Billie Holiday - The Diva Series

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:12
Size: 135,6 MB
Art: Front

(2:50) 1. Them There Eyes
(2:45) 2. Gimme A Pigfoot And A Bottle Of Bear
(3:12) 3. Easy Living
(3:24) 4. Don't Explain
(3:09) 5. Billie's Blues
(2:36) 6. Love Me Or Leave Me
(5:32) 7. Just One Of Those Things
(3:30) 8. Good Morning Heartache
(4:27) 9. Speak Low
(5:41) 10. All Or Nothing At All
(3:13) 11. Strange Fruit
(4:00) 12. God Bless The Child
(3:27) 13. I Wished On The Moon
(3:13) 14. What A Little Moonlight Can Do
(3:19) 15. Fine And Mellow
(3:46) 16. Lady Sings The Blues

Part of Verve's Diva Series of compilations, this Billie Holiday collection is by no means the definitive account of her career Columbia's Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday takes that honor. That said, it is still a great introduction to the vocalist's singular and influential style. There is a timely flow to the track listing on most of the Diva Series albums, and this collection is no exception.

Included are such landmark recordings as "Don't Explain," "God Bless the Child," and Holiday's haunting signature tune, "Strange Fruit." Longtime Holiday fanatics will most likely already have these recordings, but for newly interested listeners, at over 14 tracks, this competes well with other similar single-disc collections. by Matt Collar
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-diva-mw0000026452

The Diva Series

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Sant Andreu Jazz Band - Jazzing 10 Vol.3

Styles: Jazz, Big Band
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:31
Size: 149,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:19) 1. Gracy Waltz
(3:25) 2. De Conversa Em Conversa
(4:07) 3. Walkin' Shoes
(2:38) 4. Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me
(5:05) 5. Joao e Maria
(4:20) 6. Day Dream
(4:29) 7. Catalonian Nights
(4:27) 8. Aguas de Marco
(3:21) 9. Sophisticated Lady
(3:29) 10. Happy Talk
(5:11) 11. Sonho Meu
(5:41) 12. Star Eyes
(5:14) 13. Uma Estrela
(2:45) 14. Prom to Prom
(4:53) 15. Foolin' Myself

I don't know to what extent the number 10 is significant, but it is a round number and reaching this number of Jazzings (CDs of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band) for me is, at least, a great joy.

Jazzing 10, but 18 CDs, actually, since several of them are double or triple, as is the case of this last one, which consists of three volumes.

The first of them (VOL. 1), dedicated to the music of Clifford Brown, with special arrangements for the occasion, of songs that were either originals by Clifford himself or songs that he used to perform.

The other two volumes (VOL. 2 and 3) are also a sample of the different recordings we have made during this 2019, both with the entire Sant Andreu Jazz Band, or in smaller formats, and in two different spaces such as the JAZZ HOUSE (home of the young orchestra) and the JAMBOREE, a regular venue during all these years, where we have also played and recorded on many occasions.
https://santandreujazzband.bandcamp.com/album/jazzing-10-vol-3

Jazzing 10 Vol.3

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Thana Alexa, Nicole Zuraitis, Julia Adamy - Sonica

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2022
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 31:23
Size: 72,2 MB
Art: Front

(4:37) 1. Doyenne
(3:18) 2. Where Ya Gonna Go
(5:14) 3. Michicant
(4:22) 4. Come A Long Way
(4:51) 5. Love's In Need Of Love
(4:51) 6. Change It
(4:08) 7. Danny Boy

Powered by engrossing female harmonies and the dynamism of the female spirit, Sonica creates anthems for peace, love, and change. Largely an extension of vocalist, producer, and composer Thana Alexa’s ONA project, Sonica combines Alexa’s skills and vision with those of charismatic vocalist Nicole Zuraitis and bassist Julia Adamy.

Over the album’s brief 30 minutes, the trio combines jazz eclecticism with elements of pop, folk, and soul music, creating a kind of 21st-century hybrid Staple Singers built on intricate harmonies, hopeful messages, and mind-blowing drumming courtesy of Antonio Sánchez, Dan Pugach, and Ross Pederson.

Recorded and produced at Alexa’s home studio in New York, Sonica commences with “Doyenne,” which includes a spoken-word excerpt from women’s-rights activist and abolitionist Sojourner Truth’s 1851 speech “Ain’t I a Woman,” bookended with snippets of Gloria Steinem and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai.

Consciously fashionable, the trio follows contemporary production throughout, as on a cover of Bon Iver’s “Michicant,” Zuraitis’ plaintive arrangement and performance a melancholic muse. A Zuraitis original, “Come a Long Way,” continues the somber tone, but with a wonderful sense of ebb and flow pushing and prodding the song’s central theme of mental-health advocacy.

A thoughtful, harmony-infused reading of Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today” precedes the album’s centerpiece, “Change It,” which crushes climate-change deniers with such pointed lyrics as “Watch the seas rise because we won’t compromise” and “Science isn’t a game/we must listen and admit we are to blame” over a heaving, body-jolting arrangement.

The album closes with a sentimental Irish favorite, “Danny Boy.” Notwithstanding that odd misstep in an album of bold activism, Sonica makes protest music hipsters, millennials, and even cave dwellers can embrace. By Ken Micallef
https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/sonica-sonica-outside-in/

Sonica

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Conte Candoli - Powerhouse Trumpet

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 1956
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 34:07
Size: 79,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:26)  1. Toots Sweet
(4:12)  2. Jazz City Blues
(5:43)  3. My Old Flame
(6:25)  4. Full Count
(3:09)  5. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
(3:58)  6. Four
(5:11)  7. Groovin' Higher

Powerhouse Trumpet, which was also previously issued under the title Groovin' Higher, is an immaculately performed set of straight-ahead bop finding trumpeter Conte Candoli in fine form. 

The 1999 Rhino reissue has been digitally remastered from the original tapes.~ Steve Suey https://www.allmusic.com/album/powerhouse-trumpet-mw0000255948

Personnel:  Conte Candoli - trumpet;  Lou Levy - piano;  Bill Holman - tenor saxophone;  Leroy Vinnegar - bass;  Lawrence Marable - drums

Powerhouse Trumpet

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