The Rebecca Kilgore Trio - The Rebecca Kilgore Trio, Vol. 1

Styles: Vocal
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:52
Size: 108,3 MB
Art: Front

(4:01) 1. Dear Bix
(3:28) 2. Day In - Day Out
(3:56) 3. Somebody Just Like You
(2:58) 4. Run, Little Raindrop, Run
(3:18) 5. Azure-Té / Azure
(2:55) 6. Talking to Myself About You
(2:48) 7. Old Soft Shoe
(4:25) 8. I Wanna Get Married
(3:00) 9. Like the Brightest Star
(3:51) 10. That Sunday That Summer
(3:59) 11. The Gentleman Is a Dope
(4:38) 12. Because We're Kids
(3:29) 13. There's a Small Hotel

What do "Doxy," "Cottontail," "Dear Bix" and "I Wanna Get Married" all have in common? Clues to a party game on some lost episode of Playboy After Dark? Give up? All make an appearance on Rebecca Kilgore's "swing and have fun" release, which is just what Kilgore and her co-conspirators (including her husband, Dick Titterington, on cornet) accomplish. Eclectic is the word for this marvelous compilation, whose composers run from Rube Bloom to Richard Rodgers.. But that's good. Putting the recording on and hearing "Dear Bix" was like reliving a summer Saturday night listening to Jim Cullum's "Live from the Landing" circa 1990, no small thing. But then again, Kilgore really hit the memory traces with Nat King Cole's "That Sunday, That Summer," which beats Percy Faith and "A Summer Place" for sigh, lost youth. And you thought Cole owned that song and the evocation of the summer of 1963, but he doesn't. At least not any longer.

How many ways can you sell a familiar song? Well, take "The Gentleman is A Dope," which is more ironic than disillusioned, and bright, even in its minor key, because Kilgore takes it slightly up from its customary tempo. This is what adventuresome musicians can do with "conventional" material from the Great American Songbook. It doesn't have to be dull. Maybe you never heard the "Because We're Kids" lyrics by one Doctor Seuss. Oh, oh. Trigger warning. They are, gasp, woke "Just because you wear a wallet near your heart, You think you're twice as smart, You know that isn't fair." Oh, yeah, sung up front in even quarter notes, just for emphasis. One's faith in Dr Seuss is restored. And Kilgore's ongoing project of rescuing interesting tunes from death by neglect is clearly validated..

Who doesn't like "There's Small Hotel," generally identified with Chet Baker? Kilgore takes it down a bit, in a very matter of fact way. This is the way a slightly whimsical and experienced woman who's lived a little would take the song. Her version does not record the enthusiasm of a first assignation. Kilgore does not sound like she's reading from anyone's script other than her own. Age sometimes matters, and not just in wine and cheese. Experience shows and it only deepens, rather than diminishes art. "Doxy," "Cottontail," "Dear Bix," well, you'll have to hear the CD to solve the puzzle. Hint: pianist Randy Porter does have a great sense of humor. Tom Wakeling's time and sound are never obtrusive, but are always there. Swing and have fun, indeed. You will.~ Richard J.Salvucci https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-rebecca-kilgore-trio-vol-1-rebecca-kilgore-heavywood-records

Personnel: Rebecca Kilgore: voice / vocals; Randy Porter: piano; Tom Wakeling: bass, acoustic; Dick Titterington: cornet.

The Rebecca Kilgore Trio, Vol. 1

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Peggy Lee - Portrait of Peggy: I'm Happy To Be A Girl

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
Time: 71:11
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 165,8 MB
Art: Front

(2:11) 1. I Enjoy Being A Girl (From 'Flower Drum Song') (Feat. Jack Marshall Orchestra)
(2:24) 2. Come Dance With Me (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(2:52) 3. As You Desire Me (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(2:09) 4. You Fascinate Me So (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(2:02) 5. C'est Magnifique (From 'Can Can') (Feat. Jack Marshall Orchestra)
(4:22) 6. Remind Me (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(3:16) 7. By Myself (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(2:01) 8. Fantastico (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(2:36) 9. Pretty Eyes (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(2:25) 10. Dance Only With Me (From 'Say Darling') (Feat. Jack Marshall Orchestra)
(3:03) 11. I Want To Be Loved (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(2:26) 12. It Could Happen To You (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(1:55) 13. Moments Like This (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(2:02) 14. Love And Marriage (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(2:32) 15. I Remember You (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(2:21) 16. Ole´ (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(3:08) 17. Because I Love Him So (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(1:50) 18. Just Squeeze Me (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(1:55) 19. The Surrey With A Fringe On The Top (From 'Meet Me In St. Louis') (Feat. Jack Marshall Orchestra)
(2:57) 20. Fly Me To The Moon (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(1:43) 21. You're So Right For Me (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(2:25) 22. You Stepped Out Of A Dream (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(2:20) 23. Too Close For Comfort Now (Feat. Billy May Orchestra)
(2:43) 24. Wish You Were Here (Feat. Jack Marshall)
(1:44) 25. Together Whereever We Go (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(2:20) 26. Non Dimenticar (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(2:08) 27. I Can't Resist You (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(1:49) 28. From Now On Leave It To Me (Feat. Joe Harnell Orchestra)
(3:15) 29. The Party Is Over (From 'Bells Are Ringing') (Feat. Jack Marshall Orchestra)

More than two decades have passed since Peggy Lee sang with Benny Goodman’s swing band and made her first hit recording. Yet so inexhaustible is her talent and so intense her application to her work that, almost a generation later, she stands at the peak of her career. A product of the big-band era, she derived from that apprenticeship her ability to sing anything from jazz to blues, to sing it with a beat, and with enough volume to be heard above the band. Few vocalists have had her staying power. Peggy Lee is also a successful composer, lyricist, arranger, actress, and businesswoman. To all her careers she brings a perfectionism that leaves the stamp of professionalism on everything she touches.

Of Norwegian and Swedish ancestry, Peggy Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, a farm town on the Great Plains, on May 26, 1920. She was the seventh of eight children born to Marvin Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad, and Mrs. Egstrom, who died when the child was four years old. Encouraged by the recognition she had received for her singing with the high school glee club, the church choir, and semi-professional college bands, Norma headed for Hollywood after she graduated from high school in 1938. With her she took $18 in cash and a railroad pass she had borrowed from her father. Although she got a brief singing engagement at the Jade Room, a supper club on Hollywood Boulevard, she made little impression on the film capital, and she was reduced to working as a waitress and as a carnival spieler at a Balboa midway.

Deciding to try her luck nearer home, she found work as a singer over radio station WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota, whose manager, Ken Kennedy, christened her Peggy Lee. (To supplement her income she worked for a time as a bread slicer in a Fargo bakery.) Her prospects for a career brightened when she moved to Minneapolis, where she sang in the dining room of the Radisson Hotel, appeared on a Standard Oil radio show, and sang with Sev Olsen’s band. Miss Lee broke into the big time when she became a vocalist with Will Osborne’s band, but three months after she joined the group it broke up in St. Louis, and she got a ride to California with the manager.

It was at the Doll House in Palm Springs, California that Peggy Lee first developed the soft and "cool" style that has become her trademark. Unable to shout above the clamor of the Doll House audience, Miss Lee tried to snare its attention by lowering her voice. The softer she sang the quieter the audience became. She has never forgotten the secret, and it has given her style its distinctive combination of the delicate and the driving, the husky and the purringly seductive. One of the members of the Doll House audience was Frank Bering, the owner of Chicago’s Ambassador West Hotel, who invited her to sing in his establishment’s Buttery Room.

Benny Goodman discovered Peggy Lee’s vocalizing in the Buttery Room at a time when he was looking for a replacement for Helen Forrest. Miss Lee joined Goodman’s band in July, 1941, when the band was at the height of its popularity, and for over two years she toured the United States with the most famous swing outfit of the day, playing hotel engagements, college proms, theater dates, and radio programs.

Much of her present success Miss Lee credits to her apprenticeship with the big bands. "I learned more about music from the men I worked with in bands than I’ve learned anywhere else," she has said. "They taught me discipline and the value of rehearsing and even how to train…. Band singing taught us the importance of interplay with musicians. And we had to work close to the arrangement." In July, 1942, Peggy Lee recorded her first smash hit, "Why Don’t You Do Right?" It sold over 1,000,000 copies and made her famous.

In March, 1943, Peggy Lee married Dave Barbour, the guitarist in Goodman’s band; shortly thereafter she left the band. After her daughter, Nicki, was born in 1944, Peggy Lee and her husband worked successfully on the West Coast. In 1944 she began to record for Capitol Records, for whom she has produced a long string of hits " many of them with lyrics and music by Miss Lee and Dave Barbour. Among them are "Golden Earrings," which sold over 1,000,000 copies [sic; song not written by Lee and Barbour]; "You Was Right, Baby;" "It’s a Good Day;" "Mañana" (which sold over 2,000,000 records); "What More Can a Woman Do?;" and "I Don’t Know Enough About You." Today Peggy Lee has a top rating as a songwriter with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
More ....................https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/peggy-lee/

Portrait of Peggy: I'm Happy To Be A Girl

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Sylvie Courvoisier, Mary Halvorson - Bone Bells

Styles: Piano And Guitar Jazz
Year: 2025
Time: 42:38
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 98,9 MB
Art: Front

(6:31) 1. Bone Bells
(5:41) 2. Esmeralda
(5:08) 3. Folded Secret
(3:40) 4. Nags Head Valse
(6:17) 5. Beclouded
(4:58) 6. Silly Walk
(5:35) 7. Float Queens
(4:44) 8. Cristellina e Lontano

Given that Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson are two of the most distinctive instrumentalists in the world of jazz and improvised music, it is a particular treat to hear them together in a duo configuration, where the intimacy of the setting allows for a fuller appreciation of their virtuosity and empathetic sensibilities than is sometimes possible on their more ambitious group projects. Courvoisier's pianistic prowess can be astonishing, but on recordings like 2023's Chimaera (Intakt Records) it was her arranging and composing skills that came to the fore; the same goes for Halvorson's Cloudward (Nonesuch, 2024), in which Halvorson displayed her own evolving vision as a composer. Here, on Bone Bells, Courvoisier and Halvorson's third release together, the emphasis is squarely on the formidable mastery of their respective instruments and the power of their mutual expression, and it is a thoroughly stimulating listen from start to finish.

Unlike its 2021 predecessor, Searching for the Disappeared Hour (Pyroclastic Records), Bone Bells has no jointly improvised tracks to complement the pair's compositions; each player is credited with half of the album's eight pieces. One can hear Courvoisier's classical background peek through in the stately opening title track, built around Courvoisier's steady chordal accompaniment while Halvorson winds her beguiling path through the piece's somber theme; yet midway through, the two switch roles, with Halvorson now providing support for Courvoisier's arresting excursion, augmented with streams of cascading notes. True to form, Courvoisier spends a fair bit of time on the album utilizing prepared sounds, as on "Folded Secret," where an infectious vamp serves as the core of a piece allowing both players opportunities for sprightly explorations.

The recording generates much of its appeal by juxtaposing order with freedom. Take Halvorson's "Nags Head Valse," for instance, which alternates a bright, jaunty waltz theme with periods of almost-free improvisation and here Halvorson's own experimental instincts emerge, with a battery of quirky sounds and techniques only she can produce from her instrument. Or "Silly Walk," which is hardly silly in light of the piece's diabolically tricky unison passages that still manage to make room for the players' individual personalities to emerge, with both exerting themselves mightily amidst the thunderous collisions that ensue. And "Float Queens" carves out space for am evocative mutual reverie in the middle of a piece that otherwise barrels along formidably.

Closing with Courvoisier's fascinating "Cristellina e Lontano," the two create almost dancelike magic that is especially remarkable in light of the piece's complex and layered structure. It is an unqualified success, much like the album as a whole, which never ceases to captivate and charm. By Troy Dostert https://www.allaboutjazz.com/bone-bells-sylvie-courvoisier-and-mary-halvorson-pyroclastic-records

Personnel: Sylvie Courvoisier, Piano; Mary Halvorson, Guitar

Bone Bells

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Tom Grant and Rebecca Kilgore - Winter Warm

Styles: Vocal, Piano
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:00
Size: 115,5 MB
Art: Front

(2:29)  1. Christmas Waltz
(3:17)  2. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
(3:22)  3. Christmas Time is Here
(3:39)  4. I'll Be Home for Christmas
(4:06)  5. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
(4:49)  6. The Christmas Song
(3:11)  7. A Song for Christmas
(2:30)  8. Let it Snow
(4:50)  9. Winter Warm
(4:12) 10. Winter Wonderland
(3:30) 11. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
(4:02) 12. Sleigh Ride
(2:43) 13. Christmas Dreaming
(3:14) 14. Snowbound

Warm is a treasure from two Northwest jazz icons. Pianist Tom Grant has produced over twenty albums of chart-topping smooth jazz and singer Rebecca Kilgore, a featured regular on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion and Terry Gross’ Fresh Air (both on NPR), is an acclaimed performer of the Great American Songbook. Rebecca tours the world with her own band and has sung on over 30 records. Famed guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli has said of her “If Benny Goodman were alive today, he’d hire Becky to sing in his band.” Dick Hadlock, author and jazz host on KCSM-FM, San Mateo CA says that Rebecca “has refined her vocal gifts and stands now….as a leading interpreter of America’s classic popular songs.” She has toured with the famed pianist, humorist-composer Dave Frishberg and they have recorded together as well. He says of Rebecca “she has a great sense of swing…and a heartfelt unpretentiousness.” Tom Grant has toured the world with such jazz greats as Joe Henderson, Tony Williams and Charles Lloyd. Jeff Lorber says “Tom is a terrific improviser and writer. He plays with an inventiveness, elegance and economy. He is one of the best players on the scene today.” He has recorded on Verve Forecast, Windham Hill and many smaller labels and during the 80’s and 90’s had sales of 30-50 thousand units on various titles.

Tom Grant is a fixture on the Northwest music scene. He was a pioneer of jazz fusion and adult contemporary jazz. His longtime group, the Tom Grant Band, was one of the biggest drawing bands of the ’80s and ’90s. Tom’s numerous recordings consistently landed at the top of the New Adult Contemporary and Smooth Jazz charts, a genre Tom helped pioneer in the mid-80s. Over the years he has played with numerous jazz icons, including Jim Pepper, Woody Shaw, Tony Williams and Joe Henderson. He plays jazz piano with the harmonic sophistication and deep sense of swing that comes from more than three decades on the bandstand, and his smooth crooning voice blends perfectly with Day’s clear-cut interpretations of the classics. Grant was recognized for his lifetime of work by the Jazz Society of Oregon, being its inductee to the Hall of Fame for 2004. The material on this Holiday record reflects Rebecca’s unique gift for finding little-known song gems. The title track “Winter Warm”, is a Burt Bacharach/Hal David song whose only prior recording is by the relatively obscure 50’s artist, Gale Storm. Another great track is the singularly quirky (and jazzy) Frishberg winner, “Snowbound”. Tom and Rebecca do a charming duet on a slightly obscure Sinatra classic called “Christmas Dreaming.” Another rare beauty is “A Song for Christmas” which Rebecca sings with a tenderness that touches the soul. http://tomgrant.com/winter-warm

Winter Warm

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