Tad Shull - Deep Passion

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1990
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:32
Size: 161,6 MB
Art: Front

( 8:18)  1. Tadpole
(11:11)  2. Big Ears
(10:50)  3. June Night
( 8:37)  4. Why
( 9:30)  5. Soul Stirrin'
( 8:02)  6. The Breeze And I
( 5:34)  7. Deep Passion
( 8:25)  8. The Eldorado Shuffle

Tad Shull is a tenor saxophonist, composer and bandleader with a number of records on Criss-Cross Jazz. His style combines the lush tone quality of the classic tenor saxophonists with the risk-taking harmonic approach of hard bop and beyond.After studying with David Liebman and Joseph Allard, Shull worked with the Widespread Depression Jazz Orchestra and the Smithsonian Jazz Repertory Ensemble. More recently he has fronted his own quartets. He has performed with Cab Calloway, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Eddie Higgins, Milt Hinton, Dave McKenna, Melvin Rhyne, and many others. Recordings under Tad Shull’s name on the Criss Cross label include “Deep Passion” and “In the Land of the Tenor.” He has two discs with the Tenor Triangle, featuring Ralph Lalama, Eric Alexander, and Tad Shull with the Melvin Rhyne Trio: “Tell It Like It Is ” and “Aztec Blues,” for which Shull composed the title cut. He also teamed with tenor saxophonist Mark Turner for “Two Tenor Ballads” and appeared as a special guest on Mel Rhyne’s Tomorrow Yesterday Today.

Tad Shull is Associate Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University. The organization is a leader in generating and sharing knowledge on jazz and improvisation. Shull specializes in providing access to and organizing the enormous and growing storehouse of information on jazz on the Internet. He is Editor of Jazz Studies Online, which presents resources for educators, students, and researchers. He is also creator and manager of J-DISC, an online resource for information about jazz recordings, the people who made them, and the culture they arise from. New J-DISC initiatives include linking information on artists in J-DISC to other useful resources; exploring ways to identify and distinguish jazz audio using machine learning and other engineering and mathematical tools; and creating a forum for jazz experts to discuss jazz recordings and the legacy of jazz history they contain. http://www.tadshull.com/?page_id=2

Personnel: Tad Shull (tenor saxophone), Irvin Stokes (trumpet), Mike LeDonne (piano), Dennis Irwin (bass), Kenny Washington (drums).

Deep Passion

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Ella Fitzgerald And Louis Armstrong - Porgy And Bess

Styles: Vocal And Trumpet Jazz
Year: 1958
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 66:14
Size: 156,5 MB
Art: Front

(10:52)  1. Overture
( 4:58)  2. Summertime
( 4:38)  3. I Want To Stay Here
( 4:02)  4. My Man Is Gone Now
( 3:52)  5. I Got Plenty Of Nothing
( 2:58)  6. Buzzard Song
( 5:28)  7. Bess You Is My Woman Now
( 6:34)  8. It Ain`t Necessarily So
( 1:59)  9. What You Want With Bess
( 4:47) 10. A Woman Is A Sometime Thing
( 2:01) 11. Oh Doctor Jesus
( 3:28) 12. Medley- Honey Man   Strawberry Woman
( 4:54) 13. There Is A Boat That Is Leaving
( 2:36) 14. Bess Oh Where
( 2:58) 15. Oh Lord Im On My Way

Producer Norman Granz oversaw two Porgy & Bess projects. The first involved Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, and came together during the autumn of 1957 with brassy big band and lush orchestral arrangements by Russ Garcia. This is the classic Verve Porgy & Bess, and it's been reissued many, many times. The second, recorded during the spring and summer of 1976 and issued by RCA, brought Ray Charles together with versatile British vocalist Cleo Laine, backed by an orchestra under the direction of Frank DeVol. A comparison of these two realizations bears fascinating fruit, particularly when the medleys of street vendors are played back to back. Those peasant songs, used in real life to purvey honey, strawberries, and crabs, were gathered and notated by George Gershwin and novelist Du Bose Heyward in 1934 during a visit to Folly Island, a small barrier island ten miles south of Charleston, SC, known today as Folly Beach. As Charleston Harbor had been one of the major ports during the importation of slaves from Africa, the waterfront was mostly populated by Gullahs, a reconstituted community that retained and preserved its ancestral cultures and languages to unusual degrees. Gershwin, who even learned to chant with the Gullah, absorbed the tonalities of the street cries he heard and wove them along with all of the other impressions stored within his sensitive mind into the fabric of his opera. What's really great about the Ella and Louis version is Ella, who handles each aria with disarming delicacy, clarion intensity, or usually a blend of both. Her take on "Buzzard Song" (sung 19 years later by Ray Charles) is a thrilling example of this woman's intrinsic theatrical genius. Pops sounds like he really savored each duet, and his trumpet work not a whole lot of it, because this is not a trumpeter's opera is characteristically good as gold. This marvelous album stands quite well on its own, but will sound best when matched with the Ray Charles/Cleo Laine version, especially the songs of the Crab Man, of Peter the Honey Man, and his wife, Lily the Strawberry Woman. ~ arwulf arwulf https://www.allmusic.com/album/porgy-bess-mw0000191821

Personnel: Louis Armstrong - vocais, trompete; Ella Fitzgerald - vocais;  Paul Smith - de piano; Alvin Stoller - bateria

Porgy And Bess

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Milt Hinton - Bassically With Blue

Styles: Jazz
Year: 2002
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:52
Size: 98,2 MB
Art: Front

(2:23)  1. Look Out Jack
(3:15)  2. Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho
(4:57)  3. Mean To Me
(2:01)  4. Me And You
(3:46)  5. Prelude To A Kiss
(3:36)  6. Undecided
(4:37)  7. How High The Moon
(3:42)  8. Laughing At Life
(4:45)  9. Mona Is Feeling Lonely
(3:30) 10. Back Home Again In Indiana
(3:22) 11. Toneing Dond
(2:52) 12. Walking Through The Woodyard

Milt Hinton was one of the busiest bassists in the history of recorded music and not just in the world of jazz. But Hinton led relatively few dates of his own during his long career; when he got the opportunity, he made the most of it. This 1976 session features him leading a trio with pianist Cliff Smalls and drummer Sam Woodyard (who sticks to brushes for most of the date), mixing originals and standards in equally swinging fashion. The brisk opener features a fine solo by the leader and playful exchanges between the three men. Hinton's take of the old spiritual "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" is a real swinger, not nearly as dramatic as the unaccompanied versions he became famous for later in his career. Hinton's warm arco bass introduces a lush treatment of Duke Ellington's "Prelude to a Kiss" before he returns to playing pizzicato. 

Smalls and Hinton share the limelight in the delightful take of "How High the Moon." Since the bassist spent so much time on the road, it isn't surprising that he composed a bluesy tribute to his devoted wife Mona, "Mona's Feeling Lonely," though he doesn't sing his lyrics on this version. The leader showcase his formidable bass-slapping technique in the superb rendition of "(Back Home Again In) Indiana." This Black & Blue CD reissue of the earlier LP adds a bonus track, a brisk blues called "Walking Through the Woodyard" that features the drummer to good effect. It is odd that the label thoughtlessly omitted composer credits to the songs. Fans of one of the greatest bassists in jazz history should pick up this release immediately. ~ Ken Dryden  

http://www.allmusic.com/album/basically-with-blue-mw0000084331

Bassically With Blue

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Nikos Chatzitsakos - Tiny Big Band 2

Styles: Contemporary Jazz
Year: 2024
Time: 45:08
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 104,1 MB
Art: Front

(5:42) 1. All or Nothing at All
(4:48) 2. Get Out Of Town
(5:53) 3. Fly Little Bird Fly
(5:26) 4. Where or When
(5:19) 5. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
(5:55) 6. You Know I Care
(6:10) 7. The Windmills of Your Mind
(5:52) 8. Fotografia

Cleaving to the premise that one Tiny Big Band deserves another, bassist Nikos Chatzitsakos is back with Tiny Big Band 2, the second album by his feisty nonet and a follow-up to the well-received Tiny Big Band! (self-produced), recorded in 2022.

This time, Chatzitsakos uses two vocalists instead of one, rotating them on half of the album's eight tracks, and brings back only three of the earlier album's instrumentalists, plus himself. The returnees are cornetist Robert Mac Vega-Dowda, tenor saxophonist Art Baden and baritone Gabriel Nekrutman. As before, Chatzitsakos' choice of material is strong, as are his colorful arrangements.

Alexandria DeWalt sings on Cole Porter's "Get Out of Town" and Rodgers and Hart's "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," Eleni Ermina Sofou on a second Rodgers and Hart gem, "Where Or When," and Michel Legrand's "The Windmills of Your Mind." While there's not much to choose between them, the word that seems most appropriate to summarize the four vocals is "passable."

Among the instrumentals, best in show is Donald Byrd's light-hearted "Fly Little Bird Fly," on which the ensemble spreads its collective wings behind trim solos by pianist Wilfie Williams, alto Salim Charvet, trumpeter Joey Curreri and drummer Samuel Bolduc. The nonet opens with the standard "All or Nothing At All," closes with Antonio Carlos Jobim's sultry "Fotografia" and warmly embraces Duke Pearson's even-tempered ballad, "You Know I Care." Chatzitsakos solos on that number, as he does on "Fotografia."

Trombonist Armando Vergara solos twice, Nekrutman only once, but they make the most of their chances, Vergara on "Where or When" and "You Know I Care," Nekrutman on "I Didn't Know What Time It Was." While the other soloists are by and large respectable but seldom more than that Williams is impressive on "All or Nothing," "Fotografia" and especially "Fly Little Bird."

Another better-than-average session by Chatzitsako's Tiny Big Band, even though a step or two behind its debut, owing for the most part to a surplus of vocals (two per album is more than enough) and some solos that don't quite gel. Still and all, more than enough bright moments for a favorable assessment. By Jack Bowers
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/bernstein-in-vienna-peter-erskine-origin-records

Tiny Big Band 2

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Marsha Bartenetti - I Believe in Love

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:36
Size: 110,1 MB
Art: Front

(3:37)  1. Fragile
(5:52)  2. Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most
(3:33)  3. I've Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)
(4:03)  4. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
(4:31)  5. Our Day Will Come
(3:14)  6. Alfie
(4:56)  7. Nature Boy
(3:31)  8. I Know You by Heart
(5:38)  9. God Bless the Child
(3:48) 10. The Very Thought of You
(4:49) 11. Throw It Away

Marsha is a smooth, rich, expressive singer with the ability to bring authenticity to each song with heartfelt vocals that transport a lyric straight to your heart. She has been known to “cross any genre for a good lyric” and does so with heart and truth. Her performances throughout the southland at venues like Catalina’s, and SRO shows at Upstairs at Vitello’s have won her audiences over. Marsha started her career in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 60’s The music scene was alive with incredible talent and opportunities. Her band opened for such acts at The Youngbloods, and played at venues like the Troubadour in Los Angeles.In 1980 Marsha won Best Vocalist in the American Songwriter’s Association’s International contest. The ‘American Idol” of it’s time, it brought access to opportunities that would take Marsha to Motown Records where she recorded with writers Ken Hirsch and Ron Miller who together and on their own…wrote “I’ve Never Been To Me”, “Touch Me In The Morning” for Diana Ross, “For Once In My Life” for Stevie Wonder, “If I Could” for Celine Dion, “No One In The World” for Anita Baker, among other top hits. Marsha studied with the legendary vocal coach Judy Davis, in Oakland CA. who she says..”Changed my life.” Judy was a Diva herself whose students include Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, and Judy Garland among others famous and not-so-famous.

“Her mentoring is still with me today and I still, after all these years, do her vocal eases every day. She is a woman who came into my life like an Angel and I love her for sharing her knowledge with me.” She opened my eyes and ears to a wealth of information about the voice  She loved the music business  and her students and I am forever grateful to her.” Although Marsha’s love for singing remained, musical politics and personal changes left her disheartened by the business and after a divorce, Marsha decided to leave the music business and shift gears to what she thought would be a better career to help with financially supporting her daughter. She may have left the stage for a time, but she continued working in the studio recording national jingles for such companies as Bank Of America, Chevron, among others. She transitioned into Voice-Overs and On-Camera acting. Here credits in this area included many national accounts, including being the voice of Safeway, Vons for all of their Television and Radio advertising.

She was deemed by the press as “The Voice America Loves To Hate” and “The Voice Mail Queen.” Marsha was the American English voice for the largest International voice messaging company, serving the majority of voice mail systems in this country Including most of the Fortune 500 companies She is still heard on major voice-mails systems throughout the country where you may hear her say…”I’m sorry, that’s not a valid password. Please try your call again later.” She was invited as guest on the Today Show among other national guest spots as the “person behind the telephone voice.” Being a Digital “star” was not what she had envisioned; and although it paid the bills, her heart kept longing to get back out and do what she really loved Sing. 

Fast forward to social media and the wonders of Facebook where Marsha re-connected with a former band mate Donny Marrow Disk Eyes Productions. She recorded her first solo album, “It’s Time” in Nashville with Diskeyes Productions; with Donny Marrow producing and his esteemed team of studio musicians from all over the country adding their talents to the project. Marsha’s songs cross genres; from Billie Holiday to Bonnie Raitt; always with the lyric as her first consideration. It was time to return to the stage and the studio  And her album “It’s Time” marked the beginning of her “next act”. More... http://www.marshabartenetti.com/bio/

I Believe in Love

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Chie Ayado - Forever Young

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:52
Size: 133,8 MB
Art: Front

(4:28)  1. Forever Young
(3:30)  2. Minnie the Moocher
(2:30)  3. Big Spender
(3:37)  4. Delta Lady
(2:51)  5. A Foggy Day
(4:40)  6. That Lucky Old Sun
(2:27)  7. Sway
(3:27)  8. Shenandoah
(2:21)  9. Cotton Fields
(3:50) 10. That's Amore
(3:09) 11. Cycles
(4:49) 12. For the First Time
(3:36) 13. Yesterday I Heard the Rain
(4:03) 14. My Way
(4:17) 15. Forever Young
(4:09) 16. One For My Baby

Influenced by her parents' hobbies, Chie has been surrounded by jazz and Hollywood movies from an early age. She first studied classical piano but soon began to swing, and grew up as a kid that always preferred gospel to psalms. When she was 17 years old, she scraped together all money she had saved with part-time jobs, and left for the land of dreams: the US West Coast.

After moving her bases to NYC, Chie was invited by a record store owner to "visit a church and listen to some gospel". She agreed, and became a member of church's choir on the spot. She married a fellow choir member and gave a birth to a baby , but later she got divorced.

In 1991, the mother and the son returned to Japan, she began to sing in a jazz club in Osaka, and thanks to the quickly spreading rumors of her vocal performance she soon made a name for herself in the local jazz scene.

The June 1998 release "For All We Know" marked Chie's debut as a professional jazz musician at the age of 40. Since then Chie has been touring regularly across Japan in fall and winter, and with the help of fans spreading the word via the Internet
managed to establish a reputation as an outstanding female singer. Soon her concerts were sold out as soon as they were announced. Also her third album "Life" made a big hit in 1999, this her 'standard' album has been sold over 250,000 copies.

In March 2001 Chie received the 51st Ministry of Education and Science Cultural Promotional Award. Harboring an aversion against settling for one thing, Chie has been exploring territories outside the realm of jazz. Her repertory extends 20's swing
jazz to the rock, pop standards.

Chie has released 14 albums, 2 compiled "BEST" albums and 5 DVD-Videos. The number of total sale reaches almost 2,000,000 copies. 

https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=artistdetail&id=9283

Forever Young

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Dave Stryker - Eight Track I

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 60:27
Size: 144,5 MB
Art: Front

(4:54)  1. I'll Be Around
(7:16)  2. Pusherman Superfly
(6:03)  3. Wichita Lineman
(7:17)  4. Aquarius
(6:10)  5. Never My Love
(6:06)  6. Superwoman
(5:49)  7. Never Can Say Goodbye
(5:07)  8. Make It With You
(6:49)  9. Money
(4:51) 10. Thats The Way Of The World

Ah, the eight-track. Is there any music format that's more dated? Vinyl is on its way back, albeit with a select crowd, and the CD is still holding on for dear life, but it's not likely that eight-track tapes will be making a big comeback any time soon. Those audio-delivering relics have been left behind, yet the memories surrounding their existence and the music they helped to usher in remains fixed in the mind for those who came of age in the '70s. Guitarist Dave Stryker is a proud part of that pack. Stryker has been known to throw a '70s pop tune into his sets every now and then, but he goes the whole nine yards on this album; all ten tunes are taken from that glorious-to-some-and-not-so-glorious-to-others musical epoch. Jimmy Webb, Pink Floyd, Curtis Mayfield and many more get the Stryker treatment on Eight Track.

Since this is a different kind of project for Stryker, a slightly different instrumental combination was in order. He turned to his working trio, with underrated organist Jared Gold and up-and-coming drummer McClenty Hunter, and then added celebrated vibraphonist Stefon Harris to the mix to shake things up. Together, these four men manage to remove the layers of schmaltz that rest atop some of these pieces, giving this music a new shine while remaining largely faithful to the originals. Things get underway with a shuffling "I'll Be Around," a "Pusherman/Superfly" that's pleasing but a bit toothless, and a "Wichita Lineman" that's wonderfully buoyant, balancing propulsion with sensitivity along the way. As the program continues, the quartet goes full steam ahead through "Aquarius," takes a reflective look at "Never My Love," simmers on "Money," and has its way with a few other well-known nuggets. No pretense or posturing on this one. Stryker's Eight Track is just straight up fun. ~ Dan Bilawsky   http://www.allaboutjazz.com/eight-track-dave-stryker-self-produced-review-by-dan-bilawsky.php#.U5uDBiioqdk  

Personnel: Dave Stryker: guitar; Stefon Harris: vibraphone; Jared Gold: organ; McClenty Hunter: drums.

Eight Track

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Barry Elmes Quintet - Night Flight

Styles: Mainstream Jazz
Year: 2024
Time: 70:04
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 160,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:54) 1. Night Flight
(9:50) 2. Morning Star
(7:04) 3. Opus 3
(9:30) 4. Sandino
(8:16) 5. Hindsight
(7:44) 6. Azure Te
(6:20) 7. Spiral Dance
(7:30) 8. Turn Out the Stars
(7:53) 9. Funk in Deep Freeze

Barry Elmes is a drummer and composer who, over the years, has made notable contributions to the Canadian jazz scene. On the release Night Flight, he pays tribute to several iconic composers such as Charles Mingus, Cedar Walton, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans and Hank Mobley.

Joining Elmes for this pianoless release are several first-rate players, namely, Brian O'Kane on trumpet, Chris Gale on tenor saxophone, Lorne Lofsky on guitar and Pat Collins on bass. The group leads with Elmes' original and title track, "Night Flight." Reverberating with echoes of collaboration, the front line of O'Kane and Gale is grounded in a textured exploration of the theme brimming with ideas and energy. The Mingus chart "Opus 3" is from his 1973 release Mingus Moves; it swings along with tireless precision. Filled with shifting instrumental textures, Lofsky, O'Kane, and Gale show a devotion to gregarious grooves which are swift and purposeful.

"Hindsight" by Cedar Walton has been covered by many bands since its first release in 1981. With Elmes' dynamic and expressive drumming setting the pace, the band captures the composition's defining essence, including a nuanced solo from guitarist Lorne Lofsky, whose technical proficiency and melodic sensibility are often under-appreciated. However, it is worth noting that these capabilities were duly recognized early by Oscar Peterson who, in the late '70s, brought Lofsky into his band.

Two of jazz's most revered pianists Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans each composed a piece on this session, respectively "Spiral Dance" and "Turn Out The Stars." The former number is engaged by a unique selection of timbre and texture from Elmes' drumming as the melody is established. In this fertile ground for improvisation, bassist Collins delivers his distinctive approach to the bass with a solo marked by a deep, resonant tone and impeccable technique. Evans' composition was consistently included in his live performances and offered in a reflective and pensive mood. The band adheres to this construct and provides lots of interior room in the chart for the players' improvisations.

The final track, "Funk In Deep Freeze," is by hard bop tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley. It opens with unison playing between O'Kane and Gale as they state the theme in bop attack mode, setting the frame for the following solos; O'Kane, Gale, Lofsky and Collins all deliver lucid solos with a structural perspective which keeps the material at a distance but eventually returns to the frame.By Pierre Giroux https://www.allaboutjazz.com/night-flight-barry-elmes-quintet-cornerstone-records-inc

Night Flight

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Ella Fitzgerald - Ella In Japan:'S Wonderful Disc1 And Disc 2

Album: Ella In Japan: 'S Wonderful  Disc 1

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 64:37
Size: 148,9 MB
Art: Front + Back

( 3:47)  1. Cheek To Cheek
( 3:59)  2. Deep Purple
( 2:20)  3. Too Close For Comfort
( 3:21)  4. I Love Being Here With You
( 3:00)  5. Fly Me To The Moon
( 2:34)  6. 'S Wonderful
( 2:59)  7. I've Got You Under My Skin
( 2:39)  8. Hallelujah I Love Him So
( 3:09)  9. Misty
( 2:48) 10. Whatever Lola Wants
( 3:43) 11. Bill Bailey
( 4:38) 12. The Blues (Ella's Blues)
( 3:20) 13. 'Round Midnight
( 4:39) 14. I Can't Get Started
( 6:43) 15. Undecided
(10:53) 16. Jam Session

Ella Fitzgerald had recorded live albums in venues ranging from Newport to Berlin to Hollywood when she and a quartet led by Roy Eldridge traveled to Japan in early 1964 for a series of concerts. Norman Granz, the former Verve head and current Fitzgerald manager who accompanied the musicians on their trip, recorded the concerts for release, but the tapes sat unissued in the Verve vaults a victim of the surplus of Ella material already recorded but not released for nearly 50 years, until the 2011 two-disc reissue Ella in Japan: 'S Wonderful. In the early '60s, Japan was thick with jazz fans, and crowds swarmed the Hibiya Kokaido Public Hall in Tokyo for the January 19 show that is included on the first disc. (The second disc includes a far more exclusive affair, recorded at a hotel a few days later.) Although another live album was recorded and released just a few short months after these shows (Ella at Juan-Les-Pins), the material has few overlaps. Ella is in fine form as usual, she turned up the candlepower in front of an audience  personalizing Peggy Lee's "I Love Being Here with You" early in the program, and even singing in Japanese, to the delight of the crowd, during a stirring "'S Wonderful." The quartet, including Eldrige on trumpet plus pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Bill Yancey, and drummer Gus Johnson, are quite adept at sounding bigger than a four-piece, especially on Ella's saucy "Whatever Lola Wants." (Also, an instrumental mini-set of four tracks concludes the first disc.) Raiding the vaults can be a risky proposition, but here, as with the massive four-disc Twelve Nights in Hollywood compilation, fans of Fitzgerald specifically, or great jazz singing in general, will find a wealth of great material. ~ John Bush https://www.allmusic.com/album/ella-in-japan-s-wonderful-mw0002125314

Personnel:  Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals;  Roy Eldridge - trumpet;  Tommy Flanagan - piano;  Bill Yancy - bass;  Gus Johnson - drums

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Album: Ella In Japan: 'S Wonderful  Disc 2

Year: 2011

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 36:27

Size: 84,0 MB

(3:32)  1. Cheek To Cheek

(3:29)  2. Shiny Stockings

(4:31)  3. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man

(3:45)  4. Bill Bailey

(5:02)  5. Take The 'A' Train

(0:38)  6. Closing / A-Tisket, A-Tasket

(3:42)  7. Ain't Misbehavin

(3:56)  8. My Last Affair

(6:59)  9. Perdido

(0:49) 10. Closing / A-Tisket, A-Tasket

Ella In Japan: 'S Wonderful; Disc 1, Disc 2

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Jim Rotondi Quintet - Over Here

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:23
Size: 120,5 MB
Art: Front

(5:35) 1. I'll Be Seeing You
(5:00) 2. Pete's 32
(7:43) 3. I Concentrate on You
(5:20) 4. Jim's Blues
(5:25) 5. Moclieda
(3:35) 6. Voice
(6:58) 7. Leemo
(7:09) 8. Father John
(5:34) 9. Happy Feet

By titling his eighth Criss Cross album Over Here!, trumpeter Jim Rotondi picks up on the sentiments he signified with The Move, his seventh for the label. “It doesn’t necessarily mean moving somewhere else, but rather returning home, playing tunes with a lot of straight-ahead swing and interesting chord sequences with guys I’m comfortable with,” Rotondi stated in the liner notes I wrote for that kinetic 2009 recital.

That’s an effective description of what transpires on Rotondi’s latest swinging affair. But although he wasn’t misdirecting, he wasn’t telling the whole story. As it turned out, The Move indeed foreshadowed Rotondi’s decision in 2010 to leave New York for Austria for a position as Professor of Trumpet at the University of Graz. As indicated by the current title (which references George M. Cohan’s 1917 flagwaver “Over There” and Rotondi’s father’s service in Europe during World War 2), Rotondi is ensconced on the Continent thirteen years later, augmenting pedagogical responsibilities with several trips a year to New York and other U.S. waystations, and also touring the jazz clubs of central Europe, Italy, France, Spain and the U.K.

In fact, Over Here stems from a ten-day sojourn by a band of four New York-trained masters that opened with a jazz cellar gig in the Viennese suburb Bruck an der Leitha, proceeded to Neuberg, Germany, doubled back to Vienna’s prestigious Porgy and Bess club, continued with a drive to tenor saxophone maestro Piero Odorici’s club in Bologna, and then transitioned to Udine for the recording session.https://www.challengerecords.com/products/16914145778748/Over%20Here

Personnel:Jim Rotondi - trumpet / fluegelhorn; Danny Grissett - piano; Rick Margitza - tenor saxophone; Joshua Ginsburg - bass; Vladimir Kostadinovic - drums

Over Here

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Milt Hinton - The Basement Tapes

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 1989
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 62:54
Size: 145,7 MB
Art: Front

(3:04)  1. Raincheck
(6:04)  2. A Time For Love
(4:11)  3. Johnny Comes Lately
(4:02)  4. Fascinating Rhythm
(4:35)  5. Blessed Assurance
(6:26)  6. Mona's Feeling Lonely
(3:55)  7. Order In The Court
(3:27)  8. Wade In The Water
(3:23)  9. Night And Day
(3:56) 10. As Long As I Live
(4:04) 11. Love Me Or Leave Me
(3:40) 12. Old Man Time
(6:26) 13. Summertime
(5:35) 14. Travelin' All Alone

In recent years, much of the attention given to late bass great Milt Hinton's career and legacy has been directed at his prowess as a jazz photographer. Nevertheless, we must not forget that behind those extraordinary photographs was an equally extraordinary musician. With Chiaroscuro's recent release of The Basement Tapes, jazz fans will find a welcome reaffirmation of Hinton's formidable gifts as both timekeeper and soloist. Composed of previously shelved material, the disc's 14 tracks offer up a broad slice of the spectrum of styles Hinton encountered over his illustrious career. On the swingin' side of things are two Billy Strayhorn pieces, "Raincheck" and "Johnny Come Lately" - taken at pace by Hinton with the help of Warren Vaché on trumpet and pianist Janice Friedman.

Both Vaché and Friedman offer keen lyrical insight and, with able hands, tend to Strayhorn's touching melodies. Hinton, meanwhile, occupies himself with tempo and swing. His bass walks - nay, runs - deftly across the rolling passes of the tunes, stopping only for an exquisite pair of solos. On "Fascinating Rhythm," a duet with drummer Kenny Washington, the listener is again dazzled by a prodigious display of rhythmic dexterity. Throughout the piece, Washington's traps snap, crackle and pop like the burning coals of a campfire, while Hinton's fat tone casts rounded shapes and bold colors over the playfully erratic Gershwin composition. Other highlights include a burning version of Frank Wess' "Order in the Court" and "Old Man Time," complete with Hinton's lighthearted vocals, Kenny Davern's mood-ified clarinet, guitarist Howard Alden's infectious strums (à la Freddie Green), and drummer Jackie Williams' strokes of skilled brushwork. Above all else, The Basement Tapes is a glaring testament to Hinton's rhythmic reliability. Like a monument at the center of town, his bass stands tall and firm carrying with it an unmistakable air of steadiness and permanency. ~Riel Lazarus https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-basement-tapes-milt-hinton-chiaroscuro-records-review-by-riel-lazarus.php

Personnel: Milt Hinton - Bass; Howard Alden - Guitar; Kenny Davern - Clarinet; Warren Vache - Trumpet; Sylvia Syms - Vocals; Kenny Washington - Drums; Frank Wess - Flute, Tenor Sax; Jackie Williams - Drums; Janice Friedman - Piano; James Williams - Piano.

The Basement Tapes

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Marshall Gilkes And WDR Big Band - LifeSongs

Styles: Trombone Jazz, Big Band
Year: 2024
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 88:21
Size: 203,4 MB
Art: Front

( 7:05) 1. Fresh Start
( 9:46) 2. Back in the Groove
( 9:38) 3. Cora’s Tune
( 6:56) 4. My Unanswered Prayer
( 7:54) 5. All the Pretty Little Horses
(10:22) 6. Middle Ground
( 9:26) 7. Sin Filtro
( 6:27) 8. This Nearly Was Mine
( 6:45) 9. Sugar Rush
( 8:25) 10. Longing for Home (Bonus Track)
( 5:32) 11. Taconic Turns (Bonus Track)

Maryland-born trombonist Marshall Gilkes, who spends much of his time working in and around various jazz bases in North America, returns to his "second" home, Cologne, Germany, for Life Songs, his eighth album as leader and third with his former employer, Cologne's world-class WDR Big Band. Gilkes spent the years 2010-13 in the WDR trombone section, shortly before he and the ensemble released the widely praised albums Koln (Alternate Side, 2015) and Always Forward (Alternate Side, 2018).

For Life Songs, Gilkes wrote eight new charts (ten if you count two "bonus" tracks for digital release only), showing on each why he is such a highly regarded composer, Grammy-nominated for one of his themes from Koln, which received a second nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble. The album's lone standard is one of Gilkes' personal favorites, Rodgers & Hammerstein's "This Nearly Was Mine" from the groundbreaking musical South Pacific, a luxurious showcase for Andy Haderer's tasteful flugelhorn.

As a soloist, Gilkes is superb, especially on "Sin Filtro," an Iberian-inspired cousin of the Stan Kenton staples "Granada" and "Malaguena." Gilkes is also featured on the robust opener, "Fresh Start," and the beguiling "Cora's Tune," written for his daughter. "Fresh Start" and "Back in the Groove," which follow, were composed with the Covid pandemic and its aftermath in mind, the solemn "My Unanswered Prayer" (featuring pianist Billy Test) as Gilkes' response to the epidemic of gun violence that has engulfed and ravished the U.S.

Gilkes arranged (but did not compose) the delightful children's song, "All the Pretty Little Horses," wherein vocalist Sabeth Perez makes her lone appearance, enhancing the lyric in spite of a reluctance to clearly enunciate the letter "s." The trombones are front and center on the panoramic, chorale-infused "Middle Ground," with enaging solos by Ludwig Nuss and Raphael Klemm leading to brilliant exchanges between Gilkes and Andy Hunter. "Sin Filtro" is next, followed by Gilkes' gorgeous treatment of "This Nearly Was Mine" and the bold flag-waving finale, "Sugar Rush."

Besides Gilkes, Test, Haderer and the trombones, soloists include alto saxophonist Johan Horlen ("Back in the Groove," "Pretty Little Horses") and tenor saxophonist Paul Heller ("Sugar Rush"). As for the ensemble, it is immaculate as always, with brass and reeds responding infallibly to the insistent spark provided by Test, bassist John Goldsby and drummer Hans Dekker. It helps to have outstanding charts on tap, and Gilkes makes sure there are no vacancies in that apartment. This is big-band jazz at its peak, marvelously written by Gilkes and masterfully performed by the impressive WDR Big Band. By Jack Bowers
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/life-songs-marshall-gilkes-and-the-wdr-big-band-alternate-side-records

Personnel:

Marshall Gilkes composer, arranger, trombone, conductor
Johan Hörlén • alto saxophone, flute, clarinet Pascal Bartoszak • alto saxophone, flute, clarinet
Ben Fitzpatrick • tenor saxophone, clarinet
Paul Heller • tenor saxophone, clarinet
Jens Neufang • baritone saxophone, bass clarinet
Andy Haderer • trumpet, piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn Wim Both • trumpet, flugelhorn
Rob Bruynen • trumpet, flugelhorn
Ruud Breuls • trumpet, flugelhorn
Ludwig Nuss • trombone
Raphael Klemm • trombone
Peter Hedrich • trombone
Andy Hunter • trombone (track 6)
Mattis Cederberg • bass trombone, tuba
John Goldsby • bass Billy Test • piano Hans Dekker • drums
Sabeth Pérez • vocals (track 5)
All selections composed and arranged by Marshall Gilkes ASCAP with the exception of All the Pretty Little Horses, traditional, and This Nearly Was Mine composed by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

LifeSongs

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Dave Stryker - Eight Track II

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:42
Size: 151,9 MB
Art: Front

(6:01)  1. Harvest For The World
(6:11)  2. What's Going On
(7:28)  3. Trouble Man
(5:27)  4. Midnight Cowboy
(5:46)  5. When Doves Cry
(5:02)  6. Send One Your Love
(6:30)  7. I Can't Get Next To You
(7:14)  8. Time Of The Season
(4:52)  9. Signed Sealed
(6:03) 10. One Hundred Ways
(5:04) 11. Sunshine Of Your Love

Sequels are a tricky business, often playing to expectations and hewing close to the formula(s) that helped spawn them in the first place. For many, for those very reasons, they're automatically viewed as a slam dunk, aiding in the creation and extension of a franchise entertainment experience for general audiences that went in hard for the original; for critics, however, they're usually a losing bet. Few who wield the pen or keyboard with a critical gaze look kindly upon these vehicles. But maybe, just maybe, the critics need to loosen up a bit. Good fun packaged to meet expectations needn't be vapid or disposable, and guitarist Dave Stryker says as much with Eight Track II.  Stryker visited the popular music of his youth with Eight Track (Strikezone, 2014), bringing '70s pop, rock, and soul classics into the jazz realm with his trio mates organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter and guest vibraphonist Stefon Harris. Not too much has changed for the sequel. He's working with the same trio again, the great Steve Nelson fills the "guest vibraphonist" role to complete the quartet, and a selection of popular songs from the '60s on into the '80s are reworked to fit Stryker's language a swinging, blues-infused, no bullshit argot that has long served him well. If you're looking for something radical or one step beyond, this isn't it. But if you're looking for more of that good-time spirit, with well-played twists on familiar favorites from the radio and the eight-track players of yesteryear, you've come to the right place.

While Stryker and company have no problem making some harmonic or melodic nips and tucks here and there, many of the biggest twists on these tunes are connected to the way the grooves have been altered. When a classic like Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love" is given a shuffling facelift, or when a gem like The Zombies' "Time Of The Season" adopts streamlined swing as its method of transportation, the character of the music is irrevocably altered. Is that a good thing? Who knows?! The one thing that's for certain is that it's the necessary thing in order for Stryker to make his own statement. If you want to hear Ginger Baker's tribal thump on "Sunshine Of Your Love," if you have a strong desire to get sucked into Prince's signature sound(s) on "When Doves Cry," or if you feel a hankering to gyrate along to Stevie Wonder's infectious recording of "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours," you can still go back to the source and do that. Stryker's not taking that away from anybody or trying to replace what's already been immortalized. He's just putting his own slant on these tunes that we've all come to know and love. Eight Track II finds Dave Stryker dealing in the art of musical recreation, not blatant re-creation. ~ Dan Bilawsky https://www.allaboutjazz.com/eight-track-ii-dave-stryker-strikezone-records-review-by-dan-bilawsky.php
 

Personnel: Dave Stryker: guitar; Steve Nelson: vibraphone; Jared Gold: organ; McClenty Hunter: drums.

Eight Track; II

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Charlie Parker - Bird: The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes) CD 1, CD 2

Album: Bird: The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes) CD 1
Styles: Big Band, Bop, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1976
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:21
Size: 95,7 MB
Art: Front

(2:56) 1. Tiny's Tempo
(3:02) 2. I'll Always Love You Just the Same
(3:03) 3. Romance Without Finance
(3:10) 4. Red Cross
(2:35) 5. Warming Up a Riff
(3:11) 6. Billie's Bounce
(3:18) 7. Now's the Time
(2:57) 8. Thriving on a Riff
(3:17) 9. Meandering
(2:56) 10. Ko Ko
(2:35) 11. Donna Lee
(2:47) 12. Chasin' the Bird
(3:00) 13. Cheryl
(2:29) 14. Buzzy

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Album: Bird: The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes) CD 2
Time: 44:02
Size: 102,0 MB

(2:40) 1. Milestones
(2:55) 2. Little Willie Leaps
(2:48) 3. Half Nelson
(2:26) 4. Sippin' at Bells
(2:42) 5. Another Hair Do
(2:55) 6. Bluebird
(2:50) 7. Klaunstance
(2:40) 8. Bird Gets the Worm
(2:31) 9. Barbados
(2:57) 10. Ah-Leu-Cha
(2:32) 11. Constellation
(3:05) 12. Parker's Mood
(2:37) 13. Perhaps
(2:46) 14. Marmaduke
(3:07) 15. Steeplechase
(2:24) 16. Merry-Go-Round

This two-LP set, whose contents have since been reissued in various forms on CD, contains all 30 selections that the great altoist Charlie Parker cut for Savoy. Bird is heard as a sideman with Tiny Grimes and then as a leader during the famous "Ko Ko" session of 1945 and throughout 1947-48.

With a supporting cast that includes trumpeter Miles Davis, pianists Clyde Hart, Bud Powell, John Lewis and Duke Jordan and drummer Max Roach (not to mention a cameo by Dizzy Gillespie on both trumpet and piano on "Ko Ko"), Parker is heard in prime form on such classics as "Billie's Bounce," "Now's the Time," "Thriving on A Riff," "Ko Ko," "Donna Lee," "Chasin' the Bird," "Milestones," "Parker's Mood" and "Steeplechase."By Scott Yanow
https://www.allmusic.com/album/bird-the-savoy-recordings-master-takes-mw0000902994

Personnel: Alto Saxophone – Charlie Parker; Bass – Curly Russell, Nelson Boyd, Tommy Potter,Bass, Vocals – Jimmy Butts; Drums – Harold "Doc" West , Max Roach; Guitar, Vocals – Tiny Grimes; Piano – Bud Powell , Clyde Hart. Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Jordan, John Lewis; Trumpet – Miles Davis

Bird:The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes) CD 1, CD 2

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Joan Chamorro - Joan Chamorro Presenta Koldo Munné

Styles: Vocal, Trumpet And Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2024
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 75:20
Size: 174,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:28) 1. Snails & Jellyfishes
(5:45) 2. Imagination
(5:58) 3. Koldin's Blues
(4:51) 4. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
(3:49) 5. C.T.A
(5:33) 6. Fifteen-Twenty
(3:54) 7. Jazz House Rhythm
(4:59) 8. P.S. I Love You
(3:21) 9. E Que Deus Ajude
(6:41) 10. Easy Living
(6:25) 11. I'd Be There
(6:49) 12. Beautiful Love
(4:24) 13. Donna Lee
(2:56) 14. Ona's Lullaby
(3:27) 15. United Blues
(2:52) 16. Don't Rain On My Parade

I met Koldo when he was 6 years old, as a sax student. At the age of 8, in 2014, he was already part of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. I have seen his personal and musical evolution over all these years. He has been and still is a very pleasant person to work with. Good companion, punctual, respectful, sensitive, committed…

As a musician, he is a very good professional, with a voice of his own that he will develop little by little over the next few years. Very good reader, very good technique, inventive improviser, and with the ability to continually surprise in his speech.

As a vocalist, he relatively recently began to have songs as the soloist, within the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. His voice combines the influence of the jazz vocalists that he has been listening to all these years and his passion for musicals, creating his own personal style, one that we can also hear in his original compositions.

In 2009, I started with this Joan Chamorro presents collection, and I did it with Andrea Motis. I never thought this collection would reach number 20, but here we are with this new CD that makes me proud and fills me with happiness. At the time of this recording, Koldo was 17 years old and already had more than 32 CDs recorded in the context of the SAJB.

He has played and record alongside world-class musicians, such as those who collaborate on his album: Scott Hamilton, Joel Frahm, Enrique Oliver and, during all these years, with Luigi Grasso, John Allred, Jon-erik Kellso, Scott Robinson, Dick Oatts, Joe Magnarelli, and a long etc.He has been the first alto on the sax section for some years, after playing second alongside Joan Martí. It was a good school.

As a first alto, he has an expressive and powerful sound that makes him a wonderful lead sax. After Alba Esteban left the baritone sax position, Koldo assumed that role, sharing an album, Jazzing 13, with her, doubling the baritone, as Sahib Sihab and Cecil Payne did in their day, in Dizzy Gillespie’s big band.

The fact that Koldo has become the baritonist of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band this last couple of years, and that he has recorded several songs on his album with this sax that is so special to me, also makes me very happy.Congratulations, Koldo, for your career, for this wonderful album and for living music so passionately. I wish you all the best!!! By Joan Chamorro
https://jazztojazz.com/en/product/joan-chamorro-presenta-koldo-munne/

Joan Chamorro Presenta Koldo Munné

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Sarah L King - Fire Horse

Styles: Vocal

Year: 2024

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 53:13

Size: 123,3 MB

Art: Front

(3:37) 1. Holding On To Love

(4:38) 2. Devil May Care

(4:22) 3. Born Yesterday

(5:33) 4. Mystery Ride

(4:00) 5. Lush Life

(4:05) 6. As Though You Were Mine

(4:42) 7. Stolen Moments

(4:24) 8. Skyscapes

(5:06) 9. Black Dog

(4:08) 10. Show You The Way To Go

(4:08) 11. Snow Blind

(4:24) 12. Your Biggest Fan

Starting her musical path with coaching from Mike King, one of the UK's leading contemporary vocal coaches, Sarah L King (no relation), surfaced as a solo jazz vocalist, releasing an EP of standards and several singles. Her passage was helped by a family heritage consisting of an accomplished jazz trumpeter father and an orchestral conductor grandmother. An early career as a writer and director of short films provided the right impetus to be a compelling musical narrator.

King's debut album, Fire Horse, has the multi-talented Claire Martin producing. Martin and King have assembled a supporting band of top-level British musicians. They include Jim Watson on piano and keyboards. Watson brings extensive experience gained with artists of the calibre of Kurt Elling and Sting. Likewise, electric bassist Laurence Cottle has played with notable names such as Jason Rebello and Eric Clapton. He also leads his own big band. Double bassist Jeremy Brown has been a member of Stacey Kent's group and is a professor of jazz double bass at the Royal Academy of Music. Drummer Ian Thomas has recorded with Robbie Robertson and BB King. Add the talents of James McMillan on flugelhorn, Chris Traves on trombone and Ian Shaw, as well as Martin, on backing vocals and you have a cracking line-up.

Starting her musical path with coaching from Mike King, one of the UK's leading contemporary vocal coaches, Sarah L King (no relation), surfaced as a solo jazz vocalist, releasing an EP of standards and several singles. Her passage was helped by a family heritage consisting of an accomplished jazz trumpeter father and an orchestral conductor grandmother. An early career as a writer and director of short films provided the right impetus to be a compelling musical narrator.

Personnel: Sarah L. King (vocals); Jim Watson (piano & keyboards); Laurence Cottle (electric bass); Jeremy Brown (double bass); Ian Thomas (drums); James McMillan (flugelhorn); Chris Traves (trombone); Claire Martin & Ian Shaw (additional vocals)

 

Fire Horse

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Monika Ryan - Playfully

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:29
Size: 97,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:09) 1. Keepin' It Light, Keepin' It Mellow
(4:28) 2. Grow Where I'm Planted
(3:34) 3. I See It In You
(4:09) 4. Let Me Love The Whole Of You
(2:48) 5. I Found That Place
(3:59) 6. You Are Magic To Me
(3:56) 7. Slipping Out
(4:39) 8. We're Here
(2:47) 9. Reason To Be Happy
(4:06) 10. Living Thoughtfully
(4:52) 11. Whole and Resounding Love

Expressive NYC-based singer, a graduate of the city's New School, gets to the heart and soul of a set of originals.

Born in New York in the mid-1970s, Monika Ryan took an early interest in jazz and especially jazz singing. Principal among the musicians she admired was Carmen McRae, although from her early 20s she also developed a special ability as a composer.

After graduating from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in the late 1990s, she worked locally and made her recording debut in 2000, her first two albums released under the name Monika Brand. The name change came some while after her 2002 marriage to Jeremy Ryan, with whom she co-owns Resensitize Records.

Her latest album, Playfully, is her 14th and all of the songs are her own compositions, each of them clearly demonstrating her interest in and skill with intelligent and meaningful lyrics. The themes she explores deal with intense emotions arising from the building of personal relationships, of loss and rediscovery, and all are cloaked in an air of optimism, a valuable quality in today’s troubled world.

Ryan’s vocal sound is rich and appropriately expressive and goes to the heart and soul of the songs. She is backed by the trio of pianist Steve Einerson, bassist Rene Hart and drummer Alvester Garnett, all of whom are subtly supportive, with Einerson having some well-taken solo opportunities.

On first hearing, the songs gathered here do not have immediately memorable melodies but many of the lyrics will be retained, at least in the subconscious mind. Those living in the New York area should certainly take the opportunity to attend one of Monika Ryan’s live performances where her impact is likely to be strong.
https://jazzjournal.co.uk/2023/07/10/monika-ryan-playfully/

Playfully

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Teddy Charles - The Many Sides of Teddy Charles

Styles: Vibraphone Jazz
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 80:55
Size: 186,1 MB
Art: Front

( 8:07) 1. Blues Become Elektra
( 7:00) 2. Bobalob
( 7:52) 3. Staggers
( 4:18) 4. Free
( 7:39) 5. Arlene
(11:42) 6. Blue Grens
( 3:17) 7. Speak Low
( 5:07) 8. Skylark
( 9:18) 9. Old Devil Moon
( 5:39) 10. Further Out
( 6:25) 11. No More Nights
( 4:27) 12. Wailing Dervish

Teddy Charles, along with Milt Jackson and Terry Gibbs, extended the legacies of Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo and established the gold standard for modern jazz vibraphonists. Charles was also an innovative composer and arranger whose recordings were some of the most forward looking and highly regarded of the 1950s, especially his Tentet sessions for the Atlantic label in 1956. His versatility is demonstrated by the broad spectrum of musicians with whom he worked during his career ranging from jazz luminaries such as Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, and Gunther Schuller to rhythm and blues stars including Aretha Franklin, Chuck Willis, and Earl Bostic.

Although I have been unable to obtain session details for the discography, Charles recalls doing many recording dates with pop, soul and rock artists including Bobby Vinton, Dion and the Belmonts, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Paul Simon, Diahann Carroll, Betty Barney and organist Ethel Smith. Teddy Charles also produced and supervised many recording dates involving artists such as John Coltrane, Zoot Sims and Howard McGhee, mainly for the Prestige, Bethlehem and Warwick labels. In the 1960s, Charles returned to his other passion in life, sailing.

For years, he was occupied with the maintenance and operation of the Mary E, an historic 72-foot clipper schooner built in 1906. He sold that vessel recently (January 2007) and conducted tours of the Peconic Bay estuary on the historic skipjack Pilgrim. On April 23, 2003, Charles performed in a trio setting with clarinetist Perry Robinson and bassist Ed Schuller at the Cornelia Street Cafe in New York City. Robinson and Charles had never worked together before this event. It was fascinating to hear the interactions between the unabashedly "outside" clarinetist and the more controlled but still adventurous Charles. On April 17, 2005, Teddy Charles performed with the Tony DiGregorio Trio (Tony DiGregorio, guitar; Tony Oblaney, bass; Keith Dorgan, drums) at DEKK in TrBeCa.

The quartet swung compellingly through a variety of jazz standards on a lovely, warm afternoon in lower Manhattan. Teddy Charles often performed at the Scrimshaw Restaurant in Greenport, NY with trombonist Bob Hovey, pianist Neil Ralph and drummer Andy Collier. Charles appeared as a special guest with the Chris Byars Quartet at Smalls Jazz Club in New York City on October 12 & 13, 2007. Performing some of Charles's own compositions, the ensemble included John Mosca on trombone, Ari Roland on bass and Stefan Schatz on drums with Chris Byars on alto, tenor and soprano saxophones and flute. Teddy Charles passed on April 16, 2012.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/teddy-charles/

The Many Sides of Teddy Charles

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Caity Gyorgy & Mark Limacher - You're Alike, You Two

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:43
Size: 85,1 MB
Art: Front

(3:39) 1. Nobody Else But Me
(4:13) 2. A Fine Romance
(2:47) 3. Yesterdays
(4:04) 4. I'll Be Hard To Handle
(3:30) 5. You Couldn't Be Cuter
(4:23) 6. Bill
(3:08) 7. I'm Old Fashioned
(3:51) 8. April Fooled Me
(3:53) 9. Pick Yourself Up
(3:10) 10. The Bartender

Do you like scat singing? My Mum absolutely hates it the wordless vocal improvisation featured on so many of Ella Fitzgerald’s sides (which she loves, by the way) are, in her words, “just din.” In fact, much to my chagrin, Mum sometimes says the same about jazz in general. (And yet she has so many of Ella’s records. She adores Nat King Cole and is partial to both Eva Cassidy and Dean Martin, too figure that one out).

I like scat singing and believe, like many people, that Ella’s contribution sits comfortably within its topmost tier. Caity Gyorgy (pronounced George) clearly feels the same way, for her latest record opens with a whole bunch of scat. And it’s remarkably good I first put this record on to soundtrack the washing up, but quickly downed the scrubbing brush when Gyorgy’s aural acrobatics began. If the International Olympic Committee gave out medals for vocal gymnastics as well as artistic, rhythmic, trampoline etc., then Canada would be taking gold this year.

Hailing from Calgary, singer-songwriter Gyorgy recently became the youngest ever two-time winner of the JUNO for Best Vocal Jazz Album, for last year’s Featuring (having previously won with Now Pronouncing: Caity Gyorgy in 2022). And it’s clear to hear why: her pristine vocals have a breathy clarity, precision and dynamic range to rival Ella herself and that isn’t a comparison any halfway respectable jazz critic makes lightly. No tonic interval is beyond Gyorgy’s nimble navigation, whether sung or scatted. She reminds me of one of those stunt drivers who parallel parks by handbrake turning at high speed and just whipping the car in.

You’re Alike, You Two is a duet record celebrating the music of Jerome Kern, featuring piano accompaniment by Mark Limacher a departure from the award-winning formula of Gyorgy’s two previous records, which both featured full bands. But if the Canadian singer took a chance on employing a single musician, she picked the right one. Limacher, the keyboardist and music director at Theater Calgary, appears regularly with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, when he isn’t composing for the same or else hosting award-winning radio shows and podcasts.

His playing is, as one might expect from such an impressive résumé, delightfully deft, filling every little gap between and beneath Gyorgy’s vocalizations with exactly the right amount of music while never once impinging on them. His uncomplicated comping and melodious improvisations are precisely the kind of playing I aspire to (and make me realize that I use my piano’s sustain pedal far too much, filling space with sound to compensate for a comparative lack of skill).

If any doubt remained about Gyorgy’s Fitzgerald fandom, the album features several tunes more or less famously performed by the First Lady of Song. “Yesterdays,” “A Fine Romance,” “Hard to Handle,” “You Couldn’t Be Cuter,” and “I’m Old Fashioned” all appear, and all are superbly sparse reinterpretations. The record’s other numbers are equally listenable and include “Nobody Else But Me” (as sung by Sarah Vaughan), “Bill” (by Annette Warren, in Showboat), and “April Fooled Me” (à la Dorothy Fields).

I think “Pick Yourself Up” must be my personal highlight, ending as it does with a tremendous crescendo of voice and piano, capped off with a thwack of the bottom F from Limacher and a barely audible chuckle from Gyorgy, who was obviously as delighted with the track’s conclusion as I was.

Album closer “The Bartender” is a Gyorgy original, taking a swipe at certain detractors who called her double JUNO win fluke and who discount her talent on account of her young age. “So you think I lack experience / in the land of bar room escapades,” she begins, “Well I love a classic as much as the next.” The lyrics go on to blast the haters who “oppose what [they] fear” “cannot endorse what has not been aged years,” all delivered through the clever metaphor of fixing the listener a cocktail an Old Fashioned, obviously.

It’s a cleverly subtle diss track with a lovely melody, which proves Gyorgy to be as capable a writer of old-timey jazz as she is a singer of it. (Her JUNO-winners were both self-penned, by the way.) If Caity Gyorgy isn’t someone already on your radar, then she should be. Look for her work in all good record stores particularly this delightful disc. By Dave Doyle
https://syncopatedtimes.com/caity-gyorgy-mark-limacher-youre-alike-you-two/

You're Alike, You Two

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Vanessa Racci - Jazzy Italian

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2022
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:14
Size: 108,9 MB
Art: Front

(2:47) 1. Betcha I Getcha
(3:45) 2. Volare
(3:14) 3. At the Jazz Band Ball
(3:33) 4. Moon River
(3:52) 5. Coquette
(3:57) 6. Make Love to Me
(3:15) 7. I'm a Fool to Want You
(3:13) 8. A Lifetime or Two
(4:04) 9. A Sunday Kind of Love
(2:51) 10. Come Back Home with Me
(3:33) 11. September in the Rain
(3:29) 12. You're Everything
(5:37) 13. At Last

Vanessa Racci describes herself a jazz / cabaret singer of Italian-American descent with a passion for retro jazz and music made famous by Italian Americans. She has a previous album, entitled Italiana Fresca (2017, self-produced), and currently performs several shows that celebrate American jazz composers, Italian American music and contributions to jazz and pop in the US. She is a competent and entertaining singer, lively, and, by the video evidence, vivacious. She may not exactly lead a listener to forget some of her Italian and Italian-American competition, living or deceased.

But she is pleasant listening and not at all mawkishly cloying, or sentimental in the style of some of her Italian-American male predecessors. Moreover, her "Italian," whether she's fluent or not (one suspects she is) will not make anyone who has been around the language run screaming from the room in pain. Racci is the real thing and probably a welcome musical guest at any Sunday-afternoon festa italiana.

Racci's current recording is much less heavily slanted toward the raucous "C'é la luna mezzo mare" in her debut album. Even the Italian-language repertoire, such as "Volare," is updated to a montuno with an obligatory chorus in translation. Although the names Domenico Modugno and the San Remo song festival will mean absolutely nothing to an audience more than sixty years removed from the Modugno's surprise 1958 success in the United States market, "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" is surely aimed at a newer, contemporary audience.

There are also nods to Henry Mancini, Jo Stafford (who was definitely not Italian, other than in her big-band association with Frank Sinatra) and even to John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey. There is really a lot of good listening here. If Racci's intent is to break out of the circle to which her previous work has been pitched, it should probably be successful. She deserves a broader following among a younger audience.

An added attraction is the very good band that accompanies Racci throughout. It swings hard and modern, make no mistake. It really does make the recording a pleasure to hear. This is, by every musical standard, a successful outing. By Richard J Salvucci
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/jazzy-italian-vanessa-racci-zoho-music

Jazzy Italian

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Kool & The Gang - People Just Wanna Have Fun

Styles: Jazz Funk
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:40
Size: 138,5 MB
Art: Front

(3:21) 1. Let's Party (Feat. Sha Sha Jones)
(3:44) 2. Movie Star
(2:29) 3. People Just Wanna Have Fun
(4:13) 4. We Are The Party
(3:28) 5. Vip
(2:49) 6. Na Na Na
(3:17) 7. Go Get It
(3:43) 8. Give Love
(3:31) 9. I Want It All
(3:47) 10. Heaven's Gift
(4:43) 11. Obsession
(3:19) 12. For The Woman In You
(4:14) 13. My Weakness
(5:05) 14. That's What I Love About You
(7:51) 15. 99 Miles To Jc

With six decades of hits, the internationally celebrated group continues to tour the world. The band is led by founding members Robert "Kool" Bell (bassist) and George "Funky" Brown (keyboardist, drummer & producer of this album), who has a new book coming out called Too Hot: Kool & the Gang & Me.

Continuing to release music that makes the good times better and the bad times more bearable, this collection will be the band's 34th studio album, featuring some of the last studio work by founding horn players, Kool's brother Ronald "Khalis" Bell and Dennis "D.T." Thomas, who passed in 2020 and 2021. Lead vocals on the album also include Sha Sha Jones, Shawn McQuiller, Lavell Evans, Dominique Karan, Rick Marcel and Walt Anderson, plus rappers Ami Miller & Ole'.

Both Bell and Brown view People Just Wanna Have Fun as a summation of their long career, during which they sold 70 million albums worldwide with hit singles like "Celebration," "Ladies Night," "Get Down on It," "Hollywood Swinging" & beyond. Since their start in 1964, the group has amassed two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, a BET Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award and star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Kool's bass guitar is even featured in the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

From Newark to Nairobi, Kool & the Gang have performed continuously longer than any R&B group in history and are the most sampled R&B band of all time, including by Madonna, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Janet Jackson, Cypress Hill and P. Diddy. Not to mention their music on soundtracks from Rocky, Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction to Wreck-It Ralph and many more.

Yet, throughout all the success, Kool & the Gang has remained true to their roots while pushing into the future. Bell says of People Just Wanna Have Fun: "You've got the funk, you've got the jazzier tracks, we have a few ballads on there. Then there are songs that cross over to a pop sort of thing. We go from the '70s, the '80s, right into now. It's old school, it's new school we kinda captured it all here. With all our music over the years, people have had fun. So I'd say this album just about sums it all up."By Editorial Reviews
https://www.amazon.com/People-Just-Wanna-Have-Fun/dp/B0C3VZKRB4

Personnel:

Kool & the Gang: Robert "Kool" Bell – bass guitar, keyboards, vocals; Ronald "Khalis" Bell – horns; George "Funky" Brown – percussion, keyboards, production; Sha Sha Jones – vocals; Dennis "D.T." Thomas – horns

Additional musicians: Walt Anderson – vocals; Lavell Evans – vocals; Dominique Karan – vocals; Rick Marcel – vocals; Shawn McQuiller – vocals; Ami Miller – rapping; Ole' – rapping

People Just Wanna Have Fun

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Jim Rotondi - Finesse

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2024
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 76:52
Size: 176,0 MB
Art: Front

(7:31) 1. Ruth
(6:47) 2. Dark Blue
(8:02) 3. Ladybug
(4:18) 4. Designated Hitter
(7:47) 5. Falset
(0:40) 6. Before Curtis
(7:09) 7. For Curtis
(6:25) 8. Going To The Sun
(1:13) 9. Prelude for 14 Strings and Flute
(5:01) 10. Interlude
(7:31) 11. In Graz
(6:03) 12. Happy Feet
(8:19) 13. Miller Time

Here is an album of orchestral jazz that will inevitably make you think of film music, as it was still being made in the 80s. For his ninth album, Jim Rotondi pulled out all the stops, aided by a virtuoso orchestra conducted and arranged by Jakob Helling, all deeply immersed in the rich historical and musical tradition of Austria, where Rotondi currently resides and teaches. Rotondi also called upon his peers, the legendary trombonist Steve Davis, saxophonist Dick Oatts, and pianist Danny Grissett, who come from his prolific years spent in New York.

Ambiance! And yes, it’s all about ambiance, with numerous nods and references to past albums of various great jazz musicians. Sometimes it’s just with intentions, like in an introduction. For example, on the second track, the introduction reminds me of a Miles Davis album. The criteria for this genre are plentiful. The album’s title, Finesse, encapsulates the spirit required for this project and with which Rotondi approached the entire process. “I’m a musician known for recording projects straight out with small groups, in a less strictly organized style,” says Rotondi. “For me, this recording represents attention to every detail, hence the name Finesse.”

And that’s the case here. I dare not imagine the annotated orchestral scores in all directions, supporting an essential note or having an instrument start slightly offset. Such occurrences can be numerous, and that’s the delicate detail in the orchestra that allows the trumpet to reign at every moment, a task as essential as stage lighting. Finesse is also found in the precision of Jim Rotondi’s playing. After organizing an exhibition of his compositions performed with an orchestra and big band, Rotondi turned to Jakob Helling, an Austrian conductor, arranger, and trumpeter, who played an essential role in transforming this project into a recorded achievement.

“After discussing the idea with composer/ arranger Jakob Helling, [he] got in touch with key musicians in Vienna, who were able to provide information about the rest of these musicians,” says Rotondi. “Clearly, at every level, without Jakob’s involvement, this project would never have come to fruition.”

The Helling/Rotondi duo works wonders. There is a kind of secret and invisible alchemy between these two artists. When you consider the demands of orchestral form, this work deserves respect. It’s a titanic undertaking of composition, arrangement, and orchestra direction to achieve such a brilliant result. It’s sheer genius! I mentioned it to you in late 2023, and 2024 will be a great year, not only where you might expect. Artists, sometimes barely known, are surprising us at the same level as Jim Rotondi, the ultimate proof of the great vitality of jazz, which has never been so well represented and is one of the most exciting artistic forms.
https://www.paris-move.com/reviews/jim-rotondi-finesse-eng-review/

Finesse

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Jay Geils - Jay Geils Toe Tapping Jazz

Size: 125,8 MB
Time: 54:00
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2011
Styles: Jazz: Swing, Jazz Blues
Art: Front

01. Good Quenn Bess (Feat. Billy Novick) (3:46)
02. If I Were A Bell (Feat. Gerard Beaudoin) (4:54)
03. Funky Blues (Feat. Doug James) (5:01)
04. Stuffy (Feat. Billy Novick) (5:01)
05. Theme From M Squad (Feat. Billy Novick, Doug James, John Pierce & Jeff Stout) (3:40)
06. Li'l Darlin (Feat. Billy Novick & Jeff Stout) (4:44)
07. Don't Be That Way (Feat. Al Wilson & Gerard Beaudoin) (6:08)
08. Fish Market (Feat. Billy Novick, Doug James, Jeff Stout & John Pierce) (3:36)
09. Sunny Side Of The Street (4:47)
10. Down For The Double (4:49)
11. One Sweet Letter From You (Feat. Sugar Ray Norcia & Al Wilson) (3:54)
12. Pyramid (3:35)

As a young boy growing up in New Jersey J.Geils was exposed to jazz by his father who had a great collection of classic jazz albums. Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Good man with guitarist Charlie Christian and Louis Armstrong were just a few of the musical giants Jay was exposed to growing up. He played trumpet and drums in his high schools jazz and marching band and even attended jazz band camp. Upon going to college in Boston he traded the trumpet in for a guitar and never looked back. He became part of the then happening" Boston music scene" and formed the J.Geils Blues Band and backed famous blues musicians coming through Boston like Buddy Guy,Junior Wells, Muddy Waters and blues guitar icon Mike Bloomfield.

When the band signed with Atlantic Records they dropped the" Blues Band" moniker and became what would become the greatest" live rock and roll" band in the world, the "J.Geils Band". The rest is part of Rock and Roll history. When the J.Geils Band broke up Jay was burned out on the music business and spent the next years restoring classic Italian sports cars. He didn't even own a guitar. His old band mate Magic Dick got Jay back into the music business when they formed the band Bluestime and made two well received Cd's for Rounder Records and played sold out shows around the country. in 1992 Jay met jazz guitarist Gerry Beaudoin and started coming to his gigs to sit in playing jazz.

The two guitarists hit it off and enjoyed playing together and Jay's third career as a jazz guitarist began. Back in the woodshed Jay returned to his first musical love classic American jazz. Gerry and Jay have since their first gigs together produced six jazz Cd's together and one DVD and have toured the USA and Canada together. Toe Tapping Jazz is his latest and is a tribute to the music Jay grew up listening to. For this special CD Jay assembled a cast of the best musicians in Boston. Please enjoy it.

Jay Geils Toe Tapping Jazz

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Roy Eldridge And The Swing Trumpets: The Essential Keynote Collection 4, CD 1, CD 2

The Essential Keynote Collection 4 CD 1
Styles: Trumpet Jazz, Swing
Year: 1987
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 74:27
Size: 172,1 MB
Art: Front

(3:17) 1. Don't Be That Way
(3:00) 2. I Want To Be Happy
(2:56) 3. Fiesta In Brass (Alternate Take)
(2:58) 4. Fiesta In Brass
(2:40) 5. St. Louis Blues (Alternate Take)
(2:40) 6. St Louis Blues
(5:02) 7. Mountain Air
(4:21) 8. Curry In A Hurry (Alternate Take 1)
(4:42) 9. Curry In A Hurry
(4:41) 10. Curry In A Hurry (Alternate Take 2)
(4:43) 11. Stardust (Alternate Take)
(4:33) 12. Stardust
(4:11) 13. Rosetta (Alternate Take 1)
(5:04) 14. Rosetta (Alternate Take 2)
(4:44) 15. Rosetta
(2:58) 16. What Is This Thing Called Love
(3:16) 17. Minor Blues
(2:48) 18. You Know It (Alternate Take)
(2:38) 19. You Know It
(3:02) 20. Lullaby Of The Leaves

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The Essential Keynote Collection 4 CD 2
Time: 65:37
Size: 152,1 MB

(2:30) 1. Lust For Licks
(3:06) 2. Just Like A Butterfly
(2:39) 3. B.H. Boogie
(3:08) 4. Twelfth Street Rag (Alternate Take)
(3:06) 5. Twelfth Street Rag
(2:33) 6. Poor John
(3:24) 7. Trumpet Interlude
(2:56) 8. Little Sir Echo
(3:01) 9. Exactly Like You
(2:41) 10. Why Do I Love You (Alternate Take)
(2:38) 11. Why Do I Love You
(3:01) 12. All My Life
(3:19) 13. Groovin' With J.C.
(3:16) 14. What's The Use?
(3:20) 15. The Girl In My Dreams
(3:02) 16. A Pocketful Of Dreams
(2:46) 17. On The Sunny Side Of The Street
(2:50) 18. Wick's Kicks
(3:06) 19. You Can Depend On Me
(3:11) 20. She Didn't Say Yes
(3:07) 21. Black Butterfly
(2:47) 22. Pocatello

Roy David Eldridge was a jazz trumpet player in the Swing era. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, resulted in him sometimes being seen as the link between Louis Armstrong-era swing music and Dizzy Gillespie-era bebop. Roy's rhythmic power to swing a band was a dynamic tradmark of the Swing Era.

Eldridge was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His nickname was Little Jazz. Eldridge played in the bands of Fletcher Henderson, Gene Krupa and Artie Shaw before making records under his own name. He also played in Benny Goodman's and Count Basie's Orchestras, and co-led a band with Coleman Hawkins.

Also known as “Little Jazz” Roy Eldridge was a fiery, energetic trumpeter who although short in stature was a larger-than-life figure in the jazz trumpet lineage. Stylistically speaking he was the bridge between the towering trumpet stylists Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. One of a significant number of jazz greats from the city of Pittsburgh, Roy’s first teacher was his alto saxophonist older brother Joe. Some of the great rhythmic drive of Eldridge’s later trumpet exploits could be traced to his beginnings on the drums, which he began playing at age six. His first professional work came at age 16 when he worked with a touring carnival, playing drums, trumpet, and tuba.

As a trumpeter Roy had come under the spell of Louis Armstrong’s irrisistable style. Among his earliest band affiliations were Oliver Muldoon, Horace Henderson, Zack Whyte, Speed Webb, and his own band, under the banner of Roy Elliott and his Palais Royal Orchestra. In 1930 he made the move to New York and headed straight to Harlem, where he gained work with a number of dance bands, among which was the Teddy Hill band. He left New York in 1934 to join the Michigan-based McKinney’s Cotton Pickers alongside such significant players as tenor man Chu Berry. Roy returned to New York to rejoin Teddy Hill in 1935, with whom he made his first recordings as a soloist in 1935. Prior to recording with Hill he toured with the Connie’s Hot Chocolates revue. After he left Hill’s band he became the lead trumpeter in Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra where his upper register abilities were highlighted. It didn’t take long for Eldridge to exert himself as a bandleader, forming his own octet in 1936 in Chicago; a band which included his brother Joe.

Eldridge recorded with the Three Deuces group, then left music for a short time to pursue radio engineering, an interesting twist considering his Chicago group’s nightly radio broadcasts. By the end of the 1930s after freelancing with such a wide array of bands Eldridge had gained notice as one of the swing bands’ most potent soloists. In 1941 he joined drummer Gene Krupa’s band. Not only did he provide trumpet fireworks for Krupa’s outfit he also sang, recording a memorable duet with the band’s female singer, Anita O’Day (NEA Jazz Master 1997) on the tune “Let Me Off Uptown” in 1941. Later, after Krupa’s band disbanded in 1943, and a period of freelancing, he toured with the Artie Shaw band in 1944. After Shaw it was time for Roy to lead his own big band, though economics forced him back to small swing groups.

In 1948 Norman Granz recruited Eldridge for his Jazz at the Philharmonic, an ideal situation for Roy since he was one of the ultimate jam session trumpeters. He toured briefly with Benny Goodman and took up residence in Paris in 1950, where he made some of his most successful recordings. He returned to New York in 1951 and continued freelancing with small bands, including work with Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, and Johnny Hodges. He made notable albums for Verve Records alongside Hawkins and continued freelancing and leading a house band at Jimmy Ryan’s club in New York. In 1980 he was felled by a stroke but that didn’t cut off his musicality. Disabled from the rigorous demands of playing the trumpet, Eldridge continued to make music as a singer and pianist until his 1989 passing.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/roy-eldridge/

The Essential Keynote Collection 4 CD 1, CD 2

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