Thursday, May 20, 2021

Caetano Veloso - A Foreign Sound

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 75:06
Size: 173,5 MB
Art: Front

(3:31) 1. Carioca (The Carioca)
(5:31) 2. So In Love
(1:20) 3. I Only Have Eyes For You
(6:07) 4. It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
(3:27) 5. Body And Soul
(1:58) 6. Nature Boy
(4:09) 7. The Man I Love
(1:47) 8. There Will Never Be Another You
(2:38) 9. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
(3:28) 10. Diana
(5:18) 11. Sophisticated Lady
(4:16) 12. Come As You Are
(4:32) 13. Feelings
(2:33) 14. Summertime
(1:30) 15. Detached
(2:44) 16. Jamaica Farewell
(2:37) 17. Love For Sale
(3:09) 18. Cry Me A River
(3:05) 19. If It's Magic
(1:38) 20. Something Good
(3:25) 21. Stardust
(2:47) 22. Blue Skies
(3:24) 23. Love Me Tender - FAIXA BÔNUS

When an international artist records an English-language album, crossover is usually in the cards. For Caetano Veloso, however, it's an entirely different matter. The statesman of Brazilian pop, a musical giant who is on track to record more in his fifth decade of artistic striving than in any other (not to mention his accompanying exploits in literature), Veloso has no need to begin an American campaign. He also has shown no wish to. Caetano Veloso has never courted an American audience, though he has drawn a sizeable one because of his prescient, emotionally charged songwriting and a performance style that can be studied or unhinged depending on the circumstances required. A Foreign Sound is not only an English-language album but an American songbook, one that explores Veloso's long fascination with the greatest composers in American history. It began when he was a child in the '40s and '50s enamored of American culture, was strengthened when his hero João Gilberto began championing the great American songbook, and has remained steady if not continuous through his artistic career. The record is perhaps his most ambitious project ever, a 22-song album that ranges for its material from emperors of Broadway to the denizens of folk music, from the cultured (Rodgers & Hart's "Manhattan") to the torchy (Jerome Kern's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes") to the gritty (Nirvana's "Come as You Are"). Veloso's high tenor has only strengthened 30 years after his other English-language record an eponymous 1971 LP, recorded in London as a forlorn postcard to the country he had been forcibly removed from by Brazil's fascist-leaning government. Although few recordings in his discography (or any other's) can rival that one's emotional power, A Foreign Sound comes very close. Veloso transforms these standards by a clever combination of his subtle interpretive gifts, his precise, literate delivery, and his ability to frame each song with an arrangement that fits perfectly (usually either a small group led by his acoustic guitar or a small string group, though "Love for Sale" is given a spine-tingling a cappella treatment). Out of 22 songs, only Bob Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" sounds like a mistake; every other performance here is nearly irresistible, the perfect valentine to a country with a strong songwriting tradition that Veloso unites and celebrates with this album.~ John Bush https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-foreign-sound-mw0000329917

A Foreign Sound

Molly Holm - Permission

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:15
Size: 157,7 MB
Art: Front

(1:55) 1. Improvised Raga
(7:01) 2. Sea Journey
(9:08) 3. Permission
(4:54) 4. The Bear
(9:14) 5. Go There Now
(8:06) 6. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
(2:24) 7. Secret Words
(6:44) 8. Something Else
(8:17) 9. Afro Blue
(2:55) 10. Straight No Chaser
(4:51) 11. You Don't Know What Love Is
(2:40) 12. Song At Seventeen

Vocalist Molly Holm has had a potent progressive ("Avant-garde") presence in the Bay Area for three decades, having been an original member of Bobby McFerrin's Voicestra and was a featured singer with Terry Riley and Zakir Hussain. Creatively, Holm never grew up into the proper, standard-singing chanteuse that many of her contemporaries did, rather she has remained on the cutting edge of jazz vocals exactly where she belongs. Permission is an eclectic collection of vocal jazz standards most having the lyrics composed after the music and six Holm originals that fit seamlessly into the universal groove of the disc. Edgy and defiant, Holm's musical approach is to push the envelope and her supporting musicians right up to the point of post-modern deconstruction, stopping just in time before her efforts disintegrate into ravenous particles.

The only true "standard" on the disc is a subdued ballad reading of "You Don't Know What Love Is," whose inclusion could have been based on Holm wanting to prove she can sing it straight. It does serve as a nice contrast to something like Holm's own "Improvised Raga," smacking of elastic electric bass bubbling funk crossed with Eastern Plainchant dissolving into Chick Corea's "Sea Journey." Mark van Wageningen's bass playing is virtuosic as a lead instrument while Holm takes the song into sophisticated contemporary jazz territory. Holm's title original is hypnotic over a simple rhythmic and harmonic figure. The piece provides a suitable vehicle for Holm's vocal experimentations over Frank Martin's probing piano. Larry Schneider provides a lengthy and meandering Coltranesque solo over the scaffolding of the song. "Permission" provides a good foil to Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue" which Holm stretches into assorted sizes giving the piece wide-open spaces.

The two highlights are Charles Mingus's "Good Bye Pork Pie Hat" (with lyrics by Rahsaan Roland Kirk) and Thelonious Monk's "Straight, No Chaser." The former stands up to any performance of this Mingus homage to Lester Young. Acoustic Bassist Jeff Chambers defies the time-space continuum with his limber pizzicato seasoned with Schneider's soprano horn and Martin's piano accents. This is eight-plus minutes of bliss. "Straight, No Chaser" is taken in the musical vernacular into which it was born. Trombonist Wayne Wallace polishes off Monk's jagger edges without harming his virile dissonance. It swings the hardest on this most satisfying and gratifying recording.~ C.Michael Bailey https://www.allaboutjazz.com/permission-molly-holm-self-produced-review-by-c-michael-bailey.php

Personnel: Molly Holm: vocalist and composer; Larry Schneider: soprano saxophone; Frank Martin: piano; Jeff Chambers: acoustic bass; Famoudou Don Moye; Deszon Clairborne: drums; Antonia Minnecola: North Indian vocal percussion; Wayne Wallace: trombone; Bill Bell: piano; Eddie Marshall: drums; Marc van Wageningen: electric bass; Paul van Wageningen: drums; David Frazier: percussion.

Permission

Kyle Asche Organ Trio - The Hook Up

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2005
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:55
Size: 115,5 MB
Art: Front

(7:00)  1. Tightrope
(6:36)  2. The Best Thing For You
(4:39)  3. Takala
(6:15)  4. For Those That Are There
(5:32)  5. For Mike
(7:16)  6. Hide Inside
(6:15)  7. Alfie
(6:19)  8. The Hook Up

Nothing says "jazz" like an organ trio, and nothing sounds "cooler." I mean dark sunglasses, tight black suit and skinny dark tie cool, maybe a cigarette dangling, like on some of those old Wes Montgomery album covers on Riverside. Chicago-based guitarist Kyle Asche fits very well into the Wes Montgomery sound, though the look has been updated suits have a more modern cut, with some color, and the ties are wider, and the cigarettes (thankfully) are nowhere to be seen. These are young guys Asche is 26 but they've absorbed the Montgomery/Grant Green organ trio sound and given it a modern twist, with some gritty sax work growling up from under the guitar/organ solos on four of the eight tunes. Asche penned six of the tunes on The Hook Up, some fine compositions that pay homage to the tradition. The group also covers Irving Berlin's "The Best Thing for You" and Burt Bacharach's "Alfie," the latter opening with an extended Asche solo, the group joining him a minute and half in, with the whisper of Pete Benson's B-3 and the soft hiss of Todd Howell's brushes on skin. It seems an unlkely vehicle for the organ trio, but they make the song theirs, and it's a nice change of pace from the bluesier tone of most of the rest of the recording. Tenor saxophonist Scott Burns joins the trio on four tunes, mixing up the group sound on a nicely-paced set, one played with a lot of soul, passion and an updated "coolness."~ Dan McClenaghan https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-hook-up-oa2-records-review-by-dan-mcclenaghan.php

Personnel: Kyle Asche: guitar; Pete Benson: Hammond B-3 organ; Todd Howell: drums; Scott Burns: tenor saxophone.

The Hook Up

Gerry Mulligan Quartet - Reunion With Chet Baker

Styles: Saxophone And Trumpet Jazz
Year: 1957
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:11
Size: 159,9 MB
Art: Front

(4:08)  1. Reunion
(5:09)  2. When Your Lover Has Gone
(4:46)  3. Stardust
(4:15)  4. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
(4:28)  5. Jersey Bounce
(4:44)  6. The Surrey With The Fringe On Top
(3:44)  7. Trav'lin' Light
(4:34)  8. Trav'lin' Light (Alternate Take)
(5:14)  9. Ornithology
(3:43) 10. People Will Say We're In Love
(3:23) 11. The Song Is You
(3:37) 12. Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You
(3:33) 13. Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You (alternate take)
(6:01) 14. I Got Rhythm
(6:46) 15. All The Things You Are

The Gerry Mulligan Quartet of 1952-53 was one of the best-loved jazz groups of the decade and it made stars out of both the leader and trumpeter Chet Baker. Mulligan and Baker had very few reunions after 1953 but this particular CD from 1957 is an exception. Although not quite possessing the magic of the earlier group, the music is quite enjoyable and the interplay between the two horns is still special. With expert backup by bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Dave Bailey, these 13 selections (plus two new alternate takes) should please fans of both Mulligan and Baker.~Scott Yanow http://www.allmusic.com/album/reunion-with-chet-baker-mw0000194443

Personnel:  Chet Baker — trumpet;  Gerry Mulligan — baritone saxophone;  Henry Grimes – bass;  Dave Bailey - drums

Reunion With Chet Baker