Friday, July 22, 2022

Art Farmer & Donald Byrd - 2 Trumpets

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 1956
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:42
Size: 98,1 MB
Art: Front

( 7:42) 1. The Third
( 7:38) 2. Contour
( 5:13) 3. When Your Lover Has Gone
(14:29) 4. Dig
( 6:39) 5. Round Midnight

2 Trumpets is an album by trumpeters Art Farmer and Donald Byrd, recorded in 1956 and released on the Prestige label. They are joined by Jackie McLean in the front line for the uptempo pieces but have a ballad quartet track apiece. In a contemporaneous review, Billboard was positive, commenting that it is a "very enjoyable LP for the modern jazz customer".

In Ron Wynn's review for Allmusic, he stated: "This nice date puts two top trumpets together".The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave it two-and-a-half stars out of four, describing it as "capable but routine".https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Trumpets

Personnel: Art Farmer – trumpet; Donald Byrd - trumpet; Jackie McLean – alto saxophone; Barry Harris – piano; Doug Watkins – bass; Art Taylor – drums

2 Trumpets

Carmen McRae & Dave Brubeck - Take Five

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz 
Year: 1961
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:32
Size: 90,8 MB
Art: Front

(2:55)  1. When I Was Young
(3:03)  2. In Your Own Sweet Way
(3:03)  3. Too Young for Growing Old
(3:06)  4. Ode to a Cowboy
(4:42)  5. There'll Be No Tomorrow
(4:48)  6. Melanctha
(2:38)  7. It's a Raggy Waltz
(2:38)  8. Oh, So Blue
(5:30)  9. Lord, Lord
(2:59) 10. Travellin' Blues
(2:21) 11. Take Five
(1:44) 12. Easy as You Go

Around the time that she was participating in Dave Brubeck's Real Ambassadors, singer Carmen McRae appeared at Basin Street East with the backing of Brubeck's trio (no Paul Desmond on this set). The resulting live album finds McRae mostly interpreting the lyrics of Iola Brubeck; all dozen songs except Desmond's "Take Five" are Dave Brubeck originals. This interesting set finds McRae's voice in prime form, and her vocal versions of such songs as "In Your Own Sweet Way," "Ode to a Cowboy," "It's a Raggy Waltz" And "Travellin' Blues" are definitive.
~Scott Yanow http://www.allmusic.com/album/take-five-live-mw0000265922

Personnel:  Carmen McRae – vocal;  Dave Brubeck – piano;  Paul Desmond - alto saxophone;  Gene Wright – bass;  Joe Morrello - drums

Take Five

Eric Reed - The Swing and I

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1995
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:12
Size: 156,8 MB
Art: Front

(4:38)  1. The Swing and I
(7:03)  2. The Gemini Suite: The First Man - 'Scotty'
(2:25)  3. The Gemini Suite: The Second Man -'Frank Marshall'
(3:18)  4. The Gemini Suite: The Fourth Man -'Holden Caulfield'
(3:50)  5. Felix the Cat
(8:52)  6. Ahmad's Blues
(4:40)  7. Ka-Boose
(0:50)  8. Frenzia
(7:21)  9. A Spoonful of Sugar
(3:56) 10. Listen Here
(0:27) 11. Uncle Lucius' Interlude
(5:33) 12. Old Flame
(3:42) 13. Healing Hand
(2:34) 14. Evergreen
(3:22) 15. Big Dogs
(3:12) 16. Let Us Go into the House of the Lord
(0:58) 17. Acknowledgement
(1:25) 18. Praise #1

Pianist Eric Reed is one of a large number of talented musicians who emerged from Wynton Marsalis' bands to pursue a rewarding solo career in his own right. Born in Philadelphia in 1970, Reed's first exposure to music came through his father, a minister and local gospel singer; he began playing piano at age two and soon discovered jazz, quickly developing into a musical prodigy. He entered music school at age seven, and resisted classical training in favor of jazz, inspired early on by Dave Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis, Art Blakey, and Horace Silver. Four years later, he moved with his family to Los Angeles, where he digested enough jazz history that he was able to begin playing around the city's jazz scene as a teenager, both as a leader and a sideman for the likes of Gerald Wilson, Teddy Edwards, John Clayton, and Clora Bryant. He first met Wynton Marsalis at age 17, and toured briefly with the trumpeter the following year (his first and only at Cal State-Northridge). In 1989, Reed officially joined Marsalis' band as the replacement for Marcus Roberts; the following year, he issued his debut album as a leader, A Soldier's Hymn, on Candid, with backing by his regular trio of bassist Dwayne Burno and drummer Gregory Hutchinson.

In 1991 and 1992, Reed worked with Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson as a sideman, returning to Marsalis' group by the end of 1992. He cut a pair of well-received albums for MoJazz, It's All Right to Swing and The Swing and I, in 1993 and 1994, and in 1995 embarked on his first tour as leader of his own group. Two more dates for Impulse!, 1996's Musicale and 1997's Pure Imagination, found his style maturing and his critical and commercial success growing; he also spent 1996-1998 playing with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. 1999's Manhattan Melodies, his first outing for Verve, was a colorful and sophisticated tribute to New York City; that year, he also undertook the most prominent of several film-scoring projects, the Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence comedy Life. Reed also continued to record with Marsalis up into the new millennium. 2001 brought the acclaimed Happiness on Nagel-Heyer, and the next year saw two releases, the well-received From My Heart and a duet album with frequent cohort Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, We. He recorded and played frequently during subsequent years, including a second volume with Gordon (We, Vol. 2) and several sessions for Savant. In 2009, Reed released the gospel-inspired Stand! and returned the following year with Plenty Swing, Plenty Soul, a duet album with Cyrus Chestnut. Beginning with 2011's The Dancing Monk, Reed embarked on an ongoing recording project of Thelonious Monk's music; a theme he revisited on 2012's Baddest Monk and 2014's The Adventurous Monk.~Steve Huey http://www.allmusic.com/artist/eric-reed-mn0000799352/biography

Personnel: Eric Reed (piano); Eddie Bailey (vocals); Ben Wolfe, Rodney Whitaker (acoustic bass); Greg Hutchinson (drums); Denise Morgan, Suzzane Williams, Beverly Taylor (background vocals).

The Swing and I