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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