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

Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren - Mare Nostrum II

Styles: Jazz, Bop
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:21
Size: 127,8 MB
Art: Front

(5:03) 1. Apnea
(5:09) 2. Blue Silence
(3:57) 3. Aurore
(3:51) 4. Kristallen den fina
(5:08) 5. Gisele
(4:30) 6. E varie notti tre vie notai - per Etule, l'amico più fragile
(4:47) 7. Farväl
(4:47) 8. Gnossienne No. 1
(3:42) 9. Lili
(4:02) 10. Leklåt
(4:11) 11. Le livre d'un père sarde
(6:10) 12. Si dolce è il tormento

Trumpeter Paolo Fresu is Sardinian, accordionist Richard Galliano is French, and Jan Lundgren, the pianist, is Swedish: three virtuosi who create entirely European music using jazz techniques. One comes up with an idea and all three contribute to the final result. These 12 pieces, with their hints of French chanson, Scandinavian folk dance, Italian love song and universal, dreamy ballads, belong to no particular category. Two of them are adapted from classical originals, one by Monteverdi and the other by Erik Satie, poles apart in time and sensibility, but here they sit happily side by side. With each piece lasting about four minutes, and the mood changing subtly from one to another, it’s a deeply enjoyable listen.

… as you’re joining us today from Canada, we have a small favour to ask. Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s fearless journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. More than 1.5 million supporters, from 180 countries, now power us financially keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent. Unlike many others, the Guardian has no shareholders and no billionaire owner. Just the determination and passion to deliver high-impact global reporting, always free from commercial or political influence. Reporting like this is vital for democracy, for fairness and to demand better from the powerful. And we provide all this for free, for everyone to read.

We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of the global events shaping our world, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action. Millions can benefit from open access to quality, truthful news, regardless of their ability to pay for it. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/28/mare-nostrum-2-fresu-galliano-lundgren-review-european-jazz

Personnel: Paolo Fresu / trumpet & fluegelhorn; Richard Galliano / accordion, bandoneon & accordina; Jan Lundgren / piano

Mare Nostrum II

Frank Foster - The Frank Foster Non Electric Company

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1979
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 64:14
Size: 147,5 MB
Art: Front

(12:34) 1. Chiquito Loco
(10:04) 2. Theme for Ernie
( 8:17) 3. Joy Spring
(10:40) 4. Shiny Stockings
(12:43) 5. A Blues Ain't Nothing But a Trip
( 9:54) 6. Simone

Frank Foster, a saxophonist and composer/arranger best known for his longtime association with the Count Basie Orchestra, has died. He passed away in his sleep early Tuesday morning at his home in Chesapeake, Va., according to his widow and manager, Cecilia Foster. He was 82. Foster was a key member of the "New Testament" Basie band the large ensemble Basie led in the 1950s and beyond. In addition to his playing on tenor saxophone and other woodwinds, he contributed many melodies and arrangements. At least one of those tunes, "Shiny Stockings," became a jazz standard. "One of the core things about that band was that wonderful reed section, the saxophone section," says Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies. "That was such a wonderful sound that that section had, and Frank was so much a part of that."

Foster was born Sept. 23, 1928, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. After playing in local dance bands as a teenager, he spent some years at Wilberforce University and moved to Detroit, where many future jazz stars were evolving concurrently with a new musical language called bebop. Foster was later conscripted into the Korean War. Not long after returning to Detroit, Foster was conscripted by an employer he much preferred: William "Count" Basie. He spent 11 years with the Basie band the first go-round; he later led the Count Basie Orchestra after Basie's death for nine years, winning two Grammy awards in the process. In between, he found work as a freelance saxophonist, composer/arranger and music educator.

Foster also convened his own ensembles, including a big band, which sometimes used the name Loud Minority. He said he was especially proud of his work writing for large ensembles. "I want to make the biggest statement with the biggest group, the big band, because that's just something that's in my blood from the time I was coming up," Foster said in an interview for the Smithsonian's Jazz Oral History Program. "It has never left. I don't care what the economic conditions of the nation or the world become, or how they affect how we live and work and whatever. I have to make a statement with a big band, or there ain't going to be no statement."

In 2002, Foster was named an NEA Jazz Master. In recent years, after he again left the Basie band, NPR has followed Foster's career. After a 2001 stroke left him unable to perform, he was left with minimal pension and Social Security benefits, the result of many years of being paid in cash for his services. Additionally, Foster had given away many of his publishing rights in youthful ignorance, which deprived him of substantial royalty payments over the years. Last year, a team from Rutgers School of Law helped him win back his rights to collect royalties for his compositions, including "Shiny Stockings." Now, the family Frank Foster worried about for so many years will finally be able to collect on the fruits of his legacy. https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2011/07/27/138722196/frank-foster-jazz-saxophonist-and-arranger-has-died

Personnel: Tenor Saxophone – Frank Foster; Bass – Earl May; Drums – Billy Hart; Guitar – Ted Dumbar ; Piano – Mickey Tucker

The Frank Foster Non Electric Company

Scott Wendholdt - Jam Session Vol.5

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:30
Size: 157,0 MB
Art: Front

( 6:27)  1. Dig
( 8:22)  2. Up jumped spring
( 5:51)  3. Body and Soul
( 8:02)  4. Strikezone
( 4:47)  5. If you could see me now
( 5:57)  6. After Thought
( 4:31)  7. The Duke Ellington Sound Of Love
(10:01)  8. World Wide Web
( 8:27)  9. Onion Straw

The Danish Steeplechase imprint has long recognized the fertile dynamics of jam sessions, fronting the resources for many in its roster of players to convene in just such supportive surroundings. Volumes 5 and 6 in the continuing series offer up vernal combinations and surprises while upholding producer Nils Winther’s credo of “positively no rehearsal.” Volume 5 follows the template of past entries, at least in theory, focusing on a single frontline instrument, in this particular case the trumpet. Earlier volumes, incidentally, have focused on saxophone and guitar. Fortunately Wendholt, Gisbert and Ballou are markedly different stylists on their respective brass and the resulting diversity dispels any sense of homogeneity from the bandstand. The first two players have close ties to the mainstream tributaries of bop and hard bop, while Ballou straddles these strains and also shows a strong affinity for freer forms of improvisation. Laverne heads up the rhythm section with sensitivity and poise, while Anderson and Drummond fulfill their support roles in equally amicable fashion. 

Miles Davis’ “Dig” delivers perfect fodder for the three front men to flex their embouchres and each solos brightly in loose succession. Gisbert’s tart tone contrasts with Ballou’s more rounded note runs, but it’s Wendholt who proves the smoothest of the three, peeling off buttery streams that dance and cavort against the bustling rhythm before a string of expressive exchanges takes the tune out. Freddie Hubbard’s statuesque standard “Up Jumped Spring” serves as well-chosen follow-up, as Ballou and Wendholdt don their mellow ballad hats and blow soothingly through the tune’s demulcent changes. Laverne’s elegant but understated comping acts as accommodating foil. All three also enjoy a tune apiece, individually. Wendholt steps up first, trying his hand at a romance-laden rundown of “Body and Soul,” and the rhythm section shines right alongside him, fitting his solo improvisations like hand in glove. For Gisbert it’s a lovely reading of the Tad Dameron chestnut “If You Could See Me Now.” Reclining on the plush changes, the trumpeter eases back into a solo of measured restraint and makes full use of his instrument’s satin tone. Ballou proves the most adventurous of the three, tackling Mingus’ “The Duke Ellington Sound of Love” and capturing the spirit of both departed composers in the gilded bell of his horn. A pair of Laverne-penned originals provides clever interludes while still fitting seamlessly into the overall programmatic scheme. On “Afterthought” Ballou’s pitch-perfect appraisal of the theme paves a path for the composer’s own brief but beguiling variation and a stately unison close. The somewhat regrettably titled “World Wide Web” belies the triviality of its name through another circle of outstanding brass statements and even a rare solo turn from Anderson. Everything comes together on the closer, Ballou’s “Onion Straw,” a modal tune built on dark structures reminiscent of Andrew Hill’s Sixties work for Blue Note, opening plenty of space for blowing. Trumpet fans take note: this disc is chock full of the sort of spot on playing that the instrument was designed and built for. ~ Derek Taylor https://www.allaboutjazz.com/jam-session-volume-5-various-steeplechase-records-review-by-derek-taylor.php

Personnel: Scott Wendholt- trumpet; Dave Ballou- trumpet; Greg Gisbert- trumpet; Andy Laverne- piano; Jay Anderson- bass; Billy Drummond- drums.

Jam Session  Vol.5