Erena Terakubo - Little Girl Power

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:26
Size: 156,1 MB
Art: Front

(6:42) 1. Little Girl Power
(5:14) 2. Marmaduke
(6:12) 3. Rocky
(7:54) 4. Lover Man
(4:28) 5. Lover
(7:34) 6. Juicy Lucy
(4:41) 7. Introduction To A Samba
(6:19) 8. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
(4:46) 9. Winter Fireworks
(4:26) 10. Bird Lives
(4:36) 11. When You Wish Upon A Star
(4:30) 12. High Touch

Erena Terakubo was born in Sapporo, Japan. She began playing the alto saxophone at the age of nine. Terakubo played the saxophone influenced by artists such as Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, and Sonny Stitt.

In 2010, Terakubo released her first album, "North Bird" with Kenny Barron, Christian McBride, Lee Pearson, and Peter Bernstein, through Japanese major label King Records. It marked No. 1 on the Japanese jazz charts and was awarded Swing Journal's Gold Disc. Later that year, she performed with Ron Carter, Omar Hakim, and Will Boulware at the Tokyo Jazz Festival. In 2011, Terakubo recorded her second album, "New York Attitude" with Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Lee Pearson, and Dominick Farinacci. In the same year, she received a presidential scholarship from Berklee College of Music. She graduated in 2015. She moved to New York in the same year.

Terakubo has performed with Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Louis Hayes, Vincent Herring, Christian McBride, John Beasley's Monk'estra, Lewis Nash, and Lenny White just to name a few. In addition, Terakubo has toured around the globe as a leader including Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, Australia, and the Middle East. Terakubo released 6 albums as a leader. https://www.jamrice.co.jp/erena/en/bio/bio.html

Personnel: Elena Terakubo (alto-sax, soprano-sax); Mayuko Katakura (piano, Rhodes); Motoi Kanamori (bass); Shinnosuke Takahashi (drums, percussions)

Little Girl Power

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Sinne Eeg & The Danish Radio Big Band - We've Just Begun

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:47
Size: 119,3 MB
Art: Front

(4:03) 1. We've Just Begun
(5:19) 2. Like a Song
(5:04) 3. Those Ordinary Things
(3:35) 4. Talking to Myself
(4:36) 5. Hvorfor er lykken så lunefuld
(5:05) 6. My Favorite Things
(5:47) 7. Samba Em Comum
(5:53) 8. Detour Ahead
(6:41) 9. Comes Love
(5:40) 10. To a New Day

Any vocalist who can summon the world-class Danish Radio Big Band to serve as a backup group must have something special to offer. Sinne Eeg, whose lustrous voice uplifts and illuminates her ninth album, We've Just Begun, has all of that and more. Eeg, as it turns out, is a shining star in her native Denmark and if she weren't, she certainly should be. Singing mostly in English, Eeg displays a charming voice that is strong and clear and a style that is jazz-inflected but unmannered, in the image of her role models: Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Anita O'Day. For comparison's sake, the contemporary vocalist who springs to mind is Roberta Gambarini, and there can be no higher compliment than that. No less than four of Eeg's earlier albums earned Danish Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album of the Year, and the impression here is that We've Just Begun should be a strong contender for Music Award No. 5. Besides singing, Eeg wrote or co-wrote half of the album's ten selections, starting with the album's opener / title song, a freewheeling swinger on which Eeg's buoyant vocal (and scat chorus) is underlined by the band and tenor saxophonist Hans Ulrik. Eeg wrote the engaging waltz, "Like a Song," which follows, and co-authored the wistful and meditative ballad, "Those Ordinary Things," with lyricist Helle Hansen.

The DRBB's rhythm section shines on "Talking to Myself," an old-line swinger on which Eeg showcases her admirable jazz chops, grooving and scatting in a style that would certainly have pleased the above-named role models. She sings in Danish on "Hvorfor er Lykken Sa Lunefuld," a melodic song from the 1937 Danish film A Consummate Gentleman, before addressing the first of three American evergreens, Rodgers and Hammerstein's "My Favorite Things," whose even-tempered opening stanza gives way to a fiery midsection with burning solos by tenor Frederik Menzies and drummer Soren Frost. As if to show there is no limit to her virtuosity, Eeg sings the gently swaying "Samba em Comum" in English and Portuguese. The light-hearted solo is by trombonist Peter Dahlgren. The next two numbers, "Detour Ahead" and "Comes Love," were scored for Eeg by her longtime friend, the late American saxophonist / arranger Roger Neumann, to whose memory the album is dedicated. "Detour" advances slowly, lending full rein to Eeg's shapely and seductive voice, while "Comes Love" allows her to make the most of its clever and playful lyric (with more scatting thrown in for added spice). Eeg rings down the curtain with another of her compositions, the enticing, gospel-flavored anthem "To a New Day," which further underscores her impressive range and unerring timbre. Make no mistake, this is Eeg's album all the way, and she is a radiant and beguiling centerpiece. As for the Danish Radio Big Band, it is the luscious icing on the cake.

Personnel: Sinne Eeg: vocals, composer, arranger; Nikolai Bogelund: conductor; Dave Vreuls: trumpet; Bjarke Nikolasjsen: trumpet; Thomas Kjergaard: trumpet; Mads la Cour: trumpet; Gerard Presencer: trumpet; Lars Vissing: trumpet; Peter Fuglsang, Nicolai Schultz, Hans Ulrik, Anders Banke, Frederick Menzies, Anders Gaardmand, Jan Harbeck: saxes; Peter Dahlgren: trombone; Vincent Nilsson: trombone; Kevin Christensen: trombone; Annette Saxe: trombone; Jakob Munck: trombone; Henrik Gunde: piano; Per Gade: guitar; Kaspar Vadsholt: bass; Seren Frost: drums. Guest musicians – Rune Harder Olesen: percussion (3); Luis Conte: percussion (7); Sille Grenberg, Birgitte Soojin, Ninna Milner Juel, Maja Hanghoj, Alice Carreri: backing vocals (7).

We've Just Begun

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Trudy Kerr - Cloudburst

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:21
Size: 150,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:18) 1. Joy Spring
(3:57) 2. Cloudburst
(4:16) 3. The Rabbit
(5:41) 4. Lady Luck
(4:35) 5. Weird Nightmare
(3:40) 6. Funk Evans
(4:10) 7. Somewhere In The Hills
(2:51) 8. Ruby My Dear
(4:02) 9. Come On Home
(5:20) 10. Jeannine
(6:21) 11. Left Alone
(4:53) 12. On A Misty Night - September In The Rain
(4:38) 13. Cinema Paradiso - That Day
(5:34) 14. Up Jumped Spring

Something of a miniature epiphany this. A vocal album sufficiently musicianly, substantial and in the instrumental tradition that it could equally well be filed under mainstream. Think vocal jazz automatically equals jazz-lite? Think again.

Cloudburst is London-based Australian Kerr's fifth album and follows her fine '02 homage to Chet Baker, My Old Flame. This time she puts the Great American Songbook aside and offers fourteen hardcore jazz instrumentals, to which lyrics and/or vocalese have later been added, either by her or by earlier writers. The original composers are Coltrane, Mingus, Monk, Clifford Brown, Gerry Mulligan, Horace Silver, Mal Waldron, Tadd Dameron, Bill Evans, Lerov Kirkland & Jimmy Harris, Duke Pearson, Antonio Jobim, Ennio Morricone, and Freddie Hubbard. To say Kerr does justice to these guys which she does is really to say something. The arrangements are unfussy, and wholly unsweetened, and Kerr's warm and sensuous voice, particularly effective in the midrange, delivers straightforward and engaging readings.

Key to the album's success is Kerr's band, a half dozen of London's finest, who're given plenty of space in which to stretch out and improvise. Dick Pearce (trumpet) and Derek Nash (baritone saxophone) return from My Old Flame, joined by Alan Skidmore (tenor saxophone), Tom Cawley (piano) perhaps best known right now as keyboards player with thrash jazz uber-iconoclasts Acoustic Ladyland Sam Burgess (bass), and Steve Brown (drums).

Tom Cawley's playing here will be a revelation to anyone who only knows him from his Acoustic Ladyland incarnation. Eight of the tracks are just Kerr and piano trio, and Cawley's fleet and glowing solos, out of Bud Powell, Al Haig, and Horace Silver, but fresh with it, are riveting. Skidmore, Nash, and Pearce shine as bright as you'd expect. Nash is compelling on Mulligan's "Bunny," here retitled "Rabbit," and Waldron's "Left Alone," as is Skidmore on Coltrane's "Moment's Notice," here retitled "Lady Luck," and Mingus' "Weird Nightmare." Pearce's dueting with Kerr on Dameron's "On A Misty Night" is exquisite. Burgess and Brown each get a couple of solos, with Brown particularly strong on Silver's "Come On Home," developing a series of snare drum press-rolls of barely restrained ferocity.

So, a vocal album for people who don't usually like vocal albums. Kerr is 100% real jazz musician, and Cloudburst is 100% real jazz. Things are looking up.~Chris May https://www.allaboutjazz.com/cloudburst-trudy-kerr-jazzizit-review-by-chris-may

Personnel: Trudy Kerr, vocals; Tom Cawley, piano; Sam Burgess, bass; Steve Brown, drums. Dick Pearce, trumpet, Alan Skidmore, tenor saxophone, Derek Nash, baritone saxophone on "The Rabbit," "Lady Luck," "Weird Nightmare," "Jeanine," "Left Alone," and "On A Misty Night/September In The Rain."

Cloudburst

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John Beasley - Positootly!

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:16
Size: 113,3 MB
Art: Front

(5:04)  1. Caddo Bayou
(4:32)  2. Positootly!
(5:30)  3. Dindi
(6:40)  4. Black Thunder
(4:58)  5. Shatita Boom Boom
(5:28)  6. Tanguedia III
(4:53)  7. Elle
(4:45)  8. So Tired
(4:50)  9. The Eight Winds
(2:32) 10. Hope.. Arkansas

On Positootly!, pianist John Beasley explores a variety of styles for a thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating experience. Each track benefits immensely from the indelible touch of drumming great Jeff "Tain" Watts, in alliance here with percussionist Munyungo Jackson. Hailing from Louisiana, Beasley started playing in the late seventies, getting his seasoning with such jazz greats as Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Dianne Reeves. Lately, he has gravitated towards composing for film and television, but he continues to release new music and tour with his band. This recording follows-up Letter to Herbie (Resonance, 2008), in which Beasley presented an impressionistic take on Herbie Hancock's music. Besides Watts and Jackson on drums, the musicians participating here are bassist James Genus, along with the blistering front line of saxophonist Bennie Maupin and trumpeter Brian Lynch. Most numbers are Beasley originals with three notable exceptions. The standout is a knockout rendition of, Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla's tango "Tanguedia III." On most selections, Beasley plays piano, but here he uses Fender Rhodes and synthesizer to create bandoneon accordion effects essential to tango. It's uniquely tango-jazz all the way in 2/4 start-stop fashion, building to a dynamic climax.

Other selections range from funk and soul to bop and bossa nova. Staying in a South American vein, Beasley puts forth his take on Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Dindi." Genus' bass sets the tone for this soft reflective piece, with the piano delivering softly swaying interludes. Watts and Jackson, as expected, add complexity to the beat. A further highlight is Beasley's "Black Thunder," dedicated to the late drummer Elvin Jones, and featuring Watts as a positive dynamo with pounding sticks. Maupin and Lynch deliver stirring solos as well. On Beasley's vigorous "The Eight Winds," Lynch's muted trumpet effectively leads the pianist into a burning,double-time solo, again resolutely backed by the churning drum duo. For hard boppers, there is Beasley's opener, "Caddo Bayou," featuring the whole band in this energized tribute to the leader's hometown. For soulful funk there is Bobby Timmons "So Tired," with Beasley again On Fender Rhodes, framing Maupin's strong tenor solo. Since positivity is the theme of this CD, it is fitting that it ends with the piano solo piece "Hope, Arkansas," Beasley's stately ode to Obama's presidency. ~ Larry Taylor https://www.allaboutjazz.com/positootly-john-beasley-resonance-records-review-by-larry-taylor.php

Personnel: John Beasley: piano, Fender Rhodes, synthesizer; Bennie Maupin: tenor and soprano saxophones; Brian Lynch: trumpet; James Genus: bass; Jeff "Tain" Watts: drums; Munyungo Jackson: percussion.

Positootly!

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