Aga Zaryan - A Book Of Luminous Things

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:49
Size: 116,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:10) 1. Music Like Water
(4:39) 2. Like A He-bear And A She-bear
(3:43) 3. This Only
(2:33) 4. Eye Mask
(5:48) 5. Autumn Quince
(3:16) 6. Meaning
(3:42) 7. A Gift
(4:19) 8. A Parable Of The Poppy
(4:05) 9. I Talk To My Body
(4:53) 10. A Song On The End Of World
(4:30) 11. On Prayer
(4:05) 12. This World

Aga Zaryan (born Agnieszka Skrzypek January 17, 1976) is an internationally recognized Polish jazz vocalist of the new generatio.She was named Jazz Vocalist of The Year in the European Jazz Forum Magazine's yearly Jazz Top readers' poll in 2007, 2008 and 2009.She is also the first Polish artist ever to release an album on Blue Note.

'A Book Of Luminous Things' is an ambitious project focused around texts by Polish Nobel Prize winner poet Czeslaw Milosz and some of his favourite poetess(Jane Hierschfield, Anna Swirszczynska, Denise Levertov). All tracks are composed by Michal Tokaj, and they are melodious , pensive and relaxed and are sung in English. What the album lacks in diversity, it gains in unity but it's main problem is the lack of real hits.

Aga Zaryan's new project features a strong cast: Michal Tokaj on piano and Munyungo Jackson on percusion who remain from her previous project are joined by bassist Darek Oleszkiewicz ("Penumbra") and guitarist Larry Koonse who together with the Polish Radio String Orchestra manage to create a good album. Aga Zaryan is a promising young artist , I'm waiting with interest her future releases.
https://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/review/a-book-of-luminous-things/233734

A Book Of Luminous Things

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Dave McKenna & Buddy DeFranco - You Must Believe In Swing

Styles: Clarinet And Piano Jazz
Year: 1997
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:15
Size: 131,5 MB
Art: Front

(6:08)  1. You Must Believe In Swing
(8:24)  2. Invitation
(6:31)  3. The Song Is You
(5:41)  4. If You Could See Me Now
(5:26)  5. Darn That Dream
(5:30)  6. Autumn Nocturne
(5:55)  7. Poor Butterfly
(5:01)  8. You Must Believe In Spring
(4:24)  9. Anthropolgy
(4:12) 10. Detour Ahead

Sing, Sing, Sing. Dave McKenna and Buddy DeFranco have been active musicians over approximately that same period. Both are recognized as expert in their respective musical areas. Dave McKenna is an acknowledged master of the swing piano school, specializing in songs of the 1930s. Buddy DeFranco is reputed to be the evolutionary link between Benny Goodman and Eddie Daniels. These two performers make for a splendid and interesting duo. The clarinet, because of Benny Goodman, will forever be heard in terms of the swing era. Buddy DeFranco, however, cultivated it for Be-bop. Both the splendid and interesting elements in this duo are manifest in the combination of a swing instrument (clarinet) played by a Be-bopper and a Be-bop instrument (piano) played by a swing specialist. A Fine Sauce of Flatted Fifths. 

The synergistic performances on this record are of a very high order. It is fun to listen to McKenna?s full-chorded, two-handed swing approach sliding beneath the slippery, boppish DeFranco, and make no mistake about it, DeFranco is 100% Be-bop. It is not unlike a fine sauce. A sauce is actually nothing more than a well-blended emulsion, a mixture of oil and water. Well-blended, because McKenna and DeFranco respond well to one another, but still oil and water. Still different. And the listener never loses sight of that difference. Swing, Swing, Swing. The disc opens with a DeFranco original, "You Must Believe in Swing", a take off on the Bergman-Legrand composition, "You Must Believe in Spring", performed later on the disc. It is a medium tempo blues that is all Be-bop. The duo competently navigates through the ballads "Invitation" and "The Song is You" to arrive at the next Be-bop cornerstones, Tadd Dameron?s "If You Could See Me Now" and "Darn That Dream". Both are fun romps in the repertoire, but the real fun is in the Bop anthem "Anthropology". 

DeFranco begins the head straight, but soon careens off in the same way Charlie Parker did on his famous and unrecognizable recording of "Embraceable You". I cannot help but compare this clarinet version of "Anthropology" with another, Art Pepper?s performance on The Complete Village Vanguard Sessions (Contemporary 9CCD-4417-2, 1995). The first portion of this performance is also a tight and exciting duet (with bassist George Mraz). Pepper?s version possesses a greater discipline and sheer musical tension than DeFranco, but DeFranco has merit in his risk-taking abandon. Where Pepper?s performance is dead serious, DeFranco?s is playful and has fun. Having Fun. That pretty well sums up this record. Both performers sound comfortable and friendly. It is hard to believe that anyone would not like the sound of a clarinet in a piano duet. Played happy or sad, they always have a sound of hope and good will. Kind of like what these two Jazz giants have. ~ C.Michael Bailey  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/dave-mckenna-and-buddy-defranco-you-must-believe-in-swing-dave-mckenna-concord-music-group-review-by-c-michael-bailey.php#.VCy_1RawTP8
 

Personnel: Dave McKenna: piano; Buddy DeFranco: clarinet.

You Must Believe In Swing

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Ed Polcer & His Swingtet - Lionel, Red & Bunny

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:08
Size: 140.0 MB
Styles: Big band, Swing
Year: 2008
Art: Front

[3:02] 1. King Porter Stomp
[3:45] 2. Stompin' At The Savoy
[3:20] 3. Darn That Dream
[3:45] 4. Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise
[2:27] 5. It Might As Well Be Spring
[5:57] 6. Bernies Tune
[3:28] 7. I See Your Face Before Me
[4:23] 8. Down By The Old Mill Stream
[4:22] 9. Don't Take Your Love Away From Me
[2:49] 10. Just One Of Those Things
[4:01] 11. I Can't Get Started With You
[2:49] 12. Blue Skies
[4:17] 13. I'm Old Fashioned
[3:34] 14. I May Be Wrong
[4:12] 15. I Hadn't Anyone Til You
[4:50] 16. Almost Like Being In Love

In addition to Ed Polcer, this swinging CD features (among others) vibraphonist John Cocuzzi as well as Vince Giordano, John Allred, Ken Peplowski, Ken Ascher, Joe Ascione, Norman Simmons, Frank Tate, and Judy Kurtz on vocals.

Ed Polcer has become one of the most sought after performers on the jazz festival circuit. He has appeared in hundreds of concerts, festivals and jazz parties throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Ed joined Benny Goodman's Sextet for an American tour in 1973. An expert showman, Ed has led numerous concerts with varied themes, including his extensive U.S. tours for Columbia Artists. In 1992, '93 and '94, "A Night At Eddie Condon's", transported the audience back to the famous nightclub and gave a musical retrospective of American jazz over the last 100 years. Since 1996, Ed's "Magic of Swing Street" has offered classic jazz in its many forms as it was played on New York's fabled W. 52nd Street, including four appearances at New York's Lincoln Center. Ed's recent presentation, "When Broadway Meets Swing Street", merges show tunes with the world of swing. "Lionel, Red & Bunny" is a centennial celebration of legendary jazz musicians Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo and Bunny Berigan.

In 2004, he was honored to play for the official opening of the Louis Armstrong House museum, and became a member of the Statesmen of Jazz. President Clinton invited Ed to play for the 1994 Congressional Ball in the White House, and in 2001, Ed appeared in a command performance in Bangkok for the King of Thailand. If you dropped in at Eddie Condon's club in New York City between 1975 and 1985, chances are good you ran across Ed. Besides being the resident cornetist and bandleader at that historic jazz spot, he was also the manager and co-owner. At Princeton University, he joined Stan Rubin's Tigertown Five, perhaps the best-known collegiate Dixieland group of the day. With that band he made several Carnegie Hall appearances and performed at the wedding of Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly in Monaco.

In the 1980's, Ed was honored to serve as President of the International Art of Jazz, as well as a member of the Advisory Panel of the Jazz Musicians Foundation of New York. Ed's biography has been included in the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, the Encyclopedia of Jazz in the '70s and the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, both compiled by Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler, and Trumpet Kings by Scott Yanow. In Great Britain, Ed is listed in The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz, as well as Jazz, the Essential Companion and Jazz, the Rough Guide. Chip Deffaaa devoted a full chapter to Ed in Traditionalists and Revivalists in Jazz.

Lionel, Red & Bunny

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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messenger - In Concert

Styles: Jazz, Hard Bop
Year: 2022
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 76:38
Size: 176,0 MB
Art: Front

( 9:05) 1. Moon River
( 6:23) 2. Contemplation
(13:08) 3. Lester Left Town
( 8:30) 4. Round Midnight
(15:06) 5. It's Only A Papermoon
(16:21) 6. Arabia
( 8:03) 7. Blues March

Recorded in Copenhagen, this set captures one of the most fabled editions of the Messengers trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Cedar Walton, and the now-too-often-forgotten bassist Jymie Merritt, along with their indefatigable leader in full flight. It’s the usual mix of standards and originals, this time contributed by Shorter (“Contemplation,” “Lester Left Town”) and Fuller (“Arabia”), in the classic hard-swinging Messengers style.

Shorter’s solo on “Moon River” sets the pace: This “river” is closer to a tsunami than the gently rippling dreamscape of Mercer and Arlen’s original vision. Throughout, Hubbard summons both the technical brio of old-school bebop and the gospel fervor of the burgeoning hard-bop style. Fuller likewise melds acuity, imagination, and a timbral sureness that rivals such bop-era progenitors as J.J. Johnson. Walton exploits the percussive, as well as melodic and harmonic, capacities of his instrument, creating shifting textural landscapes that he then negotiates effortlessly. And Blakey, of course, is an unstoppable force of nature.

Hubbard’s muted tenderness as he caresses Monk’s “’Round Midnight” is toughened by his wry humor and the unwavering focus of his extended lines; Shorter’s “Contemplation” lives up to its title, albeit infused with forward-driving impetus devoid of bathos; “It’s Only a Paper Moon” is a flat-out romp, spiced by Walton’s sly insertion of a quote from Monk’s “Rhythm-a-Ning”; Shorter’s solo on Fuller’s “Arabia” is a six-minute-plus marathon that explodes into uncharted realms of power and imaginative intensity.

Such is the heat and virtuosity these artists summon that it can be almost exhausting listening to take them on their own terms and rise to meet the bar they set, but it’s well worth the effort: a bracing flight of inspiration, challenges, and, most importantly (as William Blake would remind us), “wing’d exulting swift delight.”
https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/art-blakey-the-jazz-messengers-in-concert-1962-steeplechase/

In Concert

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