Friday, June 7, 2019

Eric Dolphy - The Essential Eric Dolphy

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1991
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:01
Size: 145,1 MB
Art: Front

(7:57)  1. G.W.
(5:11)  2. Les - Rudy Van Gelder Remaster
(6:40)  3. The Meetin'
(5:00)  4. Feathers
(2:43)  5. Eclipse
(8:42)  6. Ode To Charlie Parker
(8:01)  7. Mrs. Parker Of K.C. (Bird's Mother)
(9:53)  8. Ralph's New Blues
(8:50)  9. Status Seeking

This is strictly for the budget-conscious. It does have some valuable material, but no anthology can accurately assess Dolphy's importance. 
~ Ron Wynn https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-essential-eric-dolphy-mw0000198039

Personnel:  Alto Saxophone – Eric Dolphy; Bass – George Tucker; Drums – Roy Haynes; Piano – Jaki Byard; Trumpet – Freddie Hubbard

The Essential Eric Dolphy

Pauline London - Under The Rainbow

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:28
Size: 114,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:10)  1. In Black & White
(3:37)  2. Colors
(4:07)  3. Walkin On The Sand
(3:57)  4. I Still Miss You
(4:11)  5. Amor Para Sonhar
(4:31)  6. The Shadow Of Your Smile
(3:18)  7. Meu Amor Meu Coracao
(3:14)  8. Breakout
(3:14)  9. Moment Of Magic
(3:50) 10. Peace Is The Only Way
(3:28) 11. Change Partners
(3:56) 12. So I
(3:48) 13. Senza Fine

After the important international appraisal which resulted from her first album “Quiet Skies” (2004) Pauline is back with a new cd which tastes like Jazz, Nu-Jazz, Latin-Jazz with hints of authorial pop. Whereas the mentioned first album had an electronic-jazz stamp to it, “Under the Rainbow” represents an evolution towards more acoustic and orchestral sounds. The title of this works calls to one’s mind the famous standard, finding continuity between the important traditional Northern American music and her own personal stroke in composing and interpretation. Staying “under” the rainbow is a way of being in present times, here and now, enjoying the inspirations and creativity this multi-coloured spectrum can offer to us. Thanks to the rainbow we can find once more shades of light after a darker hour, we may regain life blood. This work hence represents continuity with the “musical colours” of “Quiet Skies”, but makes them turn out more maturely and homogeneously. A refined combination of acoustic and digital instruments are the central thread of this album. The whole of it is cleverly constructed by the arrangements here more essential and there cunningly architected  inspired by great Italian maestri Morricone, Trovaioli, Piccioni. This parcours is characterized by Pauline’s voice, which moves with adaptability from samba / bossa-nova inspirated atmospheres, towards more introspective and rarefied moments, passing by pop rock accents and sounds. The album’s thirteen songs unwind offering us original compositions, interpretation of a few standards and pop covers. Amongst unpublished pieces one catches sight of I still miss you with a latin-jazz taste, nostalgic tone, and its constant pitch modulating crescendo.Colors, bright and solar, towards an absorbing and dynamic up-tempo, recalls through composition and lyrics the feeling beheld by the album’s title, the rainbow inside and outside ourselves.”Amor para sonhar” owns the vivid mood of samba with bilingual portuguese and english lyrics. In Black and White represents a more introspective moment marked by an electro-swing style.”Walking on the sand” retro beat. “Meu amor meu curacao” is pure soft samba with a singing chorus to it. So I is an episode with a pushful rock impulse to it, recalling the tradition of Northern American songwriters. 

Peace (is the only way) this song also has a poppy essence to it, but with deep contents. It claims peace, as mentioned in the title, to be the only way. Moment of magic- soft rocking acoustic pace of rythm and strings. Pauline offers a tribute to authors and artists which are part of her background by choosing four “classical” songs each of their own kind. The famous The Shadow of your smile with orchestral interventions in Ennio Morricone’s style, Change Partner a piece in Brasilian style made famous by Sinatra, enriched here by the polyphonic arrangement of 4 guitars. Breakout, a song written by the “Swing Out Sister” which comes from the Anglosaxon 80s pop panorama, is revisited in a latin-samba key which keeps your feet moving. Senza Fine, an emblematic title, both for its last position in the track list, recalling a kind of ciclicity, continuity between an end and a new beginning, and for its celebrity in Italian traditional music. This three quarters is redone as a sophisticated nu-jazz standard Pauline London, singer, songwriter and composer, started performing live at the beginning of the 90s in numerous Italian and European jazz-clubs and festivals. Her versatility brings her to mix efficaciously different styles and sounds. She moves with ease amongst classic and modern standard jazz, proposes pop songs rearranged according to jazz style, and finally composes her original tracks which mix jazz, nu-jazz, latin-jazz, pop and rock suggestions together. Her influences cross from Latin American music through great jazz singers like Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Mel Tormé, Dianne Reeves, to reach refined and elegant pop such as that of artists like Sade, Seal, Noa, and nu-bossa tendencies similar to Bebel Gilberto. She is also a vocal improviser who reaps from traditional scat singing enriching it with phrasings which come from ethnic, rock and pop music. Her constant research and curiosity on different aspects of vocality also brings her to study extra-European musical systems (particularly, singing in Nothern India and Karnataka singing) as well as Italian popular music. Her first solo album is produced by Funky Juice Records in 2004. The “Quiet Skies” cd meets great appraisal at an international level and is licensed to Sony Columbia Japan. In 2008 she’s a guest at Nu Note Lounge Fest in Moscow. Pauline has worked with many different artists as songwriter and performer. In 2002 her voice features in Barrio Jazz Gang’s “Spectrum” CD, released in different European and extra- European countries among which Australia and Japan. In 2004 she is a guest vocalist on “My favorite Beats” album by Dynamic Four.In 2009 her voice features on some of the tracks of Barrio Jazz Gang’s new album “vol. 2” as well as her lyrics. https://www.funkyjuice.com/en/products/pauline-london-under-the-rainbow/

Under The Rainbow

Azar Lawrence Quartet - Speak The Word

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:38
Size: 109,9 MB
Art: Front

(6:30)  1. Revelations
(7:29)  2. L.A. Bosa
(6:17)  3. Luxury
(4:03)  4. You Make Me Feel Brand New
(5:49)  5. Speak The Word
(6:26)  6. Aisha
(6:07)  7. Vestida de Solea (Dressed In Solitude)
(4:54)  8. Vestida de Solea (Dressed In Solitude) Pt. 2

The comeback recording of Azar Lawrence in 2008, after many years away from the recording studio, bears mixed results. Playing the soprano saxophone in the main and a little tenor, Lawrence and his West Coast quartet play some of the vibrant modal jazz in which he staked his claim in the McCoy Tyner ensemble of the 1970s, remaining as a premier post-John Coltrane performer. There are commercial concessions and a Latin element that should not be totally unexpected for those who remember his previous efforts 30 years prior, making the recording as a whole uneven and in a way inconsistent. While his personal sound is fairly enjoyable, pushing the limits of his horn only slightly, it sounds as if Lawrence is again searching for his perfect muse. On "Revelations" there's no real melody line, just pure feeling in a modal, loping 3/4 time signature, while "L.A. Bosa" (spelled incorrectly?) has a Brazilian element sidled with a simple singsong style. "Speak the Word" is the signature piece for Lawrence and his ensemble, as modality is mixed with hard bop and a Middle Eastern flair. Pianist Nate Morgan, a veteran of modern California-based jazz and commercial funk (remember him in Rufus with Chaka Khan?) stands out as an inventive and lyrical player based in Tyner's precepts, but also steeped in the lore of Thelonious Monk and mentor Horace Tapscott. 

He plays the prettiest during Tyner's "Aisha," buoying the fluid tenor sax of Lawrence on a 6/8 to 4/4 ballad for the ages. Veering into the slow pop arena, "You Make Me Feel Brand New" and the less obvious "Luxury" seem like unnecessary filler. Then there's the two-part "Vestida de Solea," replete with handclaps, acoustic guitar, and Spanish vocals from Cristobal Osorio in a flamenco stew of rich proportions that suggests a possible new direction for Lawrence but not fully realized here. It seems Lawrence is only scratching the surface with this hasty pudding of a recording, but there's so much potential to be realized, and should be in any follow-up project. ~ Michael G.Nastos https://www.allmusic.com/album/speak-the-word-mw0000809749

Personnel: Azar Lawrence: tenor and soprano saxophones; Nate Morgan: piano; Trevor Ware: bass; Fritz Wise: drums.

Speak The Word

Harold Land - Eastward Ho: Harold Land in New York

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:22
Size: 88,3 MB
Art: Front

( 6:00)  1. So in Love
( 5:46)  2. Triple Trouble
( 7:02)  3. Slowly
( 7:08)  4. On a Little Street in Singapore
(12:25)  5. Okay Blues

Tenor saxophonist Harold Land and trumpeter Kenny Dorham make for a potent front line on this CD reissue, a superior hard bop set. With an obscure and quietly boppish rhythm section (pianist Amos Trice, bassist Clarence Jones, and drummer Joe Peters) giving suitable backup, Land and Dorham stretch out on five selections, most notably Cole Porter's "So in Love," "On a Little Street in Singapore," and Land's "O.K. Blues," which was dedicated to producer Orrin Keepnews. A fine effort that serves as a strong example of Harold Land's early work. ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/eastward-ho%21-harold-land-in-new-york-mw0000691038

Personnel: Tenor Saxophone – Harold Land;  Bass – Clarence Jones;  Drums – Joe Peters; Piano – Amos Trice; Trumpet – Kenny Dorham

Eastward Ho: Harold Land in New York