Abdullah Ibrahim - Dream Time

Styles: Contemporary Jazz, Cape Jazz

Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 69:09
Size: 160,0 MB

(1:12)  1. Trieste My Love
(1:00)  2. Genesis
(4:13)  3. For Coltrane
(2:41)  4. Blue Bolero - Blue Bolero I
(9:39)  5. Nisa
(0:36)  6. Blue Bolero - Blue Bolero II
(3:39)  7. Capetown District Six
(3:36)  8. Sotho Blue
(0:08)  9. Machopi
(2:25) 10. Whoza Mtwana
(8:04) 11. Blues for a Hip King
(2:58) 12. Dream Time
(3:05) 13. In the Evening
(2:06) 14. Song for Lawrence Brown
(1:19) 15. Blue Bolero - Blue Bolero III
(7:48) 16. Dedication to Duke Ellington
(3:02) 17. The Ballance
(1:30) 18. Aspen
(2:53) 19. Did You Hear That Sound
(7:07) 20. Blue Bolero - Blue Bolero IV

Abdullah Ibrahim: Dream TimeStream-of-consciousness solo-piano recitals come in as many shades as jazz itself. At one extreme are Keith Jarrett's messianic epics. At another are Abdullah Ibrahim's less flashy but deeper outings. Ibrahim's style is about substance, space and subtlety. He says more by doing less. Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, after all, were his formative influences.

Dream Time was recorded in March 2019 at the Hirzinger Concert Hall in Sölinhuben, in the foothills of the German Alps where Ibrahim lives. Over the course of sixty-seven minutes, he ranges over seventeen tunes from his massive songbook of original compositions, returning three times to one of them, "Blue Bolero" (from the 2003 Enja album African Magic). Audio quality is superb and the performance is seamless, each tune seguing into the next. Only at the very end does applause inform us that an audience was present.

It would be interesting to know if Ibrahim's choice of material was planned or off the cuff, but it is of no consequence. Dream Time was conceived not as a greatest-hits package, but in the spirit of the Native Australian timelines from which it takes its name. It is contemplative and intimate and unhurried. Ellington and his longtime trombonist Lawrence Brown are both acknowledged as inspirations and other pieces evoke Ibrahim's early years in South Africa (he exiled himself from the country in 1963). Three of the tunes ("Dream Time," "Nisa," "The Balance") were included on his excellent 2019 album The Balance (Gearbox), recorded in London with his eight-piece band, Ekaya.

Talking soft and saying something, as is Ibrahim's wont, this is a work of exquisite beauty.

Personnel: Abdullah Ibrahim: piano.

Dream Time

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Barb Jungr - Bob, Brel and Me (New Link)

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:53
Size: 158,4 MB
Art: Front

(2:54)  1. Rise & Shine
(4:36)  2. Jacky
(5:50)  3. Mr Tambourine Man
(4:11)  4. Incurable Romantic
(4:28)  5. The Tender Hearts
(3:33)  6. Buckets of Rain
(3:11)  7. One Too Many Mornings
(6:17)  8. The Cathedral
(3:36)  9. No-one Could Ever Wear Your Shoes
(3:05) 10. Twist of Fate
(4:55) 11. Sometimes
(3:36) 12. Secret Spaces
(4:22) 13. To See A Friend Break Down and Cry
(4:27) 14. This Wheel's on Fire
(4:54) 15. If We Only Had Love
(4:52) 16. If You See Her Say Hello

Apparently, Barb Jungr considers Bob, Brel and Me her best ever and has said of it, "I may not make another." Given her productivity over recent years, it is tempting to doubt that; but if it does turn out to be true, this album will make a great finale. Rather than being a one-off project, Bob, Brel and Me feels like an integral part of the warp and weft of Jungr's work since 1999. As early as her album Bare (Irregular Records, 1999), Jungr was covering a Jacques Brel song "Sons Of" and she included four of his compositions on Chanson The Space in Between (Linn, 2000) alongside other songs with a French connection.  Just as significant was her next album Every Grain of Sand (Linn, 2002) which featured fifteen Bob Dylan songs dating from 1963 to 2001; after it, Dylan compositions became a regular feature of her recordings and live performances. For years before recording Brel or Dylan songs, Jungr had been writing, performing and recording her own songs with others, notably Michael Parker with whom she was in a duo for thirteen years.

So, although many other songwriters figure in Jungr's discography, the title Bob, Brel and Me neatly encapsulates three principal sources of songs she has sung. Fittingly, the album gives equal weight to all three; of its fifteen tracks, five each are compositions by Dylan, Brel and Jungr. It kicks off with a barnstorming jazzy version of Jungr and Mike Lindup's "Rise and Shine," featuring Jamie Safir on piano plus the ever-present pairing of bassist Davide Mantovani and drummer Rob Youngs, with the sax of Mark Lockheart and trumpet of Pete Horsfall working together to sound like a full brass section behind Jungr. Next up is Brel's "Jacky," in a new translation by Robb Johnson with lyrics as attention-grabbing as Scott Walker's 1967 version. Jenny Carr on piano, Safir moving to organ a combination that is deployed on several tracks and Gabriella Swallow's cello combine in a mellow backing that works effectively. The horns return for the first Dylan track, "Mr Tambourine Man," which had miraculously avoided being recorded on Jungr's previous Dylan albums. Making up for lost time, she gives a typically heartfelt reading that reflects her love of Dylan songs. And so it continues, with the instrumentation and arrangement of each track individually tailored to suit the song in question and Jungr's rendition of it. Such attention to detail has resulted in an album of great variety but consistent quality. Although it has been true of her albums for many years now, it is worth emphasising that there is not one track here that does not match up to the high standards Jungr sets for herself and her fellow musicians.

Oddly, that statement is not contradicted by the fact that two contrasting tracks, both by Brel, stand out from the rest as being the best on the album. "The Cathedral," the longest track here at six-and-a-quarter-minutes features only Jungr's voice plus Safir at the piano; consequently, both are exposed, but rise to the occasion to give a bravura performance drenched in emotion. In contrast, the closing track, "If We Only Had Love," finds Jungr and Safir alone in the company of the twenty-one member Fourth Choir who provide lush accompaniment for her rendition of Brel's epic hymn to love. A stunning way to conclude this stunning album. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/bob-brel-and-me-barb-jungr-absolute-review-by-john-eyles.php

Personnel:  Barb Jungr: vocals, harmonica (7); Davide Mantovani: double bass; Rod Youngs: drums; Pete Horsfall: trumpet (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11); Mark Lockheart: saxophone (1, 3, 7); Jamie Safir: piano (1, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15), organ (2-4, 6, 7, 11, 14); Jenny Carr: piano (2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14), accordion (6); Gabriella Swallow: cello (2, 13); Mike Lindup: chorus vocal (4), other vocals (5); Christoph Bracher: other vocals (5); The Fourth Choir:- Victoria Ely: conductor; Eve Berwin, Kathleen Holman, Megan Inglis, Fiona Mortimer, Rioghnach Sachs, Che Ramsden: sopranos; Michaela Cauntier, Ellie Dragonetti, Suzy Duggan, Jill Pett, Kathryn Thomson, Sarah de Winter: altos; Sam Henson, Séamus Rea, Alistair Semmence: tenors; Gus Cairns, Daniel Florea, Ben Lumb, Kit Senior, Finn Schulze-Feldmann, Peter Warwick: basses (15).

Bob, Brel and Me

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Dick Hyman, Ken Peplowski - Counterpoint

Styles: Clarinet, Saxophone and Piano Jazz
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:48
Size: 147,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:18)  1. My Dearie
(5:04)  2. Danced
(3:25)  3. Mariah
(7:12)  4. Gigi
(5:36)  5. Gigi Piano
(5:31)  6. Trees
(3:40)  7. Almost Like
(5:40)  8. Follow Me
(4:02)  9. On The Street
(3:26) 10. Havent Changed
(4:43) 11. Show Me
(2:18) 12. If Ever
(6:07) 13. Wine
(2:38) 14. Thank Heaven

In the 1950s, everyone knew Lerner and Loewe’s music: songs such as “On the Street Where You Live,” “Gigi,” “The Rain in Spain,” and “They Call the Wind Maria.” 
The tunes were instantly memorable, and they seemed to be everywhere, on the screen as well as on original cast LPs, reaching homes where little other music penetrated. Many of us will remember the film Gigi, where Maurice Chevalier  via his regionally indistinct French accent and with a twinkle in his eye  sang “Thank Heaven for Little Girls.” (The girl in this case was the beautiful French actress Leslie Caron, who didn’t look little to my preteen eyes.) And some will remember the shock when Julie Andrews was not chosen for the movie version of the part she made famous onstage in My Fair Lady.Several of Lerner and Loewe’s musicals, Gigi as well as My Fair Lady, have an international flavor. No wonder. Frederick Loewe was born in Austria in 1901: his  father was a renowned tenor, who originated the role of Count Danilo in The Merry Widow. Viennese operetta had a considerable effect on American musical theater. As a counterweight to Loewe’s cosmopolitanism, Alan Jay Lerner was born in New York City 17 years later. Together, of course, they famously wrote Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, Gigi, and My Fair Lady. Their partnership foundered in the ’60s while they were writing Camelot, yet that hit show gave the name to the age: John F. Kennedy’s brief period as our president.  more... http://jazzbluesnews.com/2019/12/19/cd-review-dick-hyman-ken-peplowski-counterpoint-2019-video-photo-cd-cover/

Personnel:  Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone – Ken Peplowski;  Piano – Dick Hyman

Counterpoint

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