Kamasi Washington - Heaven And Earth (2-Disc Set)

Washington recorded Heaven and Earth with his band, the Next Step, as well as members of the Los Angeles collective known as the West Coast Get Down. The project’s contributors include Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Ronald Bruner, Jr., Cameron Graves, Brandon Coleman, Miles Mosley, Patrice Quinn and Tony Austin. Along with Washington’s take on the Fists of Fury theme, Heaven and Earth also features his new arrangement of Freddie Hubbard’s “Hubtones” and a new song by bandmate Ryan Porter. Heaven on Earth follows Washington’s acclaimed 2015 album, The Epic, as well as his 2017 EP, Harmony of Difference. The latter originally premiered as a multimedia piece at the 2017 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

Album: Heaven And Earth (Disc 1)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:01
Size: 162.6 MB
Styles: Saxophone jazz
Year: 2018

[9:42] 1. Fists Of Fury
[8:53] 2. Can You Hear Him
[9:09] 3. Hub-Tones
[8:22] 4. Connections
[9:24] 5. Tiffakonkae
[9:52] 6. The Invincible Youth
[5:44] 7. Testify
[9:51] 8. One Of One

---

Album: Heaven And Earth (Disc 2)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 73:22
Size: 167.9 MB
Styles: Saxophone jazz
Year: 2018
Art: Front

[10:30] 1. The Space Travelers Lullaby
[11:06] 2. Vi Lua Vi Sol
[ 5:57] 3. Street Fighter Mas
[12:40] 4. Song For The Fallen
[ 8:51] 5. Journey
[ 7:17] 6. The Psalmnist
[ 6:50] 7. Show Us The Way
[10:07] 8. Will You Sing

Heaven And Earth (Disc 1) (Disc 2)

---

Budd Johnson - French Cookin'

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2005
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:09
Size: 81,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:03) 1. La Petite Valse
(5:41) 2. Le Grisbi
(4:30) 3. I Can Live With The Blues
(4:33) 4. Darling Je Vous Aime Beaucoup
(4:21) 5. Under Paris Skies
(3:47) 6. Hugues' Blues
(4:53) 7. Je Vous Aime
(4:19) 8. Je T'Aime

One of the earliest Texas tenors, arranging boss of the Earl Hines Grand Terrace Orchestra, and pivotal swing-to-bop figure, Budd Johnson distributed his gifts through several eras of jazz. He was a major composer and arranger and a saxophonist whose style fit as comfortably into bebop as it did into swing. Albert J. (Budd) Johnson was born in Dallas on December 14, 1910. His father was a choir director and cornetist who taught him piano at a young age. By Johnson's teenage years he had switched to drums and was playing with his brother, Keg Johnson, in bands around town. Eventually the two started their own group, the Moonlight Melody Six. They later joined Gene Coy's Amarillo-based band, the Happy Black Aces. Switching instruments again, this time to the saxophone, Johnson headed to Kansas City and then to Chicago, where he met and joined Louis Armstrong in 1933. During his stint in the Windy City he also met Earl Hines; their musical relationship lasted nine years. It was during his tenure with Hines that he came into his own as an arranger on top of being a solid member of the reed section.

By 1944 Johnson had moved to New York City, where he became involved in organizing and playing in smaller jazz combos, joining up with Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, and Billy Eckstine, in whose band he replaced Dexter Gordon. Johnson became a pioneer of the emerging bop jazz style, and he is credited with organizing the first bop recording session. He remained an integral part of American jazz throughout the 1950s. In 1956-57 he played with Benny Goodman, with whom he toured Asia, and in 1958 he formed his own septet and recorded the album “Blues a la Mode.” In 1960 he did a stellar session “Budd Johnson and the Four Brass Giants,” for Riverside. Johnson, who takes tenor solos throughout the date and also contributes a bit of clarinet in addition to providing the arrangements, is matched with four distinctive and very different trumpeters: Clark Terry, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Nat Adderley and Ray Nance.

He seemed in top form that year (’60) for he also did “Let’s Swing,” which is regarded as one of his best efforts. He would go on to be involved in countless of sessions and too many recording to mention. During the 1960s Johnson played with Count Basie and Quincy Jones and rejoined Earl Hines in ’64. He formed the JPJ Quartet, which worked on an occasional basis, during the 1969-‘75 periods. He also served as music director for Atlantic Records and started his own publishing company. In the 1970s and 1980s he taught music at Queens College and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Budd Johnson died in New York City on October 20, 1984. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/budd-johnson

Personnel: Budd Johnson – tenor saxophone; Hank Jones – piano; Kenny Burrell, Everett Barksdale – guitar; Milt Hinton – bass; Willie Rodriguez – latin percussion; Osie Johnson – drums; Joseph Venuto – marimba, vibraphone

French Cookin'

---

Rose Betty Klub - Bleu

Size: 139,2 MB
Time: 59:18
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2017
Styles: Jazz/Blues Vocals
Art: Front

01. Babe, Deep In My Heart (2:20)
02. I Hate You (4:43)
03. Hawaii Dream (2:55)
04. Back To My Sunnyboy (5:39)
05. Minnie Minnie (4:24)
06. Bridget (4:52)
07. Gloria (4:59)
08. Right N' Wrong (3:17)
09. Thelma (5:28)
10. Bleu (3:42)
11. The Wild (6:20)
12. Belly Dance (3:55)
13. Cocodildudi (2:52)
14. Happy Feet (3:47)

C'est avec fraîcheur que le Rose Betty Klub, ce quintet insolite de jeunes montpellierains, débarque sur la scène jazz. Avec son dernier album BLEU, de compositions originales, le Rose Betty Klub affirme son style : du jazz tombé dans un juke box ! Un jazz teinté de rhythm n' blues, de soul, de boogie woogie, de rockabilly et de blues.

Une énergie scénique généreuse, juste ce qu'il faut de gouaille, un style pulpeux et distingué qui en jette, Rose Betty a de l'aplomb et une voix qui en impose.

Fascinée depuis sa plus tendre enfance par les comédies musicales américaines, Marie Nosmas - alias Rose Betty - plonge avec bonheur dans le jazz et crée il y 5 ans le Rose Betty Klub.

La brune Rose Betty a cette présence évidente et vivante que l'on doit aux années théâtre qui ont précédé son arrivée sur la scène musicale. Avec son look de pin up et son allant charismatique, Rose Betty ne peut s'empêcher de parler, d'inventer, de danser, de bondir, de rire, entraînant le Klub dans cette douce folie ! Le Klub, autant de filles que de garçons, pulse comme un big band et se réinvente à chaque morceau. On y découvre Jon Da Costa Ferreira - alias Johnny Mustang - passionné de blues et de rock n'roll, avec sa belle guitare Gretch, à l'origine des compositions, la douce Naïma Girou - alias Brigitte Parker - assurant une solide rythmique à la contrebasse, Karl Moussavou - alias Kenny Wild - fougueux derrière sa batterie, et la toute dernière arrivée, c'est Ana Baldeck - alias Thelma Brooks - aux solos créatifs, envoûtée par son piano.

Drôles, énergiques, et faussement nostalgiques, les concerts du Rose Betty Klub sont une assurance contre la morosité.

On martèle du pied, on balance la tête, on se déhanche, l'idée est là : donner le swing, être rock n'roll, comme Cab Calloway ou Chuck Berry savaient si bien le faire.

Des petits clubs de jazz aux grandes scènes, comme en première partie de Ben l'Oncle Soul, Cyrille Aimée ou Raphaël Lemonnier, le RBK cultive inlassablement un univers joyeux et vivifiant, et c'est bien en live que cela prend tout son sens!

Bleu

---

The Roger Kellaway Trio - Heroes

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:46
Size: 146.0 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[6:23] 1. Killer Joe
[8:33] 2. Cotton Tail
[5:48] 3. I Was Doing All Right
[5:02] 4. Nuages
[8:40] 5. Night Train
[3:38] 6. I'm Smiling Again
[6:11] 7. Midnight Sun
[5:42] 8. Moten Swing
[5:19] 9. 52nd Street Theme
[8:25] 10. Hymn To Freedom

Roger Kellaway: piano; Bruce Forman: guitar; Dan Lutz: bass.

The last we heard from pianist/composer Roger Kellaway was last year, when he dazzled the world with his remembrances as Bobby Darin's musical director (undoubtedly timed to coincide with the release of the Darin biopic Beyond The Sea. Now, we have a dramatic and long-needed tribute to the "drum-less" piano trio (guitar/bass/piano) that dates back to sessions from Art Tatum, Django Reinhardt, the King Cole Trio, and most especially the Oscar Peterson Trio, pre-Ed Thigpen when first Barney Kessel and then Herb Ellis occupied the guitar chair alongside bassist Ray Brown.

Kellaway explains the importance of the "drum-less" trio by noting that "...the difference between a trio with guitar and one with drums is immeasurable. With drums, the pianist is responsible (with the bassist, of course) for the harmony, but guitar is a chorded instrument, and harmonic clashes have to be avoided. The piano-guitar-bass trio is like a chamber-music group. There's more intimacy in the interaction...."

It seems pretty obvious that, although Roger Kellaway has cited several jazz musicians as models, his primary influence was the Oscar Peterson trio, although the are specific references to the King Cole trio ("I Was Doing All Right") and Django Reinhardt ("Nuages"). Save for a Kellaway original, "I'm Smiling Again," the other tunes were recorded by the Peterson group. Kellaway is utilizing the same trio that he worked with on the Bobby Darin project (bassist Dan Lutz and guitarist Bruce Forman). Forman remains one of my favorite underappreciated plectrists, having recorded most of his dozen albums in the 1980s. Kellaway further notes that this is a working trio, and thus he is out spreading the word of the "drum-less" trio as we speak. ~Michael P. Gladstone

Heroes

---

Bruce Forman - In Transit

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 1982
File: MP3@256K/s
Time: 41:12
Size: 76,5 MB
Art: Front

(7:55)  1. In Transit
(7:53)  2. Down The Line
(5:02)  3. Presione
(3:03)  4. Waltzing Matilida
(6:16)  5. Mood Indigo
(4:20)  6. Peace
(4:24)  7. Hold The Bones
(2:16)  8. The Trench

Bruce Forman, who has long been based in Northern California, teams up with organist Ed Kelly and drummer Eddie Marshall (both from San Francisco) on this fine trio set. On "Mood Indigo," Horace Silver's "Peace," "Waltzing Matilda" (which feels a bit like John Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things"), and five mostly swinging Forman originals, the group sounds both exploratory and tied to the tradition. Although this album is not as memorable as his best dates, every Bruce Forman recording is well worth checking out for fans of the bop guitar.~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/in-transit-mw0000898888

In Transit

---