Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Peter Bernstein - Heart's Content

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2003
File: MP3@256K/s
Time: 57:20
Size: 105,6 MB
Art: Front

(7:42) 1. Little Green Men
(7:09) 2. Heart's Content
(8:41) 3. Relativity
(8:12) 4. Consant Conversation
(7:12) 5. Dedicated To You
(8:32) 6. Simple As That
(6:59) 7. Public Domain
(2:50) 8. Blood Count

Jazz guitarist Peter Bernstein was born September 3, 1967, in New York City. He got his first break while attending the New School when he met Jim Hall, who recruited him for a concert of guitarists as part of the 1990 JVC Jazz Festival in New York. The show was recorded by MusicMasters and issued as Live at Town Hall, Vol. 2. Bernstein quickly began playing with other jazz musicians, notably appearing on albums by Lou Donaldson, Michael Hashim, Larry Goldings, Mel Rhyne, Jesse Davis, and Geoff Keezer. He recorded his first album as a leader, Somethin's Burnin', for Criss Cross on December 22, 1992, as part of quartet with Brad Mehldau (piano), John Webber (bass), and Jimmy Cobb (drums). After working with such artists as Patti Page, Walt Weiskopf, Brian Lynch, Laverne Butler, Eric Alexander, and Hendrik Meurkens in 1993-1994, he issued his second solo album, Signs of Life, on May 2, 1995, working again with Mehldau, along with Christian McBride (bass) and Gregory Hutchinson (drums). Further work as a sideman with Ghetto Philharmonic, Trudy Desmond, Teodross Avery, Joshua Redman, Kevin Mahogany, Grant Stewart, and Mike LeDonne preceded the release of his third album, Brain Dance, on June 24, 1997. This time, he led a quintet also containing Goldings (organ), Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone), Steve Davis (trombone), and Billy Drummond (drums). Prior to his fourth album, Earth Tones, Bernstein recorded with Ralph Lalama and Eric Comstock, among others. Earth Tones, issued August 25, 1998, found him fronting a trio with Goldings and Bill Stewart (drums).

Five years elapsed before the release of Heart's Content, Bernstein's fifth album as a leader, and he occupied the time working with a wide variety of musicians including Tom Aalfs, Group 15, Jimmy Cobb's Mob, David Bubba Brooks, Doug Lawrence, Sam Yahel, David Morgan, Jon Gordon, Michael Karn, Spike Wilner, Anna Lauvergnac, Harry Allen, Paula West, Nicholas Payton, Etta Jones, Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, Lee Konitz, Klaus Doldinger, and Ralph Bowen. Heart's Content, which was released May 27, 2003, was credited to "Peter Bernstein + 3," and the three were Mehldau, Bill Stewart, and Larry Grenadier (bass). The same year the album appeared, Bernstein could be heard on albums by Ryan Kisor, Wycliffe Gordon, Janis Siegel, and Martin Sasse, among others. Stranger in Paradise, Bernstein's sixth album, was released June 8, 2004, by the Japanese Tokuma label, and employed the same lineup as that on Heart's Content. In addition to musicians with whom he had recorded before, Bernstein appeared on albums by Jim Rotondi and Dr. Lonnie Smith in 2004 and Kathy Kosins in 2005. On August 23, 2005, Mel Bay released the DVD Peter Bernstein Trio Live at Smoke, taped at a jazz club on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Monk Among his many sideman sessions in the mid-2000s, Bernstein added dates with Joe Magnarelli, Alvin Queen, Planet Jazz, Anton Schwartz, John Pisano, David "Fathead" Newman, Don Friedman, Cory Weeds, and Andrew Suvalsky to the list of his credits, along with repeat appearances with others. On January 13, 2009, the newly reactivated Xanadu label released Bernstein's seventh album, Monk, a tribute to Thelonious Monk featuring all Monk compositions. Although Monk was a pianist, of course, the Bernstein recording was made with a pianoless trio consisting of himself, Doug Weiss (bass), and Bill Stewart.

Personnel: Peter Bernstein (G); Brad Mehldau (P); Larry Grenadier (B); Bill Stewart (D)

Heart's Content

Steve Turre - Lotus Flower

Styles: Trombone Jazz
Year: 1999
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:17
Size: 141,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:51) 1. The Lotus Flower
(6:39) 2. Chairman Of The Board
(6:55) 3. The Inflated Tear
(6:27) 4. The Organ Grinder
(2:02) 5. Passion For Peace
(6:48) 6. Sposin'
(6:22) 7. The Fragrance Of Love
(7:03) 8. Blackfoot
(7:23) 9. Goodbye
(5:42) 10. Shorty

You might call Lotus Flower an act of relaxation after the strenuous exercise of the Steve Turre album, for Turre reduces forces and idioms to a more-or-less straight-ahead sextet and concentrates almost entirely upon the trombone. In doing so, he re-stakes his claim to being one of the outstanding voices on the trombone of his time, turning some lovely playing on "The Fragrance of Love" and "Sposin'" and some extremely agile bop work at a fleet pace on "Blackfoot" to cite two extremes. But this sextet has no ordinary front line; Turre shares the spotlight with a violinist (Regina Carter) and a cellist (Akua Dixon), thus deliberately managing to avoid the trumpet/saxophone axis entirely.

Now and then, Turre also throws in a seventh element, Kimati Dinizulu's percussion or Don Conreaux's gong, to add exotic and spiritual flavors to the menu. Carter gets far more swinging time than Dixon on the album indeed, Carter's spiritual forefather seems to be Joe Venuti while Dixon gets typecast into the warm, lyrical role that cellists usually fulfill. Mulgrew Miller (piano, Buster Williams (bass) and Lewis Nash (drums) form the solidly mainstream rhythm section that is, however, occasionally asked to do unconventional things. Fortunately, there are enough off-center textures and quirks on this album to sustain Turre's yen for adventure in the '90s and on the rhythmically Balkanized "Shorty," Turre's conch shells make a welcome if brief cameo return.~Richard S. Ginell https://www.allmusic.com/album/lotus-flower-mw0000047074

Personnel: Trombone – Steve Turre; Cello – Akua Dixon; Double Bass – Buster Williams; Drums – Lewis Nash; Piano – Mulgrew Miller; Violin – Regina Carter

Lotus Flower

The Ralph Sharon Quartet - Plays The Frank Loesser Songbook

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1998
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:07
Size: 154,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:04) 1. More Of Loesser
(3:47) 2. Moments Like This
(4:29) 3. Baby, It's Cold Outside
(4:48) 4. Can't Get Out Of This Mood
(4:33) 5. I've Never BeenIn Love Before
(6:41) 6. Sand In My Shoes
(3:20) 7. The Lady's In Love With You
(5:12) 8. Small Fry
(4:01) 9. Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year
(3:46) 10. Guys And Dolls
(3:12) 11. Let's Get Lost
(4:06) 12. Two Sleepy People
(4:29) 13. I Hear Music
(4:29) 14. I Believe In You
(5:03) 15. On A Slow Boat To China

Ralph Simon Sharon was a jazz pianist and arranger. Sharon was born in London, England, to an English mother and Latvian-born father. He emigrated to the United States in early 1954, becoming a naturalized citizen five years later. By 1958, Ralph Sharon was recording with Tony Bennett, the start of a more than 50 year working relationship as Bennett's “man behind the music” on many Grammy Award-winning studio recordings, and touring with Bennett for many years. He found “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” for Bennett, a year after placing it in a bureau and forgetting about it. Sharon discovered the manuscript while packing for a tour that included San Francisco. While Bennett and Sharon liked the song, they were convinced it would only be a local hit. The tune became Bennett's signature song.

Sharon was a jazz pianist in his own right, recording a series of his own albums. But Sharon was best known as one of the finest accompanists who backed up popular singers, including Bennett, Robert Goulet, Chris Connor and many others. Retiring to Boulder, Colorado, from on-the-road work with Bennett when he reached 80, Ralph Sharon continued to perform in the Denver metropolitan area until shortly before his death. Tony Bennett and the Ralph Sharon Trio performed at various jazz venues, including Dazzle Restaurant & Lounge in Denver. He died from natural causes on March 31, 2015. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/ralph-sharon

Plays The Frank Loesser Songbook

Dan Nimmer - Tea For Two

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2005
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:09
Size: 128,5 MB
Art: Front

(6:36)  1. Lu's Bounce
(6:13)  2. Do You Mind
(6:19)  3. Embraceable You
(4:51)  4. Little Neeley
(6:41)  5. Corcovado
(6:18)  6. Tea For Two
(5:13)  7. No Problem
(5:08)  8. Ease It
(5:17)  9. When Lights Are Low
(3:32) 10. Blues For Venus

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 musicat 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. ~ Bio http://www.dannimmer.com/new%20bio1.html

Personnel:  Dan Nimmer – piano;  David Wong – bass;  Pete Van Nost - drums

Tea For Two