Laura Dickinson - One for My Baby (To Frank Sinatra With Love)

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:19
Size: 129,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:33)  1. Come Fly With Me
(3:06)  2. Learnin' the Blues
(2:32)  3. (Love Is) The Tender Trap
(4:33)  4. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry
(3:13)  5. You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me
(2:44)  6. Here's to the Losers
(3:35)  7. Indian Summer
(5:07)  8. You Go to My Head
(3:08)  9. How About You
(3:15) 10. The Best Is Yet to Come
(3:56) 11. I Only Have Eyes for You
(5:09) 12. My Funny Valentine
(2:52) 13. I'm Gonna Live 'Til I Die
(4:04) 14. All the Way
(4:27) 15. One for My Baby

Paying homage to the Chairman of the Board is never quite an easy thing to do, but vocalist Laura Dickinson takes on this challenge and delivers one of the best tributes to the crooner on her astonishing debut album One for My Baby, To Frank Sinatra with Love. Influenced by the sound early on in her life as a teenager and falling in love with Sinatra every time her parents played his music, the native Southern California songstress vowed to do her part in keeping his legacy alive. An in-demand performer in Hollywood, her voice is heard in the sound track of the hit movie Pitch Perfect, in various commercials and other Disney Channel projects. On this remarkable debut, Dickinson offers some of Sinatra's favorite songs in a fifteen-piece repertoire performed by many of Los Angeles area's jazz masters presenting the music with classic arrangements by such designers as Sammy Nestico, Gordon Goodwin, Marty Paich and Alan Steinberger. Supported by a big band, the vocalist begins this blast from the past with the Sinatra staple "Come Fly with Me" then, belting the melody with crisp powerful vocals, turns the tables on the familiar "Learnin' the Blues."

The band and singer swing on the delicious "(Love Is) the Tender Trap" providing a rousing rendition of the classic. Bringing the sound down a few notches, Dickinson shows her softer side on the delicate "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry" and the beautiful ballad of "Indian Summer." Her impeccable vocals seem the perfect fit on the familiar "You Go to My Head," while Burton Lane's immortal "How About You" is clearly one of the memorable tunes of the disc. The music gets a bit intimate and tender with duets featuring guitarist Danny Jacob on "I Only Have Eyes for You" and electric bassist Neil Stubenhaus on the introspective "My Funny Valentine." The big band sound returns with Dickinson reaching on age old standard Sinatra loved to voice, "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die" and begins to wind down the project with two of the most associated Sinatra songs, "All The Way" and "One for My Baby" featuring pianist Vince di Mura on the piano. 

Laura Dickinson introduces herself in the best way, paying tribute to one of the best singers in the world and surely, putting a smile on Sinatra's face as he fronts that big band in the sky, for One for My Baby, To Frank Sinatra with Love, is one impressive performance by a superior vocalist in one of the finest debut recordings around.By Edward Blanco

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/one-for-my-baby-to-frank-sinatra-with-love-laura-dickinson-blujazz-productions-review-by-edward-blanco.php

Personnel: Laura Dickinson: vocals; Chuck Findley: trumpet; Wayne Bergeron: trumpet; Kye Palmer: trumpet; John Fumo: trumpet; Larry Hall: trumpet; Rob Schaer: trumpet; Dan Higgins, Brian Scanlon, Greg Huckins, Tom Luer, John Yoakum, Vince Trombetta Jr., Doug Webb, John Mitchell, Chad Smith: woodwinds; Bob McChesney: trombone; Ira Nepus: trombone; Steve Holtman: trombone; Steve Trapani: trombone; Danny Jacob: guitar; Andrew Synowiec: guitar; Alan Steinberger: piano, keyboards; Neil Stubenhaus: electric bass; Trey Henry: acoustic bass; Ray Brinker: drums; Robert F. Peterson: violin; Ken Yerke: violin; Kevin Connolly: violin; Gerardo Hilera: violin; Steve Richards: cello; Maurice Grants: cello; Randy Kerber: piano (7); Dan Lutz: bass (7); Bernie Dresel: drums (7); Vince di Mura: piano (15).

One for My Baby (To Frank Sinatra With Love)

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Chaka Khan - Hello Happiness

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 27:13
Size: 62,7 MB
Art: Front

(3:56) 1. Hello Happiness
(4:59) 2. Like A Lady
(3:18) 3. Don't Cha Know
(3:43) 4. Too Hot
(3:59) 5. Like Sugar
(3:31) 6. Isn't That Enough
(3:45) 7. Ladylike

On August 31, 2018, a magenta-haired, fan-carrying Chaka Khan stepped onto the stage of Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple to honor her friend and mentor Aretha Franklin. I’ve watched the video of her performance a good 20 times, mainly because of how remarkable Chaka Khan’s transformation is, how powerful she grows. She begins with “Good evening” before correcting herself and saying, “Good afternoon”; the music comes in, and her voice famously elastic and raw slips out, warbly and tentative. She glances a few times at the back of her fan, where the lyrics to the hymn she is singing, “Going Up Yonder,” are conspicuously pasted. There’s a good 30 seconds, the first time you see the video, where you begin to silently pray to yourself, Please don’t let this be a disaster. Several bishops sit behind her, nodding respectfully.

Then the choir starts to sway and a smile breaks out on her face. She paces the stage, a bit dazed, but in full control. Around the 2:30 mark, you can tell that Chaka Khan’s got the hang of it she just had to warm up. The choir swells like a tidal wave and the band is locked in. Going into the third chorus, it finally happens: The Chaka Khan cry is unleashed. Pained and piercing, she summons it from somewhere deep in her stomach. It’s the same cry that punctuated the last choruses of “Ain’t Nobody” and “Through the Fire.” The respectful bishops stand up instantly, the choir sings at the top of its lungs, and Chaka Khan has risen. The performance, complete with an encore, lasts over nine minutes. She smiles as she surrenders the mic at the end, as if to remind us: She might not remember all the words or hit all the notes, but, at 65 years old, she remains the undisputed Queen of Funk.

Hello Happiness, Chaka Khan’s first album of new music in 12 years, unfortunately frames her as a novelty past her prime. Released as the first project on Diary Records, the vanity imprint of Switch better known as an original member of Major Lazer and the man half-responsible for “Bubble Butt” it’s an album shockingly devoid of the expert musicianship that has defined Chaka Khan’s career. Instead of emphasizing the live instrumentation, hair-raising harmonies, and goosebump-inducing modulations of Funk This, the 2007 album anchored by longtime collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis that maximized her talents, Hello Happiness is a messy, overproduced, anonymous set of hotel-lobby beats that makes woeful use of one of the greatest voices of all time.

Single “Hello Happiness,” featuring deconstructed disco violins and a thumping bassline from Sam Wilkes, could conceivably make for a good time on the dancefloor. But Switch and Ruba Taylor’s mind-numbing, budget-Jamiroquai instrumental is shockingly bland; if anything, the production here, as on the rest of Hello Happiness, makes it feel like Switch and Ruba Taylor in drastic comparison to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’s careful work on Funk This have never before listened to a single Chaka Khan song. Of course, Chaka Khan isn’t free from blame she’s spoken of how inspired she was meeting Switch and Ruba Taylor in the studio, and she has co-writes or production credits on every song. But no matter who's at fault, having Chaka Khan and Switch together on wax feels like washing down a $40 ribeye with a Four Loko.

There’s a moment when Hello Happiness works. On the sensual and affirming closing track, “Ladylike,” Chaka Khan finally breaks free of vocal effects, and, accompanied by feel-good guitar by funk legend Ricky Rouse and backup vocals from her daughter Indira, the contours of her voice, worked like cracked leather, are allowed to emerge. But that’s about it.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Chaka Khan is clearly in a better place than she was a few years ago: The album has been touted as marking a new chapter in her life, following a dark moment when she returned to rehab in the aftermath of the death of her close friend and collaborator Prince. If Chaka Khan’s found the happiness she’s so doggedly searched for and deserved over the course of a life plagued with difficulty, then we should celebrate that, despite the album’s soul-starved production. As she sings on the title track, “Love is what I’m here for/So don’t give me no bad news.”

Still, that happiness doesn’t feel truly genuine across the album. In Chaka Khan’s life and music, happiness has always been accompanied by bad news. It’s what’s made her who she is. There’s a reason she chose to sing “Going Up Yonder” at Aretha’s funeral and sang it the way she did. “I can take the pain/The heartaches they bring,” the song goes. “The comfort in knowing/I’ll soon be gone.” Now that sounds like Chaka Khan. And when she sang those words on that church stage in Detroit, the smile she unleashed one of relief, and knowing, and strength said it all.
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/chaka-khan-hello-happiness/

Hello Happiness

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Terry Gibbs, Bob Cooper, Conte Candoli, Lou Levy - Now's the Time to Groove

Styles: Vibraphone Jazz
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:21
Size: 113,6 MB
Art: Front

(7:29) 1. Little Girls - Live
(6:36) 2. Tippe - Live
(6:12) 3. The Austin Mood - Live
(5:22) 4. No name theme - Live
(4:57) 5. The beautiful people - Live
(6:18) 6. Havin fun - Live
(6:24) 7. Now's the time to groove - Live
(5:59) 8. That Chumley feeling - Live

Terry Gibbs is one of the most legendary musicians in the world. He has seen and done it all. He has played with some of the greatest musicians in jazz history such as: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Mel Torme, Buddy DeFranco, Tiny Kahn and many more. He also conducted tv shows for Steve Allen and Regis Philbin.

The Dream Sextet features some of the finest musicians from the West Coast. Conte Candoli was one of the best trumpet players and long time member of the Dream Band. He was one of Terry’s top 5 favorite trumpet players. Lou Levy was also a former member of the Dream Band and was one of the most in demand piano players. Bob Cooper was a heavy weight tenor player at the time who was widely regarded in the same league as Al Cohn or Sal Nistico.

The ensemble is backed up by the swinging rhythm section consisting of Bob Magnusson and Jimmie Smith. All these gentlemen were high in demand musicians at the time, so it was the first time that night that they all shared the stage together. The Dream Sextet recordings are all recorded live at Lord Chumley’s on July 30th 1978 in Playa Del Rey, California.

Terry has a talent of bringing out the best from his musicians. A live recording such as this one is the perfect proof of what happened in that moment.

The other aspect that is so special about these recordings is that all of the tunes are originals written by Terry. Terry’s originals are very melodic and lyrical such as Townhouse 3 or Tippie. You can sing along after hearing the tune only once. Terry wrote these tunes in such a way that the chord changes are fun to play over. You can clearly hear this, because of the way how the musicians are digging into these tunes. https://monsrecords.de/en/terry-gibbs-dream-sextet-nows-the-time-to-groove/

Personnel: Terry Gibbs, vibraphone; Bob Cooper, tenor saxophone; Conte Candoli, trumpet; Lou Levy, piano

Now's the Time to Groove

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Conte Candoli & Max Roach - Jazz Structures

Styles: Trumpet, Cool Jazz, Bop
Year: 1960
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 72:43
Size: 169,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:45) 1. Facts About Max
(4:56) 2. Milano Blues
(3:48) 3. Swingin' The Blues
(4:36) 4. Bread Line Blues
(4:09) 5. Bye Bye Blues
(5:21) 6. Blues In The Night
(3:50) 7. Royal Garden Blues
(5:08) 8. The Count's Blues
(4:08) 9. Genesis, Part 2
(2:12) 10. Architectonics
(5:27) 11. Directional Suite: Impulse
(1:53) 12. Directional Suite: Automatons
(4:40) 13. Directional Suite: Impulsion, Parts 1 & 2
(3:49) 14. Directional Suite: Complexus
(5:11) 15. The Worker: Rain Blues
(2:10) 16. The Worker: In The Morning
(4:20) 17. The Worker: Quittin' Time
(2:11) 18. Edifice

The inclusion of Max Roach's name on the cover of Jazz Structures is somewhat disingenuous. Upon opening the CD insert, we're informed that Max Roach appears on only four out of eighteen tracks. This information was conspicuously absent from the back cover, where a potential buyer would look to see if a disc's worth spending hard-earned cash on.

Jazz Structures is a reissue of two of Howard Rumsey's "Light House All Stars discs. The first, 1957's Drummin' the Blues, featured Roach on four tracks. Stan Levey is the drummer on the other fourteen.

When present, Roach does what he always does: he knocks it out of the park. The Lighthouse All Stars were the kings of West Coast-style bop and Roach had worked with them as early as 1954. In 1956 alone, Roach played on some of the most important records ever made, like Monk's Brilliant Corners and Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus and several sides with Clifford Brown. By 1957, he was worlds beyond Rumsey and Co. and ready to re-shape the music yet again this time with Booker Little.
The second album tacked on here, the original Jazz Structures (1960), has little in common with the upbeat swing of Drummin' the Blues aside from boasting much of the same lineup. This was the soundtrack to a documentary by filmmaker Les Novros about the construction of LA's Union Oil building. And it feels like a building being constructed: in places it's laborious, rigid, tedious. In others, it's decorous and light. Jazz Structures came just three years after Miles Davis had revolutionized the film soundtrack with his work for L'Ascenseur Pour l'Echafaud. Structures doesn't compare, but Bob Cooper, who scored the work, did a good job, considering the subject matter.

There's some interesting work here by Bud Shank (alto and flutes), Conte Candoli (trumpet), and Red Callender (bass). A playful, circuitous riff pops up on "Architectronics and resurfaces again in the "Directional Suite, where it's reconfigured as "Automatons. Refreshingly untampered-with production helps; it sounds a bit like one of those old quarter-inch-think vinyl jobs. The slightly lo-fi analog production adds a stark, concrete edge. Jazz Structures is a good soundtrack, probably better than the film that inspired it but it's not a Max Roach album.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/jazz-structures-conte-candoli-lonehill-jazz-review-by-rico-cleffi

Personnel: Conte Candoli: trumpet; Howard Rumsey (leader) with Max Roach: drums (four tracks); Bob Cooper: conductor, tenor saxophone; Bud Shank: alto saxophone, flute; Buddy Collette: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet; Frank Rosilino: trombone; Victor Feldman: piano, vibraphone, conga; Monty Budwig: bass; Stan Levey: drums; Joe Castro: piano; Larry Bunker: vibraphone; Red Callender: bass.

Jazz Structures

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