Etta Jones & Houston Person - Don't Misunderstand: Live In New York

Styles: Vocal And Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:32
Size: 123,8 MB
Art: Front

( 8:37) 1. Blue Monk
( 3:51) 2. Don't Misunderstand
( 5:28) 3. Exactly Like You
( 4:17) 4. Ain't Misbehavin'
( 4:02) 5. I Saw Stars
( 7:33) 6. I'm Glad There Is You
(10:19) 7. Bluesology
( 9:22) 8. Are you Real

For the over 30 years they worked together (Jones died in 2001), the billing was actually Houston and Etta, and the tenor saxophonist and vocalist achieved a rare collaborative synergy akin to that celebrated in Lester Young and Billie Holiday. They did it largely beyond the purview of most jazz critics and the kind of mostly white, middle-class fans who flock to jazz festivals and concerts, criss-crossing the country by van and playing mostly in black urban clubs on what was once called the chitlin’ circuit. This is a rare live snapshot of the duo, with B3 organist Sonny Phillips and drummer Frankie Jones, recorded in New York on one of their few appearances outside of Harlem, at the short-lived Greenwich Village club Salt Peanuts, in 1980.

In this typical set, the instrumental trio kicks it off with “Blue Monk,” Person weaving quotable blues lines through his solo and Phillips ranging beyond the usual organ stops to give a quirkily Monk-ish feel to his own. Tenor sax sets the table for Jones’ rendition of the title ballad, limned with her trademark tart tone and direct emotional engagement of the lyric. One of the most rhythmically adept and agile of all jazz singers, Jones swoops and swerves around the beat on “Exactly Like You,” playing slip-behind and catch-up games with the time as Person cushions it with his tenor sax, while she also displays her hipness by flatting the word “waited” in the lyric. Tenor and voice intertwine on a swinging “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” as Jones alternates legato with staccato phrasing. Person and Phillips collaborate on a slow “I’m Glad There is You,” marked by lush, sensual sax, before the trio closes the set with a blues and a Benny Golson tune in the soulful groove that made this band such a favorite among urban audiences. By George Kanzler
https://jazztimes.com/archives/etta-jones-houston-person-dont-misunderstand/

Personnel: Etta Jones - Vocal; Houston Person - Tenor Saxophone ; Sonny Phillips - Organ ; Frankie Jones - Drums

Don't Misunderstand: Live In New York

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The Ray Russell Sextet feat. Harry Beckett - Forget To Remember - Live Vol.2: 1970

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2021
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 76:02
Size: 174,5 MB
Art: Front

( 7:28) 1. Forget To Remember
(16:26) 2. Triple Goddess
(10:51) 3. Rites & Rituals
( 9:31) 4. Disinterested Bystander
(16:17) 5. The Third Real
( 7:19) 6. Forget To Remember (false start & take 1)
( 8:07) 7. Rites & Rituals (take 1)

In 1969, the CBS Realm label released Ray Russell's Dragon's Hill. It was followed in 1971 by Rites and Rituals. The live Forget To Remember Live Vol. 2, a session for the BBC Jazz Workshop series from January 1970, neatly bisects the two to illustrate how Russell's sextet evolved over this period to produce the convincing Rites and Rituals (that uses the same personnel as Forget to Remember). Rites and Rituals is now a highly collectable piece of vinyl Brit Jazz, but at the time, CBS Realm's efforts to document the cutting edge of British jazz of the period with albums by the likes of Russell, Howard Riley, Tony Oxley and Frank Ricotti quickly found their way to the deleted bins as all eyes were focussed on developments across the Atlantic with Miles Davis's entry into jazz-rock that was seen as the non plus ultra of extending the frontiers of jazz.

Russell's swarthy guitar tone on Forget To Remember was not divorced from what was happening in the US, but it came from his very personal conception of what jazz could become. The BBC Jazz Workshop sessions contain an early version of ‘Rites and Rituals’ where Harry Beckett emerges as a major force within the group, the central point around which Russell weaves his musical conception. He had been a constant from Dragons Hill, his lead voice and accomplished solos standing the test of time. Nick Evans on declamatory trombone fits Russell's musical context perfectly, especially on ‘Rites and Rituals’, while ‘Triple Goddess’ reveals what an exploratory soloist Russell was, who along with John McLaughlin and Chris Spedding pushed the boundaries of what a guitar could do in improvised music.By Stuart Nicholson
https://www.jazzwise.com/review/ray-russell-sextet-ft-harry-beckett-forget-to-remember-live-vol-2-1970

Personnel: Ray Russell - guitar; Harry Beckett - trumpet/flugelhorn; Tony Roberts - saxes;Nick Evans - trombone; Daryl Runswick - bass; Alan Rushton - drums

Forget To Remember - Live Vol.2: 1970

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Billy Bang - Vietnam: Reflections

Styles: Violin Jazz
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:05
Size: 161,7 MB
Art: Front

(11:49) 1. Reflections
( 3:23) 2. Ru con
(12:36) 3. Lock And Load
( 2:20) 4. Ly Ngua O
( 9:21) 5. Doi moi
( 8:23) 6. Reconciliation
( 6:48) 7. Waltz of the Water Puppets
( 2:29) 8. Trong Com
(12:52) 9. Reconciliation 2

With his previous record, Vietnam: The Aftermath, violinist, veteran, and anti-war activist Billy Bang exorcized some of the demons that continued to haunt him for thirty years following his return from a tour of duty in Vietnam in the '60s. With Vietnam: Reflections, an album that blends traditional Vietnamese folk melodies with modal grooves and tender ballads, he moves further towards reconciliation. It doesn't exactly shake any musical foundations, but that's not the point of this deeply personal project that finds Bang surrounded by a number of other Vietnam veterans trumpeter Ted Daniels, drummer Michael Carvin, percussionist Ron Brown, and conductor Butch Morris in addition to pianist John Hicks, saxophonist/flautist James Spaulding, multi-instrumentalist Henry Threadgill (this time heard solely on flute), and bassist Curtis Lundy.

The inclusion of singer Co Boi Nguyen and Nhan Thanh Ngo on dan tranh, a sixteen-string zither, finds Bang moving towards a point that, despite experiences that have inexorably altered the lives of Americans and Vietnamese alike, also looks to moving on and finding nexus points between two very different cultures. Bang's own compositions are informed with a significant shade of blue and fashion their melodies after Oriental pentatonics in the same way that Coltrane integrated Indian harmonies in his music. And by interspersing them with traditional Vietnamese songs, Bang creates a moving work that, even with its sometimes melancholic nature, is ultimately filled with hope and healing.

Even the structure of the album is pointed towards resolution and a joining of cultures. "Reflections starts with a modal vamp that gets moving in a relaxed way, with Bang's oriental-informed theme not entering until nearly the two-minute mark. This piece, like the third track, the equally groove-based and modal "Lock & Load, is more about creating a simple, open-ended context for the soloists, rather than any developed compositional concerns. But the interspersing of the traditional pieces "Ru Con and "Ly Ngua O performed by Nguyen, Ngo, and Bang after "Reflections and "Lock & Load, respectively, paints a picture of cultural division, at least at first.

But then the haunting ballad "Doi Moi paves the way for the first of two takes on "Reconciliation 1, where the American and Vietnamese musicians finally join together and, for the rest of the nearly seventy-minute record, even when the musicians go their own separate ways as they do on the beautiful "Waltz of the Water Puppets and the traditional "Trong Com the precedent has been set, so that by the time of the album's closer, a more upbeat reading of "Reconciliation 2, the mood has become considerably brighter.

While Bang first got his credentials in more avant-garde and free jazz settings, his most recent work has moved closer to the centre, sounding more mainstream and certainly more approachable. Still, despite the more straight-ahead direction of Vietnam: Reflections, there's no sense of pandering. Instead it's all about finding common ground and the potential for beauty in the simplest of contexts.By John Kelman
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/vietnam-reflections-billy-bang-justin-time-records-review-by-john-kelman

Personnel: Billy Bang (violin); James Spaulding (alto sax, flute); Henry Threadgill (flute); Ted Daniel (trumpet); Butch Morris (conductor); John Hicks (piano); Curtis Lundy (bass); Michael Carvin (drums); Ron Brown (percussion); Co Boi Nguyen (vocalist); Nhan Thanh Ngo (dan tranh)

Vietnam: Reflections

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Ledisi - Ledisi Sings Nina

Styles: Jazz Funk
Year: 2021
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 30:52
Size: 70,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:54) 1. Feeling Good
(3:39) 2. My Baby Just Cares for Me
(5:11) 3. Ne Me Quitte Pas (Don't Leave Me)
(3:36) 4. Wild Is The Wind (Live)
(6:20) 5. Work Song
(4:49) 6. Four Women
(3:20) 7. I'm Going Back Home

Ledisi's profound connection with Nina Simone's music began in 2003, when a radio DJ's spin of "Trouble in Mind" provoked a moment of catharsis at an extremely low period in the singer's life. Over the years, Ledisi performed and recorded the Simone composition "Four Women," seen on BET's Black Girls Rock, and heard on the soundtrack of For Colored Girls, headlined numerous Simone-themed concerts, and put on a Simone-honoring autobiographical play - one that culminated in her interpretation of the song that was her providential gateway to (or lifeline from) the high priestess. Immediately preceded and followed by other celebrations of Simone, such as a PBS special and a Hollywood Bowl date, Ledisi Sings Nina strengthens the bond.

Much ground is covered in its brief duration. It varies in mood and style amid a mix of songs Simone either wrote or re-envisioned, with Ledisi supported in grand style by her hometown New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and the Netherlands' Metropole Orkest. On a new version of "Four Women," Ledisi takes the spotlight after strong turns from Lizz Wright, Alice Smith, and Lisa Fischer, thereby reprising her role as "fourth woman" Peaches. She belts "I'll kill the first mother I see" as if her blood is boiling instead of cold, and the threat startles even when it's anticipated. "Feeling Good" and "My Baby Just Cares for Me" the latter updated with some winking modern references seemed done to death until Ledisi's frisky resuscitations here.

On a stark and stirring "Ne me quitte pas," Ledisi craftily switches from Jacques Brel's original French lyrics to Rod McKuen's English adaptation. "Work Song" is flashier without trivializing the subject's grave circumstances. "I'm Going Back Home," high-energy gospel in original form, gets a brilliant NOLA second-line overhaul that celebrates Ledisi's origin and inspiration with equally elevated levels of conviction.

What's most appealing is that Ledisi is herself at all times, empowered by Simone yet utterly distinct. Whereas most tribute sets are merely pleasant stop-gaps between proper LPs, this is as crucial to Ledisi's discography as any of her four Grammy-nominated albums. She put all of herself into it. By Andy Kellman https://www.allmusic.com/album/sings-nina-mw0003533139?

Ledisi Sings Nina

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