Joe Locke - Beauty Burning

Styles: Vibraphone Jazz
Year: 2000
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:44
Size: 131,0 MB
Art: Front

(6:58)  1. Litha
(6:26)  2. Twilight
(7:31)  3. Pools Of Amber
(7:30)  4. Somewhere Waiting
(8:30)  5. Quiet As It's Kept
(5:45)  6. Where Is Love?
(6:37)  7. I - 95
(7:22)  8. Rasputainian Dance

On Beauty Burning, the fourteenth release under his own name, it's clear that vibraphonist Joe Locke was interested in making a good recording rather than merely providing a showcase for his own considerable talents. The disc is a thoughtful mixture of intimate, finely tuned ensemble playing and capable solos by the leader, pianist Frank Kimbrough, bassist Ray Drummond, drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, and guitarist Paul Bollenback. Recording shortly after the band (minus Bollenback) played an engagement in New York, their empathy and willingness to listen to one another is evident on every cut. With the exception of Bollenback, each musician contributes at least one tune, and the material also includes compositions by Chick Corea, Darrell Grant, and Lional Bart. At his most assertive, such as on the lively "Litha," Locke's long, skittering lines are balanced by reflective, blues influenced passages. Kimbrough's solo on the same track sustains the vibraphonist's momentum, and Watts backs them both with insistent rhythms. "Twilight" is smooth jazz with substance, with Locke playing more deliberately and displaying considerable intelligence and wit. His "Somewhere Waiting" (which would make a great theme for a movie soundtrack) features a fine solo turn by Drummond. The bassist's "I-95" is mysterious-sounding stroll in which Watts fuels Locke's busy, intense solo. The empathy between Locke and Kimbrough on last year's release, Saturn's Child (OmniTone), is once again apparent in the ballad "Where Is Love." Their duet is filled with understated pleasures, such as Locke's beautiful voicing of the melody, his figures behind Kimbrough's graceful solo, and their penchant for augmenting and finishing each other's phrases. ~ David A.Orthmann https://www.allaboutjazz.com/beauty-burning-joe-locke-sirocco-music-limited-review-by-david-a-orthmann.php?width=1920

Personnel: Joe Locke: vibraphone; Frank Kimbrough: piano; Ray Drummond: bass; Jeff “Tain” Watts: drums; Paul Bollenback: guitar.

Beauty Burning

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Patti Page - The Patti Page Collection: The Mercury Years, Vol. 2

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1991
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:07
Size: 123,6 MB
Art: Front

(2:27)  1. (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?
(2:54)  2. This Is My Song
(2:57)  3. Changing Partners
(2:33)  4. Cross over the Bridge
(2:17)  5. Steam Heat
(2:45)  6. I Cried
(2:52)  7. What a Dream
(2:42)  8. The Mama Doll Song
(2:25)  9. Let Me Go Lover
(2:55) 10. Go on With the Wedding
(2:52) 11. Allegheny Moon
(2:52) 12. Mama from the Train
(2:30) 13. A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold)
(2:36) 14. Old Cape Cod
(2:42) 15. I'll Remember Today
(2:20) 16. Left Right Out of Your Heart
(2:34) 17. One of Us (Will Weep Tonight)
(2:36) 18. Mom and Dad's Waltz
(2:05) 19. Most People Get Married
(1:57) 20. The Boys' Night Out
(1:08) 21. Patti Page Radio Spots

The best-selling female singer during the 1950s, Patti Page in many ways defined the decade of earnest, novelty-ridden adult pop with throwaway hits like "The Doggie in the Window" and "I Went to Your Wedding." By singing a wide range of popular material and her own share of novelty fluff, she proved easily susceptible to the fall of classic adult pop but remained a chart force into the mid-'60s.  Born Clara Ann Fowler in Muskogee, Oklahoma, she began singing professionally at a radio station in Tulsa and took weekend gigs on the side. (After being billed as Patti Page for a program sponsored by Page Milk, she decided to take the name even after leaving.) Page toured the country with a band led by Jimmy Joy and ended up in Chicago by 1947, where she sang in a small-group outing by Benny Goodman and gained a recording contract with Mercury. Her first hit, "Confess," came that same year and made her the first pop artist to overdub harmony vocals onto her own lead. After a few more successes, Page gained her first million-seller in 1950 for "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming," which cashed in on the novelty effect of overdubbing (the added touch came with listing it as "the Patti Page Quartet"). Also in 1950, "All My Love" became her first number one hit and spent several weeks at the top. That same year produced the biggest hit of her career, "The Tennessee Waltz." Notched at number one for months, it eventually became one of the best-selling singles of all time and prompted no less than six Top 40 covers during the following year. During 1952-1953, Patti Page scored two more huge hits with "I Went to Your Wedding" and "The Doggie in the Window," both of which spent more than two months at number one. She gained her own television program, The Patti Page Show, in 1955 and moved into full-lengths with In the Land of Hi Fi and Manhattan Tower. Page also proved more resilient to the rise of rock & roll than most of her contemporaries, hitting big in 1956 with "Allegheny Moon" and "Old Cape Cod" the next year. Indeed, she kept reaching the charts (if only in moderate placings) throughout the '60s, paced by the Top Ten theme to the film Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte in 1965. Though she stopped recording for the most part in 1968, she continued performing into the '90s. Patti Page died on January 1, 2013, at a retirement community in Encinitas, California, at the age of 85. ~ John Bush https://www.allmusic.com/artist/patti-page-mn0000747506/biography

The Patti Page Collection: The Mercury Years, Vol. 2

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Chuck Redd - The Common Thread

Styles: Vibraphone Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:19
Size: 132,2 MB
Art: Front

(4:23)  1. I Hear Music
(5:16)  2. Moonlight in Vermont
(4:50)  3. The Common Thread
(4:26)  4. My One and Only
(5:27)  5. Purple Gazelle
(5:23)  6. Some Other Spring
(4:19)  7. Old Man Roker
(6:38)  8. Witchcraft
(4:52)  9. Beat's Up
(3:50) 10. The Shadow of Your Smile
(2:51) 11. All God's Children Got Rhythm
(4:59) 12. I Wish I Were Twins

Chuck Redd is a deft, subtle vibraphonist who surrounds himself with equally talented and experienced musicians. He’s the equivalent of a midlist author: no blockbuster but dependable and reassuring. The Common Thread is enjoyable for its skillful blend of imagination and modesty. Propelled by similarly light-fingered drummer Mickey Roker and the highly selective bassist Bob Cranshaw, Redd turns in standards spanning a luminous, watery “The Shadow of Your Smile” and a seductive “Moonlight in Vermont”; should-be standards like Ellington’s sultry “Purple Gazelle” and Tommy Flanagan’s breakneck “Beat’s Up” (cool pun), a showcase for the rhythm section, particularly the nicely florid pianist Rossano Sportiello; and revamps like “Old Man Roker,” Redd’s tribute to his drummer and “Ol’ Man River” scribe Jerome Kern. Soul saxman Houston Person lends earthiness and funk to four selections. Don’t call Redd a throwback, even though his music is accessible and largely familiar. His is the kind of group one hopes to stumble upon in a jazz club. Redd’s touch and fluid sense of harmony stand out, as does his choice of musicians; Redd can sure pick them, not surprising considering this D.C. jazzman has worked with everyone from Charlie Byrd to Dizzy Gillespie. The Common Thread is expert mainstream jazz designed to give pleasure rather than provoke-an album to visit again and again, discovering more wit and depth each time. ~ Carlo Wolff https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/chuck-redd-the-common-thread/

Musicians: Chuck Redd: vibes, drums (5, 9, 11); Mickey Roker: drums (1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 12); Bob Cranshaw: bass (except 4, 10, 11); Rossano Sportiello: piano; Houston Person: tenor sax (1, 2, 3, 12)

The Common Thread

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The Claude Williamson Trio - The Fabulous Claude Williamson Trio

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2002
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 28:54
Size: 67,8 MB
Art: Front

(2:46)  1. Witchcraft
(2:27)  2. A Foggy Day
(2:35)  3. Young At Heart
(1:58)  4. You Make Me Feel So Young
(3:01)  5. Nancy
(2:29)  6. The Lady Is a Tramp
(2:49)  7. Anything Goes
(3:31)  8. All the Way
(2:54)  9. They Can't Take That Away from Me
(2:23) 10. While We're Young
(1:57) 11. Let There Be Love

The Fabulous Claude Williamson Trio captures the pianist in collaboration with bassist Duke Morgan and drummer Chuck Flores on a solid if unremarkable collection of standards. While Flores' subtle but insistent rhythms are particularly well matched to Williamson's graceful, feather-light touch, the session takes too few chances to soar both the material and the arrangements are regrettably pedestrian. 

Aficionados of the postwar Los Angeles jazz scene will nevertheless appreciate the skill and dexterity of the performances it's just a shame the album is nowhere near as fabulous as advertised. ~ Jason Ankeny https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-fabulous-claude-williamson-trio-mw0000528550

Personnel: Piano – Claude Williamson; Bass – Duke Morgan; Drums – Chuck Flores

The Fabulous Claude Williamson Trio

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Seamus Blake - Guardians of the Heart Machine

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:06
Size: 131,2 MB
Art: Front

(8:17)  1. Guardians of the Heart Machine
(7:09)  2. Vaporbabe
(6:54)  3. Sneaky D
(7:40)  4. I'm Okay
(5:21)  5. Lanota
(7:53)  6. Wandering Aengus
(4:50)  7. Betty in Rio
(4:19)  8. Blues for the Real Human Beings
(4:37)  9. The Blasted Heath

Seamus Blake was born in 1970 in London, England but raised in Vancouver, Canada. He studied jazz at Berklee College of Music and following his graduation moved to New York Cit, where he became a fixture on the jazz scene including being a member of the Mingus Big Band. He's played or recorded with Victor Lewis, John Scofield, Chris Cheek, Bill Stewart, Ethan Iverson and Dave Douglas and appeared as a sideman on over 70 albums. In 2017 Blake assembled a new quartet, The French Connection which included Tony Tixier on piano, bassist Florent Nisse and Gautier Garrigue on drums, all three, unsurprisingly, hailing from France. They recorded their first album in Paris in November 2017 and this is Blake's debut for Whirlwind Recordings. Following in the wake of Blake's 2016 album Bridges (AMP) and 2015's Superconductor (5Passion), Guardians Of The Heart Machine opens with the title track that's distinguished by a lustrous, memorable melody. Blake's tenor saxophone dominates on "Vaporbabe," alternately limpid and coruscating. Meanwhile the Thelonious Monk-ish "Betty In Rio" is an exuberant tune with a lithe, indelible hook line.  

A point of difference arrives with the closer "The Blasted Heath," Blake's fragile, plaintive vocals subtly melding with piano and bass. The feeling here is not unlike the recitative populating several sections of Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill (JCOA, 1971), which makes Blake's unusual delivery all the more appealing. The album's mood is comprehensive, ranging from the mellow ballad "I'm Okay" to the angular "Lanota," but all sharing the unifying characteristics of sheer bravura performances and satisfyingly assured compositions. ~ Roger Farbey https://www.allaboutjazz.com/guardians-of-the-heart-machine-seamus-blake-whirlwind-recordings-review-by-roger-farbey.php

Personnel: Seamus Blake: tenor saxophone, voice; Tony Tixier: piano; Florent Nisse: double bass; Gautier Garrigue: drums.

Guardians of the Heart Machine

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