The Crusaders - The Vocal Album

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:57
Size: 135.0 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals, Crossover jazz
Year: 1987/2012
Art: Front

[7:31] 1. Street Life
[5:24] 2. This Old World's Too Funky For Me
[5:42] 3. Better Not Look Down
[3:55] 4. Inherit The Wind
[4:10] 5. Hold On (I Feel Our Love Is Changing)
[4:31] 6. Help (I Need Somebody)
[6:24] 7. Soul Shadows
[4:47] 8. The Way It Goes
[5:01] 9. I'm So Glad I'm Standing Here Today
[4:12] 10. (No Matter How High I Get) I'll Still Be Looking Up To You
[7:16] 11. Burnin' Up The Carnival

Track 1 taken from 'Street Life' album by The Crusaders; Tracks 2 & 9 taken from 'Standing Tall' album by The Crusaders; Track 3 taken from 'Royal Jam' album by The Crusaders; Track 4 taken from 'Inherit The Wind' album by Wilton Felder; Track 5 taken from 'Midnight Believer' album by B.B. King; Track 6 taken from 'Private Dancer' by Tina Turner; Track 7 taken from 'Rhapsody & Blues' by The Crusaders; Track 8 taken from 'The Good And The Bad Times' by The Crusaders; Track 10 taken from 'Secrets' by Wilton Felder; Track 11 taken from 'Voices In The Rain' by Joe Sample.

Funny, we can't remember this many singers turning up on the Crusaders' albums, but look a little closer at the liner. For this 1987 compilation -- designed, perhaps, to fill the gap between albums by a group that no longer was a full-time act -- MCA reached for records by B.B. King, Tina Turner, Joe Sample and Wilton Felder that various Crusaders played on, as well as the band's output from Street Life through The Good and Bad Times. B.B. takes the prize for his fabulous, humorously funky, live-in-London turn on "Better Not Look Down" -- he plays guitar so sparingly, and every note is right in the pocket -- but Joe Cocker comes close, riding on a classic bumpy Crusaders groove on "This Old World's Too Funky for Me." Of course, Randy Crawford's career-making "Street Life" leads off the set, and Tina Turner (in a lugubrious dissection of the Beatles' "Help"), Bobby Womack, Alltrinna Grayson, Bill Withers, Flora Purim and Josie James also contribute with various degrees of effectiveness. Despite a few weak moments, the album works amazingly well, partly as an alternative highlights collection and partly as a sober reminder to the remaining Crusaders and their fans as to how essential drummer Stix Hooper was to their sound. ~Ruchard S.Ginell

The Vocal Album

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Sullivan Fortner - Solo Game Cd1, Cd2

Sullivan Fortner - Solo Game Cd1

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2023
Time: 46:38
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 107,5 MB
Art: Front

(3:50) 1. Don't You Worry About a Thing
(9:24) 2. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
(4:39) 3. Congolese Children
(4:29) 4. I'm All Smiles
(4:45) 5. Invitation
(6:31) 6. Once I loved
(3:17) 7. Cute
(5:01) 8. This Is New
(4:37) 9. Come Sunday

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Sullivan Fortner - Solo Game Cd2

Time: 32:32
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 75,4 MB
Art: Front

(0:15) 1. Power Mode
(5:07) 2. It's a Game
(5:28) 3. Snakes And Ladders
(1:25) 4. Hounds and Jackal
(2:04) 5. King's Table
(1:07) 6. Stag
(2:54) 7. Cross and Circle
(4:51) 8. Space Walk
(3:20) 9. Valse du petit chien
(1:56) 10. Fred Hersch, notes on Solo
(3:58) 11. Jason Moran, notes on Game

Mentored by Fred Hersch and Jason Moran, and produced by Hersch, Solo Game puts pianist Sullivan Fortner in a really good place. That is before the music even starts. Then it does start with a sly and subdued solo on Stevie Wonder's buoyant 1973 top tenner, "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing," while dropping subtle hints to the trip ahead, forged by Fortner's quixotic self.

Fortner, who has steadily grown a discography which includes his own quartet recording Aria (Impulse!, 2015), a seven year stint with Roy Hargrove, and choice sessions with Paul Simon, Cecile McLorin Salvant (who adds her ethereal magic to the "Tubular Bells" like "Snakes and Ladders"), and Melissa Aldana just to name a few. With his perfect pitch and classic stride approach, the pianist has a long and illustrious career ahead of him.

An autumnally seasoned approach to Richard Rodgers' "I Didn't Know What Time it Was" belies Fortner's age. There is a clear sense of yearning yet knowing the years reveal as they will. Hersch's production is pristine, throwing light on Fortner's clearly articulated vision a new and most assured take on things of beauty over convenience, things with eternal presence.

The pianist does what all great artists, innovators, and true creators (not Tik Tok spin offs) do; they challenge themselves and rise well above said challenge. So, Randy Weston's "Congolese Children" sounds fully conceived and of a piece, as does Antonio Carlos Jobim's luscious "Once I Loved." Fortner is so aware of those who have mastered the keys before him that, by the time we get to singularly malleable romps through Neil Hefti's bouncing "Cute" and Kurt Weill's neo-ragtime "This Is New," visions of Art Tatum and Bud Powell are dancing in our heads.

These solo ventures can get over-wrought at times think of young Keith Jarrett's one man Restoration Ruin (Vortex, 1968) but Solo Game for the greater part avoids those youthful pratfalls. Though it does have its wrought moments, such as "It's A Game" the second track on Disc Two it runs a bit too long, predictably. Here the pianist takes on a host of instruments including vibes, celeste, chime tree, Moog, Vocoder, Rain Maker, Hammond B3, and egg shaker.

Fully composed by Fortner, the brooding Shaft-like undertow "Snakes and Ladders" falls victim to, once again, its length. "Hounds and Jackals" on the other hand, is too short. "Space Walk " is. well, the new generation watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. But, given the gravity and the gravitas of Solo Game, this is really nitpicking. These two discs are beyond question worth the time it takes to get pulled into their gracious and sustainable orbit. By Mike Jurkovic Sullivan Fortner: Solo Game album review @ All About Jazz

Personnel: Sullivan Fortner: Piano (Steinway B), Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3 Organ, Vibes, Celeste, Chime Tree, Moog, Vocoder, Rain Maker, Hand Percussion, Egg Shaker, Triangle, Vocals, Hand Claps, Shakers, Canopus Bass Drum, Mongolian Gong (2); Kyle Pool: hand claps on (2-2); Cecile McLorin Salvant: vocals on (2-3).

Solo Game Cd 1, Cd 2

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Bill Doggett And His Combo - The Band With The Beat!

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop

Year: 1961

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 31:24

Size: 75,4 MB

Art: Front

(2:15)  1. Swivel

(3:02)  2. Anniversary Song

(2:44)  3. Open the Door,Richard!

(2:50)  4. Mr.Lucky

(2:52)  5. Lets Do The Continental

(2:15)  6. Pony Walk

(2:39)  7. The Waltz You Saved Me

(2:32)  8. Petite Fleur

(2:35)  9. Later Baby Later

(2:06) 10. Po'Boy

(2:37) 11. Lucy

(2:51) 12. Blues For Joe

With his instrumental hit "Honky Tonk" in February 1956, Bill Doggett (born William Ballard Doggett) created one of rock's greatest instrumental tracks. Although it generated scores of offers to perform in rock & roll clubs throughout the United States, Doggett remained tied to the jazz and organ-based R&B that he had performed since the 1930s. Continuing to record for the Cincinnati-based King label until 1960, he went on to record for Warner Brothers, Columbia, ABC-Paramount and Sue. His last session came as a member and producer of an all-star jazz/R&B group, Bluesiana Hurricane in 1995. Born on the north side of Philadelphia, Doggett struggled with poverty as a youngster. Although he initially dreamed of playing the trumpet, his family was unable to afford lessons. Persuaded by his mother (a church pianist), to try keyboards instead, he quickly mastered the instrument. Hailed as a child prodigy by his 13th birthday, he formed his first band, the Five Majors, at the age of 15. Performing with the Jimmy Gorman Band, the pit orchestra at the Nixon Grand Theater, while still in high school, Doggett assumed leadership of the group in 1938. The experience was brief, however, as Doggett sold the orchestra to Lucky Millinder, with whom he continued to work off and on for the next four years.

He made his recording debut on Millinder's tracks, "Little Old Lady From Baltimore" and "All Aboard" in 1939. Although he formed a short-lived orchestra with Benny Goodman's arranger, Jimmy Mundy, in late 1939, Doggett continued to work primarily as a sideman. Playing piano and arranging for the Ink Spots from 1942 until 1944, he went on to arrange tunes for Count Basie's band and tour and/or record with Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Ella Fitzgerald and Lionel Hampton. Replacing Wild Bill Davis in Louis Jordan's band, in 1947, he appeared on the influential tunes, "Saturday Night Fish Fry" and "Blue Light Boogie." He made his debut as an organist during June 1951 recording sessions with Ella Fitzgerald. Debuting his own organ-led combo at New York nightclub, the Baby Grand, in June 1952, Doggett recorded more than a dozen singles before striking gold with "Honky Tonk" four years later. A longtime resident of Long Island, New York, Doggett died on November 13, 1996, three days after suffering a heart attack.By Craig Harris http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bill-doggett-mn0000763554/biography

The Band With Thw Beat!

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