Kitt Lough - Orange Colored View

Styles: Jazz Vocals
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:04
Size: 94,0 MB
Art: Front

(2:30)  1. Honeysuckle Rose
(6:09)  2. Lover Man
(2:15)  3. I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
(5:17)  4. Love Me Or Leave Me
(3:45)  5. Sentimental Journey
(3:54)  6. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
(4:00)  7. No Moon At All
(6:03)  8. Cry Me A River
(2:27)  9. Orange Colored Sky
(4:40) 10. The Very Thought of You

Alternately emotive, sultry and swinging vocals on jazz standards with great arrangements. Makes the old sound fresh and new! There was a time when vocalists infused every carefully chosen lyric with meaning, every precious syllable with emotion, and every note with golden tone. It was the era of the true 'chanteuse'. That era is alive and well, living in the person of Kitt Lough, an inspiring new voice on the jazz scene. Melding sultry, velvety vocals with a beguiling appearance, Kitt creates a romantic experience that transports the listener to an age when glamour, rhythm and romance ruled the day. By turns playful & coquettish or plaintive & mournful, she sparkles in the spotlight with her visual and vocal artistry wherever she sings. She imbues every lyric with an emotional range that makes evident the wealth of her life's experience. Her debut CD "Orange Colored View" is enjoying rave reviews and generous airplay on jazz stations acrss the southeast. Stunningly produced and arranged by Dan Serafini, it showcases her vocal versatility and places her squarely among today's best jazz vocalists. (http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7456417&style=music&fulldesc=T).

Orange Colored View

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Willis Jackson - Soul Night Live!

Size: 166,2 MB
Time: 71:23
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1964/2002
Styles: Jazz: Soul Jazz
Art: Full

01. The Man I Love (5:45)
02. Perdido (7:58)
03. Thunderbird (5:17)
04. Polka Dots And Moonbeams (5:59)
05. All Soul (4:59)
06. Flamingo (5:47)
07. I Can't Stop Loving You (6:33)
08. One Mint Julep (4:00)
09. Up A Lazy River (3:06)
10. Jumpin' With Symphony Sid (4:19)
11. Tangerine (2:44)
12. Ebb Tide (4:13)
13. Blue Gator (6:21)
14. Secret Love (4:14)

The term "soul" was tossed around quite a bit in the '60s and '70s. It usually had an African-American connotation -- as in soul brother, soul sister, soul food, soul music (a specific style of R&B), or James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. But the term isn't always used in reference to black culture; soulful means expressive, and in that sense, country greats Ernest Tubb and Patsy Cline were seriously soulful. However you define the word soul, Willis "Gator" Jackson was the epitome of it. The tenor titan played with a tremendous amount of feeling, and in the '60s, Prestige wasn't shy about using the word soul in connection with his work. Recorded at a New York club called the Allegro on March 21, 1964, Soul Night Live! isn't soul music in the James Brown/Rufus Thomas/Sam & Dave/Marvin Gaye sense; however, Jackson's quintet (which also includes trumpeter Frank Robinson, guitarist Pat Martino, organist Carl Wilson, and drummer Joe Hadrick) offers instrumental soul-jazz/hard bop that has just as much humanity and blues feeling. Jackson doesn't play any vocal-oriented R&B -- which is what the term "soul music" usually referred to in the '60s and '70s -- but he does bring a wealth of emotion to the table on tunes that range from the standard "Flamingo" to the funky boogaloo "Thunderbird." Jackson throws listeners a major curve ball on George & Ira Gershwin's "The Man I Love," which starts out at its usual ballad tempo before suddenly turning into a 100-mile-an-hour bop workout. "The Man I Love" has been recorded hundreds of times over the years, but rarely at a fast tempo. Soul Night Live! is an accurate title for this LP, which does, in fact, focus on a night of soulfulness. [The 2002 CD reissue on Fantasy adds the entirety of the album Tell It..., also recorded on March 21, 1964 at The Allegro in New York.] ~by Alex Henderson

Soul Night Live! 

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Julius Watkins Sextet - Volumes 1 & 2

Styles: Jazz, Bop
Year: 1998
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:18
Size: 97,7 MB
Art: Front

(5:21) 1. Linda Delia
(5:09) 2. Perpetuation
(4:28) 3. I Have Known
(4:53) 4. Leete
(4:45) 5. Garden Delights
(3:35) 6. Julie Ann
(4:18) 7. Sparkling Burgundy
(5:00) 8. B And B
(4:45) 9. Jor-du

Before the rise of bebop, the French horn was never heard as an improvising instrument in jazz. John Graas, who worked with Stan Kenton and Shorty Rogers, was the first jazz French horn player to lead his own record date, in 1953. However, Julius Watkins soon surpassed him as a major soloist and would be the top jazz French horn player to emerge until the 1990s. He appeared as a soloist on a Thelonious Monk date in 1953 next to Sonny Rollins, and in 1954-1955 recorded music for a pair of very rare Blue Note 10" LPs. All of the latter performances are on this CD reissue.

The 42 minutes of music find Watkins heading sextets with either Frank Foster or Hank Mobley on tenor, guitarist Perry Lopez, George Butcher or Duke Jordan on piano, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and Kenny Clarke or Art Blakey on drums. The French horn/tenor front line is an attractive sound (substitute Watkins for a trombonist, and one has the Jazz Crusaders); when Watkins formed Les Jazz Modes (which lasted for five years) a few years later, he would use Charlie Rouse as his tenor.

The French horn might be a difficult instrument, but Watkins played it with the warmth of a trombone and nearly the fluidity of a trumpet. All nine straight-ahead selections on his CD are group originals, with Duke Jordan's future standard "Jordu" being heard in one of its earliest versions. Overall, the music fits into the modern mainstream of the period. This early effort by Julius Watkins is easily recommended.By Scott Yanow
https://www.allmusic.com/album/julius-watkins-sextet-vols-1-2-mw0000601261

Personnel: French Horn – Julius Watkins; Bass – Oscar Pettiford; Drums – Art Blakey (tracks: 5 to 9), Kenny Clarke (tracks: 1 to 4); ; Guitar – Perry Lopez; Piano – Duke Jordan (tracks: 5 to 9), George Butcher (tracks: 1 to 4); Tenor Saxophone – Frank Foster (tracks: 1 to 4), Hank Mobley (tracks: 5 to 9)

Sextet Volumes 1 & 2

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Craig Davis (with John Clayton & Jeff Hamilton)- Tone Paintings: The Music of Dodo Marmarosa

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2022
Time: 50:51
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 117,3 MB
Art: Front

(6:23) 1. Mellow Mood
(5:13) 2. Dodo’s Bounce
(6:08) 3. Dodo’s Blues
(2:53) 4. Escape
(4:03) 5. A Ditty For Dodo
(3:57) 6. Opus No. 5
(4:12) 7. Compadoo
(4:12) 8. Dary Departs
(3:24) 9. Tone Paintings
(3:16) 10. Battle Of The Balcony Jive
(7:06) 11. Dodo’s Lament

The subtitle of pianist Craig Davis' second album, Tone Paintings, is "The Music of Dodo Marmarosa." For those who may be inclined to ask, "Dodo who?" the album offers a mini-biography of Pittsburgh-born Michael (Dodo) Marmarosa, an exceptionally talented pianist whose promising early career was cut short by the crushing weight of mental and emotional problems that proved too unbearable for him to overcome. At his peak, in the decade from 1940-50, Marmarosa was a member of big bands led by Gene Krupa, Charlie Barnet, Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw, and played and/or recorded with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie (on Parker's first recordings for Dial Records), Wardell Gray, Lionel Hampton, Mel Torme, Lester Young and Willie "The Lion" Smith, among others, as well as recording with his own groups. The peerless Art Tatum, asked in the mid-'40s to name the most promising young pianists he'd heard, singled out Marmarosa and Red Garland.

Like Marmarosa (and legendary pianist Erroll Garner), Davis hails from Pittsburgh, and was well aware of Dodo's trail-blazing career at the keyboard. What is lesser known (and what Davis chooses to emphasize here) is Marmarosa's singular proficiency as a composer. To do so, he has enlisted the services of a blue-chip rhythm section comprising bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton to perform ten of Marmarosa's seductive original compositions and one flat-out charmer ("A Ditty for Dodo") by Davis. The bop influence is strong throughout, as is Marmarosa's capacity to write enchanting melodies that also swing.

The album's opening number, the Garner-like "Mellow Mood," was written when Marmarosa was a scant fourteen years old (yes, he was a child prodigy who became a professional musician in his mid-teens and listed among his early musical influences Chopin, Ravel, Debussy and Stravinsky). "Mood" is delightful, but no more so than Dodo's eight other themes, which include a blues, a bounce, a battle, a lament and "Tone Paintings." There is even a clever contrafact ("Compadoo") of the standard "Sweet Georgia Brown." The tasteful and deeply grooved "Dary Departs" is among the album's several highlights, as is the animated "Battle of the Balcony Jive," which leads to the pensive and suitable closing number, "Dodo's Lament."

The album's other numbers are "Dodo's Bounce," "Dodo's Blues," "Escape" and "Opus No. 5." The guess here is that Davis an artist to keep an eye on plays them precisely as Marmaroso would have wanted. As for Clayton, he is simply one of the finest bassists on the scene (his solos are models of elegance and perception), while Hamilton's superior talents with sticks and brushes remain at their peak. As trio sessions go, it does not get much better than this. An exemplary tribute to a remarkable musician whose legacy should neither be undervalued nor overlooked.By Jack Bowers
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/tone-paintings-craig-davis-mcg-jazz

Personnel: Craig Davis: piano; John Clayton: drums; Jeff Hamilton: drums.

Tone Paintings

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