Saturday, January 8, 2022

Warren Vaché - Dream Dancing

Styles: Vocal And Cornet Jazz
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:01
Size: 143,4 MB
Art: Front

(5:19) 1. Close Your Eyes
(4:05) 2. Too Late Now
(4:52) 3. Quasimodo
(6:28) 4. Lover Come Back To Me
(9:50) 5. Dream Dancing
(3:04) 6. Blue Lou
(5:56) 7. Some Other Time
(4:39) 8. You're A Lucky Guy
(4:36) 9. You're All The World To Me
(4:01) 10. What's New
(4:05) 11. I'm Shooting High
(5:00) 12. Not Exactly Paris

Cornetist Warren Vache has been a mainstay of the New York jazz scene since the mid-1970s. He frequently appeared and recorded with Scott Hamilton's combo and developed a lengthy recording contract with Concord Records as well as appearing on the local club circuit. Vache is perhaps the prime mover in the stimulation of the continued interest and growth of post-war small combo swing and prior to his own groups worked with Benny Goodman and Kenny Davern. Most recently his continued work with Arbors and prolific past five years with Nagel-Heyer Records have been evident.

The quintet assembled for this session features frequent partner pianist Bill Charlap, who has attained stardom over the past few years as a pianist of choice insofar as lyricism and respect for the melody are concerned. Reedman Harry Allen plays tenor sax on four tracks. The rhythm is supplied by Dennis Irwin's bass and Eddie Locke's drums. The twelve songs reflect largely entries from the Great American Songbook and the presentation is partially in a "society jazz" format. These tunes, like the opening "Close Your Eyes," are played in a straightforward swing style as Vache's beautifully shaped tones lead the way for the combo.

The cornetist throws a musical bone to the bebop crowd with a tasty version of Charlie Parker's "Quasimodo," in which his horn takes on an almost puckish quality. Harry Allen, another Gotham favorite of many, is heard effectively on the title tune first stating the melody and then steping aside for Vache's similar reading. Allen's tenor solo shows his Getz-ian style and makes the most of it and he also gets a similar opportunity on the ballad "What's New?". Bill Charlap gets his share of well placed and effective solos on the album but is also an excellent feeder for the group. Vache gets a chance to vocalize on "Not Exactly Paris" to close the session.~MICHAEL GLADSTONE https://www.allaboutjazz.com/dream-dancing-warren-vache-arbors-records-review-by-michael-p-gladstone

Personnel: Warren Vache, cornet, vocal; Harry Allen, tenor sax; Bill Charlap, piano; Dennis Irwin,bass; Eddie Locke,drums

Dream Dancing

Matt Dusk - My Funny Valentine: The Chet Baker Songbook

Size: 110,1 MB
Time: 47:15
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2013
Styles: Jazz/Pop Vocals
Art: Front

01. My Funny Valentine (Feat. Arturo Sandoval) (4:52)
02. Time After Time (Feat. Arturo Sandoval) (4:21)
03. Angel Eyes (3:50)
04. Embraceable You (Feat. Emilie-Claire Barlow) (4:16)
05. Come Rain Or Come Shine (4:07)
06. Deep In A Dream (4:03)
07. All The Way (4:06)
08. There Will Never Be Another You (3:17)
09. That Old Feeling (3:19)
10. Let's Get Lost (Feat. Arturo Sandoval) (3:32)
11. Someone To Watch Over Me (Feat. Guido Basso) (4:21)
12. I Fall In Love Too Easily (Ryan Ahlwardt) (3:05)

Vocal tributes to Chet Baker have, of late, become a mini-industry. While the vast majority of interpreters have gotten it wrong, confusing Baker’s personal pathos with his music, crooner Matt Dusk succeeds by resisting the temptation to don a misrepresentative mask of tragedy. Instead, he opts to simply be himself. My Funny Valentine could just as easily be a tribute to Sinatra, with whom several selections, including “Angel Eyes” and “All the Way,” are more closely associated.

Across 12 tracks, Dusk alternates between swingin’ loose and light, à la Sinatra’s early Capitol days, and making more grandiose musical statements, as the Chairman was wont to do during his later Reprise years. The arrangements, variously crafted by Shelly Berger, Rick Wilkins and Ryan Ahlwardt, add additional distance, recalling the vibrant Nelson Riddle and Billy May charts that were essential to Sinatra’s midcareer rebound.

Still, Baker’s presence is occasionally felt, the haunted beauty of his horn playing evident on three tracks skillfully embellished by Arturo Sandoval, including a deliciously sultry “Let’s Get Lost,” and on a fragile “Someone to Watch Over Me” gently propelled by Guido Basso. Conversely, Ahlwardt’s attempt to echo Baker’s vocal etherealness while backing Dusk on the closing “I Fall in Love Too Easily” proves misguided, sounding instead like an over-stylized Art Garfunkel. ~By Christopher Loudon

My Funny Valentine

Arturo Sandoval - A Time for Love

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:13
Size: 158,1 MB
Art: Front

(5:09)  1. Apres un Reve (After the Dream)
(4:26)  2. Emily
(4:37)  3. Speak Low
(4:01)  4. Estate
(5:06)  5. A Time for Love
(5:14) 6. Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess)
(5:15)  7. I Loves You Porgy
(5:26)  8. Oblivion (How to Say Goodbye)
(4:52)  9. Pavane
(4:02) 10. Smile
(4:05) 11. All the Way
(4:24) 12. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
(5:35) 13. Windmills of Your Mind
(5:54) 14. Every Time We Say Goodbye

Years ago, on The Tonight Show, host Johnny Carson asked guest Frank Sinatra what music he enjoyed listening to when "in those romantic moments." Sinatra, to the host's surprise, said he particularly enjoyed the hearing works of Debussy, Ravel and other Impressionists and Romantics. With A Time for Love, trumpet legend Arturo Sandoval steps away from the fast, hard-swinging Afro-Cuban and bebop con fuego jazz for which he is known and delivers a 14-cut romantic love letter con alma. This is fine listening, no matter what the moment might be or what Sinatra who certainly knew his trumpeters might have enjoyed.  With A Time for Love, Sandoval once again grabs the crown as a king of the trumpet. Leveraging luscious, intelligently refined orchestral arrangements by string wizard Jorge Calandrelli and the always terrific Shelly Berg, Sandoval uses his mile-wide sound, engaging tone and utter mastery of dynamic and melodic nuance to envelop these Great American Songbook, popular and classical selections in warmth and soul. Since Charlie Parker did it decades ago with Charlie Parker with Strings (Mercury, 1950), jazz musicians have placed themselves in more sedate environments, emulating concert artists by being accompanied by string orchestras. Clifford Brown was one of the first pure jazz trumpeters to do so. Wynton Marsalis and Roy Hargrove followed decades later. More commercially, the Jackie Gleason albums which featured Bobby Hackett's sound did same.

For a jazz player working in this type of environment, one of the displays of maturity is restraint: the ability to take things down tempo-wise, play with the lyric and through the melody to weave wonder with sound. Sandoval does all of this brilliantly. And, as Louis Armstrong, Bunny Berigan, Chet Baker and Jack Sheldon also did, Sandoval also sings ("Estate"). Chris Botti, another trumpet star who has played the ballad and romance game well, appears as a guest artist. Monica Mancini, a marvelous vocal talent who doesn't play on her pedigree, offers a very nice rendition of "Oblivion." There could be a tendency to schmaltz it up in the orchestral scenario, falling prey to saccharine sliding strings and unnecessary overplay. Not here. Sandoval commands the horn and the date, emitting nothing but soul through his buttery flugelhorn, open horn and Harmon-muted trumpet. The arrangements frame him marvelously throughout. The rhythm section is beautifully understated, yet musically supportive, with Berg's piano a golden touch. The only minor critique is the CD's enormity twelve selections plus two bonus selections (which feature pianists Berg and Kenny Barron, respectively). While the music is terrific, it's a bit too much of a very good thing.  A Time for Love is an elegant, beautiful work of musical artistry by a true master. While now might be Sandoval's time for love, his work here is a wonderful labor of same. So, lower the lights, drink up and savor and, for tonight, leave Frank on the shelf. ~ Nicholas F.Mondello https://www.allaboutjazz.com/a-time-for-love-arturo-sandoval-concord-music-group-review-by-nicholas-f-mondello.php

Personnel: Arturo Sandoval: trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals; Shelly Berg: piano; Chuck Berghofer: bass; Gregg Field: drums, percussion; Chris Botti: trumpet (6); Monica Mancini: vocals (8); Kenny Barron: piano (14).Jorge Calandrelli: conductor; Bruce Dukov: concertmaster; Natalie Legget: violin; Phillip Levy: violin; Charlie Bisharat: violin; Darius Campo: violin; Liane Mautner: violin; David Ewart: violin; Tamara Hatwan: violin; Razdan Kuyumijian: violin; Searmi Park: violin; Songa Lee: violin; Kevin Connolly: violin; Tiffany Yi Hu: violin; Robin Olson: violin; Darren McCann: viola; Harry Shirinian: viola; Keith Greene: viola; Alma Fernandez: viola; Dennis Karmazin: cello; Vanessa Freebairn-Smith: cello; Trevor Handy: cello; Christine Ermacoff: cello.

A Time for Love

Dan Nimmer Trio - Modern-Day Blues

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:41
Size: 134,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:07)  1. Blue Bossa
(6:34)  2. Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing
(2:55)  3. Cleopatra's Dream
(5:36)  4. Out Of The Past
(5:11)  5. Black Pearls
(4:29)  6. Le Coiffeur
(6:04)  7. Wabash
(6:47)  8. How Could You Do A Thing Like That To Me
(5:16)  9. Uh Huh
(4:09) 10. I'm An Old Cowhand
(5:30) 11. Modern-Day Blues

Dan Nimmer was born in 1982 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. An old soul in a young body, Mr. Nimmer plays with the spirit, the passion and the soul of someone who has been on the planet much longer. With prodigious technique and an innate sense of swing, his playing often recalls that of his own heroes, specifically Oscar Peterson,Wynton Kelly, Erroll Garner and Art Tatum. As a young man, Mr. Nimmer's family inherited a piano and he started playing by ear; he was, if you will, "called" by the instrument.He studied classical piano and eventually became interested in jazz. At the same time,he began playing gigs around Milwaukee. Upon graduation from high school, Mr. Nimmer left Milwaukee to study music at Northern Illinois University. It didn't take him long to become one of Chicago's busiest piano players. He was working a lot on the Chicago scene so Mr. Nimmer decided to leave school and make the big move to New York City where he was immediately emerged into the New York scene.

In 2005, after being in New York for about a year and playing with many different musicians, Mr. Nimmer got hired by Wynton Marsalis to become a member of his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, both in which he has been member ever since. In addition to Wynton Marsalis, Mr. Nimmer has performed and or recorded with Jimmy Cobb, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon,Chick Corea, George Benson, Houston Person, Eric Clapton, Tom Jones, Jon Faddis, Benny Golson, Brian Lynch, Lewis Nash, Peter Washington, Fareed Haque and many more.

Nimmer has appeared numerous times on television including the The Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno, The Late Show w/ David Letterman, The View, Good Morning America, The Early Show, The Kennedy Center Honors, Live From Abbey Road, and Live From Lincoln Center PBS. You can also see him in Apple's video iPod commercial "Sparks".He has released five of his own albums on the Venus label (Japan). Nimmer has played at the White House, The Royal Albert Hall (London), Salle Pleyel (Paris),Disney Hall (LA), the Hollywood Bowl and many other renowned venues and festivals around the world.
Dan Nimmer is a Yamaha Artist.  http://www.dannimmer.com/new%20bio1.html

Personnel:  Dan Nimmer – Piano;  David Wong – Bass;  Pete Van Nostrand - Drums

Modern-Day Blues