Glenn Crytzer - Focus Pocus

Styles: Swing
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 25:30
Size: 59,3 MB
Art: Front

(3:00) 1. Focus Pocus
(3:28) 2. Please Don't Imagine
(3:04) 3. My Blue Apples
(5:18) 4. All That I Can Give You is a Melody
(2:52) 5. A Case of the Blues
(4:08) 6. The Grass is Always Greener (If You're High)
(3:38) 7. Spendin' All My Rainy Days With You

Glenn Crytzer is a New York City based bandleader, arranger, composer, guitarist, and vocalist who is in love with the music of the Jazz Age and Swing Era. While completing his formal training in classical composition and cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Florida State University, Glenn took up dancing the Lindy Hop as a hobby. Through the Lindy his love of early jazz grew, but he lamented that there were so few musical groups that specialized authentic performance of his favorite kind of music. Glenn decided to put his musical training to use, taught himself guitar, banjo, and jazz arranging, and set about bringing to life the music he loved. Now in his mid 30s, Glenn has become a staple in New York City’s jazz scene as a guitarist and bandleader. He has released 8 albums with his big band and combos and dozens of his recordings have been featured in films and TV shows seeking to evoke the sound of the golden age of radio. In 2017 his big band was named Best Group in New York in the NYC Jazz Awards. https://www.glenncrytzer.com/glenn

Focus Pocus

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Van Morrison - His Band and the Street Choir

Styles: Vocal, Guitar
Year: 1970
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:18
Size: 98,5 MB
Art: Front

(3:09) 1. Domino
(3:00) 2. Crazy Face
(2:40) 3. Give Me a Kiss
(3:29) 4. I've Been Working
(3:55) 5. Call Me Up in Dreamland
(3:53) 6. I'll Be Your Lover, Too
(3:48) 7. Blue Money
(4:14) 8. Virgo Clowns
(3:18) 9. Gypsy Queen
(2:12) 10. Sweet Jannie
(3:47) 11. If I Ever Needed Someone
(4:49) 12. Street Choir

Released in 1970, Van Morrison's Moondance was a hit commercially and critically. Encouraged by his manager, Morrison and a sextet including three players from the Moondance sessions hit the studio and delivered His Band & the Street Choir in time for that year's holiday season. Morrison responded to the pressure by relaxing into it. The feel here is loose, often celebratory. He digs deep into his long-held fascination with the New Orleans R&B tradition for inspiration. "Domino" is his highest charting single. The funky guitar lick, left-hand piano rumbling, driving, Memphis-style horns, and pumping bassline kick things off in grand party style. The ballad "Crazy Face," written in 1968, melds acoustic guitar, mandolin, and piano. Morrison's brittle, bluesy saxophone line and a grooving B-3 tip the balance toward R&B. "Give Me a Kiss" has a great Zigaboo Modeliste feel in the horn charts; Fats Domino gets referenced in Alan Hand's piano stroll, and the punchy, doo-wopping tag in the chorus nods at Frankie Ford. "I've Been Working" (which dates to Astral Weeks) is Morrison at his funky best, roaring above a cooking choogle. The acoustic guitar vamp is highlighted by swirling organ, and electric Meters-esque guitar and basslines. Drummer Dahaud Elias Sharr lays down tough breaks and fills throughout as jazzy horns frame the singer. "Call Me Up in Dreamland" features the loose-knit "street choir" (musicians, wives, girlfriends, etc.). It's built on the ragged, Celtic soul-gospel template that Morrison would continue to refer to. The intimate "I'll Be Your Lover Too," adorned only by acoustic guitar and whispering drums, is haunted with the slow-burn passion that would flow so easily on 1972's Saint Dominic's Preview. Second single "Blue Money" is a Rhodes-and-brass driven blues that returns to the NOLA trick bag for fire. The poetic "Virgo Clowns" is painted in a lovely meld of 12-string acoustic guitars and bass clarinet. "Gypsy Queen" is slippery love song, with Morrison offering a gorgeous falsetto. The Celtic soul in "If I Ever Needed Someone" is highlighted by the same trio of backing vocalists that appeared on Moondance's "Crazy Love." The closing title track draws on the swaggering, testifying gospel that inspired that album's "Caravan" (and, played back-to-back, seems to grow right out of it). The street choir's backing is sweeter, balanced by eloquent sax and harmonica breaks. As an album, His Band & the Street Choir may not equal Astral Weeks or Moondance, but the aim was never that lofty. That most of these songs have endured as fan favorites is testament enough to their quality.~ Thom Jurek https://www.allmusic.com/album/his-band-and-the-street-choir-mw0000191086

His Band and the Street Choir

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