Friday, March 25, 2022

Dutch Swing College Band - Goes Western

Styles: Swing, Big Band
Year: 1965
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:13
Size: 77,7 MB
Art: Front

(2:39) 1. Roll Along Covered Wagon
(2:24) 2. I'm An Old Cowhand
(3:07) 3. South Of The Border
(2:50) 4. Home On The Range
(2:34) 5. Take These Chains From My Heart
(2:20) 6. You Are My Sunshine
(2:54) 7. Roll Along Prairie-Moon
(2:43) 8. Tennessee Waltz
(3:38) 9. Don't Fence Me In
(2:44) 10. San Antonio Rose
(2:42) 11. Singing The Blues
(2:34) 12. Red River Valley

The Dutch Swing College Band started out as an amateur-college combo on liberation day (1945, may 5th) and through the years it has grown into a worldfamous jazz ensemble that has toured all five continents to much acclaim. The DSC played a prominent role during the post-war period. At the time many youngsters fell under the spell of the original Amerian music: jazz. The band, which has existed for more than sixty years, has given concerts all over the world and the sounds have been registered on practically all types of sound recordings since 1945. The band also appeared frequently on TV and in film productions. Through the years many big names in jazz music were backed by the DSC, from Sidney Bechet, Joe Venuti and Rita Reys to Teddy Wilson. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL. https://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/artist/dutch-swing-college-band

Goes Western

Judy Carmichael - Judy

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1994
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:53
Size: 131,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:33) 1. Judy
(4:52) 2. It Don't Mean a Thing
(3:23) 3. Doin' the New Lowdown
(3:33) 4. The Blue Room
(5:27) 5. Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You?
(4:50) 6. If Dreams Come True
(5:27) 7. Lazy River
(3:30) 8. Alligator Crawl
(3:35) 9. Doctor Jazz
(5:05) 10. Ja Da
(2:56) 11. Henderson Stomp
(6:00) 12. When I Take My Sugar to Tea
(4:41) 13. Sweet Sue

Grammy nominated pianist/vocalist, Judy Carmichael is one of the world’s leading interpreters of stride piano and swing. Count Basie nicknamed her “Stride," acknowledging the command with which she plays this technically and physically demanding jazz piano style. Judy’s vocal debut on her CD “Come and Get It” features her singing debut on everything from Peggy Lee inspired standards, to humorous takes on Fats Waller tunes. Her first all-vocal CD “I Love Being Here With You” followed, which is also her first with someone else playing piano, in this case the great Mike Renzi (presently music director for Tony Bennett) with Harry Allen on sax and Jay Leonhart on bass.

A native of California, Judy Carmichael moved to New York in the early 80’s and has maintained a busy concert schedule throughout the world ever since. She has toured for the United States Information Agency throughout India, Portugal, Brazil and Singapore. In 1992 Ms. Carmichael was the first jazz musician sponsored by the United States Government to tour China. The musician that critics have referred to as “astounding, flawless and captivating” (The New York Times) has played in a variety of venues from Carnegie Hall, to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice (the first concert ever presented by the museum) to programs with Joel Grey, Michael Feinstein, Steve Ross and the Smothers Brothers. In addition, Ms. Carmichael has done comic skits and performed her music on radio and TV and performed private recitals for everyone from Rod Stewart and Robert Redford to President Clinton and Gianni Agnelli.

Judy Carmichael is one of a handful of musicians who approach jazz from a perspective of its entire history. Choosing to study jazz piano from its early roots on, she explores the music deeply, infusing it with a “fresh, dynamic interpretation of her own” (Washington Post ). The National Endowment for the Arts rewarded Carmichael’s knowledge of jazz piano with a major grant to present early jazz greats on film and to discuss the history and development of jazz piano with college students across the country. Judy Carmichael’s Grammy-nominated recording “Two Handed Stride” teamed her with four giants of jazz from the Count Basie Orchestra, Red Callendar, Harold Jones, Freddie Green and Marshall Royal.

She has written two books on stride piano, a celebrated memoir Swinger! A Jazz Girl’s Adventures From Hollywood to Harlem and numerous articles on the subject of jazz. She has served on a variety of music panels at the National Endowment for the Arts and is one of the few jazz pianists honored as a Steinway Artist. She has been included in a number of jazz anthologies and at one point, to her utter surprise, turned up in the Simon and Schuster murder mystery Murder Times Two as “the stride pianist Judy Carmichael,” the main suspect’s favorite piano player. Ms. Carmichael is included in Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry in America, Who’s Who in American Woman, American Women in Jazz, Who’s Who in the World, as well as the Encyclopedia of Jazz. Ms. Carmichael has appeared frequently on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, and has been featured on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, Entertainment Tonight and multiple features on CBS’ Sunday Morning.

She is celebrating her 20th year producing and hosting her NPR Show Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired, broadcast on over 170 stations throughout North America and abroad. Listen to the Jazz Inspired, podcast on all the usual platforms. Her recordings and music books are available at www.judycarmichael.com, on Apple Music or by mail order through C&D Productions, P.O. Box 360 Sag Harbor, New York, 11963.

Personnel: Judy Carmichael-piano; Chris Flory-guitar

Judy

Bria Skonberg - So Is the Day

Styles: Vocal And Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:26
Size: 148,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:10)  1. Keep Me In The Back Of Your Mind
(7:35)  2. So Is The Day
(7:30)  3. Hip Check
(4:03)  4. I Wish I Hadn't Forgotten
(4:48)  5. Have A Little Heart
(3:45)  6. Far Away
(5:12)  7. Penny In Your Pocket
(4:29)  8. Let Yourself Go
(5:49)  9. Chilliwack Cheer
(4:08) 10. Big Yellow Taxi
(7:48) 11. Gymnopedie
(4:03) 12. My Friend

It's a rare talent that can straddle and dare request membership in the trumpet artist continuum emanating from Louis Armstrong and progressing down through his "Neo Orleans" progeny: Byron Stripling, Wynton Marsalis and Nicholas Payton (whose big band trumpet section Skonberg graces). However, with her bravura performance on So is the Day, Bria Skonberg confirms that she is not only indeed a triple threat musician player, vocalist and composer but also that that esteemed lineage, consummate entertainers all, would heartily approve her membership. This stunningly beautiful British Columbia native plays (and writes and sings) at levels of excellence and maturity far beyond her years. Whether it's plunging and growling away, soaring across the horn's range ferociously, or delivering beautifully constructed lyrical solo lines, Skonberg demonstrates solid chops and great command of her instrument. Displaying artistic flexibility and fire, she unabashedly channels Armstrong, Cootie Williams, Warren Vache, and other legendary players. It's also obvious that Skonberg is an admiring student of the vocal tradition, too. She exhibits stylistic shades of Peggy Lee, Dinah Washington, and Diana Krall. She has a beautiful voice both soul sultry and innocent sweet and an instrumentalist's feel for melodic line and rhythm. Her vocal and horn chops intertwine seamlessly. "Have a Little Heart" is a perfect example. An insightfully versatile composer, Skonberg delivers nine engaging originals, all stylistically unique. 

She's done her homework; the forms and lyric phrasings are classic. "I Wish I Hadn't Forgotten" frames Skonberg with guest John Pizzarelli, a perfect vocal partner, on an elegant guy/gal swinger. "Penny in Your Pocket" grinds blue with Scott Elias' organ. "Hip Check" (a sidewinder turned inside out to 5/4 time) and "Chilliwack Cheer" deal Cajun spice. "Far Away," the most contemporary of her originals, modulates dreamily. Three well-known selections are given refreshed presentations performed with verve. Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" shines with a bouncy Caribbean groove and a beauty of a Skonberg flugelhorn solo. "Let Yourself Go" and Erik Satie's over-recorded "Gymnopedie" are done in Latin-esque treatments. Skonberg's supporting crew is stellar throughout, and seems to relish placing Skonberg in the spotlight. Swinging woodwind artist Victor Goines, trombone stars Wycliffe Gordon and Michael Dease, and a rhythm section of (terrific) pianist Jeff Lashway, the versatile Randy Johnston on guitar, bassist Kelly Friesen, and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. collectively and individually energize. So is the Day, while tipping a hat to tradition, appropriately pushes Bria Skonberg to the forefront of today's musical talents. She has it all so does this superb recording. ~ Nicholas F.Mondello  
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/so-is-the-day-bria-skonberg-random-act-records-review-by-nicholas-f-mondello.php
 
Personnel: Bria Skonberg: trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals; Victor Goines: tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute; Wycliffe Gordon: trombone (1, 9); Michael Dease: trombone (11); Jeff Lashway: piano; Scott Elias: organ (7);Randy Johnston: guitar; Kelly Friesen: bass; Ulysses Owens, Jr.: drums; Roland Guerrero: percussion; John Pizzarelli: guitar, vocals (4).

Ralph Bowen - Total Eclipse

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:30
Size: 141,1 MB
Art: Front

(5:37)  1. Total Eclipse
(5:36)  2. Behind The Curtain
(5:58)  3. Into The City
(6:31)  4. The Dowsing Rod
(7:02)  5. On Green
(7:18)  6. Arrows Of Light
(9:55)  7. Exosphere
(5:31)  8. Hip Check
(7:57)  9. In My Dreams

Ralph Bowen plays a pure strain of postmodern tenor saxophone. He is hugely proficient technically and consistently spills his guts. Take “Into the City.” Its quick, jagged, asymmetrical head is like a call to arms. Bowen builds from a few repeated adjacent tones to long convoluted lines that sound like onslaughts until you hear that they are actually sets of subtle variations (if in-your-face tenor can be subtle). It follows that he makes good records. His three most recent, Power Play , Due Reverence and Dedicated , all on Posi-Tone, were aesthetic undertakings as tenor saxophone clinics. Total Eclipse might be his best yet. It has Bowen’s hottest band ever.

The guys are relatively new. Jared Gold is an organist who maximizes the resources of his instrument. When he and Bowen combine for maximum unison power, as on “Exosphere,” this quartet hits like a big band. When Gold unleashes the full force of the B3 on a wild, roaring piece like “Hip Check,” he does not so much comp as slam and bash behind Bowen, catapulting him forward. Yet Gold also takes solos of glittering detail and piquant discord, as on “In My Dreams.” Mike Moreno is a free thinker on guitar. He complements the ensemble sound with off-center pinpoints of light, and takes intriguing, ambiguous solos. Rudy Royston, who plays free drums in the tenor trio of JD Allen, operates in a more defined, organized role with Bowen. But he still sounds dangerously volatile. There are eight strong tracks and one tour de force. Bowen’s dash through the head of “Hip Check” is impossibly fast and exact, then he improvises at the same rapid data rate. Royston rockets; Moreno ululates; Gold shrieks. Bowen rivets the theme into place at the end. Another day at the office. ~ Thomas Conrad http://jazztimes.com/articles/54410-total-eclipse-ralph-bowen

Personnel: Ralph Bowen: saxophone; Jared Gold: organ; Mike Moreno: guitar; Rudy Royston: drums.

Total Eclipse