Melody Gardot - The Essential Melody Gardot

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2024
Time: 110:13
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 253,3 MB
Art: Front

(3:32) 1. Baby I'm A Fool
(2:50) 2. If The Stars Were Mine
(4:52) 3. C’est Magnifique
(5:05) 4. Morning Sun
(3:21) 5. Sweet Memory
(4:12) 6. Mira
(4:34) 7. Over The Rainbow
(4:21) 8. Worrisome Heart
(5:29) 9. Our Love Is Easy
(5:25) 10. Love Song
(5:42) 11. La chanson des vieux amants
(3:20) 12. Les étoiles (Live)
(5:16) 13. La Vie En Rose
(4:43) 14. First Song
(3:59) 15. This Foolish Heart Could Love You (The Paris Sessions)
(4:46) 16. Once I Was Loved
(5:06) 17. Ain't No Sunshine (Live In Paris / Edit)
(3:48) 18. Moon River
(2:43) 19. Your Heart Is As Black As Night
(3:36) 20. If I Tell You I Love You
(4:57) 21. Who Will Comfort Me
(5:31) 22. Love Me Like A River Does (Live In Paris / Edit)
(6:25) 23. Bad News (Live)
(6:24) 24. La Llorona (Live)

The Essential is a testament to Melody Gardot's enduring artistry. This collection spans 14 years of her career and includes 25 tracks that showcase the breadth of her musical abilities. Featuring selections from her six studio albums, remixes, live recordings and previously unreleased tracks, the album captures the essence of Gardot's talent. Highlights include her multilingual performances, emotive renditions of classics like Elton John's "Love Song," and live recordings that convey the raw honesty of her concerts.

Each track offers a glimpse into the diverse emotional landscapes Gardot can traverse, making The Essential a rich and compelling portrait of an artist whose music speaks for itself. Digipak 2 CD set. By Editorial Reviews https://www.amazon.com/Essential-2-CD-Melody-Gardot/dp/B0D82G1566

The Essential Melody Gardot

---

Diana Panton - Soft Winds and Roses

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2024
Time: 57:52
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 133,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:34) 1. Your Song
(3:48) 2. (They Long to Be) Close to You
(3:18) 3. Secret Heart
(3:54) 4. Sweet Happy Life
(3:46) 5. A Wish (Valentine)
(3:43) 6. How Deep Is Your Love
(3:55) 7. Pussywillows Cat-Tails
(3:37) 8. Here, There And Everywhere
(3:58) 9. You and I (Voce E Eu)
(5:13) 10. And I Love You So
(5:12) 11. Until It's Time For You To Go
(4:19) 12. Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
(2:47) 13. Snow
(5:39) 14. Both Sides Now

Diana Panton has long been an artist of quiet yet undeniable depth, uniquely transforming melodies into deeply personal narratives. On Soft Winds and Roses, she focuses on modern classics from the 1960s onward, drawing from the songbooks of Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Gordon Lightfoot, Lennon and McCartney, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell, among many others. In doing so, she creates an album that is both a journey through timeless compositions and a meditation on love's delicate arc, marked by hesitant beginnings, profound connections, and inevitable farewells.

Panton collaborates with two of Canada's most sensitive and intuitive instrumentalists: Don Thompson, whose multifaceted presence on piano, vibraphone, and bass brings nuanced grace to the album, and Reg Schwager, whose guitar lines embody understated elegance. The trio's minimalist approach allows each phrase and silence to resonate with genuine emotion.

From the opening notes of Thompson's subtle piano on Elton John's "Your Song," Panton's singular weightless delivery embodies the tentative blush of new love. In Bacharach and David's " They Long to be Close to You," she offers an invitation wrapped in silk, accentuating its Latin undercurrent with Thompson's vibraphone voicing. The Bee Gee's popular hit "How Deep is Your Love" is filled with emotive modulation beautifully enhanced by Thompson's light- fingered touch. Canada's folk troubadour Gordon Lightfoot wrote "Pussywillows, Cat-Tails," which may be one of his lesser- known songs. Panton gives a heartfelt reading made all the more so by the in-the-moment support from Schwager and Thompson.

The album's middle section finds Panton at her most affecting. Lennon & McCartney's "Here, There, and Everywhere." The number is delivered with aching sincerity, and the simplicity of her phrasing makes the lyrics glow anew. Schwager has a solo that matches his singular reputation. Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen wrote" Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye," perhaps the album's most poignant moment. Panton's voice is imbued with a hushed resignation that lingers long after the final note fades. Schwager's probing guitar captures the heartbreak of the moment.

Another internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter is Canadian Joni Mitchell. Her composition "Both Sides Now" carries the weight of wisdom earned. When Panton sings of clouds, love, and life's illusions, she does so with the kind of clarity that only a master interpreter can provide. The album is filled with quiet revelations, where the space between the words holds as much meaning as the words themselves.By Pierre Giroux
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/soft-winds-and-roses-diana-panton-self-produced

Personnel: Diana Panton - vocals; Reg Schwager - guitar; Don Thompson - bass

Soft Winds and Roses

---

Hadda Brooks - Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 1994
Time: 58:30
File: MP3 @ 128K/s
Size: 53,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:49) 1. Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere
(4:18) 2. That's My Desire
(4:37) 3. Don't Go To Strangers
(3:36) 4. Don't You Think I Ought To Know
(4:37) 5. The Man With The Horn
(3:10) 6. But Not For Me
(3:17) 7. Rain, Sometimes
(4:14) 8. Heart Of A Clown
(3:21) 9. Ol'Man River
(4:31) 10. Dream
(2:34) 11. A Foggy Day
(4:18) 12. Trust In Me
(5:00) 13. Please, Be Kind-Am I Blue
(3:55) 14. Stolen Love
(3:06) 15. All Of Me

In the mid- to late '40s, Black popular music began to mutate from swing jazz and boogie woogie into the sort of rhythm & blues that helped lay the foundation for rock & roll. Singer and pianist Hadda Brooks was one of the many figures who was significant in aiding that transition, although she's largely forgotten today. While her torch song delivery was rooted in the big-band era, her boogie woogie piano looked forward to jump blues and R&B. Ironically, the same qualities that made her briefly successful -- her elegant vocals and jazzy arrangements left her ill-equipped to compete when harder-driving forms of rhythm & blues, and then early rock & roll, began to dominate the marketplace in the early '50s.

Brooks got a recording deal through a chance meeting with jukebox operator Jules Bihari, who was looking to record some boogie woogie. The Los Angeles-based Bihari, along with his brother Joe, would become major players in early R&B with their Modern label, which issued sides by B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Jesse Belvin, and other stars. Brooks actually preferred ballads to boogie woogie, but worked up her style by listening to Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, and Meade "Lux" Lewis records. Her first record, the pounding "Swingin' the Boogie," was a sizable regional hit in 1945. Joe Bihari would later tell author Arnold Shaw that the single was instrumental in establishing the Biharis in the record business.

Brooks' first records were instrumental, but by 1946 she was singing as well. She had a fair amount of success for Modern in the late '40s, reaching the R&B Top Ten with "Out of the Blue" and her most famous song, "That's My Desire" (which was covered for a big pop hit by Frankie Laine). Her success on record led to some roles in films, most notably in a scene from In a Lonely Place, which starred Humphrey Bogart.

Brooks briefly left Modern for an unsuccessful stint with major-label London in 1950. After a similarly unrewarding return to Modern in the early '50s and a brief stay at OKeh, she largely withdrew from recording and worked the nightclub circuit. For most of the '60s, in fact, she was based in Australia, where she hosted her own TV show. Her profile was boosted in the mid-'90s by her induction into the Rhythm & Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, and by the inclusion of her recording of "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere" in the film The Crossing Guard. A new album on Point Blank, Time Was When, was released in early 1996.By Richie Unterberger
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hadda-brooks-mn0000548103#biography

Personnel: Piano, Vocals – Hadda Brooks; Bass – "Senator" Eugene Wright; Guitar – Al Viola; Trumpet – Jack Sheldon

Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere

---

The Billy Bauer Quartets - Let's Have a Session (2 LP on 1 CD)

Styles: Cool Jazz
Year: 2011
Time: 61:35
File: Flac
Size: 143,4 MB
Art: Front

(2:38) 1. Somebody Loves Me
(2:57) 2. September In The Rain
(3:06) 3. A Ghost Of A Chance
(2:27) 4. 'S Wonderful
(2:52) 5. Easy Walkin' Blues
(2:42) 6. Out Of Nowhere
(3:14) 7. These Foolish Things
(2:23) 8. (Back Home In) Indiana
(4:11) 9. It's A Blue World
(2:33) 10. Maybe I Love You Too Much
(4:05) 11. Lincoln Tunnel
(4:46) 12. Night Cruise
(3:01) 13. Too Marvellous
(3:40) 14. Lady Estelle's Dream
(3:14) 15. You'd Be So Nice
(3:46) 16. When It's Sleepy Time Down South
(3:40) 17. The Way You Look Tonight
(4:00) 18. Lullaby Of The Leaves
(2:11) 19. Moon Mist

Billy Bauer was the most celebrated guitarist in early modern jazz, winning more awards than any other on the instrument and establishing an enviable reputation as a member of the Woody Herman rhythm section. As a longtime sideman for Lennie Tristano and Lee Konitz, he made some brilliant recordings showcasing his magisterial authority with contrapuntal lines.

Despite his long career as a sideman, he did only two recording dates as a leader, both quartet sessions, compiled in this CD. In them he managed at all times to extract the greatest tenderness from his instrument. Playing with soul, swinging subtly, straight ahead or lightly as the need arose, he accomplished the rare and difficult feat of combining good jazz with accessibility.

Personnel: Billy Bauer (g), Tony Aless, Andrew Ackers (p), Arnold Fishkin, Milt Hinton (b), Don Lamond, Osie Johnson (d) Sources: Tracks #1-8, from the 10" album "Let's Have a Session" (Audio Lab AAL-5501) Tracks #9-19, from the 12" album "Billy Bauer, Plectrist" (Norgran MGN-1082) Personnel on "Let's Have a Session": Billy Bauer (guitar), Tony Aless (piano), Arnold Fishkin (bass), Don Lamond (drums). Recorded in New York City, April 1955 Personnel on "Plectrist": Billy Bauer (guitar), Andrew Ackers (piano), Milt Hinton (bass), Osie Johnson (drums). Recorded in New York City, May 1956

Let's Have a Session

---