Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Sarah Vaughan - The Diva Series

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:16
Size: 117,4 MB
Art: Front

(2:37) 1. How High The Moon
(5:15) 2. Cheek To Cheek
(2:59) 3. Misty
(2:34) 4. Old Devil Moon
(2:47) 5. Shake Down The Stars
(3:40) 6. A Sinner Kissed An Angel
(2:26) 7. It's Got To Be Love
(2:32) 8. Just One Of Those Things
(2:34) 9. I'll Never Smile Again
(2:40) 10. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
(2:07) 11. What Is This Thing Called Love?
(4:33) 12. Words Can't Describe
(3:26) 13. Shiny Stockings
(2:21) 14. I Want To Be Happy
(3:11) 15. Tenderly
(4:26) 16. Every Day I Have The Blues

Possessor of one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century, Sarah Vaughan ranked with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday in the very top echelon of female jazz singers. She often gave the impression that with her wide range, perfectly controlled vibrato, and wide expressive abilities, she could do anything she wanted with her voice. Although not all of her many recordings are essential (give Vaughan a weak song and she might strangle it to death), Sarah Vaughan's legacy as a performer and a recording artist will be very difficult to match in the future.

Vaughan sang in church as a child and had extensive piano lessons from 1931-39; she developed into a capable keyboardist. After she won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater, she was hired for the Earl Hines big band as a singer and second vocalist. Unfortunately, the musicians' recording strike kept her off record during this period (1943-44). When lifelong friend Billy Eckstine broke away to form his own orchestra, Vaughan joined him, making her recording debut. She loved being with Eckstine's orchestra, where she became influenced by a couple of his sidemen, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, both of whom had also been with Hines during her stint. Vaughan was one of the first singers to fully incorporate bop phrasing in her singing, and to have the vocal chops to pull it off on the level of a Parker and Gillespie.

Other than a few months with John Kirby from 1945-46, Sarah Vaughan spent the remainder of her career as a solo star. Although she looked a bit awkward in 1945 (her first husband George Treadwell would greatly assist her with her appearance), there was no denying her incredible voice. She made several early sessions for Continental: a December 31, 1944 date highlighted by her vocal version of "A Night in Tunisia," which was called "Interlude," and a May 25, 1945 session for that label that had Gillespie and Parker as sidemen. However, it was her 1946-48 selections for Musicraft (which included "If You Could See Me Now," "Tenderly" and "It's Magic") that found her rapidly gaining maturity and adding bop-oriented phrasing to popular songs. Signed to Columbia where she recorded during 1949-53, "Sassy" continued to build on her popularity. Although some of those sessions were quite commercial, eight classic selections cut with Jimmy Jones' band during May 18-19, 1950 (an octet including Miles Davis) showed that she could sing jazz with the best.

During the 1950s, Vaughan recorded middle-of-the-road pop material with orchestras for Mercury, and jazz dates (including Sarah Vaughan, a memorable collaboration with Clifford Brown) for the label's subsidiary, EmArcy. Later record label associations included Roulette (1960-64), back with Mercury (1963-67), and after a surprising four years off records, Mainstream (1971-74). Through the years, Vaughan's voice deepened a bit, but never lost its power, flexibility or range. She was a masterful scat singer and was able to out-swing nearly everyone (except for Ella).
Vaughan was with Norman Granz's Pablo label from 1977-82, and only during her last few years did her recording career falter a bit, with only two forgettable efforts after 1982. However, up until near the end, Vaughan remained a world traveler, singing and partying into all hours of the night with her miraculous voice staying in prime form. The majority of her recordings are currently available, including complete sets of the Mercury/Emarcy years, and Sarah Vaughan is as famous today as she was during her most active years.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sarah-vaughan-mn0000204901/biography

The Diva Series

Champian Fulton - Meet Me at Birdland

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 2022
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 69:11
Size: 159,2 MB
Art: Front

(0:28) 1. Welcome to Birdland
(5:41) 2. Too Marvelous for Words
(7:42) 3. Every Now & Then
(6:27) 4. Evenin'
(5:51) 5. Theme for Basie
(6:42) 6. Happy Camper
(4:14) 7. Just Friends
(3:48) 8. I Didn't Mean a Word I Said
(7:16) 9. I've Got a Crush On You
(9:35) 10. I Don't Care
(4:43) 11. Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most
(2:45) 12. I Only Have Eyes for You
(3:53) 13. It's Been a Long Long Time

Swing pulses through New York-based jazz vocalist and pianist Champian Fulton’s veins. Since her arrival on the scene in 2003, Fulton has been lauded for her poise and allure. A live Champian Fulton performance ensures a radiant ambiance pronounced by the multi-talent’s clarion vocals and lush keys. Birdland Jazz Club was witness to this glory in September of 2022, when Fulton enjoyed a four-night stint without repeating a single tune, all while documenting what would become her latest live album. Those tapes yielded the polished Meet Me at Birdland, Fulton’s sixteenth album as a leader, due out April 7, 2023.

In 2015, Scott Yanow wrote that Fulton “grows in stature with each recording,” after the release of her prized date, Change Partners. Now a veteran on the scene, this seasoned jazz messenger presents a collection of sophisticated standards sprinkled with one prolific instrumental original on her cultivated new offering. Breathing charm into the turn of each lyrical and instrumental phrase, Fulton soars in the company of bassist Hide Tanaka and drummer Fukushi Tainaka.

Suspending listeners into the simulation of a live show, Meet Me at Birdland opens with an introduction from Birdland club owner Gianni Valenti as he welcomes and thanks the audience for supporting live music. Fulton is bubbling from the beginning on “Too Marvelous for Words,” a melodic route that demands and effectively serves dexterity from an intuitive rhythm section.

Optimism is stamped across Fulton’s repertoire, something she considers essential to her purpose as an artist. This uplifting spirit culminates on the original “Happy Camper,” a scintillating instrumental and deft showcase of rhythmic acuity. Tainaka enjoys a particularly brilliant episode to round off the advancing melodic navigation.

While Fulton is full of cheer and known for it, it’s on heartfelt tunes such as “It’s Been A Long Long Time” where she so earnestly unveils her intimidation factor at once, she narrates two points of view as a singer and pianist, both without sacrifice. The 1935 tune “Every Now and Then” is another example, where Fulton bathes in slower tempos while her piano prowess asserts itself as singular rather than complementary to her voice. “I Didn’t Mean A Word I Said” is yet another prime example of Fulton’s piano ingenuity, and she recognizes it with a humble laugh at the sound of the audience’s applause. Listeners will naturally sympathize with the gradual velocity on her commanding arrangement of “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” considering the timely mid-season delivery of Meet Me at Birdland.

Fulton’s devotion to early jazz tradition is vividly transparent on “Evenin’”. The savory and playful track boasts elongated solos from each band member as they recreate the improvisational bebop style of Kansas City jazz of the 1930s.

Count Basie, Erroll Garner, Fats Waller and Clark Terry are a few of her musical heroes, whom she pays homage to throughout Meet Me at Birdland on her rendition of Phineas Newborn’s instrumental “Theme for Basie,” as well as the blues-infused “I Don’t Care.” In the album liner notes, GRAMMY® Award-winning scholar Ricky Riccardi cites Fulton as one of few living pianists capable of evoking Erroll Garner affectionately.

The savvy performer reinvents the breathtaking standard “I’ve Got a Crush on You” with a fresh intimacy, while the waltz “Just Friends” inevitably swings at times. As she introduces the traditional “I Only Have Eyes For You” at the finale, Fulton is cheeky in her efforts to invite the audience back tomorrow. “Every set is totally different..we never know what’s going to happen,” an ironic forward to a tune with a definitive title, which she dutifully commits every end of her vocal range to. Though at this point, no matter what makes up Fulton’s phrase, we can’t help but to trust her as we continue to listen and bask in the luminosity of a bright star.
https://www.champian.net/shop/meet-me-at-birdland-cd

Personnel: Champian Fulton, piano & voice; Fukushi Tainaka, drums; Hide Tanaka, bass

Meet Me at Birdland

Sant Andreu Jazz Band - Jazzing 11 Vol. 2

Styles: Jazz, Big Band
Year: 2022
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:57
Size: 148,0 MB
Art: Front

(3:50) 1. That Da Da Strain
(4:40) 2. Line For Lyons
(4:27) 3. Nature Boy
(5:46) 4. If I Only Had a Brain
(3:40) 5. Outra Vez
(4:21) 6. Misty
(2:31) 7. Yardvird Suite
(4:38) 8. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
(4:10) 9. Saudade de Itapuã
(3:55) 10. Vierd Blues
(3:14) 11. Honeysuckle Rose
(4:07) 12. Mean to Me
(6:17) 13. Evil Eye
(3:33) 14. People will say we're in love
(4:40) 15. Last Train from Overbrook

And we have reached 15 years of existence. Some of the musicians who are part of this new Jazzing were not even born when the project, with more than 60 musicians between the ages of 6 and 21 years old, was started. None of the musicians who were part of the first recording, Jazzing 1 of 2009, is part of the current Sant Andreu Jazz Band (although in this new work, representation of the year 2020, we can find two musicians who were present that year: the Motis sisters, who in this case appear as special guests).

All these years are reflected on the one hand in 21 cd's (11 jazzings, some of them with several volumes) as well as in the 18 Joan Chamorro presents and in Ramon Tort's film A film about kids and music, from 2011.

In the text of Jazzing 1 I spoke of a dream come true. What can I say now, a few years later? That this dream is still alive. That there is still, on my part, if not more, the same illusion as in the beginning. That young people are leaving, but the orchestra remains and continues to be a motivation and a source of learning and inspiration for those who are entering and also for many other musicians who, seeing our work, are motivated and work in the same line as we do.

I can only say thank you, once again, for having the opportunity to live this dream, and to share it with so many people around the world. Thousands of fans know the names of each and every one of the members who are or have been in the orchestra and, once they leave, follow their individual careers. Those followers know our extensive repertoire, they have all our records, they know the different versions of the songs, they know the details, the ins and outs. They are followers of our history, a history that after 15 years has become the history of thousands of people.

The Sant Andreu Jazz Band, a dream come true and based on the fact that what is really important is the present, the path, and not the goal.

Jazzing 11 Vol. 2