Brad Mehldau Trio - Brad Mehldau Trio Live

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 156:08
Size: 358,2 MB
Art: Front

( 0:15) 1. Introduction
( 8:44) 2. Wonderwall
(13:07) 3. Ruby's Rub
(10:38) 4. O Que Será
( 9:10) 5. B Flat Waltz
(23:30) 6. Black Hole Sun
(13:03) 7. The Very Thought Of You
(12:00) 8. Buddha Realm
(10:40) 9. Fit Cat
(11:35) 10. Secret Beach
(16:16) 11. C.T.A.
(12:08) 12. More Than You Know
(14:57) 13. Countdown

Brad Mehldau Trio Live is a live album by American pianist and composer Brad Mehldau's Trio released on the Nonesuch label in 2008. The album received universally favourable reviews. AllMusic awarded the album 4 stars and in its review by Thom Jurek, states "Those new or curious about the trio will be astonished by what's here, pure and simple. For seasoned jazz fans and those of the pianist in particular, this is nothing short of total delight". The Guardian's John Fordham observed "Since the mid-1990s, the prodigiously gifted pianist Brad Mehldau has been turning out one disc a year. Yet every Mehldau venture offers a new mix of standard songs and deconstructed pop themes; a new level of understanding within his group; a new twist on old piano-trio rules; and a startling new freedom in the way the pianist's left hand cajoles, threatens and encourages his right".

On All About Jazz, John Kelman noted "Ballard has lit an unmistakable fire under this group, but it's the trio's increasing open-mindedness that distinguishes Live from its previous live outings. Refined simplicity contrasts with sophisticated complexity while spare economy coexists alongside busier dynamics, making Live another exceptional milestone in a career defined by gradual but unrelenting growth and exploration". PopMatters reviewer Ron Hart said "On Brad Mehldau Trio Live, he provides yet another impressive showcase from his favorite NYC stage across a massive two-disc set that features his latest trio, which includes longtime bassist Larry Grenadier and daring new drummer Jeff Ballard." JazzTimes reviewer, Thomas Conrad commented "Mehldau plays here with a daring abandon that sweeps all of the 12 performances far from where they began. Yet he is not reckless; every piece sustains one large idea. Grenadier and Ballard never crowd the musical space, yet their indispensable, defining roles occur in the foreground". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Mehldau_Trio_Live

Personnel: Brad Mehldau - Piano; Larry Grenadier - Bass; Jeff Ballard - Drums

Brad Mehldau Trio Live

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Lena Bloch & Feathery - Rose of Lifta

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:59
Size: 142,4 MB
Art: Front

(10:20) 1. Promise of Return
( 8:09) 2. Mad Mirror
( 6:50) 3. New Home
(10:00) 4. Climbing Rose of Lifta
(10:19) 5. Old Home
( 9:24) 6. Mahmoud Darwish
( 6:55) 7. Wintry Mix

Saxophonist Lena Bloch knows something about the pain of separation from one's homeland. Born in Russia, she emigrated to Israel in 1990, then to Europe and, finally, in 2008, to the United States, setting up shop in New York City's fertile jazz ground. In 2014, Feathery, (Thirteen Note Records), the album and her quartet of that name, came into being. The group's second album, Heart Knows (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2007), cemented her distinctive horn-and-rhythm-section approach, with bassist Cameron Brown, pianist Russ Lossing and drummer Billy Mintz, a group that crafts a spacious, wide open sound full of spontaneous beauty and unpredictability four feathers dropped in a gentle breeze to sway and drift in intersecting paths of circuitous gravitation goals. Rose Of Lifta moves that sound further along.

Superior ensembles develop deep levels of telepathy, a singularity of purpose. That is evident here. It has become a cliche to say someone usually a rhythm section player, a drummer, bassist or pianist elevates the music. With Lena Bloch's Feathery, everyone participates in the four-way elevation in a series of seven compositions four by Bloch, three from pianist Lossing which makes the set sound like an interwoven suite. The influence of pianist Lennie Tristano is here, as are Middle-Eastern motifs; and, while soloing doesn't generally get a front seat, Losing and Bloch lay down some understated beauties.

Appealing and approachably complex sounds evolved in part from the influence of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, a writer from a country of multitudes of dispossessed and displaced souls. Bloch herself is no stranger to this problem, having left her own homeland for Israel, then Europe, to finally settle in the United States only to slip into a precarious status in her chosen homeland due to a fight with the buracracy of obtaining legal residency. A yearning for home (the old one and a new one) gives her music a soulfulness and honesty, pointing perhaps to a universal human need for roots, new or old, that informs Rose Of Lifta. The music has a delicacy of four-way articulation underlain by an on-the-sleeve emotional, longing-for-home honesty in creation of a distinctive quartet sound for which comparisons cannot be found. Fresh and beautiful stuff.~Dan McClenaghan https://www.allaboutjazz.com/rose-of-lifta-lena-bloch-and-feathery-fresh-sound-records

Personnel: Lena Bloch: saxophone; Russ Lossing: piano; Cameron Brown: bass; Billy Mintz: drums.

Rose of Lifta

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Luciana Souza - The Book of Longing

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:44
Size: 94,6 MB
Art: Front

(5:14)  1. These Things
(3:27)  2. Daybreak
(4:34)  3. Alms
(4:57)  4. Night Song
(3:12)  5. Paris
(4:00)  6. The Book
(4:47)  7. Tonight
(4:19)  8. We Grow Accustomed to the Dark
(3:14)  9. A Life
(2:56) 10. Remember

Since releasing her Sunnyside debut, The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Other Songs in 2000, Brazilian vocalist and composer Luciana Souza has woven poetry into the fabric of her work. Subsequent recordings such as Neruda, Tide, and Speaking in Tongues have all employed this approach as the prime vehicle of creative expression for her as a singer and composer, and she shapes the poems as complementary means in generating human connection and meaning. The Book of Longing is titled after Leonard Cohen's collection of poems, lyrics, and drawings of the same name. Here she strips down her charts to offer a new direction in ten relatively brief songs. Souza chose guitarist Chico Pinheiro and bassist Scott Colley as her accompanists (she provides organic percussion selectively), as well as her husband and longtime producer Larry Klein to helm these sessions. The program includes four works by Cohen, and one each by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Christina Rossetti, and Emily Dickinson, alongside a trio of her own songs. Her own "These Things" offers gently syncopated rhythms and minimal textures provided by strings and whispering percussion, Souza's vocals inhabit words and the spaces between them with disciplined phrasing and concision as her musicians provide a color palette that adds depth and dimension. One cannot help but hear the trace influence of Joni Mitchell on this tune. "Daybreak" hearkens back musically to her Brazilian influences, such as Tom Jobim and Dory Caymmi, as slippery bossa is kissed by chamber jazz. Cohen's "The Book" is a vehicle for Souza's canny ability to find the stillpoint inside a lyric. As Colley's bass highlights the changes, Pinheiro's chord voicings and single-string fills add an airy backdrop to her vocal, enveloping it effortlessly. Souza travels through each syllable in the tune's lyric, imparting tenderness and tolerance amid the melancholy weight of meaning it contains. On "Night Song" (also by Cohen), her wordless vocalese introduction engages in taut yet breezy interplay with her sidemen. Their intuitive soloing is fleet and creates a net for Souza, who bridges the feelings of separation and loneliness in the lyric to the unconditional love it celebrates. Dickinson's "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark" is introduced by a rugged bassline. Along with Pinheiro's guitar, they deliver riffs suggestive of blues and rock. But when Souza begins to sing, she wraps both instrumentation and words in a jazz embrace to quietly dynamic effect. Rossetti's "Remember" is a languid elegy, and Souza allows the words to penetrate her to the marrow. Her painfully intimate delivery equates the oncoming pain of death's impossible-to-bear separation with a present in which two souls are joined in the union of heartbreak and longing. Her desire and acceptance drip like honey from her lips, arresting the moment in time. On Book of Longing, Souza displays yet again, her stark and remarkable originality in works of deceptive simplicity and elegance. The empathy and equanimity she displays with her sidemen is actually the sound of musical and emotional generosity. ~ Thom Jurek https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-book-of-longing-mw0003184454

Personnel:  Luciana Souza - voice & percussion;  Chico Pinheiro - guitar;  Scott Colley - bass

The Book of Longing

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Dick Sisto, Fred Hersch - Duo Live

Styles: Vibraphone And Piano Jazz
Year: 2001
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:31
Size: 130,3 MB
Art: Front

(6:51)  1. Theme for Ernie
(6:18)  2. Francisca
(7:38)  3. I Think of You
(3:18)  4. The Chase
(5:09)  5. Maurice
(7:18)  6. Only Trust Your Heart
(6:56)  7. Infant Eyes
(6:47)  8. Evidence
(6:13)  9. Blue Monk

While vibist Dick Sisto has been compared to both Gary Burton and Milt Jackson, his own lyrical style manages to synthesize both without ever succumbing to imitation. Sisto began playing vibes in grade school and continued studying through college, eventually playing in groups that included future luminaries Maurice White and David Sanborn. After relocating to California in the early '70s, Sisto became involved in a number of projects, both within and outside of traditional jazz contexts, from backing Swami Kriyananda and poet Gary Snyder to participating in Thomas Buckner's Ghost Opera Company. Eventually establishing a base in the Midwest, Sisto added teaching to his resumé with a three-year stint at the Univeristy of Kentuky, followed by numerous clinics and educational concerts. All of this has coincided with international touring and recordings with, among others, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, and Barry Ries. ~ Wade Kergan https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dick-sisto-mn0000215042

Personnel:  Dick Sisto - vibraphone;  Fred Hersch - piano

Duo Live

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Steve Slagle - High Standards

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1982
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:36
Size: 104,5 MB
Art: Front

( 6:50)  1. Grand St. Blues
( 8:19)  2. Peace
( 4:46)  3. Moments Notice
(10:40)  4. I Hear A Rhapsody
( 6:25)  5. I Thought About You
( 8:33)  6. Speak Low

Born 18 September 1951, Los Angeles, California, USA. Starting out playing saxophones while still very young, Slagle moved to the opposite side of the country where he studied at the Berklee College Of Music. Subsequently, and through the 70s, he worked with artists as diverse as Stevie Wonder, John Scofield and Machito. In the early years of the next decade he was with Woody Herman’s band, playing tenor saxophone, and also worked with Lionel Hampton, playing alto, and Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Steve Kuhn, and Mingus Dynasty. At the end of the 80s he was musical director for the Ray Barretto Band. His first album as a leader was released in 1983, and during the 80s he often worked with a quartet featuring Jaco Pastorius (bass), Mike Stern (guitar) and Adam Nussbaum (drums). In the following decade Slagle recorded several sessions for SteepleChase Records, with musicians including Tim Hagans and Ryan Kisor (trumpets), Kenny Drew Jnr. (piano), Cameron Brown (bass), and Gene Jackson (drums). Slagle also co-leads a group with Dave Stryker (guitar), and works as lead altoist and chief arranger with the Mingus Big Band. A brilliant stylist, who also plays soprano saxophone and clarinet, Slagle’s work indicates his abiding interest on the transitional music that followed hard bop into free jazz, although he is at his considerable best when he underpins these latter-day forms with the essence of the blues. His striking technical mastery of his instruments is always evident but it is never used for its own sake. Although adept on all the instruments in his arsenal, Slagle is perhaps must interesting on alto, where his sinuous solo lines create a musical atmosphere that is both demanding and compelling in its intensity. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/steve-slagle-mn0000033922/biography                 

Personel:  Alto Saxophone – Steve Slagle;  Bass – Harvie Swartz;  Drums – Victor Lewis;  Guitar – Mike Stern;  Piano – Teddy Saunders

High Standards

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