Showing posts with label Elsie Bianchi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elsie Bianchi. Show all posts

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Elsie Bianchi Trio - The Sweetest Sound

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:27
Size: 104.0 MB
Styles: Swing, Modal
Year: 1965/2015
Art: Front

[3:11] 1. Teach Me Tonight
[4:02] 2. Fallin' In Love With Love
[3:06] 3. Little Bird
[3:51] 4. A Sleepin' Bee
[4:08] 5. The Shadows Of Paris
[3:33] 6. Fiddler On The Roof
[2:48] 7. The Sweetest Sound
[4:22] 8. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
[3:46] 9. Meditation
[3:50] 10. Why Did I Choose You
[3:38] 11. Little Blues
[5:07] 12. Guess Who I Saw Today

Bass – Siro Bianchi; Drums – Charly Antolini; Piano, Vocals – Elsie Bianchi.

Awarded as a pianist on the first "Amateur Jazz Festival" Zurich in 1953, Elsie Brunner also impressed the audience there on accordion. Her brothers played trumpet, saxophone and other instruments in the musical family, but above all, collected all American jazz records they could find. As early as 1946 Elsie and her siblings were invited to an international accordion competition in Paris, where they won first prizes. In those early days there were also jam sessions in Zurich, from which Elsie should constitute her first own formation.

On bass and Clarinet was Siro Bianchi, whom she later married and with whom she moved to the United States in 1958 - first as music professionals, then as farm owners. Today Elsie and Siro Bianchi-Brunner live in Royston, Georgia. For the first time in 1958 the two traveled to the U.S. and had engagements in Palm Springs and Sun Valley from spring to autumn, along with an American drummer. They were also working together with other American jazz musicians now: Elsa and Siro played with Bob Cooper and his Allstar Ensemble at a session in Hermosa Beach and were good friends of Hampton Hawes, Pete Jolly and Curtis Counce.

In 1977, Elsie and Siro participated in the "K-Swiss Sportshoe Factory" Atlanta, whose California headquarters were managed by Elsie`s two brothers. The trio worked at the Fleur De Lis until the tennis shoe factory was built. Then they withdrew from the music business. In 1987 K-Swiss was sold. They bought a first ranch in Marysville, Georgia. In 1995, they found their dream farm in Royston, where they live till today.

The Sweetest Sound

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Elsie Bianchi Trio - Atlantis Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 34:30
Size: 79.0 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 1962/2004
Art: Front

[3:20] 1. No Moon At All
[2:45] 2. Baron Lazar
[3:18] 3. Imagination
[1:52] 4. After You've Gone
[6:00] 5. Stormy Weather
[2:47] 6. Lazy River
[2:30] 7. Stompin At The Savoy
[4:07] 8. Canadian Sunset
[2:18] 9. Atlantis Blues
[3:08] 10. I Got It Bad
[2:21] 11. You're Driving Me Crazy

Elsa Bianchi: Piano, Accordion, Vocals; Siro Bianchi: Bass, Clarinet; Hans-Joerg Schmidt: Drums; Fritz Staehli: Drums. Recorded at Atlantis Basel, June 1962, previously unreleased, mastered by Jury Lutz.

... recently, except for the rumour of an odd 10inch Lp pressing from some legendary recordings made in 1962 at the Atlantis Club near the Klosterberg of Basel in Switzerland. The featured tracks present their music at an earlier stage - a more bluesy vain, swinging in between songs of the Amerian Songbook made famous by the likes of Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, The Mills Bothers or Bessie Smith, aswell as their own instrumentals "Atlantis Blues" and "Baron Lazar". The latter resurfaced in 1964 on one of the first MPS compilations "Piano x 4", in a polished version without Siro`s clarinet as the lead instrument.

All tracks were never released for the public and the untraceable 10inch record soon had an international reputation for being one of the most wanted collectors "phantoms" instead. It was reported to be a jazz club promotional item with an estimated fifty to one hundred pressings only, priced at thousands of dollars in its original format as one of the rarest European jazz recordings on vinyl. Producing a digital remaster from the two copies that could be traced within recent years, we added further tracks from another Atlantis session, found on a second completely vanished promotional item by the trio. It came in form of an EP on the mysterious label "Swiss Records" in the same year, with an estimated one hundred copies only.

You may obtain these rare gems here 42 years after their original pressing in a remastered longplay format, together with unique artwork including unreleased photos from the vaults and archives of the artists. But finally, what`s most important after all these years: A big thank you to Elsa and Siro Bianchi.

Atlantis Blues

Monday, October 26, 2015

Elsie Bianchi Trio - The Sweetest Sound

Size: 106,3 MB
Time: 45:26
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1965/2015
Styles: Jazz: Swing, Cool Jazz, Vocals
Art: Front

01. Teach Me Tonight (3:11)
02. Fallin' In Love With Love (4:02)
03. Little Bird (3:06)
04. A Sleepin' Bee (3:51)
05. The Shadows Of Paris (4:08)
06. Fiddler On The Roof (3:33)
07. The Sweetest Sound (2:48)
08. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most (4:22)
09. Meditation (3:46)
10. Why Did I Choose You (3:50)
11. Little Blues (3:38)
12. Guess Who I Saw Today (5:07)

Swiss singer-pianist Elsie Bianchi may not be a household name, but from the early 1950s through the 60’s she was one of the best jazz singers in Europe. Her sensuous voice and hip phrasing has shades of Anita O’Day. Elsie first gained fame through her appearances at the Zurich Jazz Festival in the early 50’s. Elsie and husband bassist Siro Bianchi toured the USA in 1958-59, playing at the legendary Lighthouse jazz club south of LA. She and Siro then began playing winters in Europe and summers in America before permanently moving to the States. Siro and MPS ‘house drummer’ Charly Antolini make it a tight trio. The standards Teach Me Tonight and Falling in Love show off Bianchi’s sophisticated voice and relaxed piano play, along with some impressive scatting. Elsie sticks to piano on the up tempo Latin Little Bird. There’s the comfortable swing of A Sleepin’ Bee, Mancini’s atmospheric waltz the Shadows of Paris, a jazzy instrumental on Fiddler On The Roof, and the title tune, an up-tempo piece of hopeful love. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most is an evocative instrumental ballad. Jobim’s Meditation brings on the bossa groove, and Elsie croons the heart-felt ballad Why Did I Choose You. Little Blues features the composer on piano and the trio in a shuffle groove. The ballad Guess Who I Saw Today tells the story of love betrayed.

The Sweetest Sound