The Hot Club Of Cowtown - Rendezvous In Rhythm

Styles: Retro Swing
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:23
Size: 113,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:55)  1. Dark Eyes / "Ochi Chornye"
(2:36)  2. I'm In The Mood For Love
(2:59)  3. Crazy Rhythm
(2:59)  4. Avalon
(4:00)  5. If I Had You
(3:48)  6. The Continental
(3:50)  7. Minor Swing
(3:59)  8. Melancholy Baby
(3:56)  9. I'm Confessin'
(3:50) 10. Sweet Sue, Just You
(3:52) 11. Slow Boat To China
(2:42) 12. Sunshine Of Your Smile
(3:28) 13. Back In Your Own Backyard
(3:22) 14. Douce Ambiance

Hot Club of Cowtown patented their style early in their career, and if they haven't found a lot of variation within their blend of hot dance music and western swing, they have nevertheless found a lot of depth within this unique fusion. Rendezvous in Rhythm, the group's 2013 album and eighth overall, is the flipside of 2010's Bob Wills salute What Makes Bob Holler, focusing entirely on jazz standards often heard in the south of France. In some ways, this underplays the "cowtown" element of the Hot Club, but there's a looseness in the rhythms that is ever so slightly western, plus, by this point, the trio is so fluid in blurring the boundaries between swing and western swing, it doesn't much matter that this album doesn’t have much in the way of country. 

Every one of the three members fiddler Elana James, guitarist Whit Smith, bassist Jake Erwin get space to spill out lyrical solos and they truly seem to cherish playing these familiar melodies, savoring their lyrical turns as well as the group's familiar but lively interplay. Similarly, listeners will find this comfortable but not complacent, as the trio cooks with some serious heat on these beloved tunes. And don't say the Hot Club's version of "Slow Boat to China" cashes in on the song's appearance in Paul Thomas Anderson's cryptic 2012 film The Master this album was recorded in July of 2012, long before anybody would have known Philip Seymour Hoffman bid farewell to Joaquin Phoenix with the tune at the movie's conclusion. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine  http://www.allmusic.com/album/rendezvous-in-rhythm-mw0002430771

Rendezvous In Rhythm

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Buddy Rich - Speak No Evil

Styles: Jazz Fusion
Year: 1976
File: MP3@128K/s
Time: 40:57
Size: 38,3 MB
Art: Front

(3:47) 1. Speak No Evil
(5:40) 2. Yearnin' Learnin'
(6:37) 3. Medley: Storm At Sunup
(4:26) 4. Medley: Love Me Now
(6:02) 5. Fight The Power
(3:58) 6. Games People Play
(3:07) 7. Sophisticated Lady (She's A Different Lady)
(3:24) 8. Sneakin' Up Behind You
(3:51) 9. How Long (Betcha Got A Chick)

Released in 1976, Buddy Rich's Speak No Evil is one of the most unusual dates in his long career. For starters, it was produced and arranged by the legendary Richard Evans, house producer and arranger at Chess Records' Cadet imprint. Amazingly enough, this set comes off beautifully as a funky, soulful jazz date. And for a change, it seems, Rich allowed his producer to do his job without inserting himself at every turn.

Some jazz fans may write off the date simply because the great drummer is decked out in kung fu garb and is sporting a pair of nunchucks on the back cover. That's too bad for them, because this one is a killer. As usual, Rich surrounded himself with some of the great soloists and session players available for the date saxophonists Joe Farrell, Steve Marcus, Dave Tofani, and Turk Mauro; trumpeters Lew Soloff and Jon Faddis; bassist Bob Cranshaw; guitarist Ross Traut (who co-produced the session with Evans); and Kenny Barron on electric piano amidst the other brass and percussion and trio of female backing vocalists including Vivian Cherry, Lani Groves, and Rhetta Hughes.

The program walks a free-flowing line between funky and progressive big-band jazz, sophisticated pop, and soulful instrumental tunes that border on disco (especially the Natalie Cole-Chuck Jackson tune "Sophisticated Lady [She's a Different Lady]"), but for the most part stays on the funk side of the street. The program features some of the bigger tunes of the day, including a burning, break-laden rendition of the Isley Brothers' "Fight the Power," Gino Vanelli's "Storm at Sunup," the Spinners' "Games People Play," and the Pointer Sisters' "How Long (Betcha Got a Chick)." The charts are simply infectious. Evans, scoring for the popping bass and guitar-driven rhythm section, is always at the core.

Add Barron's smoking choppy Fender Rhodes lines and you have a bottom the drummer (who is amazingly restrained here) can play off of. Evans gives plenty of solo space to the principals while keeping things taut and grooving check out the Brecker Brothers' "Sneakin' Up Behind You," with killer breaks by Rich and a rubbery bassline by Cranshaw. The counterpoint in the horn chart between trombones and trumpets is virally infectious. Rich may not have scored commercially with this set at the time, but it has become a favorite of beat hunters since the dawn of sampling. Speak No Evil was released finally on CD by Wounded Bird in 2008.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/speak-no-evil-mw0000786612

Speak No Evil

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Sherrie Maricle & The Diva Jazz Orchestra - TNT: A Tommy Newsom Tribute

Styles: Big Band

Year: 2005

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 64:14

Size: 147,5 MB

Art: Front

(4:22)  1. Titter Pipes

(6:43)  2. Pensativa

(7:55)  3. Three Shades Of Blue

(4:56)  4. Moonlight (What A Little Moonlight Can Do)

(9:03) 5. Nat Cole Medley (Mona Lisa/Nature Boy/Straighten Up & Fly Right/Route 66)

(5:31)  6. Too Late Now

(6:20)  7. Trail Mix (On The Trail/Surrey With The Fringe On Top)

(6:32)  8. Remember Medley (Remember/I Remember You)

(7:19)  9. Come Sunday

(5:27) 10. Red Door

TNT is the fifth album by the explosive New York-based all-female DIVA Jazz Orchestra, blending a contemporary mainstream big band sound with a progressive flavor. Founded by a former relief drummer for the Buddy Rich Big Band, Stanley Kay, the fifteen piece big band has been under the direction of bandleader/drummer Dr. Sherrie Maricle for the last several years. Whether in the studio or in concert, the group has drawn critical acclaim for its play. This record is a tribute to composer/arranger Tommy Newsom, who provided all of the arrangements and two original charts. "Titter Pipes," the opening swinging number, highlights a chase between Scheila Gonzalez on tenor sax and Karolina Strassmayer on alto. The other Newsom chart is "Three Shades of Blue," a slow and bluesy piece. Of the other pieces on the album, Claire Fischer's "Pensativa" is one of the most delicious. Strassmayer shows her range with a flute solo, followed by a moving run on the piano by Chihiro Yamanaka, backed up by bassist Noriko Ueda. Anat Cohen takes center stage on clarinet with the Billie Holiday favorite "Moonlight," played in a New Orleans/Dixieland style.

The "Nat Cole Medley" is a cleverly crafted musical collage of melodies and harmonies with a playful version of "Straighten Up and Fly Right" that finds the band on vocals. Barbara Larangona provides one memorable performance with her emotional flugelhorn solo on the slow and mellow "Too Late Now." I did not particularly care for the heavy trombone statements in the beginning of "Trail Mix," which is mostly a matter of taste. Scheila Gonzalez delivers a passion-filled baritone sax solo on "Remember Medley." The finale, "Red Door," is another swinging number that simmers with a torrid pace and features Maricle's powerful drumming. In appraising the album I would give an "F" for the color selection in the liner notes, whose lack of contrast makes for difficult reading. Musically, this is an exciting, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable CD that warrants a grade of "F" for many things: (F)ine arrangements by Newsom, superbly interpreted by the (F)abulous musicianship of a (F)irst-class all-(F)emale extraordinary big band that plays with (F)inesse, (F)reshness, and (F)ire.By Edward Blanco https://www.allaboutjazz.com/tnt-a-tommy-newsom-tribute-sherrie-maricle-lightyear-entertainment-review-by-edward-blanco.php

Personnel: Sherrie Maricle: drums; Chihiro Yamanaka: piano; Noriko Ueda: bass; Karolina Srassmayer, Leigh Pilzer, Anat Cohen, Scheila Gonzalez, Lisa Parrot: saxophone; Leisi Whitaker, Barbara Larangona, Tanya Darby, Jamie Dauber: trumpet; Deborah Weisz, Jen Krupa, Leslie Havens: trombone.

TNT: A Tommy Newsom Tribute

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Nat Birchall - Songs Of The Ancestors Afro Trane Chapter 2

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2023
File: MP3@128K/s
Time: 38:33
Size: 35,5 MB
Art: Front

(2:37) 1. One For The Son (For Pharoah)
(5:57) 2. Ogunde Uarerre
(9:24) 3. Song Of The Ancestors
(5:29) 4. The Drum Thing
(9:53) 5. Africa
(5:12) 6. Sun In Libra

This is the fifth of Nat’s “one-semble” recordings where he plays all the instruments himself. This album celebrates our collective ancestors, in particular the ones who carried the Music in their bones and blood and spread it around the Earth, from the earliest times until now.

Music crosses continents and cultures and time itself, and when it speaks of the truth it transcends musical genealogy, and continues a timeline from the earliest sources up to the present day. The music in the album is inspired by many things but particularly the master musicians John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Cedric Brooks and Count Ossie. https://www.deejay.de/nat.birchall
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Songs Of The Ancestors Afro Trane Chapter 2

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