Hot Swing Sextet - Hot Swing Sextet

Styles: Swing,Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:34
Size: 85,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:05) 1. Ain't She Sweet
(4:03) 2. Deed I Do
(5:17) 3. Down by the Riverside
(5:17) 4. Flat Foot Floogie
(4:12) 5. I Can't Give You Anything but Love
(3:11) 6. I'm Gonna Lock My Heart
(3:31) 7. Petite fleur
(3:37) 8. Who's Sorry Now
(3:18) 9. Saint James Infirmary

"We forget too that in the 20s, the Roaring Twenties , the Roaring Twenties , jazz was dance music, popular music. The Hot Swing Sextethe remembers it and he brings the swing back to life in this last album, this music that swings and cannot leave you still. Absolute standards are offered to us on which the Hot Swing Sextet mixes the tone of the trumpet and the clarity of the clarinet with the gypsy pump of the guitars all on an impeccable rhythm. Jazz to dance of course but also to listen to thanks to the original arrangements and the perfect interpretation. "Translate By Google https://www.hotswingsextet.com/albums.php?lang=en

Personnel: Thibaud Bonté: trumpet; Jérôme Gatius: clarinet; Erwann Muller: guitar; Ludovic Langlade: guitar; Franck Richard: double bass; Jéricho Ballan: drums

Hot Swing Sextet

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Bettye LaVette - Blackbirds

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:18
Size: 93,3 MB
Art: Front

(5:01) 1. I Hold No Grudge
(5:22) 2. One More Song
(3:46) 3. Blues For The Weepers
(3:40) 4. Book Of Lies
(4:18) 5. Romance In The Dark
(5:36) 6. Drinking Again
(4:14) 7. Strange Fruit
(4:50) 8. Save Your Love For Me
(3:28) 9. Blackbird

No argument here if you thought Things Have Changed, Bettye LaVette’s 2018 tribute to Bob Dylan, deserved its two Grammy nominations, and perhaps even a mantle-size trophy to boot. Still, for all its merits, that album is no match for Blackbirds, the 74-year-old vocalist’s remarkable follow-up.

Reuniting her with drummer/producer Steve Jordan, Blackbirds provides an unwaveringly soulful excursion into R&B, jazz, and pop waters. What’s more, because so many things have indeed changed in 2020, for better or worse, some of the album’s most compelling tracks now resonate in ways that LaVette and Jordan couldn’t possibly have imagined during their collaboration.

Following the murder of George Floyd in May, for example, fans got an early peek at Blackbirds when a quick shift in plans triggered the release of the album’s first single, “Strange Fruit.” Inextricably linked to Billie Holiday’s legacy, the anguished ballad sparks an emotionally searing performance that ranks with LaVette’s career highs no small thing. “Strange Fruit” is an outlier here, though. Most of the tunes on Blackbirds hew to smartly retooled Southern soul and funk grooves.

Not surprisingly, LaVette and Jordan seem connected at the hip in this setting, but the evocative (and often colorfully nuanced) support they receive from their session mates, especially guitarist Smokey Hormel and keyboardist Leon Pendarvis, adds to the album’s numerous charms. There’s also no mistaking the emotional connection LaVette and Jordan forged with the songs they chose for the occasion. In prime, raspy, expressive form, the singer salutes her guiding lights the short list includes Nina Simone (“I Hold No Grudge”), Ruth Brown (“Book of Lies”), and Della Reese (“Drinking Again”) with a potent mix of defiance, passion, joy, and despair. By Mike Joycehttps://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/bettye-lavette-blackbirds-verve/

Personnel: Bettye LaVette: voice / vocals; Smokey Hormel: guitar; Leon Pendarvis: keyboards; Monte Croft: vibraphone; Tom Barney: bass; Steve Jordan: drums.

Blackbirds

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Brook Benton - Endlessly

Styles: Vocal, Easy Listening
Year: 1959
Time: 32:44
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 75,8 MB
Art: Front

(2:21) 1. People Will Say We're in Love
(3:20) 2. Because of You
(2:17) 3. More Than You Know
(2:37) 4. Blue Skies
(3:08) 5. Time After Time
(2:41) 6. A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening
(2:18) 7. Endlessly
(3:32) 8. The Things I Love
(2:39) 9. (It's No) Sin
(2:45) 10. Around the World
(2:36) 11. May I Never Love Again
(2:24) 12. You'll Never Know

Silky smooth: that was Brook Benton's byword from his first record to his very last, as the singer parlayed his rich baritone pipes into seven number one R&B hits and eight Top Ten items. Stints on the gospel circuit preceded Benton's first secular session for Okeh in 1953, but his career didn't begin to take off until he teamed with writer/producer Clyde Otis. Benton co-wrote and sang hundreds of demos for other artists before frequent collaborator Otis signed his friend to Mercury; together they pioneered a lush, violin-studded variation on the standard R&B sound, which beautifully showcased Benton's intimate vocals.

Benton crashed the top spot on the R&B charts in early 1959 with his moving "It's Just a Matter of Time," then rapidly encored with three more R&B chart-toppers: "Thank You Pretty Baby," "So Many Ways," and "Kiddio." Pairing with Mercury labelmate Dinah Washington, their delightful repartee on "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" and "A Rockin' Good Way" paced the R&B lists in 1960.

The early'60s were a prolific period for Benton, but he left Mercury a few years later and bounced between labels before reemerging with the atmospheric Tony Joe White ballad "Rainy Night in Georgia" on Cotillion in 1970. Benton later made a halfhearted attempt to cash in on the disco craze, but his hitmaking reign was at an end long before his death in 1988.By Bill Dahl https://www.allmusic.com/artist/brook-benton-mn0000524239/biography

Endlessly

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