Showing posts with label Ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ireland. Show all posts

Friday, March 30, 2018

Mary Black - Mary Black Sings Jimmy MacCarthy

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:46
Size: 102.5 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2017
Art: Front

[3:55] 1. No Frontiers
[4:12] 2. Adam At The Window
[5:03] 3. There Is No Night
[3:30] 4. Love's Last Chance
[3:59] 5. Bright Blue Rose
[3:47] 6. What We Came Here For
[3:45] 7. Wonderchild
[4:26] 8. Katie
[4:55] 9. Mystic Lipstick
[3:57] 10. Another Day
[3:10] 11. As I Leave Behind Neidín

For the last quarter-century, singer Mary Black has been a dominant presence in Irish music, both at home and abroad. She has shared stages, tv shows and recording studios with some of the most revered performers of her time. She has also played a frontline role in bringing Irish music, past and present, to an increasingly appreciative and ever-growing global audience. The San Francisco Chronicle has described her as "One of the best interpretative singers around".

At a time when less adventurous performers preferred to stick exclusively to the well-worn ballads from Ireland’s rich music heritage and the more obvious hits from contemporary writers, Mary explored the best work available from new composers and mined the rich seams they offered. That commitment to fresh material, combined with her unique interpretations of the songs she chooses, saw her release numerous albums that achieved platinum sales status and spawned countless hits. Indeed, one of Mary’s albums - No Frontiers - spent more than a year in the Irish Top 30!

To the acclaim and awards Mary has received over the years from both the public and the critics must also be added the esteem she has generated from her fellow artists. Indeed, many of them have recorded and performed live with her, including Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Joan Baez and Van Morrison, not to mention a host of Irish traditional musicians and singers. Along the way she has also recorded and performed with her siblings in The Black Family and with her highly successful sister Frances.

Coming from an intensely musical family, with her mother a fine singer and her father an entertaining fiddle player, Mary first came to the music public’s attention in the late ‘70s as a member of the group General Humbert with whom she recorded and toured. In 1983 she teamed up with guitarist/producer Declan Sinnott (later to become Christy Moore’s musical sidekick) and released her eponymously-named debut solo album. It reached No. 4 in the Irish Charts and is ranked among the best Irish albums of the early 1980's. It won her the Irish Independent Arts Award for Music, the first in a staggering sequence of awards that continue to come her way.

Mary Black Sings Jimmy MacCarthy mc
Mary Black Sings Jimmy MacCarthy zippy

Friday, March 23, 2018

Mary Coughlan - Live & Kicking

Size: 172,9 MB
Time: 74:14
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2018
Styles: Jazz, Blues, Rock, Folk
Art: Front

01. Fifteen Only (Live) (1:53)
02. Blue Surrender (Live) (4:39)
03. Friend Of Mine (Live) (3:14)
04. This Is Not A Song (Live) (4:18)
05. The Beach (Live) (6:48)
06. Invisible (Live) (4:11)
07. Man Of The World (Live) (4:41)
08. Chance Encounter (Live) (4:12)
09. Love Will Tear Us Apart (Live) (7:07)
10. Whiskey (Live) (4:43)
11. Do What You Gotta Do (Live) (3:47)
12. These Boots Are Made For Walking (Live) (4:23)
13. Whiter Shade Of Pale (Live) (5:15)
14. I'd Rather Go Blind (Live) (9:28)
15. Ride On (Live) (5:31)

The show is a celebration of Coughlan's 30+ years in the music business. Her music career has been a roller coaster - one hell of a ride - and this concert will reflect that as it features all the songs that are close to Mary's heart.

Coughlan has often been described as one of the greatest female vocalists and interpreters of songs the country has ever produced.

She proudly stands alongside the iconic giants of jazz on both sides of the Atlantic, the likes of Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf.

Mary Coughlan is the only singer these shores have produced to rival the greatest of cabaret and jazz club blues thanks to her unique voice. She is unique in blending the whisky-blurred, smoke-seared, husky notes and laconic wit of Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee and the line of deep, down and dirty blues singers back to Memphis Minnie and Bessie Smith with the sardonic, bitter-sweet defiance and despair of the Piaf.

Coughlan delivers it all in a delicious and unapologetic Irish drawl, sceptical, rueful, mournful and melting, ardent for love, all in one voice which wraps itself around Cole Porter and Jerome Kern, Elvis Presley and Joy Division.

Over 25 years and ten albums, Coughlan has made the most grown-up, uncompromising, wholly personal and utterly universal music on either side of the Atlantic about what goes on between men and women. She has taken the classic standards of jazz balladry and the recent gems of rock and Irish song-writing, shaken them and offered them up anew.

She sings in the voice of the wrong and wronged woman and she makes us think what it is men make of women and what women have to do to make do. She has just one other forebear in the pretty pallid parade of female pop artists, just one other woman whose bruised, haunted voice could find and enjoy the inconsolable longing and loss in a three minute pop song: Dusty Springfield.

Live & Kicking

Monday, March 19, 2018

Ronan Keating Sr - Cheap Trick & West End Girls

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:04
Size: 75.7 MB
Styles: Pop rock
Year: 2017
Art: Front

[3:01] 1. Take On Me
[2:57] 2. West End Girls
[3:03] 3. Just The Way You Are
[2:24] 4. Blue Monday
[3:12] 5. Tears For Fears
[2:26] 6. Copacobana
[3:09] 7. Stravinsky In The Year 2525
[2:54] 8. Down Under
[1:23] 9. The Little Drummer Girl
[3:10] 10. I Wanna Know What Love Is
[2:33] 11. Green Day
[2:47] 12. Cheap Trick

The boyz, the brainchild of music manager Louis Walsh, found their zone early, working mostly with re-treads of Seventies pop tunes. Their first release, a cover of the Detroit Spinners' Working My Way Back To You, peaked at number three on the Irish charts. The follow-up, a re-make of the Osmonds' Love Me For A Reason, topped out at number two. Fast-forward five years and the outfit's track record remains golden. Led by Ronan born on March 3, 1977, their first 14 singles broke the top three in the United Kingdom, propelling album sales in excess of 12 million and paving the way for such crossover success stories as B*Witched and The Corrs, as well as the wildly successful Westlife, a second-generation Boyzone, conceived and managed by Ronan (although he later said it was a marketing ploy) and Louis Walsh.

At the tender age of 21, Ronan married Irish model Yvonne Connelly at a secluded ceremony on the Caribbean island of Nevis in April of 1998. He is, however, an old soul. "I joined Boyzone when I was 16, and I've travelled around the world three or four times, meeting loads of different people. I feel like I've done what a lot of other people don't do until they're 30 or 40 years old. The next step for me was to marry the woman I love and who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with." A son, Jack, was born on March 15, 1999, and a daughter, named Marie in memory of the singer's late mother, who died of breast cancer, followed two years later. Their second daughter, Ali, was born in September 2005. Ronan, the youngest of four, has said that he hopes to amass an entire brood while they're both still young.

While his first child was still in nappies, Ronan was preparing to pull a Geri Halliwell and leave the boys behind. He tested the solo waters with When You Say Nothing At All, the soundtrack of Notting Hill, and when the song hit number one in the UK, Ronan set about recording his self-titled debut album. The first single, Life Is A Rollercoaster, broke sales records and propelled the album to a number one debut in July 2000. His second offering, Destination, went double platinum and hit the number one spot too, his third, Turn It On, featured a duet with US country music star LeAnn Rimes, and was followed by a greatest hits compilation in 2004.

His fourth studio album Bring You Home was released in 2006 – the year that Take That staged a spectacular comeback to the charts. Their success again paved the way for Ronan and the boys, who themselves decided to reunite in 2007. In November they played a medley of their hits on annual show Children In Need, and not long after announced a 29-date UK tour kicking off in May 2008. "We've been talking about getting back together for some time now. I can't wait to be back on the road and all the guys feel the same," said the star.

Cheap Trick & West End Girls mc
Cheap Trick & West End Girls zippy

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Maxine Linehan - Beautiful Songs

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:05
Size: 112.4 MB
Styles: Vocal
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[3:07] 1. Walk Through The World
[3:30] 2. Love Can't Happen
[2:21] 3. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
[5:30] 4. There Won't Be Trumpets/It's A Quiet Thing
[3:36] 5. I Love Paris
[4:23] 6. Hyme Á L'amour
[3:47] 7. I Think Of You
[3:39] 8. Sway
[5:20] 9. God Only Knows/What'll I Do
[4:00] 10. One
[3:52] 11. Danny Boy
[3:10] 12. End Of The World
[2:44] 13. Never Never Land

Here is an excellent album of popular songs by a strong and talented singer. Maxine Linehan is an Irish native who has adopted New York. This actress, singer, and recording artist has performed many theatrical roles including Charlotte in the solo play Brontë; A portrait of Charlotte, and the Lead Nurse in Lincoln Centre’s TONY award winning South Pacific. Her recent album "Beautiful Songs" features Maxine's wonderful and engaging interpretation of popular songs from a wide variety of genres.

One of my favorite tracks on this album is "One" which Maxine nails with her assertive style and confident vocals. I actually prefer Maxine's stylish version over the original Bono rendition. In this song she showcases her dynamic voice that is appealing and engaging. This song is very well-done with instrumentation that is balanced and interesting, and that fits Maxine's astounding performance perfectly. I highly recommend this album to anyone who loves popular music that is masterfully interpreted with skill and style. ~Russell Suereth Jr

Beautiful Songs mc
Beautiful Songs zippy

Monday, December 18, 2017

Celtic Thunder - The Show

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:38
Size: 115.9 MB
Styles: Celtic pop
Year: 2007
Art: Front

[6:20] 1. Heartland (2015 Show Version)
[3:17] 2. The Mountains Of Mourne
[3:21] 3. The Voyage
[3:34] 4. Come By The Hills
[3:40] 5. Remember Me (Recuerdame)
[3:34] 6. Desperado
[3:09] 7. Steal Away
[3:53] 8. The Island
[3:42] 9. The Old Man
[3:29] 10. Brothers In Arms
[3:20] 11. Lauren & I
[2:47] 12. Puppy Love
[3:01] 13. Cal Local Hero
[3:23] 14. Ireland's Call

A show rather than a group, Celtic Thunder was conceived by Sharon Browne and written and arranged by Phil Coulter and designed as a contemporary exploration of Celtic music, which means it falls to the pop-dance side of the spectrum more than it does to the traditional side. The show was staged, recorded, and filmed in Dublin in August of 2007 and featured five male vocalists, Damian McGinty (only 14 years old when the show was recorded), Keith Harkin, Paul Byrom, Ryan Kelly, and George Donaldson, rotating leads through a set of traditional and contemporary songs, several of them written by Coulter. A CD and DVD of the event appeared from Decca in 2008. The quintet's 2009 sophomore effort, Take Me Home, was stocked with traditional Irish and Scottish ballads peppered with a handful of pop/rock covers, while 2010's It's Entertainment relied exclusively on commercial pop hits. Celtic Thunder returned to their roots for 2011's Heritage, a meld of new and traditional material. Paul Byrom left before the album was complete, having recorded numerous tracks for the set before leaving; he was replaced by Emmet Cahill, although both men appear on the recording. Storm, a full theatrical production, arrived that same year, followed by Voyage and Voyage II in 2012 and the group's tenth album, Mythology, in 2013. Celtic Thunder vocalist George Donaldson died of a heart attack at his home in Glasgow, Scotland in March of 2014. February 2016 saw the release of Legacy, Vol. 1, which featured Colm Keegan, Keith Harkin, Ryan Kelly, Emmett O'Hanlon, and Neil Byrne reuniting with guest artist -- and Glee! star -- Damian McGinty for a live show celebrating the influence of Irish and Celtic music around the world. Legacy, Vol. 2, which featured the same lineup and focused on hits and fan favorites, arrived in August of that year. In early 2017, Celtic Thunder presented Emmet Cahill's Ireland, a collection of Irish standards sung by Cahill. Months later, the group released Inspirational. ~Steve Leggett

The Show mc
The Show zippy

Friday, April 14, 2017

Colette Cassidy & Nigel Clark - Confetti Falling In The Rain

Size: 99,4 MB
Time: 42:10
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2017
Styles: Jazz Vocals
Art: Front

01. After Hours (3:01)
02. Confetti Falling In The Rain (3:14)
03. Black And White Story (2:42)
04. Another Sleepless Night (3:18)
05. Maybe Next Time You'll Fall (2:56)
06. A Mother's Love (3:05)
07. Tales When We Were Young (2:47)
08. Dreamers, Weavers And Believers (4:11)
09. Maybe (4:22)
10. Pumpkin Moon (3:50)
11. Blue Gas Flame (3:37)
12. When You're In Love (5:02)

Colette Cassidy and Nigel Clark are a Dublin based songwriting team combining a sublime Jazz voice and virtuoso guitar playing. They have come together on this debut album with 12 wonderful original compositions. They were exploring pop tunes and re-arranging them. Out of the blue one day Nigel asked Colette had she ever written songs. Colette hadn't but she went home and a couple of days later came back with a set of songs. Nigel who was experienced in editing was impressed with the musicality of the lyrics that read like a poetry. There was very little work to be done with the lyrics and they set about composing the melody for their first song, "When you're in Love". Colette describes it like the "elves and the shoemaker". She would go home and labour endlessly at night to compile lyrics and return to Nigel with the completed work. Colette had a lot to say! Her life experiences included the ups and downs of love and romance but also included her love and devotion to her son James in a "A Mother's Love".

Confetti Falling In The Rain

Monday, February 6, 2017

East Coast JazzBand - It Might As Well Be Spring

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:26
Size: 129.2 MB
Styles: Swing, Dixieland
Year: 1997
Art: Front

[3:14] 1. Honeysuckle Rose
[4:22] 2. Indiana
[3:57] 3. Lover Come Back To Me
[4:57] 4. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write
[3:35] 5. I Can't Believe That You're In Love With
[3:14] 6. Them There Eyes
[4:50] 7. West End Blues
[3:54] 8. When The Saints Go Marching In
[4:11] 9. Baby Won't You Please
[3:48] 10. It's Only A Paper Moon
[4:20] 11. It Might As Well Be Spring
[4:58] 12. Someone To Watch Over Me
[3:02] 13. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
[3:58] 14. It Don't Mean A Thing

Described as the “lively band with cool sounds from the sunny side”, the East Coast Jazz Band perform an eclectic mix of popular jazz styles ranging from Dixieland, Ragtime and Swing to Bossa Nova and Blues. Hailing from the sunny south east, the band has been playing festivals and gigs throughout Ireland for almost twenty years. They had their inaugural performance at the world renowned Guinness Cork Jazz festival in 1998 and have been welcomed back EVERY year since. This culminated at 2013 festival when the band played 3 performances at the flagship Metropole festival club in addition to other venues. Their high energy take on jazz classics ensure they appeal to all walks of music fans. The band tours various festivals throughout Ireland, including the Kilkenny Arts Fest, Arklow Maritime Fest and the Jazz festivals at Doonbeg, Ballydehob and Bray.

It Might As Well Be Spring

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Tara O'Grady - A Celt In The Cotton Club

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:49
Size: 111.8 MB
Styles: Swing, Jazz vocals
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[4:36] 1. On Feeling Blue
[2:41] 2. You Won't Get Me There Tonight
[4:12] 3. Black Is The Color
[3:21] 4. In Belfast Tonight
[3:22] 5. Go Lassie Go
[4:12] 6. To Be Missing The Sun
[2:53] 7. Love Me Lovely Lashes
[4:17] 8. That's What The Miners Would Say
[3:31] 9. Where's My Valentine
[4:31] 10. La Dee Da
[4:56] 11. Gardenia Girl
[5:33] 12. Too Ra Loo Ra
[0:39] 13. (Hidden Track)

Awarded Irish Voice’s Most Influential Woman 2010 presented by Ireland's Prime Minister, the singer-songwriter has four CD releases, Black Irish (2010), Good Things Come to Those Who Wait (2011), A Celt in the Cotton Club (2013), and Irish Bayou (2015) and has performed at festivals from Butte, Montana to Austin, Texas's famous South By Southwest-SXSW.

"This torchy chanteuse leads one of the most badass old-time swing bands you'll ever hear. One thing that distinguishes her from the legions of come-hither, moldy fig front women is that O'Grady writes her own songs - when she's at the top of her game, which she generally seems to be, they sound like classics from the 1930s. She brings Bessie Smith into this century with lickety-split swing." ~ New York Music Daily

A Celt In The Cotton Club

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Leana Sealy - Undecided

Size: 103,9 MB
Time: 37:31
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2009
Styles: Jazz/Pop Vocals
Art: Front

01. Call The Police (3:25)
02. Cheek To Cheek (3:12)
03. So What (3:25)
04. Night In Tunesia (3:19)
05. Love For Sale (3:57)
06. No More Blues (2:14)
07. Seven Steps (2:08)
08. Scrapple From The Apple (3:13)
09. Lush Life (4:01)
10. Man Who Sold The World (5:22)
11. Uninvited (3:10)

Born in Dublin with parents from Barbados and Ireland, Luxembourg based vocalist Leana Sealy infuses jazz standards and contemporary songs with her fresh new style.

The talented singer blends scat, soul and jazz into effortless and passionate interpretations from great songbooks spanning from Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald to pop songs from James Morrison or Alanis Morissette. A classically trained saxophonist, she merges her unique phrasing and improvisation style with an exceptional and charming soulful voice to produce an acoustic and intimate sound that pays homage to the great jazz tradition whilst giving it a youthful, modern touch.

Having done numerous recordings and live performances with notably Gast Waltzing, Guy Cabay, the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and her own Leana Sealy Quintet with whom she released her debut album in 2004 (On The Street Where You Live), Sealy has just finished recording her second album to be released later this year (2009) on WPR Jazz with fellow musicians David Laborier on guitar and Rom A Heck on bass and Michel Mootz on drums.

Undecided

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Dave Lennox - Before Beyond & Blue

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 72:26
Size: 165.8 MB
Styles: Contemporary jazz
Year: 2008
Art: Front

[5:11] 1. All About Jimmy
[7:15] 2. Funkaloo
[7:59] 3. Done Lost My Way With You
[5:23] 4. Talisman
[4:48] 5. Cruisin'
[7:29] 6. Sackville St Blues
[7:46] 7. Walkdown
[6:09] 8. The Moocher
[6:12] 9. Hobo Groove
[5:05] 10. All Star Blues
[9:05] 11. Somewhere Your Light Will Always Shine

Dave Lennox received formal tuition on piano and composition at the Municipal School of Music and the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, Ireland. Walking into a local record shop, he was introduced to Jimmy McGriiff's "I got a woman" album. Jimmy and the Hammond organ made a deep impression and left a lasting legacy. After being involved with a number of bands in Dublin and writing and recording the title music for Ireland's top music show at the time, "Like Now", he moved to London, England. Once in the UK, gigs, tours, albums, radio and TV shows followed with numerous artists and bands. "I have been so privileged and lucky to play for people like Al Green, Archie Shepp, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ginger Baker, Jay Owens, Mick Abrahams, Art Wood and so many others".

Daves first CD "Lufthalle", was written and recorded in the late 1980's but sat on the shelf for some years as Dave busied himself touring and writing for TV. It was finally released by Note Music in 2006. Best described as a "Jazz Fusion" work, it contains many influences from the era in which it was written and is an entirely solo effort. The second CD "Before Beyond and Blue, sees Dave joined by guitarist Winston DeLandro, Mick Eve on tenor sax and drummer Chris Sharley attempting to recreate some of the atmosphere from the Blue Note era. Driving organ grooves and lots of swing are the main components with an overall bluesy mood.

Currently Dave performs with a number of London based bands, most notably the Lee Ryder Band, Richie Milton and the Lowdown and the Grapevine Blues Band.

Before Beyond & Blue

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Riona Sally Hartman - Big Starving Thing

Size: 80,8 MB
Time: 34:24
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2015
Styles: Jazz/Folk Vocals
Art: Front

01. Handholding (4:17)
02. Show Me (3:58)
03. Frida Kahlo's Delight (4:28)
04. Same But Better (4:39)
05. Broken Woman (1:57)
06. Kamikaze (5:44)
07. Sea Legs (3:29)
08. Daises (3:22)
09. Screamer (2:25)

Dubliner Ríona Sally Hartman is capable of using her voice like an instrument, but she is a writer too, interested in the observations and speculations of the poet.

Her finely-crafted debut album unites the musician and the songwriter, drawing water from many wells, from folk and jazz to alt pop and contemporary lieder.

Her songs unfold like a series of magic realist short stories, pungently told and peopled by loners and weirdos: a lovelorn peeping Tom; an insomniac fortune teller; a Frida Kahlo-obsessed fish.

Yet even as the subject matter challenges and perplexes, the craft of the songs draws you in – delicate vocal harmonies and sparse acoustic settings, fresh and uncliched, perhaps bearing most comparison with intrepid New York singers like Theo Bleckmann and Becca Stevens.

Big Starving Thing

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Mary Coughlan - Red Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:56
Size: 107.4 MB
Styles: Jazz-blues vocals
Year: 2002
Art: Front

[4:16] 1. Ain´t No Love In The Heart Of The City
[4:47] 2. Blue Light Boogie
[3:00] 3. You Can Leave Your Hat On
[4:41] 4. Portland
[5:47] 5. I´d Rather Go Blind
[5:49] 6. Black Coffee
[4:28] 7. Pull Up To The Bumper
[4:31] 8. At Last
[3:00] 9. She´s Got A Way With Men
[4:10] 10. One For My Baby
[2:23] 11. Strange Fruit

Irish torch singer Mary Coughlan was born in Galway in 1956. After enduring a painful adolescence that included bouts with drugs and alcohol as well as a stay in a mental hospital, she relocated to London at the age of 19, living in a hippie squat. Coughlan returned to Ireland in 1974, where a chance encounter with Dutch musician Erik Visser helped point her towards a singing career. Specializing in jazz and blues, she began slowly earning a reputation on the pub circuit, which resulted in a handful of television appearances. On this CD, she's playing mostly blues recorded in Bremen, Germany in 2001, joined by bluesmen Kester Smith, Bill Rich, Peter O'Brien, Frank Mead, Madagascar Slim, Lester Quitzau and Bill Bourne.

Red Blues

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Mary Coughlan & Erik Visser - Scars On The Calendar

Size: 102,9 MB
Time: 43:51
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2015
Styles: Jazz/Blues/Folk Vocals, Contemporary Jazz
Art: Front

01. Blood (3:25)
02. Chance Encounter (3:09)
03. This Is Not A Song (3:49)
04. Just In Time (3:12)
05. Too Soon (4:02)
06. Eoghanin (3:01)
07. In Another World (3:54)
08. What Can We Do (3:28)
09. A Girls Got To Eat (3:47)
10. I Miss You (3:45)
11. Good To Go (4:32)
12. Would You Do It All Again (3:41)

Reuniting with long-time collaborator Erik Visser ...It is the first album of new material since House Of Ill Repute (2008)
Scars On The Calendar features entirely new compositions from Coughlan, Hensey & Visser also 2 tracks from Mark Nevin (Fairground Attraction)

Mary Coughlan is an Irish jazz, blues and folk singer. She has received great critical acclaim for her emotional and heartfelt renditions. A lot has been written and a lot has been said, whispered, recounted, alleged, supposed and presumed. It’s all quite forgotten now and the songs remain the same, they remain a testament to Mary Coughlan’s seemingly timeless and endless talent. Her smoky, bluesy, boozy drawl has always been a seduction, no matter what the subject. The vocal marrying of sardonic wit, visceral rage, orgiastic between the sheets passion, the tenderest of sorrowful regrets- this is Mary’s talent. Regardless of the elements she chooses to manipulate with flawless ease, Mary’s voice has always been an unforeseen, sudden seduction. This is why she is so loved.

Throughout the over 25 years of her quite extraordinary recording career Mary has drawn heavily from her legendary heroes; Billie Holiday’s grievous, teary outpourings, the husky flirtations of Peggy Lee, Van Morrison’s soulful wails, the defiant chanteusery of Edith Piaf. All are present and correct in her delivery. Even so, Mary, with her naked honesty makes every song her own; they belong to her and nobody else. Who else could possibly present “Double Cross” or “Magdalene Laundry” or “The Ice Cream Man” with such dedication and effortless zeal?

The casual listener may know something of “Ancient Rain”, “Invisible To You” or maybe “Man Of The World”. These may well be among the greatest of Mary’s many great hits, however there is so much more to the story. How about an entire double album dedicated to her love of Billie Holiday. Billie died at 44, the age at which Mary performed songs from the album to sold-out venues and enraptured audiences at her “Lady Sings The Blues” shows staged in Dublin and London.

How about “Live In Galway”, Mary’s triumphant, if anxious, return from the brink to the stage in 1995. At the time she pleaded the venue to host the gig, having to repent for previously letting them down a little too frequently. She had become the “no-show”. Mary sold out 8 gigs in a row. Or “Live At The Basement” recorded in Sydney among an intimate audience in 2003, this is the ultimate in down and dirty jazz club rendition. It’s hard to imagine a more succinct demonstration of both the raw and refined nature of Mary’s talents.

Scars On The Calendar

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Louis Stewart, Jim Doherty - Tunes

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:17
Size: 140.3 MB
Styles: Contemporary jazz
Year: 2009/2013
Art: Front

[4:57] 1. It Could Happen To You
[6:08] 2. You Go To My Head
[4:44] 3. Broadway
[7:00] 4. I Remember You
[6:04] 5. Comme Ci, Comme Ca
[4:56] 6. This Can't Be Love
[5:43] 7. Button Up Your Overcoat
[6:29] 8. I Surrender Dear
[5:29] 9. I Wished On The Moon
[5:21] 10. What Is There To Say
[4:23] 11. My Heart Stood Still

It seemed like a good idea at the time. It was a good idea at the time. Ireland's best known jazz musicians, guitarist Louis Stewart and pianist Jim Doherty have played together since the days of the famous Irish show bands in the early 1960s and have recorded together on numerous projects, but the idea to record a duo album of the jazz standards they cherish has taken fifty years to move from seed to fruition. The simply titled Tunes also represents the debut release of Daire Winston's Beechpark Records label and was recorded mostly in single takes at Beechpark Studios, Dublin.

The twelve titles are lifted lovingly from The Great American Songbook and are played at a jaunty mid-tempo for the most part, save for "I Surrender Dear" and a gorgeous and tender interpretation of "Comme Ci Comme Ca," a tune recorded by both Frank Sinatra and Ahmad Jamal. Stylistically, there's little variation throughout the album, which is maybe understandable given the limitations of the format, but such is the natural empathy between the two and so joyful the playing that the somewhat repetitive tempos and style hardly seem to matter.

The arrangements are simple enough but subtle shifts in dynamics keep things interesting; Stewart and Doherty alternate solo intros and outros, weave in and out of unison lines and pass melodies back and forth in short bursts, besides the lengthier alternate solos that pepper each composition. On "You Go to My Head," "I Remember You" and a rhythmically dancing "I Wished on The Moon" Stewart switches to acoustic guitar. Whether plugged or unplugged, Stewart shows the sort of form that induced Downbeat to label him as "one of the instrument's world class players."

Everyone will have their favorite Stewart solo here—and there are more than a few corkers to choose from—but for emotive delivery it would be hard to beat the guitarist's solo on the Harry Barris/Gordon Clifford tune "I Surrender Dear." Doherty has been Ireland's in-house pianist for visiting musicians such as saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and singer/pianist Ray Charles for decades and brings all the years of experience to bear with his intuitive comping throughout the CD. The pianist solos beautifully as well, notably on "Button up Your Overcoat" and "What Is There to Say?." On the latter, Stewart and Doherty conjure a delightful ending to their waltzing interplay.

Tunes is a relaxed, highly enjoyable session that captures two of Ireland's great jazz musicians in fine form. Hats off to Winston for backing the recording in the first place and for delivering an appropriately historic debut for the new label. Stewart and Doherty should perhaps have made their first duo recording years ago, but then again these classy performances are the results of some fine tuning about half a century's worth, no less. ~Ian Patterson

Louis Stewart: electric and acoustic guitar; Jim Doherty: piano.

Tunes

Friday, April 17, 2015

George Shearing, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Louis Stewart - The MPS Trio Sessions (4-Disc Set)

George Shearing: George Shearing (piano); Louis Stewart (guitar); Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (bass instrument). Recording information: MPS-Studio, Villingen, Germany (06/??/1977-11/06/1980); Music Center Sound Studio, Wembley, England (06/??/1977-11/06/1980).

For those fortunate enough to hear and own the immaculately produced Germany/Black Forest based MPS recordings, distributed as imported pristine virgin vinyl LPs that were pressed in the '70s, you already know the quality of this four-CD set of George Shearing's trio. With the peerless Dane Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen and Ireland's genius guitarist Louis Stewart, they can hardly do anything wrong musically. The first three CDs have Shearing playing standards, occasionally contemporizing his repertoire on Chick Corea's "Windows" and "500 Miles High," doing NHOP's "Cowboy Santa" and "My Little Anna," and offering two of his own originals, "The Fourth Deuce" and "G & G." The final CD has the threesome accompanied by strings, arranged and conducted by the brilliant Robert Farnon, and while a bit syrupy, lend pleasant late-night contrast at the end of a long day to the proceedings. This is a welcome addition to Shearing's collections discography, and a reminder of how good, in a short time period, MPS and producer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer were. ~ Michael G. Nastos

Album: The MPS Trio Sessions (Disc 1)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:48
Size: 136.9 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2014
Art: Front

[2:49] 1. Tricotism
[4:20] 2. Windows
[5:18] 3. No Moon At All
[2:45] 4. Some Other Spring
[4:08] 5. Wait Till You See Her
[3:33] 6. Tune Up
[5:18] 7. The Party's Over
[3:39] 8. The Lamp Is Low
[5:28] 9. Lazy Afternoon
[4:49] 10. Cowboy Samba
[2:48] 11. Cheryl
[4:46] 12. Miles High
[5:28] 13. I Wished On The Moon
[4:31] 14. Old Folks

The MPS Trio Sessions (Disc 1)

Album: The MPS Trio Sessions (Disc 2)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:56
Size: 128.1 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2014

[5:12] 1. Jordu
[7:32] 2. P.S. I Love You
[3:53] 3. Everything Happens to Me
[5:39] 4. Here's That Rainy Day
[3:02] 5. Invitation
[6:10] 6. In Your Own Sweet Way
[6:13] 7. Alice in Wonderland
[7:02] 8. All This and Heaven Too
[5:14] 9. No Greater Love
[5:55] 10. Con Alma

The MPS Trio Sessions (Disc 2)

Album: The MPS Trio Sessions (Disc 3)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:52
Size: 125.6 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2014

[5:31] 1. The Fourth Deuce
[4:35] 2. The Wine of May
[6:16] 3. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
[5:11] 4. Consternation
[7:05] 5. sweet and lovely
[3:46] 6. My Little Anna
[3:58] 7. Sweet Lorraine
[2:56] 8. Louis Ann
[5:49] 9. G & G
[3:17] 10. Poinciana
[6:24] 11. This Can't Be Love

The MPS Trio Sessions (Disc 3)

Album: The MPS Trio Sessiions (Disc 4)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:17
Size: 101.4 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2014
Art: Front

[4:59] 1. Fjarlins Vingor
[4:51] 2. Last Night When We Were Young
[3:47] 3. Amaryllis
[5:08] 4. Strange Enchantment
[4:11] 5. Look at That Face
[5:14] 6. Portrait of Jennie
[5:29] 7. Song Bird
[5:41] 8. This Is All I Ask
[4:55] 9. A Nightingale Sang in Berklee Square

The MPS Trio Sessiions (Disc 4)

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Christine Tobin Band - Aililiu

Size: 128,3 MB
Time: 55:36
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2006
Styles: Jazz Vocals, Folk Jazz, Bossa Nova
Art: Front

01. Siul Arun - Circular Knotwork (10:29)
02. Lavender's Blue ( 8:33)
03. The Priest ( 4:44)
04. Aililiu Na Gamhna ( 2:26)
05. The Cargo Cafe ( 5:33)
06. Promised Land ( 5:35)
07. Those Who Love The Lord ( 4:48)
08. E So Tinha De Ser Com Voce ( 7:44)
09. Lord Gregory ( 5:39)

As anyone who has heard the folk/jazz group Lammas will know, Christine Tobin, a Dublin-born singer now resident in London, is as adept at raising gooseflesh with plaintive folk laments as she is at negotiating the hairpin bends of jazz improvisation. Leading her own band, however, she draws her material from an even wider variety of sources: Brazilian music (represented on this CD by a Jobim song impeccably performed in Portuguese), young UK jazz musicians to whose tunes she writes unusually cogent lyrics, and early influences on her style and approach such as Joni Mitchell – the latter’s ‘The Priest’ (from Ladies of the Canyon) is a highlight of the album. But Tobin is no mere musical magpie; she has clearly assimilated into her own style the music from all these apparently disparate fields. The strength, control and purity of her voice, and the telling contributions of her regular band – particularly the ever adventurous Huw Warren – ensure that the album is a satisfying artistic whole. An inspiring debut from a singer to watch. Chris Parker

Performer:
Tobin (vocals); Huw Warren (p, acc); Steve Watts (b); Roy Dodds (d), plus guests: Steve Buckley (whistle); Ben Davis (cello); John Parricelli, Phil Robson (g); Mike Pickering (d)

Aililiu

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Christine Tobin - Yell Of The Gazelle / You Draw The Line

Album: Yell Of The Gazelle
Size: 140,0 MB
Time: 61:08
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1996
Styles: Jazz Vocals
Art: Front

01. Evergreen (7:14)
02. Retrato Em Branco E Preto (5:49)
03. You Know Who I Am (5:26)
04. Happy House (5:46)
05. Cuirt Bhaile Nua (2:56)
06. A Chair In The Sky (6:50)
07. Angel Eyes (3:46)
08. The Black Shoes (5:49)
09. Behind The Wall (6:39)
10. Night (4:28)
11. The Generous Lover (6:20)


The material on this, Dublin-born singer Christine Tobin’s second album under her own name, comes from largely the same sources drawn on by her debut: Irish traditional music, jazz standards, modern folk, plus the odd original and a tune by Antonio Carlos Jobim. There are definite signs, though, of increased maturity and sophistication, both in the poise with which Tobin approaches familiar fare – her daringly accelerated version of the usually slow-burning ‘Angel Eyes’ is a particular delight – and in the intelligent adventurousness of her own writing. Like one of her chief inspirations, Joni Mitchell (whose collaboration with Charles Mingus, ‘A Chair in the Sky’, is featured here), Tobin has a talent both for writing complex but cogent melodies and supplying appropriate words and resettings for existing jazz tunes – here exemplified by a broodingly intense version of John Abercrombie’s ‘Night’, particularly well suited to her smooth, smoky voice. Her reworking, with Huw Warren, of Leonard Cohen’s ‘You Know Who I Am’, transformed from a slow waltz to a slightly sinister, dark shuffle embellished with bursts of freeish jazz, is also highly effective, and the album as a whole more than fulfils Tobin’s considerable promise. CP

Yell Of The Gazelle

Album: You Draw The Line
Size: 116,3 MB
Time: 50:48
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2003
Styles: Jazz Vocals
Art: Front

01. Tower Of Song (6:35)
02. Stone Cold (3:54)
03. Go Tell (5:00)
04. Night Talking (4:06)
05. You Draw The Line (6:06)
06. Concepta (6:04)
07. All I Really Want To Do (7:07)
08. The Intellectual Engineer (5:24)
09. Hell Hath No Fury (6:28)

Accompanied by a late-night quartet of piano, guitar, double bass and drums, Christine bends her flexible, warm voice around seven of her own compositions and songs by Leonard Cohen ("Tower Of Song") and Bob Dylan ("All I Really Want To Do").

The mood is mellow, redolent of candlelight in a smokey basement club at midnight. But her songs are anything but comfortable, titles such as "Hell Hath No Fury", "The Intellectual Engineer", "Stone Cold" and the title track revealing a turmoil within.

You Draw The Line

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The Hot Club Of Dublin - Fin Voyage

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 49:32
Size: 113.4 MB
Styles: Swing, Gypsy jazz
Year: 2009
Art: Front

[3:38] 1. Dankerr
[2:54] 2. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen
[2:27] 3. Fintan - Waltz
[1:44] 4. Chez Mathieu
[3:23] 5. Music Maestro Please
[1:59] 6. D. G. Swing
[3:24] 7. Over The Rainbow
[2:48] 8. Shine
[4:54] 9. That's All
[2:51] 10. I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight
[2:53] 11. Georgia On My Mind
[4:15] 12. New Years Day
[5:04] 13. All Of Me
[3:21] 14. Some Of These Days
[3:49] 15. Fin Voyage

The Hotclub of Dublin consists of three members of the Gilligan Family, John, Fintan and Daniel, along with Russian gypsy violin player Oleg Ponomarev. United by their passion for Hotclub and old swing, this vibrant quartet have developed and expanded on the Hotclub style, to include four part vocal harmonies with hints of eastern gypsy flavour. On their second album Fin Voyage, we find instruments not normally associated with Hotclub, such as clarinet, piano and saxophone. This album is a collection of original tunes with some old standards included. The Hotclub of Dublin is currently playing venues in Ireland and across Europe and are looking forward to playing in Russia in the New Year.

Fin Voyage

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Spike Robinson & Louis Stewart with Janusz Carmello - Three For The Road

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 58:46
Size: 134.5 MB
Styles: Saxophone jazz, Cool
Year: 1989/2008
Art: Front

[6:39] 1. They Didn't Believe Me
[6:04] 2. Dearly Beloved
[5:18] 3. If You Were Mine
[4:23] 4. Yes Sir, That's My Baby
[6:48] 5. Only A Rose
[7:49] 6. My Buddy
[7:25] 7. The Song Is You
[9:13] 8. For Heaven's Sake
[5:02] 9. They Say That Falling In Love Is Wonderful

Spike Robinson: Even in the jazz genre, which is full of musicians who show legendary devotion to their art, the story of tenor saxophonist Spike Robinson stands out. His full-time career as a musician essentially began when he was 51 years old. Pursuing his career in his adopted country of England, Robinson gained recognition as an elegant, lyrical exponent of the styles of the 1950s golden age of jazz saxophone. In the words of a writer for the All About Jazz website, "Spike Robinson was the last of a breed—an unassuming, unpretentious, gentle and amicable traveling tenor troubadour who had his share of demons but basically no other aim than to play his horn and give pleasure through a melodic gift that could never be taught."

Louis Stewart: b. 5 January 1944, Waterford, Eire. After playing guitar in a succession of Dublin-based showbands, Stewart began playing jazz in the early 60s. By the end of the decade he had achieved a substantial reputation by working with such leading jazzmen as Tubby Hayes and Benny Goodman. Throughout the 70s he continued to enhance his standing in both the UK and the USA, playing and recording with Ronnie Scott, Don Burrows, George Shearing, Peter Ind and others. He also toured Europe, attracting considerable attention everywhere he played. In the 80s and 90s his reputation grew apace, despite his preference for spending a substantial part of his time in his homeland, and he made well-received albums with Martin Taylor, Brian Dunning, and Spike Robinson. He has composed a number of pieces based on the work of James Joyce, several of which appeared on the albums Milesian Source and Joycenotes. A brilliant sound allied to a crystal-clear tone has helped to make Stewart one of the outstanding guitarists in jazz. A virtuoso technique allows him to realize fully his endless inventiveness. In 1998, Stewart received an Honory Doctorate by Trinity College, Dublin.

Recorded at BBC Kensington House, London, England on July 15, 1989.

Spike Robinson (tenor saxophone); Louis Stewart (guitar); Janusz Carmello (pocket trumpet); Dave Newton (piano); Pete Morgan (acoustic bass); Mark Taylor (drums).

Three For The Road