than that. ~ Ian Patterson https://www.allaboutjazz.com/analog-man-ernie-watts-flying-dolphin-records-review-by-ian-patterson.php

Personnel: Ernie Watts: saxophones; Christof Saenger: piano; Rudi Engel: bass; Heinrich Koebberling: drums; Patricia Watts: Burmese temple bells (9).

Analog Man

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Bill Frisell, Fred Hersch - Songs We Know

Styles: Guitar And Piano Jazz
Year: 1998
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:51
Size: 131,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:05)  1. It Might as Well Be Spring
(4:44)  2. There Is No Greater Love
(6:03)  3. Someday My Prince Will Come
(3:44)  4. Softly as in a Morning Rise
(5:27)  5. Blue Monk
(5:53)  6. My One and Only Love
(5:29)  7. My Little Suede Shoes
(6:19)  8. Yesterdays
(5:07)  9. I Got Rhythm
(6:31) 10. Wave
(4:22) 11. What Is This Thing Called Love

Pairing two such superior soloists as guitarist Bill Frisell and pianist Fred Hersch seems a most unlikely match. Despite having gigged together a couple times in the 1980s, the only thing the two seem to have in common is they both record for Nonesuch Records. As it turns out, it was Fred Hersch's idea to finally get the two together in the studio - and it couldn't have been a more inspired combination. The brilliant, eclectic Frisell is perhaps the most original guitarist of the last two or three decades and he's hardly ever combined his unique sound arsenal with a pianist. Hersch, on the other hand, has carved out a substantial body of work illustrating his sensitivity as a soloist and finesse as a superior accompanist (particularly for singers), yet he's almost never heard with a guitarist. The result is the marvelous new Songs We Know, a fine song cycle of contemporary jazz standards, played with a laid-back ease that only two such sharp and original stylists can bring to such well-known music. Frisell and Hersch concur that the session could have gone many different ways, but it was their mutual love for the standards, with their open palette of simplicity, history and potential for new interpretation that lead to the inspired sounds heard on Songs We Know. Both leaders have logged many miles playing these and other standards too: Frisell, as part of Paul Motian's trio with tenor giant Joe Lovano, and Hersch, through his recent Plays Monk and Plays Rogers & Hammerstein discs and, even more substantially, on his jazz-the-classics Angel recordings. But, together, Frisell and Hersch - like Bill Evans and Jim Hall did together before them bring to bear a fresh chemistry that is too rarely applied to such oft-played material. Hersch remains a melodic, sensitive even erudite explorer. And Frisell maintains his sense of humor and displays his ever-inspired internal logic. Together, they explore and experiment with the contours of each other's sound and style and arrive some place that neither might have approached on their own before. The eleven Songs We Know have many highlights. Chief among the pleasures to be heard here include the playful and unusually funky "There Is No Greater Love," where Frisell's textbook witticisms engage with Hersch's perky, almost abstract commentary. 

Likewise, Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Wave" is creative music at its most expressive: where Hersch's piano provides the soft undercurrent while Frisell's sprite, melodic tones carry the tide in, conveying the hypnotic beauty of the sea that Jobim intended. The two engage most spectacularly, and so nearly at odds, on "What is This Thing Called Love," where the metallic Frisell frolics in the warm cushions Hersch's block chords provide. Then, the pair commiserates romantically (a Hersch specialty) on the lullaby-like (a Frisell specialty) "Someday My Prince Will Come." For real fireworks, listen to how quickly the two depart from the corniness of "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise" to explore a Monk-like tango of arched, deconstructed sonorities. Then, hear how their dissimilarities are unified on the dance-like "My Little Suede Shoes," where Frisell lays down a jig style head while Hersch's interacts brilliantly with lovely tango cadences. Songs We Know is a success - and, more notably, a singularly pleasurable listening experience because it's about more than songs. It's about sounds. 

Separately, these two stylists have crafted much music that is about the creation and interaction of sounds. Together, they have achieved something special, or what Boston Globe jazz critic Bob Blumenthal calls in his excellent liner notes, "an example of how texture works to shape a performance as directly as melodic or rhythmic invention." Recorded in San Francisco last year, Songs We Know pins down the provocative sensitivity both Fred Hersch and Bill Frisell bring to creative music. But more importantly, it captures the wondrous result of two great minds spontaneously being expressed as one strong voice. It is a collection that calls out for more, hopefully an added set of the pair's originals. Until then, Songs We Know are songs creative music listeners will want to hear. ~ Douglas Payne https://www.allaboutjazz.com/songs-we-know-fred-hersch-nonesuch-records-review-by-douglas-payne.php?width=1920

Personnel:  Fred Hersch - piano; Bill Frisell - guitar

Songs We Know

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Lester Young - Lester Young Exercise In Swing

Styles: Saxophone Jazz, Swing
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:08
Size: 147,9 MB
Art: Front

(4:07)  1. I've Found A New Baby (I Found A New Baby)
(4:50)  2. The Man I Love
(4:04)  3. Peg O' My Heart
(4:11)  4. Mean To Me
(3:54)  5. Back To The Land
(4:05)  6. I Cover The Waterfront
(3:08)  7. It's Only A Paper Moon
(4:28)  8. Lester Leaps Again
(3:11)  9. Afternoon On A Basie Ite
(2:56) 10. Three Little Words
(3:08) 11. Sometimes I'm Happy
(4:46) 12. After Theatre Jump
(4:11) 13. Six Cats And A Prince
(3:54) 14. Destnation K.C.
(5:07) 15. Body And Soul
(2:59) 16. Exercise In Swing

While Giants of Jazz might not be considered a very prestigious or comprehensive label, there's no denying that some of their reissue compilations serve jazz lovers as mini-surveys illuminating great moments in swing and bop. One of the best entries in the entire Giants of Jazz catalog is probably the magnificent Bud Freeman's 1928-1939. Similarly wonderful and highly recommended for those who are forever in love with the spirit and sounds of Lester Young, Exercise in Swing is a sublime if chronologically obfuscated sampler of Prez's best recorded performances dating from a slice of time running between the summer of 1942 and the spring of 1946. The album opens with most of the master takes from a trio session produced by Norman Granz in either March or April of 1946; here Prez collaborated with pianist Nat King Cole and drummer Buddy Rich. Without any exaggeration whatsoever let it be said that these tracks (one through six) constitute some of Lester Young's most inspired work and indeed some of the best intimate small group swing ever played in a recording studio. After the famous January 1946 Aladdin recording of "It's Only a Paper Moon" the rest of this compilation dwells mainly upon Young's adventures as a Keynote recording artist. "Sometimes I'm Happy" and "Afternoon of a Basie-ite" come from Prez's first-ever recording date as a leader (not counting a relatively obscure series of sessions co-led with his brother Lee Young). Four other vintage Keynote selections feature the Kansas City Seven, which was essentially a scaled down Count Basie band with Basie billed as "Prince Charming." 

"Three Little Words" was performed by the Kansas City Six, a Commodore jam band that included trumpeter Bill Coleman, trombonist Dicky Wells and pianist Joe Bushkin. This outstanding Lester Young sampler closes with a marvelous 1942 rendering of "Body and Soul" (another daydream for trio involving Cole and bassist Red Callender) and the stimulating "Exercise in Swing," an aerobic romp recorded for the Savoy label on April 18, 1944. Without piling on superlatives let's just say this is a knockout Lester Young disc that you probably need more than you even realize at this moment; ideally it would incite you to obtain this man's complete Keynote, Aladdin, Commodore, Savoy and Verve recordings. ~ arwulf arwulf https://www.allmusic.com/album/exercise-in-swing-mw0000603215

Lester Young Exercise In Swing

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Tim Allhoff - Lovebox Sessions

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:26
Size: 105,4 MB
Art: Front

(2:39)  1. Regen
(2:51)  2. Feivel
(6:39)  3. Rabbit in Your Headlights
(4:08)  4. Sarabande
(2:56)  5. October Song
(3:26)  6. Satoru Nakata's Dream
(5:44)  7. Improvisation on Ravel's Piano Trio (Mvt. III)
(2:27)  8. End of Story
(3:54)  9. O Que Sera
(3:28) 10. Beyond the Clouds
(7:09) 11. Julia

Three highly acclaimed trio albums have been given time by ECHO award winner Tim Allhoff, and his first solo album is now being released with »Lovebox Sessions«. Honest, informal and charming makes the celebrated pianist a very personal statement that lives above all from the reduction. It sounds like handmade songs and a living room atmosphere and looks amazingly authentic and »new«. An old, creaking piano, the warm rustling of vintage keyboards, a dusty dulcimer, an aged harmonium. The Augsburger "Lovebox-Studios" last winter served for three weeks as a musical playground for Allhoff and the producer Michael Kamm. Translate By Google https://www.amazon.de/Lovebox-Sessions-Tim-Allhoff/dp/B015GH036M

Personnel:  Piano, Synth, Melodica, Glockenspiel – Tim Allhoff; Bass – Michael Kamm; Drums – Jakob Mader; Guitar – Martin Schmid

Lovebox Sessions

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Nicki Parrott - From New York To Paris

Styles: Vocal, Post Bop
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:01
Size: 136,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:51)  1. I Love Paris
(4:27)  2. There's A Boat Leaving Soon For New York
(5:30)  3. I Will Wait For You
(4:32)  4. On Broadway
(4:03)  5. The Brooklyn Bridge
(4:29)  6. If You Go Away
(4:15)  7. Under Paris Skies
(4:28)  8. I'll Take Manhattan
(5:09)  9. Broadway
(4:13) 10. April In Paris
(4:28) 11. Do You Miss New York
(1:29) 12. Slaughter On Tenth Avenue
(3:59) 13. If You Love Me
(4:01) 14. La Mer

Jazz bass and vocal star Nicki Parrott performs her magic on fourteen city-themed tunes. Multifaceted jazz bassist and singer, Nicki Parrott, showcases the warm phrasing of her unique vocals while swinging the music to perfection. New York and Paris are two cities for which vocalist/bassist NICKI PARROTT has deep affection. About six years ago she recorded an album titled The Last Time I Saw Paris that contained a variety of songs related to France, either by subject or by composer. On her latest album, From New York to Paris (Arbors 19466), she splits her attention between songs related to France or to New York City. To assist her in her explorations she has enlisted Harry Allen on tenor sax, Gil Goldstein on accordion, John di Martino on piano and Alvin Atkinson on drums. 

The group has a ripping good time addressing the 14 songs on the program. Parrott has developed into one of the elite singers on the jazz scene, and her bass playing is on the same level. Her cohorts are equally adept. Whether attending to songs about New York like ''On Broadway,'' ''Manhattan,'' with some new lyrics by Parrott and Brian Wittman, ''Broadway'' or ''Do You Miss New York,'' or looking for inspiration across the Atlantic on tunes such as ''I Love Paris,'' ''Under Paris Skies,'' ''April in Paris'' or ''La Mer,'' they find spot on ways to present them. 

An added bonus is the set of liner notes by Roger Crane that add some intelligent commentary to accompany the music. Parrott has given us another winner! https://www.amazon.com/New-York-Paris-Nicki-Parrott/dp/B07NHPMMW1
 

''Nicki brings clear articulation, beautiful tone, a sense of rhythmic assuredness and a touch of allure to inventive arrangements.'' ~ Jazz Times

''She has that special gift you cannot buy in a music store.'' ~Les Paul

''Nicki Parrott could make anyone love jazz.'' ~ Cabaret Scene

From New York To Paris

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