Sunday, April 24, 2022

Betty Carter - Now It's My Turn

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1976
File: MP3@224K/s
Time: 45:51
Size: 74,2 MB
Art: Front

(4:32) 1. Music Maestro Please-swing Brother Swing
(5:07) 2. I Was Telling Him About You
(7:17) 3. Wagon Wheels
(6:28) 4. New Blues (You Purr)
(3:07) 5. Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love
(3:00) 6. Making Dreams Come True
(4:37) 7. Open The Door
(4:39) 8. Just Friends / Star Eyes
(6:59) 9. No More Words

The title of this out-of-print Roulette album was a bit premature for it would not be until the late '80s before Betty Carter was finally "discovered." An adventurous jazz singer whose musical integrity is almost as impressive as her talents at improvising, Carter is heard in top form throughout her obscure albumn. Assisted by pianist John Hicks, bassist Walter Booker and an unidentified drummer, Carter performs memorable renditions of such unlikely material as "Wagon Wheels," "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love" and medleys of "Music Maestro Please/Swing Brother Swing" and "Just Friends/Star Eyes." Worth searching for.~Scott Yanowhttps://www.allmusic.com/album/now-its-my-turn-mw0000921896

Personnel: Betty Carter – vocals; John Hicks – piano; Walter Booker – bass; Eddie Moore – drums

Now It's My Turn

Paco de Lucia - Almoraima

Styles: Guitar
Year: 1976
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 37:40
Size: 87,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:27) 1. Almoraima (Bulerias)
(5:45) 2. Cueva del Gato (Rondena)
(3:12) 3. Cobre (Sevillanas)
(4:29) 4. A la Perla de Cadiz (Cantinas)
(4:21) 5. Ole (Jaleos)
(6:15) 6. Plaza Alta (Solea)
(4:32) 7. Rio Ancho (Rumba)
(3:38) 8. Llanos de Real (Minera)

Paco de Lucía is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre. He is a leading proponent of the Modern Flamenco style, and is one of the very few flamenco guitarists who has also successfully crossed over into other genres of music such as classical and jazz. https://www.classclef.com/almoraima-by-paco-de-lucia/

Personnel: Paco de Lucía – guitar; Ramón de Algeciras – guitar; Álvaro Yebenes – bass guitar; Pedro Ruy-Blas – percussion

Almoraima

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette - Tribute Disc 1, Disc 2

Album: Tribute Disc 1
Styles: Piano Jazz, Bop
Year: 1990
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:27
Size: 128,4 MB
Art: Front

(13:14) 1. Lover Man
(11:19) 2. I Hear a Rhapsody
( 6:05) 3. Little Girl Blue
( 9:32) 4. Solar
(14:16) 5. Sun Prayer

Album: Tribute Disc 2
Time: 60:38
Size: 144,0 MB

(10:08) 1. Just in Time
( 8:26) 2. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
( 8:08) 3. All of You
( 7:02) 4. Ballad of the Sad Young Men
( 8:57) 5. All the Things You Are
( 7:08) 6. It's Easy to Remember
(10:46) 7. U Dance

Pianist Keith Jarrett has paid all sorts of tributes through his career, nodding to Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, and Bill Evans. But on this two-CD set, Jarrett picks particular versions of tunes to play off. So he pays homage to Lee Konitz on "Lover Man" and Sonny Rollins on "All the Things You Are." His formula for the tributes makes the music surprisingly engaged, dropping lyrical twists in his nod to Anita O'Day and cool loops when tipping Jim Hall. Where some of the so-called Standards Trio recordings veer into impressionism without regard to direction, this collection maintains tempered balance, even finding a classic Jarrett groove on "Sun Prayer," which drummer Jack DeJohnnette drives with a taut rhythmic clip. Alas, the tune fades in the groove's midst. But the package is barely any less strong for the fade and, in fact, stands above most of the other standards recordings.~Andrew Bartlett Opiniones editoriales https://www.amazon.com/Tribute-Keith-Jarrett/dp/B0000031VY

Personnel: Keith Jarrett – piano; Gary Peacock - bass; Jack DeJohnette - drums

Tribute Disc 1,Disc 2

Sinne Eeg - The Beauty Of Sadness

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 49:36
Size: 113.6 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[5:27] 1. The Beauty Of Sadness
[4:10] 2. So Now You Know
[5:51] 3. Silence
[5:28] 4. Strawberry Fields Forever
[4:15] 5. The Peacocks (A Timeless Place)
[3:14] 6. I Have The Feeling I Have Been Here Before
[5:30] 7. Love Is A Time Of Year
[6:13] 8. Waiting For Dawn
[5:13] 9. The Windmills Of Your Mind
[4:10] 10. With Or Without You

Sinne Eeg’s album ‘The Beauty Of Sadness’ is a natural follow up to the two award-winning albums before it, ‘Don’t Be So Blue’ (2010) and ‘Waiting For Dawn’ (2007). The music on the album encompasses a full dynamic range, from sublimely minimalistic (duo with bass clarinet), to elegantly grandiose through a musical partnership with ‘The Danish National Chamber Orchestra’ which since its foundation in 1939 has aimed to provide audiences with musical entertainment of the highest caliber in every conceivable genre.

Take legendary drummer Peter Erskine (world re-known for his time with bands like Weather Report and Steps Ahead) and add him to Sinne’s working band, plus a handful of top arrangers and sidemen from the international jazz scene. Combine them with ‘The Danish National Chamber Orchestra’ and put Sinne Eeg in front and in charge,both musically and conceptually, and the musical potential is almost unlimited. As Thomas Conrad from ‘All About Jazz’ in NYC describes so accurately; “Sinne Eeg is a singer with the whole package; good taste, looks, height, pipes, range, control and the ability to both scat and tell a story”

The Beauty Of Sadness

Ray Brown Trio - Some Of My Best Friends Are... The Piano Players

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:48
Size: 127.7 MB
Styles: Contemporary jazz, Piano jazz
Year: 1995
Art: Front

[4:17] 1. Bags' Groove
[4:33] 2. Love Walked In
[7:11] 3. St. Louis Blues
[3:34] 4. Lover
[5:24] 5. Just A Gigolo
[3:46] 6. Ray Of Light
[6:05] 7. Giant Steps
[4:44] 8. My Romance
[4:36] 9. Close Your Eyes
[5:06] 10. St. Tropez
[6:26] 11. How Come You Do Me

Bass – Ray Brown; Drums – Lewis Nash; Piano – Ahmad Jamal (tracks: 4 to 6), Benny Green (tracks: 1 to 3), Dado Moroni (tracks: 7, 8), Geoff Keezer (tracks: 9), Oscar Peterson (tracks: 10, 11). Tracks 1-9 recorded November 21, 1994 at Clinton Recording Studio, Studio A, New York, NY. Tracks 10 & 11 recorded November 18, 1994 at Glenn Gould Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

On his Telarc disc, Ray Brown teams up with five different piano players but, rather than this being a tribute to the veteran bassist (who has solo space on every selection), the CD ends up being a celebration of the great Oscar Peterson because Benny Green, Dado Moroni, and Geoff Keezer have, to various degrees, based their styles on Peterson's, but the indivual standout is actually Ahmad Jamal, who had never previously recorded with Brown. Together with Lewis Nash they perform two blues and "Love Walked In," all renditions that make a liberal use of space and pay close attention to dynamics. Benny Green, who plays his "Ray of Light" along with two standards, had performed regularly with Brown in recent years and his selections offer few surprises. Dodo Moroni is fine on "My Romance" and inserts a bit of Erroll Garner on "Giant Steps," while Geoff Keezer (who had also never played with Brown) swings well on "Close Your Eyes." The CD concludes with a reunion between Oscar Peterson (who had recently recovered from a stroke) and Brown on "St. Tropez" and the upbeat "How Come You Do Me like You Do?" The results overall are pleasing and swinging (serving as a sampler of the pianists' styles), but not all that innovative. ~Scott Yanow

Some Of My Best Friends Are... The Piano Players

Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Abraça Jobim

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1981
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 75:11
Size: 173,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:54) 1. Dreamer (Vivo Sonhando)
(5:16) 2. This Love That I've Found (So Tinha de Ser com Voce)
(3:50) 3. The Girl from Ipanema (Garota de Ipanema)
(3:56) 4. Somewhere in the Hills (Favela)
(3:48) 5. Photograph (Fotografia)
(5:21) 6. Wave
(4:06) 7. Triste
(5:39) 8. Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)
(2:44) 9. Water to Drink (Agua de Beber)
(2:50) 10. Bonita
(3:42) 11. Off Key (Desafinado)
(5:12) 12. He's a Carioca (Ele e Carioca)
(6:36) 13. Dindi
(2:59) 14. How Insensitive (Insensatez)
(3:52) 15. One Note Samba (Samba de Uma Nota So)
(2:17) 16. A Felicidade
(7:59) 17. Useless Landscape (Inutil Paisagem)

For years, "The Girl fom Ipanema" was a staple in Ella Fitzgerald's songbook, so it's something of a wonder that it was not until 1981 that Ella Abraça Jobim, Fitzgerald's double-album immersion in Antonio Carlos Jobim's back catalog, appeared. Ella's first single-composer release since 1964's tribute to Jerome Kern, Ella Abraça Jobim is, more than anything, final proof of the unassuming Brazilian's place in jazz history alongside the great composers. Sadly Jobim's mellow bossa nova, drenched in the Brazilian concept of saudade, or agreeable melancholy, doesn't necessarily gel with Fitzgerald's swing-based and energetic vocal style.

Fitzgerald and her small group take songs like "Agua de Beber (Water to Drink)" at just slightly too speedy a tempo, rushing a bit where they should be gamboling. Fitzgerald is in very good voice compared to some other recordings from her later years, though, sadly, she's clearly not at her peak. Norman Granz's production is typically excellent, however, and the arrangements are refreshingly free of the typical late-'70s/early-'80s post-fusion clichés. Neither Fitzgerald nor Jobim's finest, then, but not without merit.~ Stewart Masonhttps://www.allmusic.com/album/ella-abra%C3%A7a-jobim-sings-the-antonio-carlos-jobim-songbook-mw0000195476

Personnel: Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals; Clark Terry - Trumpet; Zoot Sims - Tenor Saxophone; Toots Thielemans - Harmonica; Henry Trotter - Keyboards; Mike Lang - Keyboards; Clarence McDonald - Keyboards; Joe Pass - Electric guitar (soloist); Oscar Castro-Neves - Acoustic guitar (soloist); Paul Jackson, Jr. - Rhythm guitar; Mitch Holder - Rhythm guitar; Roland Bautista - Rhythm guitar; Abraham Laboriel - Double Bass; Alex Acuña - Drums; Paulinho da Costa - Percussion

Ella Abraca Jobim

Mandy Barnett - Every Star Above

Styles: Vocal
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:08
Size: 97,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:55) 1. But Beautiful
(4:44) 2. Glad To Be Unhappy
(4:30) 3. For Heaven's Sake
(4:44) 4. I Get Along Without You Very Well
(3:26) 5. It's Easy To Remember
(5:07) 6. The End Of A Love Affair
(3:47) 7. You Don't Know What Love Is
(5:04) 8. I'm a Fool To Want You
(3:54) 9. You've Changed
(2:53) 10. For All We Know

Mandy Barnett, one of Nashville’s enduring musical treasures who has showcased her mesmerizing voice on stages across the globe, started singing at five years-old. She has been singing since. Barnett’s style is rooted in the classic country and pop crooning of iconic singers and timeless sounds. She delves into a song with a keen interpretative sense, getting right down to its emotional core and rendering a powerhouse performance through her “pipes of steel” (Los Angeles Times). As one record executive put it, “Mandy Barnett is a song’s best friend.”

Barnett first gained national prominence as the original star of the musical Always...Patsy Cline at Nashville's famed Ryman Auditorium. Barnett, as Cline, performs on the original cast soundtrack album and is the only actress to have played the role on the historic Ryman stage where Cline’s legend began. The Ryman shows sold out nightly and received rave reviews, and Barnett has wowed critics and audiences ever since with her concerts and recordings. Barnett’s critically lauded albums include I’ve Got a Right to Cry, named the “Top Country Album” by Rolling Stone in the year of its release and produced by renowned Nashville Sound pioneer Owen Bradley, who also produced Cline’s most loved chart-toppers (as well as producing Loretta Lynn, Brenda Lee, and k.d. lang). And Rolling Stone continues to honor this landmark album, placing it in 2019 on two of its “best of” lists of seminal classic country works.

With a string of acclaimed country albums, such as her self-titled Warner Bros. debut, her Christmas celebration Winter Wonderland, the Cline-inspired Sweet Dreams, and I Can’t Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson (a tribute to her friend, the late Country Music Hall of Fame member), there’s no doubt Barnett has mastered that genre and holds it dear to her heart. But Barnett is not one to be musically boxed in. Her 2018 Strange Conversation album, an Americana blend of roots, pop, and R&B tunes, includes a duet with John Hiatt and a soulful rendition of Neil Sedaka’s My World Keeps Slipping Away, which Sedaka himself sent to Barnett to record. AllMusic hails Strange Conversation as the “richest record of her career: surprising, lively, and deeply felt,” and The Philadelphia Inquirer, which listed Strange Conversation among the best country/roots albums of 2018, notes that Barnett “takes a disparate collection of pop, soul, and rock numbers and makes a riveting personal statement.”

As further testament to her diversity, Barnett sang on the SpongeBob SquarePants album The Best Day Ever (sharing the spotlight with the likes of Brian Wilson, Tommy Ramone, and Flaco Jimenez) and often incorporates a Great American Songbook standard or two into her live shows. When asked about her favorite composer, Barnett’s as likely to cite Cole Porter or George Gershwin as she is Willie Nelson or Dolly Parton. In fact, along the lines of highlighting Barnett’s range, now out is her A Nashville Songbook, an album of reimagined, multi-generational pop and country gems produced by Fred Mollin (producer of Johnny Mathis, Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Webb, etc.) and inspired by Barnett’s popular “Nashville Songbook” concert. A frequent guest on the Grand Ole Opry, Barnett is equally as comfortable on stage with symphony orchestras, having recently performed solo concerts with the Nashville Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast highlighting her “Nashville Songbook” repertoire. Barnett made her New York City cabaret debut at Feinstein’s/54 Below in 2019 with an acoustic version of her “Nashville Songbook.”

Barnett’s music has been featured in many major film and television soundtracks (most recently, in The CW Network’s series “The Flash”), including projects starring Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Martin Sheen, Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick, Sigourney Weaver, Ellen Burstyn, Bill Paxton, and SpongeBob SquarePants. Besides soundtrack work, Barnett often contributes tracks to other types of musical compilations, and she has appeared on “The Tonight Show,” “The Late Show,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” PBS’s “Sessions at West 54th,” PBS’s “Bluegrass Underground,” and numerous other programs. Among the many publications praising Barnett's talents, the Chicago Tribune calls Barnett “a torch singer in the grandest sense of the word.” Time, People, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and other major media have likewise extolled Barnett’s world-class vocals, “natural musicality” (People), “big, silky, expressive voice” (Billboard), and “vocal finesse” (New York Times). USA Today calls Barnett one of Nashville’s “finest classic country and torch singers,” while the Austin Chronicle notes that “when people start talking about Mandy Barnett, eventually the word ‘amazing’ gets used.” https://www.mandybarnett.com/biography

Every Star Above

Bob Wilber - The Music Of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band As Played By The Bob Wilber Jazz Repertory Ensemble

Size: 103,7 MB
Time: 43:52
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1986/2015
Styles: Jazz: Big Band
Art: Front

01. Canal Street Blues (2:28)
02. Mabel's Dream (3:00)
03. Alligator Hop (2:21)
04. Krooked Blues (2:54)
05. Chattanooga Stomp (2:59)
06. Camp Meeting Blues (2:53)
07. Dippermouth Blues (2:28)
08. Lincoln Gardens Stomp (2:20)
09. Snake Rag (3:03)
10. Riverside Blues (3:33)
11. Froggie Moore (3:15)
12. Jazzin' Babies Blues (3:09)
13. Buddy's Habit (3:06)
14. Wa-Wa-Wa (2:57)
15. I Ain't Gonna Tell Nobody (3:17)

Throughout his long career, Bob Wilber has done a lot to keep classic jazz alive. A bit misplaced (most jazz players of his generation were much more interested in bop and hard bop), Wilber (along with Kenny Davern, Ralph Sutton, and Dick Wellstood) was one of the few in his age group to stick to pre-bop music. In high school he formed a band that included Wellstood, and as a teenager he sat in at Jimmy Ryan's club in New York. Early on he became Sidney Bechet's protégé and led his own young group, the Wildcats (with whom he made his recording debut). The close association with the dominant Bechet led to a bit of a personality crisis in the 1950s as Wilber sought to find his own voice. He studied with Lennie Tristano and formed the Six, a group that tried to modernize early jazz. When that ended, he played Dixieland with Eddie Condon, and in 1957 joined Bobby Hackett's band for a year. Wilber freelanced throughout the 1960s, in 1968 became a founding member of the World's Greatest Jazz Band, and in 1973 he formed Soprano Summit with Kenny Davern, one of the top swing-oriented groups of the decade. A few years later the band broke up and Wilber teamed up with his wife, singer Pug Horton, in Bechet Legacy (which also featured either Glenn Zottola or Randy Sandke on trumpet). In addition, Bob Wilber has worked with the New York Jazz Repertory Company, released music on his own Bodeswell label, wrote the authentic soundtrack to the movie The Cotton Club (1984), in 1988 led a band at Carnegie Hall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Benny Goodman's famous concert, and authored his frank memoirs, Music Was Not Enough. Influenced on soprano, clarinet, and alto by respectively Bechet, Goodman, and Johnny Hodges, Wilber has long had his own sound on each of his instruments. He recorded frequently through the years for many labels, including Arbors in the '90s and 2000s. ~ Scott Yanow

The Music Of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band

Al Grey - The Last Of The Big Plungers

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 67:50
Size: 155.3 MB
Styles: Trombone jazz
Year: 2011
Art: Front

[3:42] 1. Thing's Ain't What They Used To Be
[4:48] 2. Open Wider, Please
[3:17] 3. I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
[3:06] 4. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
[2:30] 5. Home Come You Do Me Like You Do
[3:08] 6. Bluish Grey
[5:13] 7. The Elder
[3:35] 8. Bewitched
[6:04] 9. Kenie-Konie
[5:49] 10. Salty Papa
[2:21] 11. Don't Cry Baby
[5:27] 12. Stranded
[2:03] 13. Tenderly
[3:43] 14. Rompin'
[5:37] 15. King Bee
[2:31] 16. When I Fall In Love
[4:49] 17. Al-Lamo

Tracks #1-9 from the album "The Last Of The Big Plungers" (Argo LP 653). Al Grey Octet: Joe Newman (tp), Al Grey, Benny Powell (tb), Billy Mitchell (ts), Charlie Fowlkes (bs), Floyd Morris (p), Ed Jones (b) and Sonny Payne (d). Recorded at Ter-Mar Recording Studios, Chicago, September 25 & 28, 1959.

Tracks #10-17 from the album "The Thinking Man's Trombone" (Argo LP 677). Al Grey Nonet: Joe Newman (tp), Al Grey, Benny Powell (tb); Billy Mitchell (ts), Charlie Fowlkes (bs); Freddie Green (g), Billy Higgins (p), Ed Jones (b) and Sonny Payne (d). Recorded at Ter-Mar Recording Studios, Chicago, August 23,24 & 25, 1960.

These two albums, under the leadership of trombonist Al Grey, were recorded while he was a member of Count Basie’s band. With the exception of the pianists, the men assembled to play in these sessions were all well known Basie-ites. All the charts share a spare, functional approach ideal for the three brass-two saxes instrumentation. The arrangements delve cleanly and right to the heart of swinging. Grey, famed for his plunger mute work, plays vigorously and inventively.

Both groups—an octet and a nonet—display that warm, moving blues feeling that characterized the Basie band, with all the soloists blowing with sure-footed intensity alongside the tastefully swinging leader.

The Last Of The Big Plungers