Rebecca Kilgore - Live at Jazz Ascona Festival 2001 & Rimini Jazz Festival 2008

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:04
Size: 95,3 MB
Art: Front

(4:04) 1. Exactly Like You
(4:37) 2. You Took Advantage of Me
(4:22) 3. Sugar (That Sugar Baby O'mine)
(3:52) 4. Them There Eyes
(6:10) 5. It Had to Be You
(5:21) 6. What a Little Moonlight Can Do
(6:03) 7. Sugar (That Sugar Baby O'mine) #2
(6:33) 8. All of Me

As an interpreter of classic American popular songs from the 1930s and 1940s, vocalist and guitarist Rebecca Kilgore helped revive the hits of yesterday for modern-era jazz audiences. Born in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1949, she relocated to Portland, Oregon at the age of 30, beginning her music career fronting an area swing band dubbed the Wholly Cats and recording a 1982 LP titled Doggin' Around. Following the group's 1984 breakup, she formed her own unit, the Rebecca Kilgore Quintet, which quickly emerged as a mainstay of the Northwest jazz scene, and in 1989 she released the cassette-only I Hear Music. Most of Kilgore's subsequent recordings were in conjunction with other performers: in 1990 she teamed with John Miller for Put on a Happy Face, and in 1993 appeared with Portland's Tall Jazz Trio on their Plays Winter Jazz disc. However, Kilgore's most fruitful collaborations were in conjunction with pianist Dave Frishberg; after teaming for 1993's Looking at You, they reunited a year later for I Saw Stars, followed in 1997 by Not a Care in the World and again in 2001 by The Starlit Hour.

At the same time, Kilgore also fronted a '60s-style country band, Beck-a-Roo, and in 1994 contributed vocals to the score of the CBS animated special Tales from the Far Side, inspired by the popular Gary Larson comic strip. Released in 2004, For Lovers Only featured her voice in the company of noted stride pianists John Sheridan and Jeff Barnhart. The next year she issued the tribute disc The Music of Jimmy Van Heusen on Jump Records, followed by I Wish You Love on CD Baby in 2007. Her desire to focus on single composers was unabated, however, and she reinforced it with Why Fight the Feeling: Songs by Frank Loesser for Arbors a year later. Arriving in 2010, Lovefest at the Pizzarelli Party featured her voice fronting an all-star family band led by guitarists Bucky and John Pizzarelli, along with bassist Martin Pizzarelli, tenor saxophonist Harry Allen, pianist Larry Fuller, drummer Tony Tedesco, and violinist Aaron Weinstein. The album became one of her most critically acclaimed. Kilgore was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and the Jazz Society of Oregon's Hall of Fame that same year. n 2011, she issued Live at Feinstein's at Loews Regency. In 2013, she was the guest of honor at the Roswell Jazz Festival in New Mexico. On her next date, 2014's I Like Men, she was backed by the Harry Allen Quartet, and followed it the next year with a collaborative album with vocalist Nicki Parrott entitled Two Songbirds of a Feather. Kilgore was honored as a Jazz Legend at the San Diego Jazz Party in 2016 and reentered the studio with pianist Bernd Lhotzky. They emerged with This & That, issued by Arbors in 2017. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rebecca-kilgore-mn0000870355/biography

Live at Jazz Ascona Festival 2001 & Rimini Jazz Festival 2008

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Brian Culbertson - Music from The Hang

Styles: Jazz Funk, Smooth Jazz
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:21
Size: 133,4 MB
Art: Front

(6:20) 1. The Hangout
(1:28) 2. It's Friday Night with Opening Drone
(5:19) 3. Keep Movin'
(4:44) 4. Hey There
(1:00) 5. It's Monday Night
(4:37) 6. Let's Go
(3:55) 7. When I'm With You (Solo Piano)
(1:13) 8. Happy Birthday
(3:18) 9. Bootsy's Road Story Soundtrack
(1:42) 10. It's Wednesday Night
(2:07) 11. Stars and Stripes Forever
(1:58) 12. Sitting by the Fire (Solo Piano)
(5:50) 13. Together Tonight (2020 Version)
(1:22) 14. It's Friday Night
(6:16) 15. Sexy Love
(6:05) 16. A New Beginning

Even though Brian Culbertson might be categorized as jazz lite, his music has enough "oomph" to keep you interested. The talented composer, arranger, keyboardist, and trombonist displayed a talent beyond his years at an early age, and credits his dad with helping him develop an ear for the type of music he makes. His father, Jim Culbertson, a respected high-school jazz band director and trumpeter, cultivated a love of sanguine sounds in the young Brian, who eagerly listened to anything his dad put on the stereo. Their Decatur, Illinois, home would be alive with the recorded sounds of Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, the Brecker Brothers, and David Sanborn. Growing up, Culbertson also listened to '70s R&B/pop/funk bands like Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tower of Power, and Earth, Wind & Fire. He began his musical training at the age of eight with piano lessons; at nine he moved to drums, at ten trombone, and at 12 bass. Bored with classical recital pieces, he began composing in junior high. By his freshman year in high school, Culbertson was experimenting with the then-new Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer and an old four-track recorder in the basement of his parents' home. His dedication earned him six individual and five group Down Beat student awards.

During his high-school years, Culbertson started getting into MIDI sequencing and synthesizers. He couldn't find musicians who were able to play his songs on the level he wanted, as most of his peers were into heavy metal, so Culbertson, who cites pop producer/songwriter David Foster (Earth, Wind & Fire's "After the Love Is Gone") as one of his strongest influences, learned how to play all the parts himself. After graduation, he headed to Chicago to begin studies in the music program at DePaul University. On campus, he began to run into high-level musicians and started playing in a band. A family friend helped Culbertson get a deal with Mesa/Blue Moon in 1994. In the bedroom of the apartment he shared with three college buddies, he recorded his debut album, Long Night Out, playing most of the instruments himself but also enlisting a small backing group. The LP spent ten consecutive weeks in the Top Five of the adult contemporary charts. On his follow-up album, Modern Life, Culbertson eschewed the one-man band approach in favor of a live band made up of some of the best musicians in Chicago, plus stellar saxophonist Gerald Albright.

He put out several other albums in the '90s, including After Hours (1995), Secrets (1997), and Somethin' Bout Love (1999). Culbertson's productions include albums by Bob Mamet and Steve Cole. Having gotten into composing advertising jingles, Culbertson set his sights on soundtracks. In 2001, the pianist (who could play the trombone, trumpet, and percussion as well) released Nice & Slow, followed by Come on Up in 2003. Two years later, he issued It's on Tonight, and in 2006 Soulful Christmas, a collection of holiday favorites as well as an original. In 2008, Culbertson released Bringing Back the Funk, an acclaimed album that is credited with bringing new life to the urban jazz genre. It featured a sizable list of collaborators including Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham, Ray Parker, Jr., and David T. Walker. He followed it with a live album in 2009 and XII, a return to the studio, in 2010. In June 2012, Culbertson released Dreams, his 13th album, featuring a host of all-star contemporary jazz and R&B session players and vocalists. Later that year, he set about realizing a dream project. Now an independent artist, Culbertson had long desired to revisit the music from his 1994 debut offering, Long Night Out, initially cut in his apartment on a very limited budget. In 2013, he re-recorded the same tracks with a large all-star lineup that included Nathan East, Russ Freeman, Steve Lukather, and Candy Dulfer, to name a few, plus a 33-piece orchestra. Entitled Another Long Night Out, it was issued on his own BCM label in February 2014. Two years later, he delivered the concert album Live: 20th Anniversary Tour, showcasing his band in concert at Yoshi's in San Francisco. The full-length Colors of Love appeared in 2018, and reached the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. A trio album, Winter Stories, arrived the following year. In 2020, Culberston issued his 20th studio album, the aptly titled XX, featuring guest vocals from Bootsy Collins, Avery Sunshine, and Noel Gourdin. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/brian-culbertson-mn0000521564/biography

Music from The Hang

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