'Wild' Bill Davison - Just a Gigolo : Wild Bill Davision With Strings

Styles: Cornet Jazz
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 34:37
Size: 80,7 MB
Art: Front

(2:35)  1. Mandy, Make Up Your Mind
(2:58)  2. Black Butterfly
(2:23)  3. If I had You
(3:56)  4. Just a Gigolo
(2:16)  5. Blue Again
(2:39)  6. When Your Lover Has Gone
(2:39)  7. Sugar (That Sugar Baby of Mine)
(3:12)  8. Sweet and Lovely
(2:28)  9. Rockin' Chair
(2:50) 10. She's Funny That Way
(3:03) 11. (I Don't Stand) A Gost of a Chance
(3:32) 12. Wild Man Blues

One of the great Dixieland trumpeters, Wild Bill Davison had a colorful and emotional style that ranged from sarcasm to sentimentality with plenty of growls and shakes. His unexpected placement of high notes was a highlight of his solos and his strong personality put him far ahead of the competition. In the 1920s, he played with the Ohio Lucky Seven, the Chubb-Steinberg Orchestra (with whom he made his recording debut), the Seattle Harmony Kings, and Benny Meroff. After he was involved in a fatal car accident that ended the life of Frankie Teschemacher in 1932 (his auto was blindsided by a taxi), Davison spent the remainder of the 1930s in exile in Milwaukee. By 1941, he was in New York and in 1943 made some brilliant recordings for Commodore (including a classic version of "That's a Plenty") that solidified his reputation.

After a period in the Army, Davison became a fixture with Eddie Condon's bands starting in 1945, playing nightly at Condon's. In the 1950s, he was quite effective on a pair of albums with string orchestras, but most of his career was spent fronting Dixieland bands either as a leader or with Condon. Wild Bill toured Europe often from the 1960s, recorded constantly, had a colorful life filled with remarkable episodes, and was active up until his death. A very detailed 1996 biography (The Wildest One by Hal Willard) has many hilarious anecdotes and shows just how unique a life Wild Bill Davison had. By Scott Yanow
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/wild-bill-davison-mn0000254397/biography

Personnel: Bass – Frank Carroll, Jack Lesberg; Clarinet – Bob Wilber; Cornet – Wild Bill Davison; Drums – Bobby Rosengarden , Don Lamond; Guitar – Art Ryerson , Barry Galbraith; Piano – Gene Schroeder; Trombone – Cutty Cutshall

Just a Gigolo : Wild Bill Davision With Strings

---

Dave Bass - No Boundaries

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2019
Time: 72:40
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 167,1 MB
Art: Front

(5:31) 1. Lennie’s Pennies
(7:13) 2. Spy Movie End Credits
(4:40) 3. Agenbite of Inwit
(6:20) 4. If I Loved You
(6:07) 5. La Mulata Rumbera
(4:29) 6. Tango Adagio
(4:08) 7. Time of My Life
(5:24) 8. Siboney
(5:49) 9. Neither Have I Wings
(7:05) 10. Danzon #1
(5:09) 11. Swing Theory
(6:44) 12. In The Rain
(3:55) 13. Hallucinations

In 2015, Dave Bass retired from the Office of the Attorney General of California after twenty years of service and returned to his first professional love playing the piano, a career that a wrist injury forced him to abandon about thirty years ago. No Boundaries is the third release, and second for Whaling City Sound, in Bass' comeback. "My first two CDs were recorded while I was still working as a lawyer, during whatever vacation time I could amass," he explains.

Bass seems intent on proving the title of No Boundaries by opening and closing it with tunes by two of modern music's most challenging pianists. "To my mind, Lennie Tristano and Bud Powell are connected, which is why I begin and end with their compositions," the pianist explains. "Just the linear approach in the heads show how they spent a lot of time playing classical repertoire, then went their own way." The oddly shaped melody of "Lennie's Pennies," which Bass has been playing since the 1970s, illuminates the colorful rhythmic and harmonic connections between his piano, Carlos Henriquez's bass and Jerome Jennings' drums. And Bass hauls piano ass through the closing "Hallucinations" like a jackrabbit with its tail on fire, tangling and untangling complicated and crackling lines like electric lightning.

Three tracks that swap Jennings out for percussionists Carlos Caro, Mauricio Herrera and Miguel Valdes pull No Boundaries into Latin jazz, but it's no stretch. "All three are from Cuba," Bass says, "and their rhythm is so strong that you can play anything on top of them." In "Siboney" and especially "La Mulata Rumbera," Bass illustrates precisely that, driving his piano through two different active lines simultaneously, twinkling and wrinkling the upper register while his left hand stomps out rhythm with flamenco fury simply great Latin jazz piano.

Bass just keeps pushing (stylistic) walls down: A cinematic moody brooding with saxophonist Ted Nash titled "Spy Movie End Credits" because it "just sounded that way"; channeling bop pianist Elmo Hope through the thick, knotty James Joyce nod "Agenbite of Inwit"; and a gorgeous "If I Loved You" that showcases Karrin Allyson's simply breathtaking vocal from the Rodgers/Hammerstein songbook.

Multi-instrumentalist Nash contributes saxophones, clarinets, and flutes, and co-produced No Boundaries with Bass. "I don't generally produce other people's records, but I really think that Dave is an evocative composer and I believe in his vision," suggests Nash. "I love his passion. He has the enthusiasm of a college student, plus maturity, and he's hearing very personal sounds." By Chris M. Slawecki https://www.allaboutjazz.com/no-boundaries-dave-bass-whaling-city-sound

Personnel: Dave Bass - piano Ted Nash - flute, alto flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax (all tracks except 13), Karrin Allyson - vocals (tracks 4, 7) Carlos Henriquez - bass Jerome Jennings - drums (all tracks except 5, 8, 10) Carlos Caro - guiro, bongos, bell (tracks 2, 4, 5, 8, 10) Miguel Valdes - bata, conga (tracks 5, 8, 10) Mauricio Hernandez - timbales, maracas (tracks 4, 5, 8, 10)

No Boundaries

---

Karrin Allyson - A Kiss for Brazil

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 2024
Time: 46:28
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 106,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:18) 1. Flor de Lis
(5:10) 2. Month of March in Salvador (Dunas)
(4:03) 3. The Gift (Recado Bossa Nova)
(4:58) 4. O Grande Amor
(3:57) 5. Antigua
(4:57) 6. The Island
(4:57) 7. Manha de Carnaval
(4:37) 8. So Many Stars
(4:45) 9. Wave
(3:40) 10. Only Trust Your Heart

A Kiss for Brazil is Kansas-bred Grammy-nominated singer Karrin Allyson's third release to feature Brazilian music (From Paris to Rio, Concord, 1999; Imagina, Concord, 2008), and her first to showcase Brazilian musicians: Vitor Gonçalves on piano and accordion, Rafael Barata at the drums, plus the acclaimed singer-guitarist and songwriter Rosa Passos

"Month of March in Salvador (Dunas)" is easily unassuminglyn the high point. Passos cowrote "Dunas" with the poet Fernando de Oliveira for the album Festa (Velas, 1993). With the help of Barata, Allyson created an excellent new English counterpart to the lyric, which speaks of the many natural wonders of Bahía at summer's end. Passos sings the Portuguese, Allyson, the English, in a setting that swings gently around Passos' rhythmic guitar, the wispy timbres and luxurious phrasing of the two singers echoing one another as Gonçalves weaves a languid throughline with his accordion. Together, they create an ambiance that is effortlessly appealing and warmly gracious.

American jazz musicians have long been attracted to Brazilian songs, adapting them by (among other things) creating a substantial body of English lyrics that, frankly, tend to fall short of the mark as art and craft, with notable exceptions. Susannah McCorkle, who was fluent in several languages and worked as a translator, wrote sensitive and nuanced English lyrics, some of which can be heard on her Sabía album (Concord, 1990). Jobim penned powerful English translations of his own words. "Inútil Paisagem" springs to mind first, along with "Águas de Março" and "Triste." With her refreshingly lucid lyric to "Month of March in Salvador," Allyson situates herself among the exceptional few.

"The Island" is Alan and Marilyn Bergman's English version of Ivan Lins' "Começar de Novo," a story unto itself. Lins recounted the song's history in a 2014 social-media post. To encapsulate, he wrote "Começar de Novo [Beginning Again]" in 1979, with his longtime collaborator Vitor Martins. The Globo network had commissioned the piece for the telenovela Malu Mulher (1979-80). Martins' lyric speaks of starting over after a relationship has ended, summoning one's courage, contemplating lessons learned; all themes addressed in the novela. But, as Lins pointed out, there are lines between the lines.

In 1979, Brazil was still under military rule, led by President João Figueiredo, a cavalry man who a year earlier had publicly expressed a preference for the smell of horses over that of the people ("o cheirinho dos cavalos é melhor do que o cheiro do povo"). When Martins wrote about making a fresh start "without your dominion, without your spurs," he was indirectly, metaphorically addressing Figueiredo as well, whose term would drag on for another six years. Working with Martins' lyric, Lins struggled to create music that expressed the whole ball of wax, personal and political. He planned to show it to Elis Regina, but Brazilian popular singer Simone got there first (Som Livre, 1979). It boosted her career and turned out to be his most enduringly popular tune.

"Começar de Novo" has taken on a life of its own since then. In addition to its place as the theme song for Malu Mulher, it served as the soundtrack for a groundbreaking and much discussed sex scene in the series, complete with on-screen feminine orgasm. It is this ethos that the Bergmans pursued in writing "The Island," supplanting the Martins lyric with a forthrightly libidinous invitation to tryst on a fantasy island. Allyson sets the scene perfectly, singing seductively and sincerely, with Gonçalves tendering a rhapsodic piano solo over Barata's sizzling cymbals. She ends in a barely audible whisper ("we're almost there"). The performance is charming, but her chops would have allowed her to include the Portuguese lyric as well, for a deeper resonance.

Allyson did not intend for A Kiss for Brazil to be as she put it a "deep dive" into Brazilian music, but more "an act of affection" for what it has given her, and for Rosa Passos, her guest artist. Working with Passos was "a breeze," she emphasized, "like a Brazilian breeze on the beach," a warm sentiment that pervades the program. By Katchie Cartwright
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/a-kiss-for-brazil-karrin-allyson-origin-records

Performers: Karrin Allyson - vocal, piano (8,10), shakers (7); Rosa Passos - vocal (2,4), rhythm guitar (2); Vitor Gonçalves - Fender Rhodes (1,9), piano (3,4,5,6,7), accordion (2,3,7,8); Harvie S - bass; Yotam Silberstein - guitar (1-9); Rafael Barata - drums (1-9)

A Kiss for Brazil

---

Vivian Buczek & Claes Crona Trio - Dedication to My Giants

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:04
Size: 124,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:27)  1. Joyspring
(5:45)  2. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
(4:50)  3. All the Way
(3:49)  4. Whisper Not
(4:40)  5. Nica's Dream
(4:43)  6. How Do You Keep the Music Playing?
(2:57)  7. My Shining Hour
(3:25)  8. Once You Love
(4:32)  9. I Got a Woman
(4:47) 10. Didima
(3:01) 11. Stockholm Sweetning
(4:00) 12. Very Early
(4:03) 13. Four

Dedication To My Giants, is Vivian Buczek's tribute to those giants of jazz who have inspired the Swedish vocalist's own work. While Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles get a mention, Buczek's giants for are predominantly instrumentalists John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Clifford Brown included and as a result her song selection for this, her third album, avoids the most obvious vocal standards and gathers up some more unusual numbers. It's an impressive and enjoyable album. The first five songs are bona fide jazz classics, and Buczek's interpretations are worthy additions to the canon. On Brown's "Joy Spring," with lyrics by Jezra Kaye, Buczek summons up the spirit of Annie Ross. Her version of Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and Michel Legrand's "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?" is beautifully performed, with only Claes Crona's piano for company. Horace Silver's "Nica's Dream" swings gently, with Crona on electric keyboard and guest guitarist Andreas Oberg adding a warm toned solo.

"Once You Love," written by Buczek and her father Bruno, also stands out. There's another fine vocal from Buczek, and more of Crona's percussive yet graceful piano. Charles' "I Got A Woman," a vocal duet with Roger Pontare, is less successful: Pontare's voice is ideal for interpreting Charles' vocals, but Buczek's lighter, smoother, style isn't as suited to the demands of this bluesy song. Buczek sings "Very Early" by Bill Evans and lyricist Carol Hall, accompanied by Kenji Rabson's sparse but sympathetic double-bass. Her phrasing and tone are excellent. As with her version of "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?" such a stripped-down musical backing is potentially risky, but both songs show Buczek's strength as a vocalist, as well as highlighting the talents of her accompanists. Dedication To My Giants was recorded in 2009 but has not been readily available outside Sweden. Buczek establishes herself as a talented jazz singer, and a strong interpreter of ballads, with an ear for an intriguing mix of songs. Her work deserves to be known more widely.By Bruce Lindsay http://www.allaboutjazz.com/dedication-to-my-giants-vivian-buczek-crown-jewels-review-by-bruce-lindsay.php

Personnel: Vivian Buczek: vocals; Claes Crona: piano; Kenji Rabson: bass; Robert Ikiz: drums; Roger Pontare: vocals (6, 9); Andreas Öberg: guitar (5, 7, 9, 13).

Dedication to My Giants

---