Saturday, April 30, 2022

Becca Stevens, Rebecca Martin, Gretchen Parlato - Tillery

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:21
Size: 102,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:21) 1. Take Me With U
(3:25) 2. O I Long To Feel Your Arms Around Me
(4:27) 3. No More
(2:59) 4. Magnus
(5:31) 5. God Is In The Details
(2:37) 6. I Wanna Fly So Free
(6:01) 7. Sweetheart
(3:26) 8. I Asked
(3:29) 9. To Up And Go
(3:03) 10. Push Me Away
(5:57) 11. Tillery

TILLERY is a collaborative project created by Rebecca Martin, Gretchen Parlato and Becca Stevens. Individually, Rebecca Martin, Gretchen Parlato and Becca Stevens are three of New York’s most acclaimed and respected vocalist/songwriters. Together, as Tillery, they’re a potent collective force that’s more than the sum of its already formidable parts. The threesome’s seamless creative chemistry and organic personal rapport makes for a powerful collaboration that’s been wowing live audiences since the trio first joined forces in 2010. United equally by an abiding friendship and a mutual admiration for one another’s talents, Tillery finds these three unmistakable individuals converging into a distinctive and deeply compelling whole. Tillery’s members are already renowned for their individual musical achievements. Maine-born Rebecca Martin is a widely respected two-decade veteran whose vocal and songwriting talents have allowed her to effortlessly straddle the worlds of jazz and pop. She’s released half a dozen acclaimed albums, on which she’s worked with many of jazz’s most esteemed players, including Brian Blade, Paul Motian, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Martin’s husband, bassist Larry Grenadier.

Native Californian Gretchen Parlato is one of the jazz world’s most celebrated rising vocalists. She first rose to prominence when she finished in first place in the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition. Since then, she’s released three solo albums, as well as lending her voice to more than 50 albums, including high-profile releases by Kenny Barron, Terence Blanchard, Lionel Loueke and Esperanza Spalding. Although a relative newcomer, North Carolina-bred Becca Stevens has quickly emerged as one of the jazz scene’s brightest young lights. In addition to releasing two albums of her original compositions with the Becca Stevens Band, she has sung with Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, and performed and/or recorded with such esteemed musicians as Taylor Eigsti, Eric Harland and Brad Mehldau. The seeds for Tillery were planted in late 2010, when the three artists met and became fervent admirers of each other’s work. Although all three hail from diverse backgrounds and belong to different age groups, they quickly recognized each other as kindred spirits, striking up a personal bond as well as a budding creative collaboration.

The circumstances that spawned the partnership were initially set in motion when a mutual friend of all three artists brought Gretchen Parlato to a Rebecca Martin performance at Manhattan’s Jazz Standard. “Her voice and songs brought me to tears,” Parlato confides. “She has such a warm, loving energy, and I immediately felt like she was someone I wanted to be around and share my time and music with.” The same friend had also been singing the praises of Becca Stevens to Parlato, inspiring her to attend one of Stevens’ shows at the Cornelia Street Cafe. “I was in complete awe of her,” Gretchen notes. “She has the kind of intensity that, from the very first sound out of her mouth, you know that something deep is happening. We got to know each other better when we sang together in Taylor Eigsti’s band Free Agency. We realized that we understood and processed music in the same way, and that we laughed and joked about the same things. And knowing both Rebecca and Becca, I felt like their energies would relate and bond.”

Stevens, meanwhile, had long been aware of both Martin and Parlato.“They were the women in jazz who I could admire when I was coming up,” she says. “I felt totally humbled by the brilliance of Gretchen’s craft, so when she came to my gig, I was really flattered. I had a similar feeling when, after being aware of Rebecca for so many years, she sent me an email out of the blue introducing herself. I finally met her at Cornelia when I went to one of her shows. Gretchen was there too, and the three of us took a picture together after. I laugh when I look at that picture now, because even then, we had the same goofy, spontaneous energy that we have now.” When they subsequently reunited for an all-girl getaway weekend at Martin’s house in upstate Kingston, NY in late 2010, it seemed inevitable that they would end up making music together. “At some point, I picked up my guitar and said ‘Let’s sing something,’ and that was it,” Martin recalls. “There wasn’t any thought put into it. It just happened, and it just made sense.”

“Rebecca taught us one of her songs, and then another,” Stevens remembers. “The three of our voices and the warm receptive energy in the room created this sound that was like… love butter. You just want to spread it all over everything.” A week later, Gretchen and Becca joined Rebecca on stage to sing a few songs at her record-release party, and it quickly became apparent that the informal arrangement should become a permanent one. The new trio made its official debut at the Cornelia Street Cafe in January 2011, as part of a series of shows that Stevens was booking at the venue. After initially operating under the tongue-in-cheek handle Girls Gone Mild, Martin, Parlato and Stevens eventually adopted Tillery (also the title of a Stevens composition) as their permanent monicker. Their work together emphasizes the wide common ground, both musical and personal, that Martin, Parlato and Stevens share. That collective spirit is strong in Tillery’s live shows, which combine songs written specifically for the group, material drawn from the members’ individual repertoires and a surprise-filled assortment of cover tunes.

“I’ve had so many moments on stage with Becca and GP where I’ve felt transported,” Martin states. “I think that we allow our own unique and authentic selves to come through in the music. Both Becca and GP have gratitude and humility in their lives, which allows us all to enjoy and share all aspects of ourselves when we come together.” While continuing to hone their skills as a live unit, and having undertaken a teaching stint at the prestigious Stanford Jazz Workshop (where Martin has headed a songwriting program since TK), the threesome are allowing Tillery to maintain its original intimate spirit and develop at its own pace. “We’ve managed, without trying, to maintain the same energy that we felt together that first night that we sang together at Rebecca’s house,” Stevens observes. “I think there’s something really refreshing about a performance where the performers love and admire each other so completely.” “We all just take this project as it comes,” Parlato concludes. “It’s all very natural and nothing is forced, and because of this, we always approach it with open arms, open hearts. There’s no pressure to do or create anything. It just happens when it happens. It’s always magical, and it always feels like it was meant to be.” https://rebeccamartin.com/bio/tillery-rebecca-martin-gretchen-parlato-becca-stevens/

Tillery

Paco de Lucia - Castro Marin

Styles: Guitar
Year: 1987
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:23
Size: 83,5 MB
Art: Front

(4:47) 1. Monasterio de sal
(4:59) 2. Gitanos andaluces
(4:17) 3. Castro Marín
(5:39) 4. Herencia
(5:13) 5. Convite
(7:27) 6. Palenque
(3:59) 7. Huida

One of the least well-known of the extensive body of work recorded by the Algeciran, which contains some of the tracks that he would include months later on his 1981 record Solo Quiero Caminar with The Sextet. On two songs he counts on the participation of John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell, both of whom collaborated on a series of virtuoso trio performances, an idea promoted by Paco’s manager, Barry Marshall, towards the end of 1978 (Al di Meola soon took the place of Larry Coryell). After an American tour in 1981, Paco recorded 7 tracks in Tokyo between the 25th and 27th of December 1980. It takes the form of a preparation of Solo Quiero Caminar in a format for a solo guitar, in duet with the acoustic guitar of Larry Coryell on ‘Corvite’, and in a trio, joined by McLaughlin with a twelve string acoustic guitar on ‘Palenque’. The other five tracks are played solo by Paco (often accompanying himself on another track). Castro Marin is the name of the village where his mother, Luzia, who was Portuguese, was born, and is situated on the Spanish border at the mouth of the river Guadiana. This album is a memory of his beloved mother. In 1998 he dedicated another to her. http://www.pacodelucia.org/en/disc/castro-marin

Personnel: Paco de Lucía - Flamenco guitar; Larry Coryell - Acoustic guitar; John McLaughlin - Acoustic guitar, 12 string guitar; Carles Benavent - Bass guitar

Castro Marín

Warren Vache, Alan Barnes, The Woodville All-Stars - The London Sessions

Styles: Jazz
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:49
Size: 165,7 MB
Art: Front

( 5:51) 1. You'd Be So Nice to Come Home to
( 5:24) 2. My Funny Valentine
( 7:45) 3. The End of a Love Affair
( 6:00) 4. Sophisticated Lady
(11:14) 5. Molasses
( 7:38) 6. Taking a Chance on Love
( 6:57) 7. My One and Only Love
( 6:09) 8. I'll Close My Eyes
( 8:25) 9. A Walkin' Thing
( 6:21) 10. Love For Sale

1977-80 Alan studied saxophone, woodwinds and arranging at the Leeds College of music. In 1980 he moved to London, playing with the Midnight Follies Orchestra and the following year was with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, touring Europe until 1983. In that year he left to join the hard bop band of Tommy Chase where he attracted considerable attention on the UK jazz scene for the first time. He left Chase in 1986 to co-lead The Jazz Renegades with rock drummer Steve White travelling as far afield as Japan and recording four well received albums. In 1988 Alan was asked to fill the chair recently vacated by Bruce Turner in the Humphrey Lyttleton band where he stayed until 1992. 1987-97 he also found time to lead the Pizza Express Modern Jazz Sextet with Gerard Prescencer and Dave O'Higgins.

Since leaving the Lyttleton band, Alan has concentrated on his freelance career. Alan has enjoyed a prolific career as a sideman, playing and recording for many bands. He broadcast regularly over a ten-year period with the BBC Big Band and Radio Orchestra and has toured and recorded with big band leaders, Dick Walter, Kenny Baker, Bob Wilber, Don Weller, Stan Tracey, Mike Westbrook and John Dankworth. Other bands he has toured and recorded with include the Tina May Trio, Bill LeSage's Genetically Modified Quintet, Spike Robinson's Tenor Madness, Clare Teale, and a sextet with Don Weller playing the music of Cannonball Adderley. Alan has also toured the U.K. with Freddie Hubbard. Alan has long associations with pianist David Newton, going back to their college days, and with blistering be-bop trumpeter Bruce Adams, with whom he has co-led a quintet since the early nineties.

Alan has been featured on many jazz recordings from his first record date as co-leader in 1985 with Tommy Whittle and as leader of his own quartet in 1987 right up to recent record dates with Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache and Harry Allen. He has appeared on the Concord, Fret, Miles Music, Nagel Hayer and Specific labels with various projects. Alan has recorded a large number of sessions with pianist Brian Lemon on the Zephyr label. Amongst these sessions are duet, quintet, sextet and octet sessions with Warren Vache, Tony Coe, KenPeplowski, Gerrard Prescencer and Mark Nightingale. Alan has performed as a member of Clark Tracey's “Tribute to Art Blakey” and was featured on the David Newton/Clark Tracey recording Bootleg Eric.

He has also appeared as a session musician on albums by Selina Jones, Bjork, Van Morrison, Bryan Ferry, Clare Teal, Jamie Cullum and Westlife and can also be found on film and television soundtracks including “Chicago” and jingles such as the Tetley Bitter series of adverts featuring his solo baritone. Alan has appeared regularly as a member of the Laurie Holloway orchestra on television's Michael Parkinson show and Strictly Come Dancing. In 1999 Alan toured America and Europe with Bryan Ferry's band, returning to the U.S.A. in early 2000 to record and tour for ten weeks with Warren Vache's eleven-piece band - a project for which he had written most of the arrangements. He returned to Kansas City in 2001 to perform as a guest soloist at the Topeka jazz Festival. That November he featured on Baritone and clarinet at the Blue Note Clubs in New York and Tokyo with the Charlie Watts Tentet and followed this with a stay in South Africa as a solo artist.

Over the years Alan has won many British Jazz awards in alto, baritone, clarinet and arranging categories. In 2001 and 2006 Alan received the prestigious BBC Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year award and in November 2003 was made a fellow of the Leeds College of Music 2003 also saw the inception of Alan's own record label Woodville Records. Compositions and commissions include “The Sherlock Holmes Suite”, two series of jazz songs written with playwright Alan Plater - “Songs for Unsung Heroes” and “The Seven Ages of Jazz”, “The Mabella Suite”, and settings of E.E. Cummings and other poets arranged for Jazz octet. Latest projects include a clarinet led trio with Jim Hart on vibes and Paul Clavis on drums and an all star octet playing the music of Duke Ellington. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/alan-barnes

Personnel: Bass – Andrew Cleyndert; Bass Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Producer – Alan Barnes; Cornet – Warren Vaché; Drums – Bobby Worth ; Piano – John Pearce; Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet – Andy Panayi; Trombone – Mark Nightingale

The London Sessions

Friday, April 29, 2022

Ray Brown - Some of My Best Friends Are Sax Players

Styles: Contemporary Jazz, Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1995
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 72:28
Size: 171,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:27) 1. How High the Moon
(4:42) 2. Love Walked In
(6:36) 3. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
(3:48) 4. Crazeology
(6:18) 5. Port of Rico (Stanley Turrentine)
(5:23) 6. Moose the Mooche (Jesse Davis)
(6:14) 7. Easy Living
(4:09) 8. Just You, Just Me (Joshua Redman)
(5:31) 9. Fly Me to the Moon
(7:08) 10. (When it's) Sleepytime Down So
(5:59) 11. These Foolish Things
(6:59) 12. God Bless the Child (Stanley Turrentine)
(0:54) 13. In Conversation with Joe Lovano
(1:05) 14. In Conversation with Benny Carter
(0:31) 15. In Conversation with Stanley Turrentine
(0:27) 16. In Conversation with Jesse Davis
(0:28) 17. In Conversation with Joshua Redman
(0:43) 18. In Conversation with Ralph Moore

As a follow-up to bassist Ray Brown's previous record in which he collaborated with several of his favorite pianists, Some of My Best Friends Are...The Sax Players features six major saxophonists (tenors Joe Lovano, Ralph Moore, Joshua Redman and Stanley Turrentine plus altoists Benny Carter and Jesse Davis) on two songs apiece with his regular trio. Although more than 60 years separate the ageless Carter from Redman, each of the saxes originally developed their own voice in the straight-ahead jazz tradition. Highlights of the colorful set include Benny Carter's playful rendition of "Love Walked In," Moore's cooking solo on "Crazeology" (a Benny Harris bop classic which the record mistakenly lists as written by Bud Freeman), Davis ripping through "Moose the Mooche" and Turrentine's romp on the blues "Port of Rico."

Pianist Benny Green and drummer Gregory Hutchinson provide suitable accompaniment (Green's solos are consistently excellent) and all dozen of the songs are successful and swinging. As an extra bonus, on the latter part of the CD each of the saxophonists has a brief chat (between 26 seconds and a minute apiece) with Brown about their early influences. There is so much good feeling and obvious mutual respect shown that one wishes these talks were at least twice as long; the Benny Carter segment is most memorable.~Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/some-of-my-best-friends-arethe-sax-players-mw0000184898

PERSONNEL: RAY BROWN, bass; BENNY GREEN, piano; GREGORY HUTCHINSON, drums

With: BENNY CARTER & JESSE DAVIS, alto sax; JOE LOVANO, RALPH MOORE, JOSHUA REDMAN & STANLEY TURRENTINE, tenor sax

Some of My Best Friends Are Sax Players

Paco De Lucia - Cancion de Andaluza

Styles: Guitar
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:32
Size: 81,5 MB
Art: Front

(3:53) 1. María De La O
(4:43) 2. Ojos Verdes
(4:00) 3. Romance De Valentía
(3:31) 4. Te He De Querer Mientras Viva
(3:20) 5. La Chiquita Piconera
(4:03) 6. Zambra Gitana
(6:07) 7. Quiroga Por Bulerías
(5:51) 8. Señorita

Canción Andaluza (English: Andalusian Song) is the final studio album by Spanish musician Paco de Lucía, released on April 29, 2014 through Universal Music Spain. It was released posthumously after his death on February 25, 2014 and features collaborations with Oscar D'León, Estrella Morente and Vicente Castro "Parrita". The album was recorded at his studio in Mallorca, Spain. The production of the album appeared in the 2014 documentary film Paco de Lucía: La Búsqueda, directed by Francisco Sánchez Varela. At the 15th Annual Latin Grammy Awards, the album won Album of the Year, becoming the first flamenco music album to win the award, also the album won Best Flamenco Album, being the third time he wins that category after receiving the award for Cositas Buenas in 2004 and En Vivo Conciertos España 2010 in 2012https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canci%C3%B3n_Andaluza

Personnel: Guitar, Mandolin, Ney, Mandola – Paco De Lucía; Guitar – Hermanos Conde, Lester Devoe, Pepe Romero; Guitar, Guitarrón – Tony Morales; Mandola – Ricardo Sanchís

Cancion de Andaluza

Hal Galper Trio - Trip the Light Fantastic (feat. Jeff Johnson & John Bishop)

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:19
Size: 102,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:01)  1. Alice in Wonderland
(6:57)  2. Babes of Cancun
(5:52)  3. Get Up & Go
(7:49)  4. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry
(5:56)  5. Suspension
(8:07)  6. Trip the Light Fantastic
(5:34)  7. Be My Love

About eighty percent of the jazz piano players out there can fit into one of two schools: that of the introspective, harmonically rich Bill Evans mode; or the more percussive and gregarious Bud Powell bebop approach. There's also a small slice of the that pie that draws it primary inspiration from bright and splashy Art Tatum/Oscar Peterson pre-bop playing style, along with various subsets. Then there are those who take a foundation of one of those approaches and craft something quite unique, the path that Hal Galper has taken over the past decade. A veteran of the groups of trumpeter Chet Baker and alto saxophonist Phil Woods, Galper can certainly claim a bebop foundation. But he has taken that foundation and flown free with it, as documented in his recent Origin CDs Furious Rubato (2007) and E Pluribus Unum (2010) where he explored the rubato style of playing, an approach that lends elasticity to time and tempo, and often engenders wildness and abandon. Galper opens the set with Sammy Fain/Bob Hilliard's "Alice in Wonderland," a tune famously covered by Evans on his masterpiece Sunday at the Village Vanguard (Riverside Records, 1961). 

This is not a floating Evans version, however; Galper and band mates drummer John Bishop and bassist Jeff Johnson take the tune on a furiously tumultuous ride, full of urgency, pushing in the direction of flying out of control, without ever doing so. Jule Styne's standard "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" is more restrained, a deeply ruminative and intimate conversation between Galper and Johnson that leads into the ominous Galper original, "Suspension," which puts the trio's edgy interactivity and ability to sustain a prickly momentum on full display. The title tune, another Galper original, has a swaying, fractured grandeur, an off-center, freewheeling beauty full of mystery and intrigue. The trio wraps it up with "Be My Love," a film tune written for vocalist Mario Lanza. Bishop's drums sizzle and detonate unpredictably; Johnson's bass rumbles; and the piano notes careen with a scintillating, headlong freedom, closing out Galper's finest trio outing to date. ~ Dan Mcclenaghan   
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40802#.UwzZuoVZhhk
 
Personnel: Hal Galper: piano; Jeff Johnson: bass; John Bishop: drums.

Lani Hall (feat. Herb Alpert) - Seasons Of Love

Styles: Vocal,Trumpet Jazz
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:05
Size: 81,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:13) 1. Happy Woman
(3:40) 2. Seasons Of Love
(2:40) 3. Lovely Day
(3:39) 4. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
(4:08) 5. Waters Of March
(3:08) 6. You Are
(4:24) 7. No Te Vayas No (I Don't Want You To Go)
(3:18) 8. Now You Know
(3:23) 9. Sorri
(3:28) 10. Here Comes The Sun

Vocalist and author Lani Hall has not released an album of her own in 20 years. That is our loss, for sure. Her last effort not counting her work with husband Herb Alpert on his tours and on a number of his fine Grammy-winning sessions was in 1998. With Seasons of Love Hall's stepping out in front shows nothing has changed. She still has an outstanding voice with plenty of walloping emotional impact. She "returns" with this effort, delivering ten fine songs most well-known which are all beautifully performed, impeccably presented, and superbly produced.

The title track is a dramatic take on the well-known feature from the Broadway hit Rent and it is a highlight. The late Bill Withers' upbeat "Lovely Day" is taken straight up by Hall, and builds over a terrific rhythm bed with Alpert's horn singing along with strings. It is a strong, involving track. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is an intimate play on the Roberta Flack classic. Hall caresses the rich lyric over an accompanying acoustic guitar and, later, with strings. Her approach is elegant and avoids any hint of being sappy or saccharine.

Hall's voice is full and right on point. It is a more seasoned sound than on the early Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 days. She is up front, direct, and honest with outstanding emotional depth, dynamic precision, and killer diction. Her approach to the lyrics is pristine and emotive. There is a ton of dramatic presentation across the session, as well. Herb Alpert handles the instrumental solos and sounds better than ever. His improvised accompaniment lines are well-chosen, lush, melismatic, and frame the vocals superbly without stepping on heels. The accompanying musicians are simply superb throughout.

The Bossa classic "Waters of March" puts Hall on a re-harmonised bed and is dramatically moving. "You Are" has Hall rhythmic over an energetic percussion platform with Alpert blowing on the chorus and a slick modulation. The dramatically lovely "No Te Vayas No (I Don't Want You to Go)" has Hall singing in impeccable Spanish. "Now You Know" is a very moving track with Hall accompanied by piano and strings and Alpert's trumpet filling a simply glorious experience. "Sorri" is a lush Bossa take on Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" where the suave syllabication of Hall's Portuguese lends a romantic and intimate flavoring to the optimistic focus of the tune. George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun" has Hall's vocal sunshine all over it, closes the date and is very "all right."

As with anything Alpert, this is an impeccably produced and engineered production which plays perfectly to vocal, trumpet, percussion, and all background textures. Seasons of Love is almost an hour of excellent music. A very minor flaw is that a couple of the tracks, as great as they are, seem to end when listeners could certainly want more. But, then again who is to argue with genius?

Personnel: Lani Hall: voice / vocals; Herb Alpert: trumpet; Bill Cantos: piano; Hussain Jiffry: bass, electric; Mitchell Long: guitar; Andre De Santanna: bass; Rafael Padilla: percussion; Eduardo DelBarrio: piano.

Additional Instrumentation: Herb Alpert: vocals, flugelhorn; Bill Cantos: keyboards, strings;

Seasons Of Love

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Ray Brown Trio - Some of My Best Friends Are...Guitarists

Styles: Contemporary Jazz, Guitar Jazz
Year: 2002
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 66:04
Size: 152,3 MB
Art: Front

(7:28) 1. Squeeze Me
(3:36) 2. I Want To Be Happy
(5:30) 3. Heartstrings
(3:13) 4. Blues for Ray
(5:12) 5. Fly Me To The Moon
(5:01) 6. The Song Is You
(7:47) 7. Little Darlin'
(6:01) 8. Blues For Junior
(4:27) 9. Tangerine
(6:04) 10. My Funny Valentine
(4:42) 11. Blues For Wes
(6:56) 12. Soulful Spirit

The fifth in Ray Brown's series of recordings pairing his working trio with several different musicians from the same family of instruments (although one volume was exclusively singers) features a half-dozen guitarists, ranging from fellow Oscar Peterson alumni Herb Ellis (who worked with Brown in the pianist's most famous trio) and Ulf Wakenius to veteran Kenny Burrell, as well as seasoned players like John Pizzarelli and Bruce Forman and the rising star Russell Malone. Each song sounds as if the group could be a working quartet, due to the great interaction between the trio and each guest. Pizzarelli shines in a bluesy, strutting take of Duke Ellington's "Just Squeeze Me" (erroneously labeled as Fats Waller's "Squeeze Me") which has a nice series of exchanges between the guitarist and the leader.

Ellis brings back memories of the Oscar Peterson Trio with a heated performance of "I Want to Be Happy" during which pianist Geoff Keezer is up to the task of carrying on where Ellis left off. Wakenius is the guest on a particularly moody take of "My Funny Valentine." Burrell, Forman, and Malone also fare nicely on each of their pair of tracks, so it's very easy to recommend this very enjoyable disc.~Ken Drydenhttps://www.allmusic.com/album/some-of-my-best-friends-are-guitarists-mw0000224992

Personnel: Ray Brown - Bass; Geoff Keezer - Piano; Karriem Riggins - Drums; Kenny Burrell, Herb Ellis, Bruce Forman, Russell Malone, John Pizzarelli, Ulf Wakenius - Guitar.

Some of My Best Friends Are...Guitarists

Sinne Eeg - Remembering You

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:24
Size: 108,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:55)  1. Talking To Myself
(6:09)  2. Remembering You
(2:17)  3. Just You, Just Me
(6:18)  4. Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most
(3:26)  5. Up From The Skies
(5:20)  6. Moonbeam
(3:48)  7. Unpredictable Love
(3:05)  8. You and I
(5:30)  9. In a Sentimental Mood
(2:28) 10. It's Alright With Me
(5:03) 11. My One and Only Love

Sinne Eeg has blown away audiences and critics alike since her debut in 2003, the 2006 follow up as well as the most recent and critical acclaimed 'Kun en Drøm'. With tremendous success in her native Denmark and increasingly abroad, Sinne Eeg has already established herself as one of today's foremost Scandinavian jazz vocal singers. Her elegant vocal mesmerizes her audience and tells a story that you don't want to let go. As a singer she is influenced by Nancy Wilson, Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan, but with her personal touch of soft darkness, Sinne keeps the Scandinavian melancholy settled in her music. http://www.reddotmusic.net/artists/1/

Personnel: Curtis Stigers (vocals); Jacob Fischer (guitar); Christian Ellegaard, Andreas Birk, Rune Tomsgaard Sorensen (violin); Bastian Schneider (cello); Peter Rosendahl (whistle); Marc Berthoumieux (accordion); Peter Fuglsang (alto saxophone); Randy Brecker (flugelhorn); Jacob Christoffersen (piano); Chris Minh Doky (acoustic bass); Rasmus Kihlberg (drums).

Adrienne West - Live in Bremen

Styles: Vocal
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:42
Size: 91,3 MB
Art: Front

(4:38) 1. Can You Dig It
(5:12) 2. They Call It Jazz
(5:13) 3. Make Someone Happy
(5:41) 4. Pearls
(3:45) 5. Close Your Eyes
(5:09) 6. The View
(3:10) 7. I Love Being Here With You
(6:50) 8. Both Sides Now

A native New Yorker, Adrienne is an internationally respected vocalist of many different genres. She has performed at jazz festivals and clubs all throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. Her performance formations range from duo(s) to big band. Adrienne also directs Masterclass Workshops designed for voice and performance. Past and present, she performs with prominent musicians including: Billy Cobham, Sebastian Altekamp, Enzo Zirilli, Peter Washington, Dado Moroni and more. Adrienne’s new live recording project, Live in Bremen, (marking her second album release on Dot Time Records) is due out April 15, 2022, and features Sebastian Altekamp on piano, Uli Wentzlaff-Eggebert on acoustic bass and Yonga Sun on Drums and Percussion.

Personnel: Adrienne West - Vocals; Sebastian Altekamp - Piano; Uli Wentzlaff-Eggebert - Bass; Yonga Sun - Drums, Percussion

Live in Bremen

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Kenny Rankin - Here In My Heart

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:27
Size: 123,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:29) 1. A Day In The Life Of A Fool
(4:06) 2. Life In The Modern World
(4:54) 3. Puzzle Of Hearts
(5:31) 4. Those Eyes
(4:14) 5. A Lover's Touch
(4:48) 6. Stay
(4:21) 7. A Slight Infatuation
(3:21) 8. I've Just Seen a Face
(3:31) 9. This Happy Madness
(4:25) 10. Even You and I
(3:04) 11. Come Rain or Come Shine
(3:12) 12. Art of Survival
(4:26) 13. Here In My Heart

It seems like every jazz artist (and even some pseudo-jazz artists) is destined to record at least one Brasilian music album during their career. Here's singer/songwriter Kenny Rankin's entry into this well-trodden field.

Everything about this disc looks like it should be great. There's a remarkable cast of players from both Americas. From Brasil, we have producer Oscar Castro-Neves, Luis Bonfa, Teo Lima, Gilson Peranzzetta, Ricardo Silveira, and many more. From the U.S., there's Don Grusin, Brian Bromberg, Michael Brecker, and Ernie Watts. Toots Thielemans, who has issued two Brasilian CDs on the same Private Music label, is on hand as well. Then there's the choice of material. There are four Ivan Lins tunes, a Djavan, a Jobim, a Bonfa, and several other Brasilian composers, plus a tune each by Lennon-McCartney and Johnny Mercer-Harold Arlen, and two Rankin originals.

So why is this CD such a disappointment? First, I think maybe this concept has now been worked to death. Oscar Castro-Neves has already produced numerous all-star recordings from this same bag. The arrangements and the performances are uninspired and lifeless. But the major reason this CD is such a disaster is Rankin's vocal performance. He has severe intonation problems throughout the album, singing so flat at times that it's painful. Plus, he seems to be in musical territory that's unfamiliar to him, so he seems to have few ideas about how to interpret and deliver these tunes. I'm sure you can find other releases in Kenny Rankin's discography that display his talents much more favorably, and you can certainly find a plethora of better Brasilian CDs.~ Dave Hughes https://www.allaboutjazz.com/here-in-my-heart-kenny-rankin-private-music-review-by-dave-hughes

Personnel: Kenny Rankin: vocals

Here In My Heart

Richie Cole - Cannonball Feat. Reggie Watkins

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@256K/s
Time: 65:13
Size: 120,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:18) 1. Del Sasser
(4:27) 2. Dat Dere
(5:03) 3. The Stars Fell on Alabama
(3:32) 4. Matchmaker, Matchmaker
(5:53) 5. Jeannine
(6:39) 6. Jive Samba
(4:16) 7. Bell of the Ball
(5:28) 8. Sack O' Woe
(3:27) 9. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
(5:00) 10. Save Your Love for Me
(3:37) 11. Toy
(3:34) 12. Azule Serape
(4:53) 13. Unit 7
(5:00) 14. Save Your Love for Me (Bonus English Version)

A Charlie Parker/Phil Woods disciple through and through, and a master of the be-bop idiom, it may surprise many to learn that Richie Cole cites Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley as his favourite alto saxophonist. In this warm and most welcome dedication to the great saxophonist, Cole never seeks to emulate but merely serves up some of his favourite tunes associated with Adderley and delvers them in his own inimitable style.

'Del Sasser' kicks things off nicely, and this is more than matched by by a hard driving 'Jeannine' by Duke Pearson, that has been a Cole staple for decade and one that I first heard Richie play four decades ago on his Return To Alto Acres album from the 1980's. No Cannonball tribute would be complete without a version of 'Sack Of Woe' and indeed Cole plays this with relish and a big helping of passion thrown in for good measure., with trombonist, Reggie Watkins firing in a cracking solo matching the leader for creativity and all driven along by drummer Roger Humphries, a former member of Horace Silver's Quintet.

Zawinul's 'Mercy, Mercy, Mercy' was also a much loved number played by Adderley, and is delivered up here with a fine arrangement by Richie.Indeed it is Cole who has arranged all the material here, all of which has a vibrancy and joie de vivre that would have put a smile on Adderley's face, as would Richie's original composition 'Bell Of The Ball' named after Cannonball's alto saxophone, that has fine solos from Cole, trombone man Watkins and guitarist, Eril Susouff.

All in all an intensely joyous and uplifting set that will send many of us scurrying back to our collections to dig out some of our original Cannonball albums, but hey... not before we hit the repeat button again to celebrate this wonderful music with Rcihie and his cohorts.~Reviewed by Nick Lea https://www.jazzviews.net/richie-cole---cannonball.html

Personnel: Richie Cole (alto saxophone); Reggie Watkins (trombone); Eric Susouff (guitar); Kevin Moore (piano); Mark Perna (bass); Vince Taglieri (drums); J.D.Chaisson (trumpet); Rick Matt (tenor saxophone); special guests Roger Humphries (drums); Kenny Blake, Tony Campbell (alto saxophone); Kenia (vocals)

Cannonball Feat. Reggie Watkins

Erin Bode - Over And Over

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 57:21
Size: 131.3 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[4:29] 1. Holiday
[4:20] 2. Over And Over
[9:08] 3. Graceland
[3:12] 4. Feet Off The Ground
[5:35] 5. Long, Long Time
[2:37] 6. Send Me Up A Sign
[4:01] 7. St. Louis Song
[4:30] 8. Perfect World
[3:52] 9. Something More
[4:02] 10. Holding Back The Years
[2:47] 11. With The Radio On
[6:26] 12. Flying Colors: Alone Together
[2:16] 13. Home Again

Although jazz-pop singer Erin Bode most often gets compared to Norah Jones, a closer point of comparison is the British indie duo Everything But the Girl. Although he doesn't get front-cover credit, Over and Over is effectively a duet album between Bode's warmly appealing, low-key vocals and her primary collaborator, Adam Maness, whose piano and acoustic guitar are at the heart of the arrangements and who co-wrote nearly all the songs. Maness is Ben Watt to Bode's Tracey Thorn, an empathetic collaborator rooted both in cool jazz and acoustic folk, and the pair create a hybrid of the two styles matched to a fondness for the reflective side of singer/songwriter pop that's best revealed on the album's two pop covers. Paul Simon's "Graceland" is transformed from the South African country ramble into something closer to Joni Mitchell's late-'70s fusion period, and Simply Red's near-forgotten ballad "Holding Back the Years" is overhauled from the unashamedly slick chart pop of the original into a stark duet performance of Maness' close-miked, echoing acoustic guitar and Bode's haunted, mournful vocals that changes the entire feel of the tune. Those tracks aside, however, it's the Bode/Maness originals that are the most intriguing part of this quiet but engrossing album, particularly "Send Me Up a Sign" (the most overtly Everything But the Girl-like song on the album) and the utterly charming, winsome lost-love tune "With the Radio On," which wouldn't sound out of place on a mid-'90s twee pop single by the likes of Softies or Lois until Seamus Blake's playful sax solo shows up. That cross-genre appeal is what makes Over and Over such a good record: Erin Bode isn't interested in staying in one particular stylistic box. ~Stewart Mason

Over And Over

Kellye Gray - And, They Call Us Cowboys

Size: 100,5 MB
Time: 42:14
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2013
Styles: Crossover Jazz, Alt. Country/Pop
Art: Front

01. Help Me Make It Through The Night (4:01)
02. In The Ghetto (4:15)
03. If I Needed You (4:03)
04. Dang Me (4:36)
05. Deep In The West (5:15)
06. Sailing (5:24)
07. Only The Lonely (4:09)
08. Always On My Mind (6:47)
09. Night's Lullaby (3:40)

Ever wondered what would happen if a fearless woman grabbed hold of a bunch of classic country-type songs and jazzed 'em up? Well, And They Call Us Cowboys answers that curiosity, starting off with a breezy version of Kristofferson's Help Me Make It through the Night, a cut that has samba, lite jazz, mellow rock, and soul. The real basis for the CD is to pay attention to Texas musicians, of which Gray is one, as well as a couple almost-Texans who dug the groove and knew the strut.

Gray's intent is clearly shown in her take on Mac Davis' In the Ghetto, which comes across first as a reproving Plains mom haranguing one and all to hush the hell up and give a damn about someone else for a change…just before she turns the number into an Ella Fitzgerald jazz-scat. Roger Miller's immortal Dang Me gets the Ben Sidran treatment so thoroughly that it's damn near unrecognizable…except when you suddenly hafta blurt out "Yow! That's waaaaay the hell cool!" It also reminds the attentive that Miller had a jazzy underside in a bunch of his perkier stuff. Then there's the just as mutated take on Christopher Cross' Sailing, as though Betty Davis (Miles' wife, not the queen bitch actress) and Nina Simone decided to team up in one voice with a starry Mark Egany bass (Chris Maresh) ambientalizing the atmosphere in spare tonal poetics. Trust me, you'll never again hear this song, my favorite here, done so coolly and so outrageously at the same time. Gray must have extra wrinkles in her brain just to be able to think that way.

Orbison's Only the Lonely comes through in Marvin Gaye Trouble Man waves, a nightclub number in low lights where you can almost hear the clinking of wine glasses and the crowd's digging-it murmur. If you want to know what's really meant by interpretation, then you have to get this disc 'cause, frankly, I can't remember the last time I heard a set of tunes this radically reworked while remaining faithful to the intent and flavor of the originals. You just know that more than one of the composers here is going to hear Cowboys and think "Damn! I sure wish I'd written it THAT way!"

And, They Call Us Cowboys

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Ray Brown - Some Of My Best Friends Are ... The Trumpet Players

Styles: Contemporary Jazz, Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2000
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:05
Size: 142,5 MB
Art: Front

(5:02) 1. Roy Hargrove / Our Delight
(6:29) 2. Jon Faddis / Bag's Groove
(5:49) 3. James Morrison / I Thought About You
(4:07) 4. Terence Blanchard/I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
(5:48) 5. Nicholas Payton / Violets for Your Furs
(3:01) 6. Clark Terry / Itty Bitty Blues
(4:28) 7. Roy Hargrove / Stairway To The Stars
(5:06) 8. Jon Faddis / Original Jones
(4:50) 9. James Morrison / When You Go
(4:21) 10. Nicholas Payton / The Kicker
(5:00) 11. Clark Terry / Clark's Tune (Legacy)
(7:57) 12. Terence Blanchard / Goodbye

In the latest edition of his "Some Of My Best Friends Are..." series, Ray Brown honors the trumpet players as they honor him. Having already musically expressed his friendship with singers, pianists and saxophonists, Brown's next group of honorees will include...trombonists? Drummers? Guitarists? The interesting aspect of Some Of My Best Friends Are...The Trumpet Players is the influence of Dizzy Gillespie. An inspiration to Brown, who first received recognition in Dizzy's group, as well as to jazz trumpeters everywhere, Dizzy's spirit infuses especially the Nicholas Payton, Jon Faddis and Roy Hargrove tracks.

Deeply indebted to Dizzy for spiritual as well as technical guidance, Faddis' work on "Original Jones" is the most obviously referential. As a result, it also is the most thrilling trumpet work, commanding the instrument's extreme upper register and negotiating intervallic leaps with ease. James Morrison, on the other hand, concentrates on a rounder tone that expresses the melodic intent of the tunes, particularly Brown's composition, "When You Go." Roy Hargrove introduces Some Of My Best Friends Are...The Trumpet Players with a confident bop sensibility on "Our Delight," combining a concise voice and clarity of thought.

Nicholas Payton proves that he is moving more and more away toward explorative work on Joe Henderson's "The Kicker," as he did recently on Steve Wilson's CD. Balancing aggressive work with a ballad, as do all of the other trumpeters on their two tunes apiece, Payton plaintively sings through his horn on "Violets For Your Furs," wavering a slight vibrato on the long tones, buzzing ever-so-perceptively on lower notes to balance the sweetness of his sound in the middle register.Terence Blanchard's ballad turns out to be Tadd Dameron's "Goodbye," the famous Benny Goodman closer, while in contrast Blanchard enlivens "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" at greater than twice the tempo of the famous Dorsey version.

And then there's Clark Terry. Being himself. Trading horns on "Clark's Tune." Creating an inimitable opening chorus, and well as solos, on Brown's "Itty Bitty Blues" with the apparent ease of a 30-year-old, although Terry will be 80 years young in two more months. Once again, Ray Brown has assembled a stellar trio. Geoff Keezer remains within the groove of the album, although his recent Zero One CD proves that he can be explorative and unconventional when he leaves the accompanist's role. And drummer Karriem Riggins propels the group with colors and drive without overpowering, as he does to animate Faddis' work on "Original Jones."

Then there's Ray Brown, sturdy and inspirational, establishing the mournful languor of "Bag's Groove" in tribute to Brown's and Faddis' friend, Milt Jackson. Conversing with Faddis, Brown responds to Faddis' groove with elaboration and eloquence. While it seems that Ray Brown makes friends wherever he goes, as his "Friends" albums prove, his circle of friends has widened to encompass his listeners, who no doubt will respond with affection to Some Of My Best Friends Are...The Trumpet Players , yet another estimable album in Brown's estimable series.~AAJ Staffhttps://www.allaboutjazz.com/some-of-my-best-friends-arethe-trumpet-players-ray-brown-telarc-records-review-by-aaj-staff

Personnel: Ray Brown, bass; Geoff Keezer, piano; Karriem Riggins, drums; Terence Blanchard, Jon Faddis, Roy Hargrove, James Morrison, Nicholas Payton, Clark Terry, trumpet

Some Of My Best Friends Are ... The Trumpet Players

Coleman Hawkins - Bean And The Boys

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 73:05
Size: 167.3 MB
Styles: Saxophone jazz
Year: 1993/2009
Art: Front

[2:54] 1. In The Hush Of The Night
[2:50] 2. Out To Lunch
[2:48] 3. Every Man For Himself
[2:43] 4. Look Out Jack!
[2:39] 5. On The Bean
[2:51] 6. Recollections
[2:47] 7. Flyin' Hawk
[3:02] 8. Drifting On A Reed
[3:02] 9. I Mean You
[2:38] 10. Bean And The Boys
[2:41] 11. Bean And The Boys
[3:03] 12. Cocktails For Two
[3:00] 13. You Go To My Head
[6:06] 14. Stasch
[5:58] 15. Trust In Me
[6:04] 16. Roll 'em Pete
[5:58] 17. Skrouk
[6:56] 18. Since I Fell For You
[4:55] 19. My Babe

BEAN AND THE BOYS is the perfect title for this compilation, for certainly the list of players heard on this disc reads like a virtual "who's who" in jazz. Hawkins is teamed up with swing era players Jonah Jones (trumpet), and Walter "Foots" Thomas (tenor saxophone) on the first four tracks. Tracks nine through 13 highlight The Bean with the then young lions of bebop, J.J. Johnson (trombone), Fats Navarro (trumpet), Milt Jackson (vibes) and others. The final batch of tunes comes from a post-bop period (where Hawk finally settled musically). Songs from this era (late '50s) tend to incorporate stylistic elements from both swing and bebop. Hawkins himself never really became a bebop soloist per se, though he did sometimes "turn" a bop line quite successfully. All this, if nothing else, shows us the interconnection between the various genres of jazz. Mostly, all the styles heard on BEAN AND THE BOYS contain elements of the blues. As well, all styles herein contain highly syncopated rhythmical ideas, and similar song structures. Highlights include the bopish "Bean and the Boys," the bouncy "Out the Lunch," and the boogie woogie inflected "Roll 'em Pete."

Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone); Roy Gaines (guitar); Jerome Richardson (flute, alto saxophone); Eddie Barefield (clarinet, alto saxophone); Hilton Jefferson, Hubert Fol, Porter Kilbert (alto saxophone); Walter "Foots" Thomas, Walter Thomas (tenor saxophone); Pepper Adams (baritone saxophone); Fats Navarro, Idrees Sulieman, Jonah Jones (trumpet); Nat Peck, J.J. Johnson (trombone); Clyde Hart, Hank Jones , Jean-Paul Mengeon, Ray Bryant, Thelonious Monk (piano); Milt Jackson (vibraphone); Cozy Cole, Denzil Best, Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, Walter Bolden (drums).

Recording information: Hackensack, NJ (10/19/1944-12/21/1949); New York, NY (10/19/1944-12/21/1949); Paris, France (10/19/1944-12/21/1949).

Bean & the Boys  

Michel Legrand - Cole Porter

Styles: Piano Jazz
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 69:46
Size: 162,7 MB
Art: Front

(3:46) 1. Begin The Beguine
(4:22) 2. In The Still Of The Night
(2:20) 3. Just One Of Those Things
(3:10) 4. Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye
(2:45) 5. What Is This Thing Called Love
(2:49) 6. True Love
(1:56) 7. Ridin' High
(2:54) 8. Love Of My Life
(2:40) 9. Too Darn Hot
(3:38) 10. So In Love
(2:25) 11. Don't Fence Me In
(3:07) 12. Anything Goes
(2:29) 13. Love For Sale
(4:04) 14. Close
(2:50) 15. I Get A Kick Out Of You
(3:12) 16. I Love You
(2:46) 17. It's All Right With Me
(2:42) 18. I Am In Love
(2:33) 19. Night And Day
(2:01) 20. You Do Something To Me
(2:24) 21. From This Moment On
(3:29) 22. All Through The Night
(2:31) 23. I've Got You Under My Skin
(2:42) 24. Blow Gabriel Blow

Michel Legrand is a three-time Academy Award-winning French composer, conductor and pianist who composed over 200 film and television scores as well as recorded over a hundred albums of jazz, popular and classical music. He was born on February 24, 1932, in Becon-les-Bruyeres, in the Paris suburbs, France. His father, Raymond Legrand, was a French composer and actor. His mother, Marcelle der Mikaelian, was descended from the Armenian bourgeousie. From 1942 - 1949 young Legrand studied piano at the Paris Conservatoire. There his teachers were Nadia Boulanger and Henri Challan among other renown musicians. He received numerous awards for his skills in composition and piano and mastered a dozen other instruments. In 1947 he attended a concert by Dizzy Gillespie and caught a jazz bug. He started working as a pianist for major French singers. He eventually collaborated with Dizzy Gillespie on several albums and film scores.

In 1954 Legrand became an overnight star after his album "I Love Paris" became a hit, it went on selling over 8 million copies. He followed the success with such albums as "Holiday in Rome" (1955) and "Michel Legrand Plays Cole Porter" (1957). In 1958 he was invited to play at Moscow Festival of Students and Youth. There, in Moscow, he met his future wife, a young French model with who he went on to have three children. In the late 1950s and 1960s Legrand was caught up in the French New Wave. He scored seven films for jean-Luc Godard, he also made ten films with Jacques Demy, and became responsible for creating the genre of musical in the French Cinema. In 1963 Legrand did The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), the first film musical that was entirely sung. For that film score he received three Oscar nominations. His beautiful, haunting melody, "I Will Wait For You", received nomination for Best Original Song.

In 1966 Legrand decided to take his chances in Hollywood, and moved to Los Angeles with his wife and three children. His friendship with Quincy Jones and Hank Mancini helped him a great deal, especially in meeting the lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman. In 1969 Legrand won his first Oscar for Best Music, Original Song for "The Windmills of Your Mind" and was also nominated for Best Music, Original score for a Motion Picture for The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Eventually Legrand went on to become a star in the US, he received twelve nominations for Academy Awards, and won two more Oscars. He was also nominated for a Grammy 27 times and received 5 Grammys in the 1970s.

In the 1980s and 1990s Legrand continued giving live concerts with his own jazz trio. He also led his big band which he took on several international tours, accompanying such stars as Ray Charles , Diana Ross , Björk , and Stéphane Grappelli who celebrated his 85th birthday in 1992. He also recorded several classical albums, including an album with cross-genre hits entitled "Kiri Sings Michel Legrand" with the opera singer Kiri te Kanawa. During the 2000s Legrand has been working mainly in the studio, and also made several international tours. In 2005 a compilation of Legrand's best known film soundtracks was released under the title "Le Cinema de Michel Legrand", featuring 90 songs composed in the course of his career.By:Steve Shelokhonovhttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006166/bio

Cole Porter

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Betty Carter - Now It's My Turn

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1976
File: MP3@224K/s
Time: 45:51
Size: 74,2 MB
Art: Front

(4:32) 1. Music Maestro Please-swing Brother Swing
(5:07) 2. I Was Telling Him About You
(7:17) 3. Wagon Wheels
(6:28) 4. New Blues (You Purr)
(3:07) 5. Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love
(3:00) 6. Making Dreams Come True
(4:37) 7. Open The Door
(4:39) 8. Just Friends / Star Eyes
(6:59) 9. No More Words

The title of this out-of-print Roulette album was a bit premature for it would not be until the late '80s before Betty Carter was finally "discovered." An adventurous jazz singer whose musical integrity is almost as impressive as her talents at improvising, Carter is heard in top form throughout her obscure albumn. Assisted by pianist John Hicks, bassist Walter Booker and an unidentified drummer, Carter performs memorable renditions of such unlikely material as "Wagon Wheels," "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love" and medleys of "Music Maestro Please/Swing Brother Swing" and "Just Friends/Star Eyes." Worth searching for.~Scott Yanowhttps://www.allmusic.com/album/now-its-my-turn-mw0000921896

Personnel: Betty Carter – vocals; John Hicks – piano; Walter Booker – bass; Eddie Moore – drums

Now It's My Turn

Paco de Lucia - Almoraima

Styles: Guitar
Year: 1976
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 37:40
Size: 87,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:27) 1. Almoraima (Bulerias)
(5:45) 2. Cueva del Gato (Rondena)
(3:12) 3. Cobre (Sevillanas)
(4:29) 4. A la Perla de Cadiz (Cantinas)
(4:21) 5. Ole (Jaleos)
(6:15) 6. Plaza Alta (Solea)
(4:32) 7. Rio Ancho (Rumba)
(3:38) 8. Llanos de Real (Minera)

Paco de Lucía is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre. He is a leading proponent of the Modern Flamenco style, and is one of the very few flamenco guitarists who has also successfully crossed over into other genres of music such as classical and jazz. https://www.classclef.com/almoraima-by-paco-de-lucia/

Personnel: Paco de Lucía – guitar; Ramón de Algeciras – guitar; Álvaro Yebenes – bass guitar; Pedro Ruy-Blas – percussion

Almoraima

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette - Tribute Disc 1, Disc 2

Album: Tribute Disc 1
Styles: Piano Jazz, Bop
Year: 1990
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:27
Size: 128,4 MB
Art: Front

(13:14) 1. Lover Man
(11:19) 2. I Hear a Rhapsody
( 6:05) 3. Little Girl Blue
( 9:32) 4. Solar
(14:16) 5. Sun Prayer

Album: Tribute Disc 2
Time: 60:38
Size: 144,0 MB

(10:08) 1. Just in Time
( 8:26) 2. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
( 8:08) 3. All of You
( 7:02) 4. Ballad of the Sad Young Men
( 8:57) 5. All the Things You Are
( 7:08) 6. It's Easy to Remember
(10:46) 7. U Dance

Pianist Keith Jarrett has paid all sorts of tributes through his career, nodding to Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, and Bill Evans. But on this two-CD set, Jarrett picks particular versions of tunes to play off. So he pays homage to Lee Konitz on "Lover Man" and Sonny Rollins on "All the Things You Are." His formula for the tributes makes the music surprisingly engaged, dropping lyrical twists in his nod to Anita O'Day and cool loops when tipping Jim Hall. Where some of the so-called Standards Trio recordings veer into impressionism without regard to direction, this collection maintains tempered balance, even finding a classic Jarrett groove on "Sun Prayer," which drummer Jack DeJohnnette drives with a taut rhythmic clip. Alas, the tune fades in the groove's midst. But the package is barely any less strong for the fade and, in fact, stands above most of the other standards recordings.~Andrew Bartlett Opiniones editoriales https://www.amazon.com/Tribute-Keith-Jarrett/dp/B0000031VY

Personnel: Keith Jarrett – piano; Gary Peacock - bass; Jack DeJohnette - drums

Tribute Disc 1,Disc 2

Sinne Eeg - The Beauty Of Sadness

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 49:36
Size: 113.6 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[5:27] 1. The Beauty Of Sadness
[4:10] 2. So Now You Know
[5:51] 3. Silence
[5:28] 4. Strawberry Fields Forever
[4:15] 5. The Peacocks (A Timeless Place)
[3:14] 6. I Have The Feeling I Have Been Here Before
[5:30] 7. Love Is A Time Of Year
[6:13] 8. Waiting For Dawn
[5:13] 9. The Windmills Of Your Mind
[4:10] 10. With Or Without You

Sinne Eeg’s album ‘The Beauty Of Sadness’ is a natural follow up to the two award-winning albums before it, ‘Don’t Be So Blue’ (2010) and ‘Waiting For Dawn’ (2007). The music on the album encompasses a full dynamic range, from sublimely minimalistic (duo with bass clarinet), to elegantly grandiose through a musical partnership with ‘The Danish National Chamber Orchestra’ which since its foundation in 1939 has aimed to provide audiences with musical entertainment of the highest caliber in every conceivable genre.

Take legendary drummer Peter Erskine (world re-known for his time with bands like Weather Report and Steps Ahead) and add him to Sinne’s working band, plus a handful of top arrangers and sidemen from the international jazz scene. Combine them with ‘The Danish National Chamber Orchestra’ and put Sinne Eeg in front and in charge,both musically and conceptually, and the musical potential is almost unlimited. As Thomas Conrad from ‘All About Jazz’ in NYC describes so accurately; “Sinne Eeg is a singer with the whole package; good taste, looks, height, pipes, range, control and the ability to both scat and tell a story”

The Beauty Of Sadness

Ray Brown Trio - Some Of My Best Friends Are... The Piano Players

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:48
Size: 127.7 MB
Styles: Contemporary jazz, Piano jazz
Year: 1995
Art: Front

[4:17] 1. Bags' Groove
[4:33] 2. Love Walked In
[7:11] 3. St. Louis Blues
[3:34] 4. Lover
[5:24] 5. Just A Gigolo
[3:46] 6. Ray Of Light
[6:05] 7. Giant Steps
[4:44] 8. My Romance
[4:36] 9. Close Your Eyes
[5:06] 10. St. Tropez
[6:26] 11. How Come You Do Me

Bass – Ray Brown; Drums – Lewis Nash; Piano – Ahmad Jamal (tracks: 4 to 6), Benny Green (tracks: 1 to 3), Dado Moroni (tracks: 7, 8), Geoff Keezer (tracks: 9), Oscar Peterson (tracks: 10, 11). Tracks 1-9 recorded November 21, 1994 at Clinton Recording Studio, Studio A, New York, NY. Tracks 10 & 11 recorded November 18, 1994 at Glenn Gould Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

On his Telarc disc, Ray Brown teams up with five different piano players but, rather than this being a tribute to the veteran bassist (who has solo space on every selection), the CD ends up being a celebration of the great Oscar Peterson because Benny Green, Dado Moroni, and Geoff Keezer have, to various degrees, based their styles on Peterson's, but the indivual standout is actually Ahmad Jamal, who had never previously recorded with Brown. Together with Lewis Nash they perform two blues and "Love Walked In," all renditions that make a liberal use of space and pay close attention to dynamics. Benny Green, who plays his "Ray of Light" along with two standards, had performed regularly with Brown in recent years and his selections offer few surprises. Dodo Moroni is fine on "My Romance" and inserts a bit of Erroll Garner on "Giant Steps," while Geoff Keezer (who had also never played with Brown) swings well on "Close Your Eyes." The CD concludes with a reunion between Oscar Peterson (who had recently recovered from a stroke) and Brown on "St. Tropez" and the upbeat "How Come You Do Me like You Do?" The results overall are pleasing and swinging (serving as a sampler of the pianists' styles), but not all that innovative. ~Scott Yanow

Some Of My Best Friends Are... The Piano Players

Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Abraça Jobim

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1981
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 75:11
Size: 173,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:54) 1. Dreamer (Vivo Sonhando)
(5:16) 2. This Love That I've Found (So Tinha de Ser com Voce)
(3:50) 3. The Girl from Ipanema (Garota de Ipanema)
(3:56) 4. Somewhere in the Hills (Favela)
(3:48) 5. Photograph (Fotografia)
(5:21) 6. Wave
(4:06) 7. Triste
(5:39) 8. Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)
(2:44) 9. Water to Drink (Agua de Beber)
(2:50) 10. Bonita
(3:42) 11. Off Key (Desafinado)
(5:12) 12. He's a Carioca (Ele e Carioca)
(6:36) 13. Dindi
(2:59) 14. How Insensitive (Insensatez)
(3:52) 15. One Note Samba (Samba de Uma Nota So)
(2:17) 16. A Felicidade
(7:59) 17. Useless Landscape (Inutil Paisagem)

For years, "The Girl fom Ipanema" was a staple in Ella Fitzgerald's songbook, so it's something of a wonder that it was not until 1981 that Ella Abraça Jobim, Fitzgerald's double-album immersion in Antonio Carlos Jobim's back catalog, appeared. Ella's first single-composer release since 1964's tribute to Jerome Kern, Ella Abraça Jobim is, more than anything, final proof of the unassuming Brazilian's place in jazz history alongside the great composers. Sadly Jobim's mellow bossa nova, drenched in the Brazilian concept of saudade, or agreeable melancholy, doesn't necessarily gel with Fitzgerald's swing-based and energetic vocal style.

Fitzgerald and her small group take songs like "Agua de Beber (Water to Drink)" at just slightly too speedy a tempo, rushing a bit where they should be gamboling. Fitzgerald is in very good voice compared to some other recordings from her later years, though, sadly, she's clearly not at her peak. Norman Granz's production is typically excellent, however, and the arrangements are refreshingly free of the typical late-'70s/early-'80s post-fusion clichés. Neither Fitzgerald nor Jobim's finest, then, but not without merit.~ Stewart Masonhttps://www.allmusic.com/album/ella-abra%C3%A7a-jobim-sings-the-antonio-carlos-jobim-songbook-mw0000195476

Personnel: Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals; Clark Terry - Trumpet; Zoot Sims - Tenor Saxophone; Toots Thielemans - Harmonica; Henry Trotter - Keyboards; Mike Lang - Keyboards; Clarence McDonald - Keyboards; Joe Pass - Electric guitar (soloist); Oscar Castro-Neves - Acoustic guitar (soloist); Paul Jackson, Jr. - Rhythm guitar; Mitch Holder - Rhythm guitar; Roland Bautista - Rhythm guitar; Abraham Laboriel - Double Bass; Alex Acuña - Drums; Paulinho da Costa - Percussion

Ella Abraca Jobim

Mandy Barnett - Every Star Above

Styles: Vocal
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:08
Size: 97,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:55) 1. But Beautiful
(4:44) 2. Glad To Be Unhappy
(4:30) 3. For Heaven's Sake
(4:44) 4. I Get Along Without You Very Well
(3:26) 5. It's Easy To Remember
(5:07) 6. The End Of A Love Affair
(3:47) 7. You Don't Know What Love Is
(5:04) 8. I'm a Fool To Want You
(3:54) 9. You've Changed
(2:53) 10. For All We Know

Mandy Barnett, one of Nashville’s enduring musical treasures who has showcased her mesmerizing voice on stages across the globe, started singing at five years-old. She has been singing since. Barnett’s style is rooted in the classic country and pop crooning of iconic singers and timeless sounds. She delves into a song with a keen interpretative sense, getting right down to its emotional core and rendering a powerhouse performance through her “pipes of steel” (Los Angeles Times). As one record executive put it, “Mandy Barnett is a song’s best friend.”

Barnett first gained national prominence as the original star of the musical Always...Patsy Cline at Nashville's famed Ryman Auditorium. Barnett, as Cline, performs on the original cast soundtrack album and is the only actress to have played the role on the historic Ryman stage where Cline’s legend began. The Ryman shows sold out nightly and received rave reviews, and Barnett has wowed critics and audiences ever since with her concerts and recordings. Barnett’s critically lauded albums include I’ve Got a Right to Cry, named the “Top Country Album” by Rolling Stone in the year of its release and produced by renowned Nashville Sound pioneer Owen Bradley, who also produced Cline’s most loved chart-toppers (as well as producing Loretta Lynn, Brenda Lee, and k.d. lang). And Rolling Stone continues to honor this landmark album, placing it in 2019 on two of its “best of” lists of seminal classic country works.

With a string of acclaimed country albums, such as her self-titled Warner Bros. debut, her Christmas celebration Winter Wonderland, the Cline-inspired Sweet Dreams, and I Can’t Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson (a tribute to her friend, the late Country Music Hall of Fame member), there’s no doubt Barnett has mastered that genre and holds it dear to her heart. But Barnett is not one to be musically boxed in. Her 2018 Strange Conversation album, an Americana blend of roots, pop, and R&B tunes, includes a duet with John Hiatt and a soulful rendition of Neil Sedaka’s My World Keeps Slipping Away, which Sedaka himself sent to Barnett to record. AllMusic hails Strange Conversation as the “richest record of her career: surprising, lively, and deeply felt,” and The Philadelphia Inquirer, which listed Strange Conversation among the best country/roots albums of 2018, notes that Barnett “takes a disparate collection of pop, soul, and rock numbers and makes a riveting personal statement.”

As further testament to her diversity, Barnett sang on the SpongeBob SquarePants album The Best Day Ever (sharing the spotlight with the likes of Brian Wilson, Tommy Ramone, and Flaco Jimenez) and often incorporates a Great American Songbook standard or two into her live shows. When asked about her favorite composer, Barnett’s as likely to cite Cole Porter or George Gershwin as she is Willie Nelson or Dolly Parton. In fact, along the lines of highlighting Barnett’s range, now out is her A Nashville Songbook, an album of reimagined, multi-generational pop and country gems produced by Fred Mollin (producer of Johnny Mathis, Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Webb, etc.) and inspired by Barnett’s popular “Nashville Songbook” concert. A frequent guest on the Grand Ole Opry, Barnett is equally as comfortable on stage with symphony orchestras, having recently performed solo concerts with the Nashville Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast highlighting her “Nashville Songbook” repertoire. Barnett made her New York City cabaret debut at Feinstein’s/54 Below in 2019 with an acoustic version of her “Nashville Songbook.”

Barnett’s music has been featured in many major film and television soundtracks (most recently, in The CW Network’s series “The Flash”), including projects starring Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Martin Sheen, Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick, Sigourney Weaver, Ellen Burstyn, Bill Paxton, and SpongeBob SquarePants. Besides soundtrack work, Barnett often contributes tracks to other types of musical compilations, and she has appeared on “The Tonight Show,” “The Late Show,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” PBS’s “Sessions at West 54th,” PBS’s “Bluegrass Underground,” and numerous other programs. Among the many publications praising Barnett's talents, the Chicago Tribune calls Barnett “a torch singer in the grandest sense of the word.” Time, People, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and other major media have likewise extolled Barnett’s world-class vocals, “natural musicality” (People), “big, silky, expressive voice” (Billboard), and “vocal finesse” (New York Times). USA Today calls Barnett one of Nashville’s “finest classic country and torch singers,” while the Austin Chronicle notes that “when people start talking about Mandy Barnett, eventually the word ‘amazing’ gets used.” https://www.mandybarnett.com/biography

Every Star Above

Bob Wilber - The Music Of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band As Played By The Bob Wilber Jazz Repertory Ensemble

Size: 103,7 MB
Time: 43:52
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1986/2015
Styles: Jazz: Big Band
Art: Front

01. Canal Street Blues (2:28)
02. Mabel's Dream (3:00)
03. Alligator Hop (2:21)
04. Krooked Blues (2:54)
05. Chattanooga Stomp (2:59)
06. Camp Meeting Blues (2:53)
07. Dippermouth Blues (2:28)
08. Lincoln Gardens Stomp (2:20)
09. Snake Rag (3:03)
10. Riverside Blues (3:33)
11. Froggie Moore (3:15)
12. Jazzin' Babies Blues (3:09)
13. Buddy's Habit (3:06)
14. Wa-Wa-Wa (2:57)
15. I Ain't Gonna Tell Nobody (3:17)

Throughout his long career, Bob Wilber has done a lot to keep classic jazz alive. A bit misplaced (most jazz players of his generation were much more interested in bop and hard bop), Wilber (along with Kenny Davern, Ralph Sutton, and Dick Wellstood) was one of the few in his age group to stick to pre-bop music. In high school he formed a band that included Wellstood, and as a teenager he sat in at Jimmy Ryan's club in New York. Early on he became Sidney Bechet's protégé and led his own young group, the Wildcats (with whom he made his recording debut). The close association with the dominant Bechet led to a bit of a personality crisis in the 1950s as Wilber sought to find his own voice. He studied with Lennie Tristano and formed the Six, a group that tried to modernize early jazz. When that ended, he played Dixieland with Eddie Condon, and in 1957 joined Bobby Hackett's band for a year. Wilber freelanced throughout the 1960s, in 1968 became a founding member of the World's Greatest Jazz Band, and in 1973 he formed Soprano Summit with Kenny Davern, one of the top swing-oriented groups of the decade. A few years later the band broke up and Wilber teamed up with his wife, singer Pug Horton, in Bechet Legacy (which also featured either Glenn Zottola or Randy Sandke on trumpet). In addition, Bob Wilber has worked with the New York Jazz Repertory Company, released music on his own Bodeswell label, wrote the authentic soundtrack to the movie The Cotton Club (1984), in 1988 led a band at Carnegie Hall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Benny Goodman's famous concert, and authored his frank memoirs, Music Was Not Enough. Influenced on soprano, clarinet, and alto by respectively Bechet, Goodman, and Johnny Hodges, Wilber has long had his own sound on each of his instruments. He recorded frequently through the years for many labels, including Arbors in the '90s and 2000s. ~ Scott Yanow

The Music Of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band

Al Grey - The Last Of The Big Plungers

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 67:50
Size: 155.3 MB
Styles: Trombone jazz
Year: 2011
Art: Front

[3:42] 1. Thing's Ain't What They Used To Be
[4:48] 2. Open Wider, Please
[3:17] 3. I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
[3:06] 4. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
[2:30] 5. Home Come You Do Me Like You Do
[3:08] 6. Bluish Grey
[5:13] 7. The Elder
[3:35] 8. Bewitched
[6:04] 9. Kenie-Konie
[5:49] 10. Salty Papa
[2:21] 11. Don't Cry Baby
[5:27] 12. Stranded
[2:03] 13. Tenderly
[3:43] 14. Rompin'
[5:37] 15. King Bee
[2:31] 16. When I Fall In Love
[4:49] 17. Al-Lamo

Tracks #1-9 from the album "The Last Of The Big Plungers" (Argo LP 653). Al Grey Octet: Joe Newman (tp), Al Grey, Benny Powell (tb), Billy Mitchell (ts), Charlie Fowlkes (bs), Floyd Morris (p), Ed Jones (b) and Sonny Payne (d). Recorded at Ter-Mar Recording Studios, Chicago, September 25 & 28, 1959.

Tracks #10-17 from the album "The Thinking Man's Trombone" (Argo LP 677). Al Grey Nonet: Joe Newman (tp), Al Grey, Benny Powell (tb); Billy Mitchell (ts), Charlie Fowlkes (bs); Freddie Green (g), Billy Higgins (p), Ed Jones (b) and Sonny Payne (d). Recorded at Ter-Mar Recording Studios, Chicago, August 23,24 & 25, 1960.

These two albums, under the leadership of trombonist Al Grey, were recorded while he was a member of Count Basie’s band. With the exception of the pianists, the men assembled to play in these sessions were all well known Basie-ites. All the charts share a spare, functional approach ideal for the three brass-two saxes instrumentation. The arrangements delve cleanly and right to the heart of swinging. Grey, famed for his plunger mute work, plays vigorously and inventively.

Both groups—an octet and a nonet—display that warm, moving blues feeling that characterized the Basie band, with all the soloists blowing with sure-footed intensity alongside the tastefully swinging leader.

The Last Of The Big Plungers

Saturday, April 23, 2022

George Evans - I'm All Smiles

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1999
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:52
Size: 128,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:55) 1. I Believe In You
(3:39) 2. You're Mine, You
(4:00) 3. When In Rome
(5:06) 4. May I Come In?
(2:58) 5. One Morning In May
(3:33) 6. I'm All Smiles
(4:51) 7. I Hadn't Anyone Till You
(5:12) 8. One At A Time
(3:21) 9. Almost In Your Arms
(3:27) 10. My Heart Tells Me
(3:55) 11. How Am I To Know?
(5:17) 12. Two For The Road
(3:31) 13. Sweet And Lovely
(3:00) 14. On The Other Side Of The Tracks

George Louis Henry Evans (born January 23, 1963) is a Canadian jazz singer. Born in Bloomington, Indiana and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Evans is the child of Robert Evans (an American) and Lucile Villeneuve Evans (a French-Canadian), both longtime faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), Indiana University School of Music (opera department), and McGill University in Montreal. This early exposure to music inspired him to have a career in music, while his sister, Julie Evans, became an architect in Chicago and New York City.

Evans attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts in the Cincinnati Public Schools, where he majored in musical theater and instrumental music (trombone), and went on to study Musical Theater at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He moved to New York City and in the 1980s worked toward a career in theater while appearing as a vocalist. He chose a career as a vocalist, broadcaster, producer and archivist.

Performing as a soloist in the late 1980s in cabarets in New York City at venues such as Eighty-Eight's and Danny's Skylight Room, Evans went on to study and perform in the Montreal. He was heard on Montreal radio on CKUT and K103, and for the better part of a decade appeared in clubs and festivals before moving to Toronto in 1999.

Working as a musicologist, Evans has been hired to select and sequence projects for Verve Records in the US, including much of "The Diva Series", focusing on Verve's best-selling female singers. In 2004 he created Here Come The Boys: a Canadian Crooner Collection for Maximum Jazz and Universal Music Canada. His discography includes the album Bewitched, his first recording with strings, and Live at the Cellar, recorded in the Vancouver night club.

Evans was nominated the Canadian National Jazz Awards Vocalist of the Year (2003) and Male Vocalist of the Year (2007, 2008, 2009). He has performed across Canada in festivals including the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Montreal International Jazz Festival and Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival. He has performed at Top o' the Senator and the Montreal Bistro in Toronto, The Cellar in Vancouver, and Upstairs in Montreal. He has performed in clubs and cabarets New York City such as The Metropolitan Room and the Laurie Beechman Theater. In 2008 Evans was nominated with vocalist Mary Foster Conklin for a MAC Award in the category of best jazz duo or group. Evans's column "Vocalizing In Jazz" was a regular feature of Planet Jazz magazine. In 2009 he produced a series entitled "The Jazz Standard" for Jazz.fm in Toronto. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Evans_(singer)

I'm All Smiles