Cheryl Bentyne - The Book of Love

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:16
Size: 113,2 MB
Art: Front

(4:31)  1. You Don't Know Me
(4:48)  2. Be My Love
(3:40)  3. Blue Moon
(3:25)  4. Lets Do It
(5:05)  5. Don't Say A Word
(4:17)  6. The Book of Love
(4:29)  7. You Taught My Heart to Sing
(4:52)  8. You Go To My Head
(4:35)  9. Cry Me A River
(5:30) 10. I'm A Fool To Want You
(2:49) 11. Goodbye
(1:11) 12. The Book of Love (Reprise)

Much like fellow West Coaster Karrin Allyson, Cheryl Bentyne has shown a certain affection for thematic recordings. Allyson released her superb Coltrane tribute, Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane, in 2001, and Bentyne answered with her own tribute to Anita O'Day, Let Me Off Uptown, in 2005. Bentyne now returns with The Book of Love, a suite of standards based on a literary motif.  The Book of Love is divided into a seven chapters covering longing, flirtation, lust, love, joy, disillusion, and finally loss. Bentyne is clothed in a variety of musical attire for this reading. The opening "You Don't Know Me uses a Ray Charles line of orchestral outerwear to accent a soulful guitar-organ-piano ensemble warmly cushioning Bentyne's firm alto. "Be My Love is more simply clad with Wayne Johnson's classical guitar and bearing the jewel of Armen Ksajikian's cello solo.  "Blue Moon wears the flapper brocade of the 1920s Jazz Age. Bentyne playfully duets with John Pizzarelli while dancing with violinist Charlie Bisharat's best Joe Venuti. "Let's Do It wears the cloth of the guitar-piano quartet, swinging in three time signatures. Bentyne displays her superb lyric control best here. Having progressed through longing and flirtation, we arrive at lust, represented by the single song "Don't Say a Word, a contemporary piano-orchestra piece written by pianist Bill Cantos. Tenor saxophonist Bob Sheppard plays a Zoot Sims-inspired ballad solo and Bentyne captures the ember of the piece gracefully.

Love (containing the original title track) and joy reveal a gem in a regimented "You go to My Head, adorned with full orchestra and a languid guitar/piano/bass/drums rhythm section. Bentyne sings straight, employing a linear melody method not characteristically used on this song. Trumpeter Chris Tedesco blows a bright two-chorus solo that is a highlight.  But it is not longing, flirtation, lust or love that make the best songs; it is disillusion and loss. "Cry Me A River is formally dressed with stings and presented by Bentyne in a sardonically prideful manner. The true grief and anger are reserved for "I'm a Fool to Want You, where Bentyne's vocal sweetness is tainted by saline tears and bitterness. She sings in the context of her guitar-piano quartet accented again by Charlie Bisharat's violin. The disc closes with a smoky, Latinesque "Goodbye before signing off with a reprise of the original title track. Bentyne continues to deliver measured, intelligently defined recordings that brighten the jazz vocal landscape.By C.Michael Bailey https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-book-of-love-cheryl-bentyne-telarc-records-review-by-c-michael-bailey.php

Personnel:  Cheryl Bentyne, Zoe Allen, John Pizzarelli, Mark Kibble, Alvin Chea: vocals;  Grant Geissman, Wayne Johnson: guitar; Charlie Bisharat: violin;  Armen Ksajikian: cello;  Bob Sheppard:tenor saxophone;  Chris Tedesco: trumpet;  Corey Allen: piano, keyboards;  Bill Cantos: piano;  Kevin Axt: bass guitar; Dave Tull: drums;  Don Alias, Scott Breadman: percussion;  The City Of Prague Symphony.

The Book of Love

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Frank Sinatra, Antônio Carlos Jobim - The Complete Reprise Recordings

Styles: Vocal, Guitar
Year: 1967
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:03
Size: 134,3 MB
Art: Front

(3:20) 1. The Girl From Ipanema
(3:32) 2. Dindi
(2:43) 3. Change Partners
(2:45) 4. Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars
(2:55) 5. Meditation (Meditação)
(2:11) 6. If You Never Come To Me
(3:18) 7. How Insensitive
(2:39) 8. I Concentrate On You
(2:36) 9. Baubles, Bangles And Beads
(2:39) 10. Once I Loved
(3:39) 11. The Song Of The Sabia
(2:35) 12. Drinking Water
(2:36) 13. Someone To Light Up My Life
(2:39) 14. Triste
(2:53) 15. This Happy Madness
(2:20) 16. One Note Samba
(2:27) 17. Don’t Ever Go Away
(3:19) 18. Wave
(3:09) 19. Off Key
(3:40) 20. Bonita

For the first time in over three decades, the Frank Sinatra/Antonio Carlos Jobim recordings are now together in The Complete Reprise Recordings, the most comprehensive compilation of the Sinatra/Jobim sessions yet. The re-mastered classics of the two late musical legends include "Dindi," "How Insensitive," "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars," and of course, "The Girl from Ipanema," a Jobim masterpiece covered by numerous colleagues such as pianist Vince Guaraldi. In addition to those, there are three new bonus tracks on this reprise that allow for a new compositional spark that perfectly compliment the jazz standards that Jobim arranges in his distinct Brazilian bossa nova style. The Complete Reprise Recordings are a must-have for any collector, and a new lifestyle for dedicated Sinatra/Jobim fans. Sinatra's voice has been heard around the world, and as it is matched flawlessly with the compositional genius of Antonio Carlos Jobim, his fame will continue to grow more than a decade after his passing. https://www.amazon.com.br/Sinatra-Jobim-Complete-Reprise-Recordings/dp/B003CR9BYE

Personnel: Frank Sinatra – vocals, Antônio Carlos Jobim – vocals, guitar

The Complete Reprise Recordings

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Jack Walrath - Forsooth!

Styles: Trumpet Jazz 
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 63:26
Size: 145,7 MB
Art: Front

(6:07)  1. A Fog Sets In Vienna
(4:41)  2. Pavlov's Cat
(8:14)  3. Espionage
(4:50)  4. Slighly After Midnight
(6:08)  5. The Resurrection Machine
(6:54)  6. Holy Smoke
(9:10)  7. High Plains Riffer
(2:58)  8. Yet, A Tear Tells Its Tale
(9:39)  9. Mescalito's Birthday
(4:41) 10. I Los My Mind in San Bernadino

An often exciting, thoughtful trumpeter and good arranger, Jack Walrath has steadily gained attention and exposure through his contributions to outstanding sessions. Walrath began playing trumpet at nine, and studied at Berklee in the mid- and late '60s while working with other students and backing up R&B vocalists. He moved to the West Coast in 1969, and co-led the bands Change with Gary Peacock, and Revival with Glenn Ferris. Walrath also toured a year with Ray Charles. Walrath relocated to New York in the early 70s, and worked with Latin bands before playing with Charles Mingus from 1974 to 1979, an association that gave him a certain amount of recognition. Walrath contributed some arrangements and orchestrations to Mingus' final recordings. In the 1980s and '90s, he led his own bands, toured Europe with Dannie Richmond and the British group Spirit Level, worked with Charlie Persip's Superband and Richard Abrams, and helped keep the music of Charles Mingus alive by playing with Mingus Dynasty. Jack Walrath has recorded as a leader for Gatemouth, Stash, SteepleChase, Red, Muse, Spotlite, Blue Note, and Mapleshade; he is still improving with age. https://itunes.apple.com/br/artist/jack-walrath/id36602597#fullText

Personnel:  Jack Walrath: tp;  Abraham Burton: ts;  George Burton: p;  Boris Kozlov: b;  Donald Edwards: ds

Forsooth!

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Mike Westbrook - Band of Bands

Styles: Contemporary Jazz
Size: 204,5 MB
Time: 89:20
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2024
Art: Front

1. Glad Day ( 2:42)
2. Blues for Terenzi (10:20)
3. Johnny Come Lately ( 5:54)
4. Yellow Dog (10:34)
5. Black Market ( 7:28)
6. Doll's House ( 7:27)
7. My Lover's Coat ( 9:04)
8. My Pale Parasol ( 6:42)
9. Illusions (Bonus Track) ( 9:40)
10. Gas, Dust, Stone (11:09)
11. What I Like ( 8:15)

No one could say that the great English composer and bandleader Mike Westbrook has settled into pipe-and-slippers mode for his late career. Although he was 87 when this was recorded and is 88 now, his latest ensemble Band of Bands is a fiercely Westbrookian outfit that shares the same passionate commitment and many of the same gifted personnel as his prolific musical past. As an arranger, he also gets an unfeasibly brassy big band sound from a smallish six piece instrumental line-up that swings like the clappers all the way.

The combination of Karen Street’s accordion with the twin alto-doubling-soprano saxes of Chris Biscoe and Pete Whyman is a masterstroke of casting. Each of them has been with the master for thirty years plus almost fifty in Biscoe’s case, evidently – but their of necessity exposed front-line is wickedly effective, coaxing a bold and gloriously bluesy sound from relatively slender means. Street is particularly essential at conjuring up a thick, horn-chorus feel that somehow creates the illusion that there’s a trumpet in the line-up hidden somewhere, and maybe a trombone too.

The rhythm team of Marcus Vergette on bass and Coach York on drums enhances the intensity of the front-line by grounding the gospelly wails and bluesy ornaments of Whyman and Biscoe with emphatic, rock solid time and driving momentum. It’s all a bit like Mingus, where the airy architecture of the written themes has to share house-room with the very earthy contributions of free-flowing and occasionally impolite-sounding soloists.

Recorded in concert last year at Ashburton Arts Centre in Devon Westbrook’s home county by engineer Matthew North and produced by Jay Auburn, the very live mix is superbly up-front and in your face. It’s also an almost indecently good value single CD that clocks in at around 80 minutes. The opening instrumental tunes set the tone, with the overture-like ‘Glad Day’ from Westbrook’s popular William Blake-related suite of half a century ago, re-recorded and regularly re-presented since then followed closely by the hard-blowing ‘Blues for Terenzi’ and a rollicking version of Billy Strayhorn’s ‘Johnny Come Lately’. All three sound absolutely on the money, with great ensemble passages and spirited individual solos, all guided by Westbrook’s steady hand on the piano-tiller.

The blues theme continues with the entry of singer Kate Westbrook on ‘Yellow Dog’, and she fronts the rest of the set from then on. It’s fair to say that Kate’s contributions divide Westbrook fans. Her unfailing intelligence and far-reaching range of reference she began her career as a painter – have greatly broadened Westbrook’s vision over the years, helping to create a genuinely international aesthetic that is very rare in British jazz. But I found her expressionist version of Friedrich Hollander’s ‘Black Market’, complete with growls and whistling, seven minutes of pure torture.

Then again, on the lovely closing number, ‘What I Like’, as she and the band exchange breezy call and response badinage, she sounds perfect, and perfectly Westbrookian. The song, which unpretentiously celebrates drink and fraternity, among many other things, is like an emblem of the composer. It’s the humanity, the unwavering left-of-centre commitment, and the sheer good fellowship of his music and personality that have helped to make Mike Westbrook the closest thing to an English version of Duke Ellington that we have. ‘Band of Bands’ certainly does enough to celebrate that. The recording was supported by the Airshaft Trust and the patrons of Band of Bands. By Phil Johnson/
https://londonjazznews.com/2024/06/21/mike-westbrook-band-of-bands/

Personnel: Mike Westbrook - piano; Kate Westbrook - voice; Chris Biscoe - alto / soprano saxophones; Peter Whyman - alto / soprano saxophones / clarinet; Karen Street - accordion; Marcus Vergette - bass; Coach York - drums

Band of Bands

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