Anita O'Day - The Diva Series

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:33
Size: 131,5 MB
Art: Front

(2:32) 1. What Is This Thing Called Love?
(2:16) 2. Ten Cents A Dance
(3:21) 3. Waiter, Make Mine Blues
(4:19) 4. Bewitched, Bothered, And Bewildered
(3:49) 5. Tea For Two
(3:14) 6. Honeysuckle Rose
(2:34) 7. Love Me Or Leave Me
(3:01) 8. It Shouldn't Happen To A Dream
(4:02) 9. Miss Brown To You
(2:23) 10. I Get I Kick Out Of You
(3:15) 11. Let's Face The Music And Dance
(3:05) 12. Peel Me A Grape
(3:39) 13. Angel Eyes
(3:26) 14. Crazy He Calls Me
(2:56) 15. Whisper Not
(2:46) 16. Senor Blues
(3:32) 17. Sing, Sing, Sing
(2:14) 18. Avalon

One of the best pairings of an artist with a label since Frank Sinatra swung into the Capitol offices, Anita O'Day's time under the Verve umbrella (also including Clef and Norgran) resulted in some of the best pop music of her era.

O'Day's entry in 2003's The Diva Series is one of the better single-disc wrap-ups of her time on Verve, though the scarcity of hits while she was there and the near-uniform excellence of her '50s LPs still preclude anyone from recommending a compilation to any but newcomers.

Still, this one is much longer than Verve's previous attempts; it also balances songs from her rarer early-'60s dates with her '50s prime, and ably compiles some of her best-known material ("What Is This Thing Called Love," "Honeysuckle Rose," "Tea for Two") as well as a few of her hardest-swingers ("Love Me or Leave Me," "I Get a Kick out of You," "Let's Face the Music and Dance").

Much better than Compact Jazz, but nowhere near as revelatory as her late-'50s classics Anita Sings the Most or Anita O'Day Swings Cole Porter With Billy May. By John Bush
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-diva-mw0000595312

The Diva Series

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Michael Blake - The World Awakes: A Tribute To Lucky Thompson

Styles: Saxophone, Clarinet Jazz
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:21
Size: 133,7MB
Art: Front

(8:39) 1. Lucky Charm
(8:40) 2. Reminiscent
(9:13) 3. The World Awakes
(5:00) 4. Little Tenderfoot
(8:21) 5. Scratch
(7:15) 6. Mumba Neua
(5:08) 7. To You Dear One
(2:26) 8. Little Tenderfoot (Reprise)
(3:35) 9. Single Petal of a Rose

Paying affectionate homage to bygone greats is a tricky business, especially when it comes to an artist in the line of jazz duty who rolled with stylistic changes and abided by the dictum that jazz is inherently a progressive music, but with firm traditional roots. Michael Blake’s nod to saxophonist-deserving-wider-recognition “Lucky” Thompson, with a bold and sensitive group of Danish players, is a fine role model of how to do the right thing. Thompson (1924-2005) spanned the eras of swing, bebop and beyond, was self-exiled from what he found a racist music business for years, and generally is an artist waiting for history to catch up to him.

For his tribute record, Blake plays tenor, clarinet and also soprano sax, the tool which Thompson mastered, inspiring Coltrane to pick up the instrument. Blake wrote the vintage-waxing opening tune, “Lucky Charms” (“charms” as both verb and noun) and also the funk-lined but intuitively smart “Scratch,” including a smattering of Thompson’s own words re: the sorry fate of the artist.

Thompson’s own tunes, making up the bulk of the set here, are deceptively clean and simple. On this selected sampling, the Thompson touch ranges from the friendly swinging sashay of “Reminiscent” to the querulous title track (here warmed over by a small string ensemble and a slow-meets-fast, suite-like arrangement), to the lush ballad “To You Dear One.” Thompson’s sinuous boppish tune “Little Tenderfoot” is heard in two versions: in the first, Blake’s tenor works out over bass, before the added horns thicken the harmonic plot; in the second, Thompson’s transcribed solo makes a once-removed reincarnation through Blake’s horn. Duke Ellington’s “Single Petal of a Rose,” with strings and an attitude of elegance, closes the set on an urbanely graceful note. Overall, Blake does right here by a musical hero, one whom jazz history needs to readdress. By Josef Woodard
https://jazztimes.com/archives/michael-blake-the-world-awakes-a-tribute-to-eli-lucky-thompson/

Personnel: Michael Blake (tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet); Soren Kjaergaard (keys); Jonas Westergaard (bass); Kresten Osgood (drums); Peter Fuglsang (bass clarinet, clarinet); Kasper Tranberg (trumpet); Lars Bjornkjaer (violin); Henrik Dam Thomsen (cello); Teddy Kumpel (guitar); ob Jost (flugelhorn)

The World Awakes: A Tribute To Lucky Thompson

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Donny McCaslin - I Want More

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:01
Size: 100,4 MB
Art: Front

(5:37) 1. Stria
(4:23) 2. Fly My Space Ship
(4:31) 3. Hold Me Tight
(5:48) 4. Body Blow
(4:11) 5. Big Screen
(5:55) 6. Turbo
(5:10) 7. Landsdown
(7:22) 8. I Want More

Saxophonist, composer and bandleader Donny McCaslin has taken modernist directions in music that allowed him to carve out a niche of faithful devotees. His new album, I Want More, is an eclectic blowout, all tracked to blazing saxophone solos, oozy synth layers, and trance-like, sometimes even hard-hitting beats and rhythms. McCaslin’s extraordinary ensemble features keyboardist Jason Lindner, bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Mark Guiliana. All four had an important role in the outcome of David Bowie’s last album, Blackstar(ISO Records,2016).

“Stria” exposes an immediate catchy sound, with delayed saxophone riffs over a weave of synth lines that, together with bass and drums, build dynamic texture. Over time, it falls into a dance-pop/rock line that sustains an outgoing saxophone solo. It all sparks epic emotions. Like the aforementioned opener, “Fly My Spaceship” has Lindner’s hand in the electronic production. This particular piece blends the diverting glitch-hop vibe of Flying Lotus and the dub incursions of Jah Wobble and The Orb.

The energetic “Turbo” and the rousing “Landsdown” are rhythmic machines; the former is redolent of Nine Inch Nails’s industrial precision; while the latter, written by McCaslin and Lefebvre, alternates krautrock-infused electronic music with gentler string passages. Strings also appear on “Big Screen”, which is propelled by this big round backbeat outlined by Guiliana.

McCaslin ranges all the way through a concoction of genres. The pop/rock accessibility of “Hold Me Tight” provides strong bass lines that guide us through the harmony, and a breathtaking tenor statement with all that jazz. Co-penned by McCaslin and Lindner, “Body Blow” is a rich stew of progressive jungle-leaning EDM, funky breaks, and anthemic punk-rock. The riffery is powerful, the pulse gains trippy effects, the sound is dark and robust, and there’s an electronica-laden section that is both playful and explosive.

Wildly original, with a defiant and confident attitude, I Want More closes with the title track a spectacular funkified exercise with a soulful melody à-la Kamasi Washington that pushes genre boundaries as it maintains an abrasive dance mode alive but with cool tones.

McCaslin’s compact work worths its weight in artistry as well as in sound. The future of jazz? A valid current for sure, one that hits the spot thanks to its aural kaleidoscopic phenomena.
https://jazztrail.net/blog/donny-mccaslin-i-want-more-album-review

Personnel: Donny McCaslin: tenor saxophone; Jason Lindner: synths, wurlitzer; Tim Lefebvre: electric bass; Mark Guiliana: drums

I Want More

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