Kenny Rankin - Here In My Heart

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:27
Size: 123,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:29) 1. A Day In The Life Of A Fool
(4:06) 2. Life In The Modern World
(4:54) 3. Puzzle Of Hearts
(5:31) 4. Those Eyes
(4:14) 5. A Lover's Touch
(4:48) 6. Stay
(4:21) 7. A Slight Infatuation
(3:21) 8. I've Just Seen a Face
(3:31) 9. This Happy Madness
(4:25) 10. Even You and I
(3:04) 11. Come Rain or Come Shine
(3:12) 12. Art of Survival
(4:26) 13. Here In My Heart

It seems like every jazz artist (and even some pseudo-jazz artists) is destined to record at least one Brasilian music album during their career. Here's singer/songwriter Kenny Rankin's entry into this well-trodden field.

Everything about this disc looks like it should be great. There's a remarkable cast of players from both Americas. From Brasil, we have producer Oscar Castro-Neves, Luis Bonfa, Teo Lima, Gilson Peranzzetta, Ricardo Silveira, and many more. From the U.S., there's Don Grusin, Brian Bromberg, Michael Brecker, and Ernie Watts. Toots Thielemans, who has issued two Brasilian CDs on the same Private Music label, is on hand as well. Then there's the choice of material. There are four Ivan Lins tunes, a Djavan, a Jobim, a Bonfa, and several other Brasilian composers, plus a tune each by Lennon-McCartney and Johnny Mercer-Harold Arlen, and two Rankin originals.

So why is this CD such a disappointment? First, I think maybe this concept has now been worked to death. Oscar Castro-Neves has already produced numerous all-star recordings from this same bag. The arrangements and the performances are uninspired and lifeless. But the major reason this CD is such a disaster is Rankin's vocal performance. He has severe intonation problems throughout the album, singing so flat at times that it's painful. Plus, he seems to be in musical territory that's unfamiliar to him, so he seems to have few ideas about how to interpret and deliver these tunes. I'm sure you can find other releases in Kenny Rankin's discography that display his talents much more favorably, and you can certainly find a plethora of better Brasilian CDs.~ Dave Hughes https://www.allaboutjazz.com/here-in-my-heart-kenny-rankin-private-music-review-by-dave-hughes

Personnel: Kenny Rankin: vocals

Here In My Heart

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Richie Cole - Cannonball Feat. Reggie Watkins

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@256K/s
Time: 65:13
Size: 120,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:18) 1. Del Sasser
(4:27) 2. Dat Dere
(5:03) 3. The Stars Fell on Alabama
(3:32) 4. Matchmaker, Matchmaker
(5:53) 5. Jeannine
(6:39) 6. Jive Samba
(4:16) 7. Bell of the Ball
(5:28) 8. Sack O' Woe
(3:27) 9. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
(5:00) 10. Save Your Love for Me
(3:37) 11. Toy
(3:34) 12. Azule Serape
(4:53) 13. Unit 7
(5:00) 14. Save Your Love for Me (Bonus English Version)

A Charlie Parker/Phil Woods disciple through and through, and a master of the be-bop idiom, it may surprise many to learn that Richie Cole cites Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley as his favourite alto saxophonist. In this warm and most welcome dedication to the great saxophonist, Cole never seeks to emulate but merely serves up some of his favourite tunes associated with Adderley and delvers them in his own inimitable style.

'Del Sasser' kicks things off nicely, and this is more than matched by by a hard driving 'Jeannine' by Duke Pearson, that has been a Cole staple for decade and one that I first heard Richie play four decades ago on his Return To Alto Acres album from the 1980's. No Cannonball tribute would be complete without a version of 'Sack Of Woe' and indeed Cole plays this with relish and a big helping of passion thrown in for good measure., with trombonist, Reggie Watkins firing in a cracking solo matching the leader for creativity and all driven along by drummer Roger Humphries, a former member of Horace Silver's Quintet.

Zawinul's 'Mercy, Mercy, Mercy' was also a much loved number played by Adderley, and is delivered up here with a fine arrangement by Richie.Indeed it is Cole who has arranged all the material here, all of which has a vibrancy and joie de vivre that would have put a smile on Adderley's face, as would Richie's original composition 'Bell Of The Ball' named after Cannonball's alto saxophone, that has fine solos from Cole, trombone man Watkins and guitarist, Eril Susouff.

All in all an intensely joyous and uplifting set that will send many of us scurrying back to our collections to dig out some of our original Cannonball albums, but hey... not before we hit the repeat button again to celebrate this wonderful music with Rcihie and his cohorts.~Reviewed by Nick Lea https://www.jazzviews.net/richie-cole---cannonball.html

Personnel: Richie Cole (alto saxophone); Reggie Watkins (trombone); Eric Susouff (guitar); Kevin Moore (piano); Mark Perna (bass); Vince Taglieri (drums); J.D.Chaisson (trumpet); Rick Matt (tenor saxophone); special guests Roger Humphries (drums); Kenny Blake, Tony Campbell (alto saxophone); Kenia (vocals)

Cannonball Feat. Reggie Watkins

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Erin Bode - Over And Over

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 57:21
Size: 131.3 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[4:29] 1. Holiday
[4:20] 2. Over And Over
[9:08] 3. Graceland
[3:12] 4. Feet Off The Ground
[5:35] 5. Long, Long Time
[2:37] 6. Send Me Up A Sign
[4:01] 7. St. Louis Song
[4:30] 8. Perfect World
[3:52] 9. Something More
[4:02] 10. Holding Back The Years
[2:47] 11. With The Radio On
[6:26] 12. Flying Colors: Alone Together
[2:16] 13. Home Again

Although jazz-pop singer Erin Bode most often gets compared to Norah Jones, a closer point of comparison is the British indie duo Everything But the Girl. Although he doesn't get front-cover credit, Over and Over is effectively a duet album between Bode's warmly appealing, low-key vocals and her primary collaborator, Adam Maness, whose piano and acoustic guitar are at the heart of the arrangements and who co-wrote nearly all the songs. Maness is Ben Watt to Bode's Tracey Thorn, an empathetic collaborator rooted both in cool jazz and acoustic folk, and the pair create a hybrid of the two styles matched to a fondness for the reflective side of singer/songwriter pop that's best revealed on the album's two pop covers. Paul Simon's "Graceland" is transformed from the South African country ramble into something closer to Joni Mitchell's late-'70s fusion period, and Simply Red's near-forgotten ballad "Holding Back the Years" is overhauled from the unashamedly slick chart pop of the original into a stark duet performance of Maness' close-miked, echoing acoustic guitar and Bode's haunted, mournful vocals that changes the entire feel of the tune. Those tracks aside, however, it's the Bode/Maness originals that are the most intriguing part of this quiet but engrossing album, particularly "Send Me Up a Sign" (the most overtly Everything But the Girl-like song on the album) and the utterly charming, winsome lost-love tune "With the Radio On," which wouldn't sound out of place on a mid-'90s twee pop single by the likes of Softies or Lois until Seamus Blake's playful sax solo shows up. That cross-genre appeal is what makes Over and Over such a good record: Erin Bode isn't interested in staying in one particular stylistic box. ~Stewart Mason

Over And Over

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Kellye Gray - And, They Call Us Cowboys

Size: 100,5 MB
Time: 42:14
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2013
Styles: Crossover Jazz, Alt. Country/Pop
Art: Front

01. Help Me Make It Through The Night (4:01)
02. In The Ghetto (4:15)
03. If I Needed You (4:03)
04. Dang Me (4:36)
05. Deep In The West (5:15)
06. Sailing (5:24)
07. Only The Lonely (4:09)
08. Always On My Mind (6:47)
09. Night's Lullaby (3:40)

Ever wondered what would happen if a fearless woman grabbed hold of a bunch of classic country-type songs and jazzed 'em up? Well, And They Call Us Cowboys answers that curiosity, starting off with a breezy version of Kristofferson's Help Me Make It through the Night, a cut that has samba, lite jazz, mellow rock, and soul. The real basis for the CD is to pay attention to Texas musicians, of which Gray is one, as well as a couple almost-Texans who dug the groove and knew the strut.

Gray's intent is clearly shown in her take on Mac Davis' In the Ghetto, which comes across first as a reproving Plains mom haranguing one and all to hush the hell up and give a damn about someone else for a change…just before she turns the number into an Ella Fitzgerald jazz-scat. Roger Miller's immortal Dang Me gets the Ben Sidran treatment so thoroughly that it's damn near unrecognizable…except when you suddenly hafta blurt out "Yow! That's waaaaay the hell cool!" It also reminds the attentive that Miller had a jazzy underside in a bunch of his perkier stuff. Then there's the just as mutated take on Christopher Cross' Sailing, as though Betty Davis (Miles' wife, not the queen bitch actress) and Nina Simone decided to team up in one voice with a starry Mark Egany bass (Chris Maresh) ambientalizing the atmosphere in spare tonal poetics. Trust me, you'll never again hear this song, my favorite here, done so coolly and so outrageously at the same time. Gray must have extra wrinkles in her brain just to be able to think that way.

Orbison's Only the Lonely comes through in Marvin Gaye Trouble Man waves, a nightclub number in low lights where you can almost hear the clinking of wine glasses and the crowd's digging-it murmur. If you want to know what's really meant by interpretation, then you have to get this disc 'cause, frankly, I can't remember the last time I heard a set of tunes this radically reworked while remaining faithful to the intent and flavor of the originals. You just know that more than one of the composers here is going to hear Cowboys and think "Damn! I sure wish I'd written it THAT way!"

And, They Call Us Cowboys

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