Showing posts with label Fred Astaire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fred Astaire. Show all posts

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Bing Crosby & Fred Astaire - Together

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2002
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:39
Size: 143,9 MB
Art: Front

(2:54)  1. Roxie
(3:20)  2. Top Billing
(3:35)  3. How Lucky Can You Get?
(4:05)  4. Spring Spring Spring
(3:12)  5. It's Easy To Remember
(2:55)  6. Change Partners
(5:09)  7. Pick Yourself Up
(2:51)  8. Mr Keyboard Man
(3:26)  9. I've A Shooting Box In Scotland
(3:28) 10. In The Cool Cool Cool Of The Evening
(3:49) 11. Bon Vivant
(2:50) 12. Sing
(3:50) 13. Dance In The The Old Fashioned Way
(3:00) 14. I Love To Dance Like They Used To Dance
(2:58) 15. A Couple Of Song And Dance Men
(2:39) 16. That's Entertainment (The Band Wagon)
(1:51) 17. Top Billing (Reprise)
(3:40) 18. Session Sound Bites - Bloopers With Bing & Fred

Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. What a Team! Crosby the Archetypal Crooner and Legendary Hitmaker who Had Worked with Everyone from Bix Beiderbecke to David Bowie and Astaire the Quintessential Dancer who Introduced More Classic Songs to the Popular Catalogue Than Crosby and Sinatra Combined. This Collection is a Reissue of the Original 1975 Album "How Lucky Can You Get!" and features Bonus Tracks. Sleeve Notes Written by Ken Barnes, the Producer of the Original Record. ~ Editorial Reviews  http://www.amazon.com/Together-Bing-Crosby/dp/B000E9X6WG

Together

Monday, June 29, 2015

Various Artists - It's De Lovely - The Authentic Cole Porter Collection

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:18
Size: 136,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:08)  1. Cole Porter - Anything Goes
(3:23)  2. Cole Porter - You're the Top
(3:13)  3. Artie Shaw and His Orchestra - Begin the Beguine
(1:55)  4. Lena Horne - From This Moment On
(6:44)  5. Sonny Rollins - You Do Something To Me
(2:27)  6. Shorty Rogers And His Giants - It's Delovely
(3:01)  7. Frank Sinatra - Night And Day
(2:50)  8. Irving Aaronson And His Commanders - Let's Misbehave
(2:44)  9. Roy Rogers - Don't Fence Me In
(2:52) 10. Dinah Shore - You'd Be so Nice to Come Home To
(3:30) 11. Coleman Hawkins - I Love Paris
(3:10) 12. Ray Noble and His Orchestra - Easy to Love
(1:59) 13. Lena Horne - Just One of Those Things
(3:17) 14. Leo Reisman & his Orchestra - What Is This Thing Called Love
(4:29) 15. Paul Desmond - I've Got You Under My Skin
(2:52) 16. Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra - I Get a Kick out of You
(3:25) 17. Leo Reisman And His Orchestra - Night and Day
(1:32) 18. Rosemary Clooney - You Do Something To Me
(2:35) 19. Esquivel and His Orchestra - Night and Day

One of the criticisms of the movie De Lovely was that Cole Porter's music was sung by pop stars who weren't quite up to the task of interpreting his tunes. Bluebird has wisely issued an alternative to the soundtrack with It's De Lovely: The Authentic Cole Porter Collection, a compilation which features renditions of Porter tunes culled form the vast RCA Victor catalog, a lot of them done by people that helped make him famous. There are some true classics here, such as Artie Shaw's Begin the Beguine and Dorsey and Sinatra's Night and Day, where the marriage of a great song and great performance produced true magic. But there are also lesser-known recordings that are a good representation of how these songs sounded when Porter first composed them, such as "Let's Misbehave" by Irving Aaronson and his Commanders, and "Easy to Love" by Ray Noble & His Orchestra (and featuring vocals by the talented but obscure Al Bowlly). The producers really had to blow the dust off of some of these performances, and many of them sound appropriately dated, but more recent tracks from Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, and Rosemary Clooney still sound fresh today.


As an added bonus, there are two tracks featuring Porter singing his own compositions. Originally released as just Porter accompanying himself on piano, Vince Giordano has spiced up the tracks with new orchestration, which is not a bad idea since the composer was neither a great singer nor a great pianist. Thus, these aren't great performances, but still manage to be oddly charming. In addition to the vocal numbers, there are straight-ahead jazz tracks from Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, and Shorty Rogers that show how many artists loved to work through the changes of Porter's songs. However, if there's one weakness in the collection, it's these tracks. While the performances are good, they just don't fit in with the rest of the selections. The pop tunes are much shorter and focus on the genius of Cole Porter's lyric writing and compositional skills, but the jazz tunes tend to focus more on the improvisers and thus dilute the purpose of the project. Still, though, Bluebird has wisely crafted a disc that's a better find than the soundtrack to the movie, filled with great performances of Porter's songs the way he wanted them done. ~ David Rickert  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/its-de-lovely-the-authentic-cole-porter-collection-various-artists-bluebird-review-by-david-rickert.php

Personnel: Cole Porter (vocals); Cole Porter; Frank Sinatra, Lew Conrad, Rosemary Clooney (vocals); Bubber Miley (trumpet); Dinah Shore, Fred Astaire, Al Bowlly, Lena Horne, Phil Saxe (vocals); Jim Hall (guitar); Paul Desmond (alto saxophone).

Monday, December 30, 2013

Fred Astaire & Oscar Peterson - Complete Norman Granz Sessions (Disc 1) And (Disc 2)

Styles: Jazz
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time:  79:22 (Disc 1)
Size: 183,0 MB (Disc 1)
Time:  76:27 (Disc 2)
Size: 175,6 MB (Disc 2)
Art: Front

Disc 1
 
(4:29)  1. Isn't this a lovely day
(2:52)  2. Puttin' on the Ritz
(4:17)  3. I used to be color blind
(3:31)  4. The Continental
(4:38)  5. Let's call the whole thing off
(3:16)  6. Change partners
(2:59)  7. 'S Wonderful
(3:28)  8. Lovely to look at
(2:57)  9. They all laughed
(5:41) 10. Cheek to cheek
(2:24) 11. Steppin' out with my baby
(2:59) 12. The way you look tonight
(2:59) 13. I've got my eye on you
(4:47) 14. Dancing in the dark
(4:49) 15. The Carioca
(2:09) 16. Nice work if I can get it
(2:29) 17. New sun in the sky
(3:03) 18. I won't dance
(2:46) 19. Fast dances
(4:02) 20. Top hat white tie and talls
(2:57) 21. No strings
(2:45) 22. I concentrate on you
(2:54) 23. I'm putting all my eggs in one basket

Disc 2

( 3:46)  1. A Fine Romance
( 5:24)  2. Night and Day
( 2:44)  3. Fascinating Rhythm
( 2:40)  4. I Love Louisa
( 2:57)  5. Slow Dances [Instrumental]
( 2:03)  6. Medium Dance [Instrumental]
( 4:24)  7. They Can't Take That Away from Me
( 3:24)  8. You're Easy to Dance With
( 2:23)  9. A Needle in a Haystack
( 3:21) 10. So Near and Yet So Far Away
( 4:02) 11. A Foggy Day
( 5:03) 12. Oh, Lady Be Good
( 4:01) 13. I'm Building Up to an Awful Letdown
( 3:39) 14. Not My Girl
( 6:35) 15. Jam Session for a Dancer [Instrumental]
(12:03) 16. The Astaire Blues [Instrumental]
( 7:52) 17. The Second Astaire Blues [Instrumental]

Perhaps more organically grounded than his earlier Hollywood recordings, Fred Astaire's December 1952 collaborations with pianist Oscar Peterson have an intimate honesty about them that some might find comforting. Of course, most of this material, written by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Arthur Schwartz, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, Johnny Mercer, and the Gershwin brothers, is tied directly to Astaire's motion-picture career. 

Included are two ad-lib tap dance inventions and three original compositions devised especially for this project by Peterson. Producer Norman Granz fortified the sessions with the Jazz at the Philharmonic All-Stars, placing trumpeter Charlie Shavers and tenor saxophonist Flip Phillips in front and surrounding the pianist with guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Alvin Stoller. You can't beat 40 tracks featuring Fred and Oscar together.  ~ arwulf arwulf    http://www.allmusic.com/album/complete-norman-granz-sessions-mw0000745219