Saturday, February 18, 2023

Carol Albert - Stronger now

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:56
Size: 104,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:43) 1. Stronger Now
(4:20) 2. Love Again
(4:03) 3. Perfect Sunday
(4:24) 4. For The Moment
(4:25) 5. Femme Flight
(5:31) 6. Winter Rain
(3:55) 7. Sun’s Out
(4:39) 8. I am Fine
(4:23) 9. Moon On The Water
(5:27) 10. ‘Til We Meet Again

Jazz Pianist and vocalist Carol Albert has always Georgia in her mind, when she tours numerous countries worldwide. Her albums Love In Your Eyes (1992), Tides Of Change (1993), Christmas Impressions for the Piano (1995), Night Music (2006), Morning Music (2006), Christmas Mystique (2015), Fly Away Butterfly (2017) cover a broad spectrum ranging from easy listening, New Age, world music to smooth Jazz.

With her upcoming album Stronger Now (2020) she consolidates her position in the field of smooth jazz. Carol plays on this album piano, synth, keys, programming, bass, strings and more. She has written and arranged all songs. The well known guitarist and producer Paul Brown has made a significant contribution to this album as producer, arranger and mixer. He also performs guitar and percussion.

The following prolific musicians have added their personal accents: Lew Laing (drum programming, additional synths), Ben Babylon (strings and French horn arrangements), Sam Sims, Joseph Patrick Moore, Nathaniel Kearney, Roberto Vally (bass), Lil John Roberts (drums, percussion), Lee Thornberg (horn arrangement, flugel and valve trombone), Jay Williams, Gordon Campbell (drums), Curtis McCain (percussion), Ragan Whiteside (flute), Magdalena Chovancova (sax), Dennis Johnson (drum programming), Daniel Baraszu (acoustic guitar), Raheem Amlani (electric guitar).

The album opens with Stronger Now. With powerful keystrokes Carol dispels sorrow and worries and enchants the regained joy of life with her musical sunshine. Lew Laing provides the right background with a swaying rhythm and a sky full of strings. Love Again is the tonal embodiment of an emotional climax, which Carol also underlines vocally.

Perfect Sunday includes everything you imagine by a Sunday that means pure relaxation. Lee Thornberg's horns and Paul Brown's acoustic guitar add a cozy flavor to Carol's uplifting piano play. For The Moment has that special dreamy something, most of you know by Fleetwood Mac's Albatross, floating in space and time. The Latin tinged Femme Flight has impressed audience and credits alike as early single in 2018. Flutist Ragan Whiteside and saxophonist Magdalena Chovancova form together with Carol a musical triumvirate.

Winter Rain is a sonic mirror of the season that brings gloomy days and a subdued mood with it. Sun's Out, on the other hand, sets brighter things in the double sense of the word. I Am Fine is Carol's personal statement years after the lost of her husband. Encouragement and fragility unite in Carol's voice, which is sensitively accompanied by Paul Brown on the acoustic guitar.

Moon On The Water is similarly inspired to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. 'Til We Meet Again reveals something of Carol's faith and spirituality. She does not understand the lost as something final but sees hope for a reunification, which is also reflected in her music. Guitar virtuoso Daniel Baraszu accompanies Carol's piano interpretation with brilliant chords.

Carol Albert's new album Stronger Now has strong biographical traits and convinces in the power of the melodies. Carol does not follow the fashionable trend that prevails in smooth jazz, but remains true to herself and her style.
http://www.smooth-jazz.de/firstview/Albert/StrongerNow.htm

Stronger now

Royce Campbell - Nighttime Daydreams

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:15
Size: 115,5 MB
Art: Front

(6:25) 1. I Love You
(7:35) 2. Nighttime Daydreams
(5:47) 3. I'll Remember April
(5:43) 4. Autumn Bossa
(7:02) 5. Wes
(6:43) 6. In A Sentimental Mood
(4:30) 7. Spring Bossa
(6:25) 8. Beautiful Love

Royce Campbell's blues-influenced, hyper-relaxed jazz-guitar playing has earned him accolades as a solo performer and made him a sought-after session musician. His first experience came touring the U.S. in Marvin Gaye's band, before being tapped by Henry Mancini, in whose orchestra Campbell stayed for two decades; Campbell's gentle, flowing swing formed a subtle backdrop for the composer's ever-cinematic works.

A versatile performer, Campbell's expert guitar graced recordings of everyone from Dave Brubeck to Liza Minnelli to Sarah Vaughan. In the '90s, Campbell stepped out under his own name, starting with the dreamily melodic Nighttime Daydreams in 1990, and eventually extending to several dozen recordings. By Rovi Staff https://www.allmusic.com/artist/royce-campbell-mn0000851616/biography

Nighttime Daydreams

Gene Segal - Mental Images

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:20
Size: 127,1 MB
Art: Front

(7:07)  1. Healing Feeling
(7:29)  2. Allegory of the Cave
(6:12)  3. Minds Eye
(4:10)  4. Irrational Drive
(7:57)  5. The Bearded Lady
(7:01)  6. Trapeze Act
(9:50)  7. The Ringmaster
(4:31)  8. Elephants

Guitarist and composer Gene Segal has put the intervening years between Mental Images and his recording debut, Hypnotic (Innova Records, 2009), to good use. While Segal still loves the funk, as the opening "Healing Feeling" definitively shows, the remainder of the album doesn't easily fit into any one musical pigeonhole;unless there's a category at your local music store called "accomplished, original jazz-rock from out of left-field." Russian-born and Brooklyn-raised, Segal has assembled quite a band for "Mental Images." Jon Irabagon is everywhere these days, and he's definitely here playing alto in his typical virtuoso fashion. Sam Sadigursky, not to be overshadowed, plays several reeds; including some lovely bass clarinet on "Mind's Eye." Though he and Irabagon only share reed duties on "Healing Feeling," each proves to be a first-rate front-line partner for Segal. The drums / bass combination of Jaimeo Brown and Sean Conley is mercurial and adaptive enough to keep up with the young guitarist who, it turns out, can be quite a handful. A quirky and unpredictable soloist, Segal's playing style is as mutable and restless as his composing. He gets his John Scofield on for "Healing Feeling" but quickly turns to a more personal style on "Allegory of the Cave," a dreamy waltz enlivened by the rhythm section's tight-but-loose interplay. The rest of the title suite stays in a harmonically hazy, almost free-ish mode, though Segal's incendiary duet with Irabagon on "Irrational Drives" closes the song cycle out with a huge exclamation point.

The second suite, "Circus Music," starts off in a similarly reflective mode, though fine solos by Sadigursky and Segal ramp the energy up during the course of "The Bearded Lady." "Trapeze Act" is a delicate filigree, while the swaggering, bluesy "Ringmaster" is perhaps the most forthrightly jazzy piece on the album. "Elephants" is the real surprise; a heavy sort of tune with a lugubrious theme, Segal's solo is an all-out twisted, distorted noisefest that could make Brandon Seabrook green with envy. Sadly, the piece fades out in the middle, ending an otherwise fine album rather weakly. The fact that Mental Images is comprised of two conceptually- distinct four-part suites suggests that the music of guitarist Gene Segal may be rooted in something deeper than a simple desire to earn a living playing original music. Segal's brief liner note points out Olivier Messaien as a seminal influence. While it's tough to establish a clear link between Messaien's mathematically-driven avant- gardism and the turbulent jazz rhythms and complex harmonies that pervade Mental Images, Segal singles out Messaien's notion of working with (or against) self-imposed compositional limitations as something that's really fed his musical soul. Just what these limitations might be is left for the listener to decide.
By Dave Wayne https://www.allaboutjazz.com/mental-images-gene-segal-steeplechase-lookout-review-by-dave-wayne.php
 
Personnel: Gene Segal: guitar; Jon Irabagon: alto saxophone; Sam Sadigursky: tenor & soprano saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet; Sean Conly: bass; Jaimeo Brown: drums.

Mental Images