Suil (Sue Matthews & Lynn Saoirse) - L'annmoor

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2001
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:05
Size: 107,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:22) 1. The Sea
(3:16) 2. Helpless Heart
(3:05) 3. If I Gave My Heart
(4:33) 4. Haven For My Heart
(3:12) 5. Moondance
(4:15) 6. Between Midnight And Blue
(2:33) 7. Lift The Wings
(2:41) 8. The Helen's Kitchen Waltz
(3:33) 9. Winter, Fire And Snow
(4:07) 10. The Sky Road
(3:08) 11. On The Edge
(3:35) 12. The Oldeset Dream In The World
(3:39) 13. When My Love And I Parted

Like Eden Atwood and the late Susannah McCorkle, Sue Matthews is a very accessible jazz singer who incorporates cabaret and traditional pop elements. Matthews, who lives in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, has a clean, crystal-clear, pretty sort of voice; she isn't a rugged, hard-edged singer à la Ernestine Anderson or Carmen McRae. Nonetheless, Matthews swings, and she brings a lot of blues feeling to her work. She has a big, full voice and an impressive range; for all the vulnerability that she displays, Matthews will never be accused of sounding like a waif. In fact, one can hear how she has been affected by some aspects of Ella Fitzgerald's singing, specifically, the softer, more caressing side that Fitzgerald often displayed on ballads (although Matthews isn't as forceful or as gritty as Fitzgerald could be on uptempo material). Some listeners have compared Matthews to Diane Schuur, but while Schuur's focus is traditional pop (of the pre-rock variety), Matthews' is essentially an improvising jazz singer (which isn't to say that she is a purist). And even though she is cabaret-influenced, Matthews does not get into the type of stereotypically campy lyrics that some modern cabaret artists are known for. To put it bluntly, Matthews (like Atwood and McCorkle) has the good taste to steer clear of cornball lyrics.

Matthews'first solo album, Love Dances, was released on the small SIR Records in 1991, and her second SIR release, When You're Around (which the East Coast singer co-produced with acoustic pianist Stefan Scaggiari), came out in 1993. After that, Matthews remained active in the Washington, DC area and toured Europe, but didn't record any more solo albums until the early 2000s. One at a Time, her third solo album, was released by Renata Music in July 2002. In addition to having a solo career, Matthews sings with a Maryland-based group called Guys & Doll, whose other members have included Tom McHugh (vocals, banjo, trumpet, kazoo), Bill Matthews (vocals, guitar), Tom Anthony (acoustic bass), and Ethan Hannigan (fiddle). Formed in 1996, Guys & Doll have toured Europe extensively, and those overseas performances are the focus of their CD Live in Ireland. By Alex Henderson
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sue-matthews-mn0000586385/biography

L'annmoor

---

Pat Healy - Pat Healy Sings Just Before Dawn

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2021
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 37:20
Size: 86,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:48) 1. Don't Ever Leave Me (Feat. Fred Katz)
(2:23) 2. Easy Come, Easy Go
(3:58) 3. Siren Song
(3:15) 4. Every Time
(3:42) 5. I'm A Dreamer Ain't We All?
(1:42) 6. Boys And Girls
(2:49) 7. Naughty, But Nice!
(3:39) 8. Isn't It A Pity
(3:30) 9. You Never Knew About Me
(4:15) 10. When I Fall In Love
(4:12) 11. Nobody Else But Me

Miss Pat Healy (1927-2020) was born in Cleveland but at age 22 she settled in Los Angeles. She spent years filling various jobs before having the courage to make impromptu appearances at some local nightclubs. Finally in 1957 spirited by pianist Joe Marino, she quit her job and soon emerged as a praised and applauded singer by the audiences, winning soon her first professional contract as a guest vocalist on the television show Stars of Jazz, backed by the Paul Bley trio. As a consequence of her performance, she was offered to record forWorld Pacific Records.

On Just Before Dawn, her debut album, Pat sang eleven standard songs, some of them quite unusual, backed by cellist Fred Katz’s intimate approach to arranging and conducting, and by Joe Marino’s quartet. In both settings, she revealed herself as a vocalist with clarity of sound, style, sensitivity, and the ability to sing difficult songs, with the right accompaniment, resulting in this distinctive album, the first and only she recorded.More...By Editorial Reviews https://www.amazon.com/Sings-Just-Before-Dawn-Recordings/dp/B0BXFSTGF4

Pat Healy Sings Just Before Dawn

---

Buddy Cole - Swing Fever

Styles: Jazz, Swing
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 29:54
Size: 69,3 MB
Art: Front

(2:07)  1. Heat Wave
(2:52)  2. La Rosita
(2:18)  3. Frenesi
(3:07)  4. The Moon Was Yellow
(3:24)  5. Poinciana
(1:49)  6. Crazy Rhythm
(1:35)  7. Pagan Love Song
(2:08)  8. Brazil
(2:13)  9. The Hour of Parting
(2:12) 10. The Peanut Vendor
(3:12) 11. Softly, As In a Morning Sunrise
(2:50) 12. Old Devil Moon

It seems like the last thing needed at a Nat King Cole recording session would be another pianist named Cole; there's a "carrying coals to Newcastle" groaner in there somewhere to be sure. But that is just what happened in Cole's late career when the smooth balladeer began concentrating on his vocals and session men were brought in to ripple the keyboards. One of these latter players was none other than Buddy Cole. The two men were not actually related, but that didn't stop many writers from assuming that they were brothers. Even worse, the big man Nat often got the credit for what were actually Buddy's piano solos, not robbing Peter to pay Paul but robbing Cole to play Cole. Buddy Cole's actual grand moment of clear public visibility was playing piano onscreen in A Star is Born, as in the original version with Judy Garland. Born Edwin LeMar Cole, he was basically more of a behind the scenes artist, attaining an excellent reputation in recording studios as both a player and conductor, providing innovative touches in his use of instruments such as celeste, harpsichord and organ on sessions.

Eventually he acquired the deluxe pipe organ originally used in the Hollywood United Artists theatre and built it into his home studio and created albums of instrumental music which have become cherished items in the weird collections of space age pop fanatics. Cole was raised right in the heart of show business in Hollywood and began working as a theatre organist in the early '30s. In the latter part of that decade he gigged with the dance bands of Frankie Trumbauer and Alvino Rey, among others.

He then worked his way into the studios and had a particularly busy schedule creating settings for popular vocal music and jazz singers of the day, including Louis Armstrong, Rosemary Clooney and Tex Ritter. His keyboard stool was a perch from which he was able to contribute to many aspects of popular culture in the '50s. Cole composed the theme for the game show Truth or Consequences and was thus heard noodling during the show for more than a decade. Examples of Cole's playing and band leadership on recordings include a pair of Bing Crosby's greatest singles, "In a Little Spanish Town" and "Old Man River". Film composer Henry Mancini was one of the first to dig Cole's work on organ, making use of him on the theme for the hit television show Mr. Lucky.

Unfortunately, Mancini and Cole then got into a feud about just who had invented the organ sound heard, resulting in Cole refusing to play on the soundtrack album for the show. Around this time Cole began recording a series of sides that are perceived as his masterworks, presenting the organ in various settings including solo and big band. These albums came out on Columbia,, Warner Brothers and finally the more specialized Alshire and Doric labels. Cole was married to Yvonne King, member of the King Sisters pop vocal quartet. His former boss Rey married sister Louise King. The pianist should not be confused with the gay comic of the same name.
By Eugene Chadbourne https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/buddy-cole/id120833#fullText

Personnel:  Bass – Red Callender;  Bongos – Jack Costanzo;  Guitar – Vince Terry;  Organ [Hammond] – Buddy Cole;  Percussion – Al Stoller, Lou Singer, Milt Holland

Swing Fever

---

Tim Collins - For Good People

Styles: Vibraphone Jazz
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:28
Size: 155,1 MB
Art: Front

(5:30) 1. Mainline Rush
(6:00) 2. Trapped
(7:42) 3. For Good People
(7:02) 4. Don't Get Caught
(7:00) 5. Jak's Joint
(6:05) 6. Sweet And Lovely
(7:09) 7. Biboul Youssef
(7:50) 8. Situli Shuffle
(5:44) 9. Down The Old Road
(7:22) 10. Schorfheide

It is a stroke of luck for the German jazz scene that New Yorker Tim Collins came to Munich twelve years ago. The 45-year-old belongs to the small group of the world’s best vibraphone players. American critics already attested to this when he was still playing in his home country with musicians like Ingrid Jensen or Aaron Parks: Collins “is nothing less than exemplary,” wrote Downbeat Magazine, for example. Across the pond, he has proven it in collaborations with a wide variety of greats from John Hollenbeck to Danny Grissett to Henning Sieverts or Shinya Fukumori to the world musicians Quadro Nuevo or the young whiz kid Shuteen Erdenebataar. Now he underlines it with his fifth album “For Good People”..

Collins composed the title track in the fall of 2021 after learning about the death of an old friend. “In the past few years, I’ve lost more than a few good people in my life,” he says. “I wanted to pay tribute to them, but also to the good people who are still here.” The piece therefore became the album’s eponymous motto – but without any gloom at all. “After the darkness of 2020 and 2021, I wanted to look to the future with a more positive approach,” Collins says. As a result, the music is upbeat and joyful throughout. “The goal was to write music for my friends while having as much fun as possible. If we’re having fun, we know the audience is, too.”

One of his friends, who has been playing with him for many years but for the first time in this trio lineup, is 48-year-old Austrian drummer Christian Lettner, who learned his instrument from the age of eleven and studied at the music academies in Graz and Linz. Since the late nineties he has been one of the most sought-after European drummers, playing with Karl Ratzer, Nils Landgren, Jocelyn B. Smith, Adrian Mears, Joo Kraus, Johannes Enders or the WDR Big Band, among others, and has been a permanent member of Klaus Doldinger’s “Passport” since 2000. He is also a professor at the Salzburg Mozarteum and, more recently, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.

Then there is the Munich keyboard man Matthias Bublath, probably Collins’ most important and oldest companion. After studying in Linz, at the Berklee College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, Bublath lived and worked in New York for nine years, and the two have known each other since then. Part of Bublath’s enormous productivity and versatility – he has, for example, recently released albums with a piano trio, solo piano and his “Eight Cylinder Bigband” – is that he is an outstanding specialist for the Hammond organ. This is what he plays on “For Good People”, while also contributing four compositions to the record.

Thus “For Good People” presents itself in the rare instrumentation of vibraphone, organ and drums, and accordingly contains the rousing mixture of heavy groove, catchy melodicism and technically outstanding solos. Starting with traditional jazz contexts, it moves through funk and African rhythms to neo-Romantic Mehldau-esque textures. The wild ride begins immediately with “Mainline Rush”, the opening track. After all, Collins’ piece is inspired by his nephews’ love of trains and races down the tracks like a locomotive accordingly. “Trapped” the first of four Bublath compositions is an odd meter piece with ethereal qualities. “Don’t Get Caught,” on the other hand, demonstrates with a driving 3:2 clave rhythm the deep connection all three musicians have to Afro-Cuban music with Collins having the great vibraphonist Cal Tjader in mind.

It continues with “Jak’s Joint,” a fun and relaxed backbeat number that makes you think of late-night diners with a band that plays all night. Next comes a complete mood change with the nostalgic, dark, and restless “Down The Old Road“. “I was thinking about the dark road in Lake George, NY, that led to a small lakeside house where my grandparents lived. It was always creepy at night, but you knew there were good people waiting for you in the house at the end,” Collins says. “Situli Shuffle” administers a hefty pinch of New Orleans after all, Collins and Bublath spent a lot of time together in the birthplace of jazz, soaking up its rich musical history.

Perhaps the most adventurous piece on the album is Bublath’s “Biboul Youssef.” Its unison melody, based on African rhythms, is reminiscent of seventies prog-rock bands like Yes or Genesis but still remains jazz. Finally, the only cover song is the standard “Sweet and Lovely” in a light-hearted arrangement by Collins. “I love good melodies,” he emphasizes. “I don’t think of playing standards any differently as I do originals it’s all about playing great melodies. ‘Sweet and Lovely’ is one.” So are all of them on this consistently enchanting album. A little masterpiece by and for “Good People.”
https://www.glm.de/en/product/tim-collins-for-good-people/

Personnel: Tim Collins (Vibraphone), Matthias Bublath (Organ), Christian Lettner (Drums)

For Good People

---

Dianne Reeves - The Nearness of You

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1988
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:12
Size: 115,3 MB
Art: Front

(4:55) 1. Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
(5:41) 2. Like A Lover
(4:08) 3. How High The Moon
(8:05) 4. For All We Know
(3:19) 5. The Nearness of You/Misty
(6:18) 6. You Taught My Heart To Sing
(5:39) 7. Ancient Source
(9:02) 8. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
(3:01) 9. Oh What A Freedom

Five-time Grammy winner DIANNE REEVES is the pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world. As a result of her breathtaking virtuosity, improvisational prowess, and unique jazz and R&B stylings, Reeves received the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for three consecutive recordings a Grammy first in any vocal category.

Featured in George Clooney’s six-time Academy Award nominated Good Night, and Good Luck, Reeves won the Best Jazz Vocal Grammy for the film's soundtrack.

Reeves has recorded and performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. She has also recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim and was a featured soloist with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. Reeves was the first Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the first vocalist to ever perform at the famed Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Reeves worked with legendary producer Arif Mardin (Norah Jones, Aretha Franklin) on the Grammy winning A Little Moonlight, an intimate collection of standards featuring her touring trio. When Reeves’ holiday collection Christmas Time is Here was released, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times raved, “Ms. Reeves, a jazz singer of frequently astonishing skill, takes the assignment seriously; this is one of the best jazz Christmas CD's I've heard.”

In recent years Reeves has toured the world in a variety of contexts including “Sing the Truth,” a musical celebration of Nina Simone which also featured Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo. She performed at the White House on multiple occasions including President Obama's State Dinner for the President of China as well as the Governors’ Ball.

Reeves’ most recent release Beautiful Life, features Gregory Porter, Robert Glasper, Lalah Hathaway and Esperanza Spalding. Produced by Terri Lyne Carrington, Beautiful Life won the 2015 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. Reeves is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Berklee College of Music and the Juilliard School. In 2018 the National Endowment for the Arts designated Reeves a Jazz Master the highest honor the United States bestows on jazz artists.
https://diannereeves.com/media/
­
Personnel: Lead Vocals [Vocals] – Dianne Reeves; Acoustic Guitar – Kevin Eubanks (tracks: 2); Alto Saxophone – Greg Osby (tracks: 1, 4); Bass – Charnett Moffett (tracks: 1, 3 to 7), Tony Dumas (tracks: 9); Drums – Marvin Smitty Smith* (tracks: 1, 4, 6, 7), Michael Baker (2) (tracks: 9), Terri Lyne Carrington (tracks: 3, 5); Keyboards – David Torkanowsky (tracks: 9); Piano – Donald Brown (tracks: 1, 7), Mulgrew Miller (tracks: 3 to 6, 8); Tenor Saxophone – Gerald Albright (tracks: 9); Vibraphone – Bobby Hutcherson (tracks: 1, 7); Wind Chimes – Ron Powell (tracks: 2).

The Nearness of You

---