Rossano Sportiello - Piano On My Mind

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:20
Size: 166,1 MB
Art: Front

(2:40) 1. Down Stream
(3:35) 2. You Took Advantage Of Me
(4:03) 3. Blowin' Up
(4:30) 4. I Cover The Waterfront
(4:31) 5. Cheek To Cheek
(3:35) 6. Sweet Lorraine
(3:57) 7. The Best Thing For You
(3:24) 8. That's All
(4:40) 9. Tenderly
(7:46) 10. Detroit Medley
(2:22) 11. Echoes Of Spring
(5:06) 12. Oh, Lady, Be Good
(4:59) 13. Bluesale
(4:20) 14. Tangerine
(2:39) 15. Sunny Morning
(3:41) 16. Body And Soul
(2:26) 17. All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
(2:57) 18. Flashes

Beiderbecke admired; his "Down Stream" opens this solo second CD by the young Italian pianist Rossano Sportiello as a peaceful atmospheric etude. "Blowin' Up" is the pianist's own, featuring a boppish theme with a running left hand. It slips into a string of ballads, "You Took Advantage of Me" to "The Best Thing for You," causing a sparkle without ruffling the mood. After the ballads comes a piece in medium tempo: "That's All" in a swing to bop style, with walking, ambling, and trotting basses, long left hand runs, and a manual gear-change for just a breath of classic stride. A miraculous touch keeps everything moving and coloured. Sportiello manages alternations of pace with exceptional fluency.

"Detroit Medley" is a sequence of three themes by Tommy Flanagan ("Dalarna"), Hank Jones with Coleman Hawkins ("Angel Face"), and Barry Harris ("Nascimento"), one of Rossano Sportiello's mentors. The demonstration of intimate affinities is followed by Willie the Lion Smith's "Echoes of Spring," which achieves amazing stillness. Even "Lady Be Good" is taken for a fair stretch at ballad tempo before the pace picks up. There's even some Monkish stride before a passage of straight medium-fast stride in a performance which also demonstrates puissant stride left hand.

"Bluesale" is the pianist's own twelve-bar theme as if he reincarnates some undeservedly forgotten pianist around from the 1940s, a species always neglected on record with a rare command of tone and an ability to phrase across or suspend the beat. The theme of Teddy Wilson's "Sunny Morning" sounds a tad boppish here. The composition is Wilson's encapsulation of his own style, whose rhythmic underpinnings were very different from the stride basis of the Sportiello style. The pianist maintains his own rhythmic distinctiveness here, which on the Wilson number makes for intriguing complexity.

Restrained master stride makes its appearance in "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" in, well, amazing flashes. To make a graceless transition of a sort not on this CD, Eastwood Lane was, it seems, somewhere in the background when Beiderbecke composed "Flashes." He never himself record it, but he might have played it as strictly in tempo as he did "In a Mist." By the time of the 1935 premiere recording by Bix's friend Jess Stacy, jazz rhythm had loosened up, and Stacy's take is still well worth hearing.

This rendition has the singular Sportiello flexibility and flow, maintaining the same pulse which is audible through this relaxed set. Sportiello is among the least showy of pianists of such huge technical accomplishment. When a lot of notes come along, he phrases them with the dynamic command of an old master hornman or, among the pianists who are heroes to Rossano Sportiello, John Bunch.By Robert R. Calder
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/piano-on-my-mind-rossano-sportiello-jazz-connaisseur-review-by-robert-r-calder

Personnel: Rossano Sportiello: piano.

Piano On My Mind

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The Tierney Sutton Band - The Sting Variations

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 66:55
Size: 155,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:46)  1. Driven to Tears
(5:53)  2. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
(6:16)  3. Seven Days
(4:37)  4. Shadows in the Rain
(3:49)  5. Walking in Your Footsteps
(4:36)  6. Fragile/The Gentle Rain
(4:25)  7. Message in a Bottle
(4:45)  8. Fields of Gold
(4:03)  9. Fortress Around Your Heart
(5:07) 10. Language of Birds
(3:01) 11. Every Little Thing He Does Is Magic
(4:46) 12. Every Breath You Take (Lullabye)
(4:11) 13. Synchronicity I
(5:35) 14. Consider Me Gone

The Sting Variations is a logical follow up to seven-time Grammy nominee Tierney Sutton's solo album After Blue, in which Tierney Sutton re-imagined Joni Mitchell's iconic album Blue. This time, the full ensemble "The Tierney Sutton Band" returns with their unique interpretation of the best of Sting's diverse repertoire. "The Sting Variations" continues the band's history of their remarkably creative exploration of well-known songs. Embracing both massive hits and more obscure, deep album tracks from Sting’s catalog, The Sting Variations is the latest studio triumph from a group that has toured the world, and in recent years has headlined at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Tierney and the band can also be heard on movie and television soundtracks, including the Academy Award-nominated film The Cooler, as well as on television commercials for prestigious brands such as BMW, Green Giant, Yoplait yogurt and Coca-Cola. Most recently, the band scored Clint Eastwood’s new film Sully. Imbued with immense talent and a genuine love for music and people, Tierney Sutton’s voice is one that transcends stylistic boundaries, touching the hearts of all who hear it. http://www.bfmjazz.com/index.php/artists/tierney-sutton-band/sting-variations/sting-variations-one-sheet
 

Musicians:  Tierney Sutton – Vocals;  Christian Jacob – Piano;  Kevin Axt – Bass;  Ray Brinker - Drums, Percussion

The Sting Variations

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Mike Richmond Cello Quartet - The Pendulum

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:57
Size: 152,3 MB
Art: Front

(6:43)  1. The Pendulum At Falcon's Lair
(6:21)  2. Cello Again
(8:59)  3. Two Litle Pearls
(6:18)  4. Laverne Walk
(7:28)  5. Why Not? That's What!
(7:00)  6. Tricotism
(7:32)  7. Tamalpais Love Song To The Winds
(6:39)  8. My Little Cello
(8:53)  9. Oscalypso

Not a record with four cellos in the lead but a set that features bassist Mike Richmond picking up the instrument in a glittering tribute to the genius of Oscar Pettiford! The set features all Pettiford compositions, played by a swinging group that features Peter Zak on piano, Jay Anderson on bass, and Billy Drummond on drums players who provide a warm core while Richmond mostly plucks the cello, and uses the instrument in wonderfully melodic ways that mixture of deep groove and lyrical swing that Pettiford brought to his most unique recordings of the 50s. Zak's piano has a harder bite, which makes for a nice contrast in tones and titles include "Why Not That's What", "Laverne Walk", "Cello Again", "The Pendulum At Falcon's Lair", "My Little Cello", "Tamalpais Love Song To The Winds", and "Oscalypso".  

© 1996-2018, Dusty Groove, Inc. https://www.dustygroove.com/item/837788/Mike-Richmond-Cello-Quartet:Pendulum

Personnel:  Mike Richmond (cello); Peter Zak (piano); Jay Anderson (bass); Billy Drummond (drums).

The Pendulum

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Nicki Parrott - Misty

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 60:46
Size: 140,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:37) 1. Whatever Lola Wants
(5:07) 2. Misty
(5:03) 3. Bewitched, Botheered ad Bewildered
(4:25) 4. Old Devil Moon
(5:17) 5. The Nearness Of You
(3:33) 6. Ddestination Moon
(4:55) 7. Good Morning Heartache
(3:28) 8. Girl Talk
(3:31) 9. Big Spender
(3:14) 10. Never Let Me Go
(4:07) 11. It's Love
(5:34) 12. Everything Must Change
(4:59) 13. Here's To Life
(3:50) 14. At Last

Nicki Parrott, an internationally acclaimed bassist, arrived in New York in May of 1994, the recipient of a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts allowing her travel to the US and study with her mentor, one of the world’s premiere double bassists, Rufus Reid. In the same year she was also nominated for the “Australian Young Achievers Award”.

Today, Nicki Parrott is a world-class double bassist and an emerging singer/songwriter. In her work with artists from around the globe she has brought a signature sound to every bass part she has played. She performs regularly at the world’s best Jazz Festivals and can be seen Monday’s at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City with the legendary guitarist and inventor, Les Paul. Since June of 2000, this union has been an ideal showcase for her musical abilities, flair for improv, and gift for entertaining a crowd.

Born in Newcastle, Australia, Nicki Parrott began her musical training on the piano at the age of four. She also took up the flute and continued to play both instruments throughout her school years. At the age of 15, Nicki switched her focus to the double bass, formed a band with her older sister Lisa (alto sax) and began composing instrumental pieces that they would eventually record for their premier CD release, The Awabakal Suite (2001).

After completing high school, Nicki moved to Sydney and attended the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, where she graduated with an Associates degree in Jazz Studies. When bassists such as the legendary Ray Brown (Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson) and John Clayton (Diana Krall, Whitney Houston) were playing in town, Nicki would find them, contact them and arrange lessons from them. She was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Pan Pacific Music Camp, and soon after, took first place in the 1992 Jazz Action Society's Annual Song Competition for her composition, Come and Get It.

In 1990, Nicki began touring Australia with Russian musicians Daniel Kramer and Alexander Fischer playing sold out shows across the country. This was followed by successful tours with American trumpeters Bobby Shew and Chuck Findley. When she was off the road, Nicki was consistently playing bass with other world-renowned jazz musicians like New Zealand’s Mike Nock (piano), Australia's Dale Barlow (tenor sax), Paul Grabowsky (piano), Bernie McGann (alto sax) and the explosive Ten Part Invention.

In May of 2002, The Nicki and Lisa Parrott Quartet headlined the prestigious Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival held at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. The show was broadcast on NPR and was well received by the press. She was also the resident bassist with the Kitchen House Blend, a house band that premiered and performed new music from local New York composers. They would blend jazz, hip-hop, classical and rock in one evening...“It was a very creative experience”.

Nicki expanded her musical repertoire and appeared on the Broadway stage in such shows as: Imaginary Friends, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Summer of '42, and Jekyll and Hyde. She is still active on Broadway today and regularly performs in the comedic musical, Avenue Q.

Since coming to the United States Nicki Parrott has performed and/or recorded with such notable musicians as Randy Brecker, Skitch Henderson, Jose Feliciano, Rebecca Paris, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Warren Vache Jr., Clark Terry, Michel Legrand, Billy Taylor, Dick Hyman, Patti Labelle & the New York Pops Orchestra, Annie Ross, the Florida Pops Orchestra, Terri Thornton, Holly Hoffman, DIVA, Marlena Shaw, Monica Mancini, Patrice Rushen, Harry Allen, Red Holloway, Kenny Davern, Mike Stern, Bernard Purdie, John Tropea, David Krakauer, Howard Alden, Randy Sandke, Greg Osby, Jack Wilkins, Ken Peplowski, Johnny Frigo, Joe Wilder, Houston Person, Wycliffe Gordon, Rachel Z and Johnny Varro.

Nicki has also performed at most of the world’s major jazz festivals. In the United States she’s appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival (2005), the Litchfield Jazz festival (2005), the Jazz in July concert series at the 92nd street Y (2003, 2004), the Detroit Jazz Festival (2005) and the Lionel Ha mpton Jazz Festival (2001).

Outside the USA Nicki has appeared at the Cully Lavaux Festival (Switzerland - 1995), the Grimsby Jazz Festival (UK - 1996), Berlin Jazz Festival (Germany - 1998), the Ottawa Jazz Festival (2004), the Krakow Music Festival (Poland), JazzAscona (2005, 2006), Bern Jazz Festivals (Switzerland - 2005, 2006), Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival (UK - 2006) and of course, she has played at numerous music festivals across Australia.

Nicki Parrott is committed to the continuing musical education women receive in order to further their careers and ultimately remain active as musicians past their teen years. In keeping with her sense of community, Nicki’s desire is to teach underprivileged kids to play instruments and learn to enjoy music. It is her belief t hat teaching music to children helps keep them interested in school and out of trouble.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/nicki-parrott

Misty

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