Kellye Gray - Blue And Pink, The Pink Songs

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:49
Size: 151,3 MB
Art: Front

( 7:49)  1. Honeysuckle Rose
(11:28)  2. Well You Needn't
( 6:47)  3. Speak No Evil
( 5:30)  4. Do Nothing
( 8:58)  5. Footprints
( 8:08)  6. Blue Skies
( 6:22)  7. Billie's Bounce
(10:43)  8. Well You Needn't (Bonus Track)

The Pink Songs are the be-bop, swings and out tunes from the Blue and Pink concert recordings. They were recorded in February 2002 in Houston, Texas at Ovations Nite Spot. Kellye Gray has been a jazz recording artist since 1990. Her first disc, Standards In Gray (Justice Records) sold an impressive 60,000 plus CD's. Standards and her second recording, Tomato Kiss (Proteus) charted in the top 20 of the Gavin Report. “Powerful”, “imaginative”, “emotionally uplifting” are some of the adjectives critics use to describe the talents of singer Kellye Gray. Most importantly, Kellye is that breed of jazz singer who has developed a sound that is truly their own. Her style is post-modernist and she uses her voice like an instrument within the ensemble. She possesses what critics like to call  “musicianly chops”. Singing and performing since the age of five, Kellye caught the "bug" very early on in life. She has studied voice, speech, acting and music for over 20 years in Texas, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. She has released four CDs as a solo artist and has appeared on many others as a featured vocalist or as part of a compilation. 

Gray, a native Texan, began her career in the most unlikely of places. She cut her teeth up and down Austin’s own Sixth Street during the 1980’s where the music was more rock and roll and covers than be-bop and swing. On a Kellye Gray date back then it was not unusual to hear Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, a Madonna or Prince cover all in the same set. But, creative choices and great taste allowed “the KGB (the Kellye Gray Band)” to attract not only a college crowd but also a more sophisticated crowd of up-and-coming baby-boomers. The group quickly became a frequent headliner at many of Austin’s festivals, like Aqua Fest and Old Pecan Street Festival. Kellye was recognized as one of the Austin Chronicle’s favorite singers and jazz groups several years in a row.  Kellye moved to Houston in 1987 performing nightly at the Blue Moon. 

There she developed a strong following that attracted the fledgling Justice Records to her door. She recorded Standards In Gray (Justice Records) in 1989 and the disc soared to the top of the Gavin Report as well as other jazz charts. She was named a member of the Texas Jazz Heritage Society, a group founded by the late Arnett Cobb. More...https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/kellyegray2

Blue And Pink, The Pink Songs

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Jean Goldkette - Jean Goldkette Bands 1924-1929

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:57
Size: 162.5 MB
Styles: Vintage dance band
Year: 2003
Art: Front

[3:10] 1. In The Evening
[2:45] 2. It's The Blues
[2:46] 3. Play Me Slow
[3:01] 4. Dinah
[3:04] 5. Drifting Apart
[2:39] 6. Gimme A Little Kiss, Will Ya Huh
[3:00] 7. Lonesome And Sorry
[3:02] 8. My Ohio Home
[3:14] 9. So Tired
[3:09] 10. Here Comes The Show Boat (1)
[3:07] 11. Here Comes The Show Boat (2)
[3:06] 12. Just A Little Kiss From A Little Miss
[2:58] 13. Just Imagine (1)
[2:55] 14. Just Imagine (2)
[2:56] 15. Just Imagine (3)
[2:58] 16. That's Just My Way Of Forgetting You
[2:47] 17. That's What Puts The Sweet In Home Sweet Home
[2:49] 18. My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now (1)
[2:50] 19. My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now (2)
[2:55] 20. Don't Be Like That (1)
[2:58] 21. Don't Be Like That (2)
[2:52] 22. Take A Good Look At Mine
[2:55] 23. Ya' Comin' Up To Night, Huh
[2:51] 24. Birmingham Blues

Although he was a fine classically trained pianist who emigrated to the United States in 1911, Jean Goldkette's importance to jazz is as a bandleader in the 1920s. Goldkette actually had over 20 bands under his name by the mid-1920s, but it was his main unit (which recorded for Victor during 1924-29) that is the only one remembered today. This 24 track collection features Don Murray, Joe Venuti, Steve Brown, Hoagy Carmichael, Frank Trumbauer and others.

Jean Goldkette Bands 1924-1929

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Mose Allison - My BackYard

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:47
Size: 101,3 MB
Art: Front

(3:15)  1. Ever Since I Stole The Blues
(2:57)  2. You Call It Joggin'
(4:19)  3. Big Brother
(3:25)  4. Sentimental Fool
(3:45)  5. Stranger In My Home Town
(4:13)  6. Was
(4:13)  7. Gettin' Paid Waltz
(3:05)  8. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
(3:32)  9. That's Your Red Wagon
(3:52) 10. Long Song
(3:26) 11. Sleepy Lagoon
(3:38) 12. My Backyard

Mose Allison's career in his golden and quite fruitful years has yielded many surprises and challenges, not the least of which is this delightful offering. He continues to write attractive, bouncy, and fun tunes carried by his signature roiling piano style and sly lyrics. For this effort, producer and Allison disciple Ben Sidran hooked him up with musicians from the modern New Orleans jazz scene, including Astral Project members the extraordinary drummer John Vidacovich, tenor saxophonist Tony Dagradi, and guitarist Steve Masakowski. Veteran bassist Bill Huntington rounds out this very talented ensemble that happily works with Allison step by step to produce some of the singer/songwriter/instrumentalist's most enjoyable music, a tall order but easily recognizable once the listening commences. John D. Loudermilk's "You Call It Joggin'," with the retort "but I call it runnin' around," is one of the all-time classic skeptical lyric lines, as applicable to contemporary lifestyles as anything in the urban lexicon. His revisit of "That's Your Red Wagon" is another timeless tale of emotional baggage; Percy Mayfield's "Stranger In My Own Hometown" is purely autobiographical; while "Sleepy Lagoon" is an easygoing, romantic fantasy theme. Of the eight Allison originals, "The Getting Paid Waltz" depicts every musician's nightmare playing in a nightclub, impatiently waiting for the cheapskate owner eventually to pay up. "Was" is a light waltz for has-beens; "Sentimental Fool" talks about the paradox that he "messed around and got humanized"; and the New Orleans shuffle "Big Brother" including smart tradeoffs with Dagradi is a post-technology cautionary tale, even more relevant in modern times with the advent of Skype, Twitter, and Facebook. 

A statement on the music industry and jazz in particular, the slinky "Long Song" delineates in four minutes what need and not need be present in popular commercial or creative progressive music, and is a perfect companion to his song "My Top 40 Hit Record." Allison is always a delight to hear, a consistently marvelous piano player, and in very good company with this expert band that suits his style and personality perfectly. My Backyard is one of the best records of his career. ~ Michael G.Nastos http://www.allmusic.com/album/my-backyard-mw0000655065

Personnel:  Bass – Bill Huntington;  Drums – John Vidacovich;  Guitar – Steve Masakowski;  Piano – Mose Allison;  Tenor Saxophone – Tony Dagradi;  Vocals – Mose Allison

My BackYard

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Eli Paperboy Reed - Down Every Road

Styles: Vocal, Guitar
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 34:00
Size: 80,0 MB
Art: Front

(2:14) 1. Mama Tried
(2:30) 2. I'm Bringing Home Good News
(3:33) 3. Somewhere Between
(2:26) 4. Teach Me to Forget
(2:47) 5. It's Not Love, But It's Not Bad
(2:49) 6. If We Make It Through December
(2:35) 7. Silver Wings
(2:25) 8. I'm Gonna Break Every Heart I Can
(2:53) 9. I'm a Lonesome Fugitive
(3:29) 10. One Sweet Hello
(3:37) 11. Workin' Man Blues
(2:36) 12. Today I Started Loving You Again

Some may look sceptically at the idea of Eli Paperboy Reed’s new album. Can a young soulman credibly interpret the songbook of one of country and western’s greatest icons? Absolutely.

After all, Ray Charles famously got here back in 1962 with two volumes of Modern Sounds in Country and Western. Those groundbreaking albums, where Charles dug his voice into music seldom tackled by anyone outside of Nashville at the time, made it clear that the line between C&W and soul was thin enough for it to be blurred by those with enough talent. Eli Paperboy Reed fits such a bill.

While he’s no Ray Charles (to be fair, who is?), Reed’s six previous releases show him to be a powerful, rugged and above all expressive singer, inspired by the greats of the genre he calls home. Yet Reed has been a Haggard fan for years; this covers project was put on the back burner until his own career got underway. The pandemic fanned those flames enough for him to realize that now was the time to take the plunge. Reed digs deep into Hag’s work, with at least half these songs relatively unknown to all but serious fans. Although ringers such as the opening ‘Mama Tried’ (a tough Stax/Otis Redding-style makeover), the sweet ‘Silver Wings’ (a slinky Solomon Burke groove layered with a surprise trombone solo) and the closing ‘Today I Started Loving You Again’ (now a duet with singer Sabine McCalla) are recognizable, the majority are more obscure.

Reed goes full Wilson Pickett, ramping up the funk on a spirited ‘Break Every Heart’. He closes it with a trademark Pickett growl as he transforms the song from its self-deprecating original into a strutting proclamation of purpose. He takes ‘Teach Me to Forgot’ into Muscle Shoals territory with horns that punctuate the chorus, before transforming ‘One Sweet Hello’ into a rhythmic waltz about a relationship that went sour, with all the pathos such words imply; “From one sweet hello / to one sad goodbye”.

The gloomy, holiday-themed ‘If We Make It Through December’ might have been written as a soul ballad if Haggard had heard Reed’s melancholy version, its bittersweet horns underpinning the words “It’s the coldest time of winter” as a female voice brings the church. Reed’s music emerges from the rugged, red dirt South as opposed to anything from Motown, Philadelphia or Chicago cities known for their often smoother, slicker soul scenes. It makes his interpretations more relevant to Haggard’s hard-boiled tales of the brokenhearted and troubled common man, still proud but aware things aren’t likely to improve.

Everything is expertly arranged and performed; Reed’s voice tearing into these slices of life as if he has lived every one. It’s produced with the same unvarnished touch characteristic of the 60’s music that informs his artistic sensibility. The only frustration is that these dozen tracks barely break a half hour. Hopefully, we don’t have to wait for another pandemic to hear a follow-up Haggard’s rich catalog is ripe for such interesting reinterpretation.~Hal Horowitzhttps://holler.country/reviews/album-review/eli-paperboy-reed-down-every-road-eli-paperboy-reed-sings-merle-haggard

Personnel: Guitar, Vocals – Eli Paperboy Reed; Backing Vocals – Kendra Morris, Saundra Williams; Baritone Saxophone – Michael Buckley; Bass – Michael Montgomery; Drums, Percussion – Noah Rubin ; Keyboards – Colin Brown; Tenor Saxophone – Morgan Price; Trombone – Nadav Nirenberg; Trumpet – Billy Aukstik

Down Every Road

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