Saturday, February 17, 2024

Lisa Lynn - Call Me Baby

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 37:41
Size: 88,1 MB
Art: Front

(3:54) 1. Don't You Feel My Leg
(3:54) 2. Sweet Dreams
(4:27) 3. You Ain't Woman Enough
(3:12) 4. Sweet Georgia Brown
(5:42) 5. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
(3:31) 6. Sure Had A Wonderful Time Last Night
(4:32) 7. At Last
(2:41) 8. Am I Blue
(2:55) 9. Wings Upon Your Horns
(2:50) 10. Oh Darling

Torch singer Lisa Lynn manages to light a few fires on her latest disc, including a couple of country and western tunes penned by another Lynn who goes by the first name of Loretta (no relation except perhaps in spirit.) I’d say Miss Lisa does a pretty good job on the C&W numbers, but my own tastes go into sharp decline a few miles west of Lafayette. Loretta Lynn is no slacker when it comes to songwriting and both these tunes, “You Ain’t Woman Enough” and “Wings Upon Your Horns” are hamonious and clever. Dave Easley’s steel guitar works well in creating the proper mood for this material.

I still prefer Lisa Lynn doing the “Red Hot Mamma” style that she does best, and her opener on this CD is a grand example of the genre. “Don’t You Feel My Leg” managed to be pretty steamy as well as wonderful fun when Danny Barker wrote it and wife Blue Lu Barker recorded it back in the 1930s. Blue Lu was still doing it in the ’80s, by which time Maria Muldaur had also latched on to the number and made it into one of her super specials. You could have heard both of them doing it at Jazz Fest some 20 years ago. Lisa’s version isn’t quite strong enough for her to claim total contemporary ownership, but she does a more than creditable job here and I’d call it the most memorable piece on the disc.

Producer and pianist Leslie Martin is a great help on that one and also provides some very solid Professor Longhair style accompaniment to the next cut, “Sweet Dreams.” There’s some other very nice things here, a pleasant version of “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans”, a very strong “At Last” which seems to be getting a great deal of local attention these days, and an interesting closer, the John Lennon / Paul McCartney song “Oh Darling.” All in all it’s a solid job and I’m glad to see “Don’t You Feel My Leg” is still making it around. You know who else recorded it in 2006 under the title, “Don’t You Get Me High”? Van Morrison! Never thought much of him when it comes to legs, though.https://www.offbeat.com/music/lisa-lynn-call-me-baby-independent/

Call Me Baby

Allan Harris - Live at Blue LLama

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:23
Size: 157,2 MB
Art: Front

( 4:38) 1. Sunny
( 6:17) 2. Jeannine
( 6:16) 3. New Day
( 6:31) 4. The Very Thought Of You
( 4:45) 5. So What?
( 6:39) 6. Black Coffee Blues
( 5:22) 7. Shimmering Deep Blue Sea
( 8:40) 8. Spain
( 7:34) 9. There She Goes
(11:36) 10. Nature Boy

I have to admit the first thing that caught my attention about this album was the fact it was recorded at one of the region’s premier venues, Ann Arbor’s Blue Llama Jazz Club. That little tidbit aside, it didn’t take long to fall in love with the recording itself, which is being released this Friday.

There are a lot of great things going on with this album, the first live recording Harris known as the “Jazz Vocal King of New York” has issued in 13 years. First, Allan Harris is every bit of an outstanding vocalist as one might believe from the moniker.

On this 10-song disc, drawn from two live performances at the Blue Llama in January, he performs classics such as “Sunny,” “The Very Thought of You,” “So What?” and “Spain” to go along with several fine originals, each performed with skillful and intriguing jazz rhythm and textures.

His band is stunning throughout, with some really hot solos by keyboardist Arcoiris Sandoval, bassist Marty Kenney, drummer Norman Edwards, Jr., and saxophonist Irwin Hall. They really cut loose on the final song, “Nature Boy,” the Eden Ahbez classic that the great Nat King Cole turned into a hit way back in 1948.

Consider this unbelievable short list of superstars who have covered “Nature Boy” since then, including Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Bobby Darin, George Benson, Peggy Lee, Celine Dion, Grace Slick, Aaron Neville, the Tony Bennett-Lady Gaga duet, and Cole’s daughter, Natalie Cole. Amazingly, Harris and his other four band members come up with an arrangement that has a cool, spicy vibe and is distinctive from past versions.

This is a great album recorded only about an hour from most of Toledo. Harris said in his liner notes there was minimal editing beyond some of the distracting audience sounds being filtered out and is “the way we performed it live with all the grit and glory.”https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/music-theater-dance/2023/07/26/

Live at Blue LLama

Béla Fleck - Rhapsody in Blue

Styles: Classical Crossover
Year: 2024
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:35
Size: 100,4 MB
Art: Front

(12:09) 1. Rhapsody in Blue(grass)
( 3:19) 2. Unidentified Piece for Banjo
(18:50) 3. Rhapsody in Blue (feat. Eric Jacobsen & Virginia Symphony Orchestra)
( 5:07) 4. Rhapsody in Blue(s)
( 4:08) 5. Rialto Ripples

It's a long way from India to Broadway, but Bela Fleck makes the journey in high style for Rhapsody in Blue. It follows the altogether exotic As We Speak (Thirty Tigers, 2023), the combination of which further a case for the banjoist/composer/bandleader as an eclectic musical explorer comparable to Pat Metheny.

Beginning in the slow-but-sure, occasionally fitful way this album's concept came together, "Rhapsody in Blue (grass)" features seemingly conventional banjo voicings alternated with George Gershwin's inimitable progressions. Those interludes with Fleck tourmates My Bluegrass Heart are segments capturing how that ensemble bonds with the banjoist in moments of alternating wit and empathy.

The slightly-modified title of "Rhapsody in Blue(s)" is only the most overt distinction of the piece from its bluegrass oriented predecessor. As with so much of Bela Fleck's work, while it is rigorously arranged, there is room for spontaneity with which the principal interacts, via effortless fluidity, with mandolinist Sam Bush. dobroist Jerry Douglas and bassist Victor Wooten (from the Flecktones band).

There's a very palpable earthy quality to distinguish this number from all its surroundings. Mixing of the instruments all across the stereo spectrum accentuates the distinctive flavor of the interplay there, so that, in a very practical way, Fleck makes Gershwin's piece his own in a variety of forms, large scale and otherwise. In extensive autobiographical liner notes filling most of the four-page insert, the artist himself describes in some detail the conception and execution of this project .

Audio clarity is also paramount on an unheralded artifact of Gershwin's genius, "Unidentified Piece for Banjo." Long-time Fleck sound guru Richard Battaglia captures the good-natured reverence the New York City native radiates in his solo turn here: the album was assigned a release a street date coinciding with the hundredth anniversary of the original piece's premiere.

As much as it's borderline uncanny to hear the mesh of musicians within the smaller combos or the uncanny action of Bela Fleck on his own, the extended centerpiece of Rhapsody In Blue, evokes a reaction hardly less startling. In a near-nineteen minute live recording of the title piece with the Nashville Symphony, the drama of the orchestration underscores the nuance of the core ensemble, while simultaneously exhibiting a subtlety all its own.

It's proof positive chemistry can ignite within units both large and small (and sometimes both at once). As a result, the truncated likes of the closing "Rialto Ripples" is virtually as absorbing as the four tracks that precede it. Piquing the curiosity about how the classic compositon sounded to begin with, it's also a reminder of how this slightly more than forty-three minutes passes with near-dizzying speed.

The relative simplicity of the aforementioned cut generates incremental momentum for the track sequencing. The end result is a singular opportunity to experience the assembly of the building blocks of an idea that struck the banjoist extraordinaire seemingly out of nowhere.

Kudos to Bela Fleck for summoning the creative wherewithal and resources to bring his epiphany to fruition: ultimately, he incorporates his lifelong affinity for the iconic composer's work with his usual unassuming flair for maximizing the spirit of the moment with others.By Doug Collette https://www.allaboutjazz.com/rhapsody-in-blue-bela-fleck

Personnel: Bela Fleck. banjo; Sierra Hull. mandolin; Sam Bush. mandolin; Jerry Douglas. multi-instrumentalist; Mark Schatz. bass; Victor Wooten. bass; Bryan Sutton. guitar; Virginia Symphony Orchestra. band / ensemble / orchestra.

Rhapsody in Blue

Brother Jack McDuff - Do It Now!

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 1967
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:45
Size: 92,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:52)  1. Snap Back Jack
(4:45)  2. Mush Melon
(5:12)  3. Summer Samba
(5:30)  4. Do It Now
(8:17)  5. Strolling Blues
(6:30)  6. Pleasant Moments
(4:36)  7. Mutt & Jeff

A marvelous bandleader and organist as well as capable arranger, "Brother" Jack McDuff has one of the funkiest, most soulful styles of all time on the Hammond B-3. His rock-solid basslines and blues-drenched solos are balanced by clever, almost pianistic melodies and interesting progressions and phrases. McDuff began as a bassist playing with Denny Zeitlin and Joe Farrell. He studied privately in Cincinnati and worked with Johnny Griffin in Chicago. He taught himself organ and piano in the mid-'50s, and began gaining attention working with Willis Jackson in the late '50s and early '60s, cutting high caliber soul-jazz dates for Prestige. McDuff made his recording debut as a leader for Prestige in 1960, playing in a studio pickup band with Jimmy Forrest. They made a pair of outstanding albums: Tough Duff and The Honeydripper. McDuff organized his own band the next year, featuring Harold Vick and drummer Joe Dukes. Things took off when McDuff hired a young guitarist named George Benson. They were among the most popular combos of the mid-'60s and made several excellent albums. McDuff's later groups at Atlantic and Cadet didn't equal the level of the Benson band, while later dates for Verve and Cadet were uneven, though generally good. McDuff experimented with electronic keyboards and fusion during the '70s, then in the '80s got back in the groove with the Muse session Cap'n Jack. While his health fluctuated throughout the '90s, McDuff released several discs on the Concord Jazz label before succumbing to heart failure on January 23, 2001, at the age of 74. ~ Ron Wynn https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jack-mcduff-mn0000118853/biography

Personnel: Brother Jack McDuff - organ, arrangements; Melvin Sparks - guitar;  Danny Turner; tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, flute; Leo Johnson - tenor saxophone, flute

Do It Now!