Joe Diorio, Steve Bagby - Straight Ahead to the Light

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:41
Size: 81,9 MB
Art: Front

(10:27)  1. Straight Ahead to the Light
( 8:05)  2. Gong
(10:13)  3. India
( 6:55)  4. Bagbito

This is the third in a series of five CD reissues from guitar legend Joe Diorio's classic Spitball Records recordings from the mid-70s. Originally released in 1976 on Spitball Records, Straight Ahead to the Light was recorded on May 23, 1976 at The First Unitarian Church in Miami, Florida and features Joe Diorio on guitar and Steve Bagby on percussion. Now available for the first time on CD including the original album cover artwork from the LP release. The album contains four original compositions by Joe Diorio and Steve Bagby which include “Straight Ahead to the Light", clocking in at over ten minutes long, “Gong", “India", another extended song that lasts for over ten minutes and “Bagbito" which features an extended percussion/drum solo by Steve Bagby. 24-bit digital remastering by Paul G. Kohler at Art of Life Studios in Charleston, South Carolina in March 2018. Art of Life Records is pleased to make this long out-of-print recording available to the world once again. Stay tuned for more Joe Diorio CD reissues from Art of Life Records. https://news.allaboutjazz.com/joe-diorio-and-steve-bagbys-straight-ahead-to-the-light-reissued-on-cd-wav-flac-and-mp3-from-art-of-life-records.ph

Personnel:  Joe Diorio - guitar; Steve Bagby - percussion

Straight Ahead to the Light

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Joe Diorio & Joe Giglio - Rainbow Shards

Styles: Guitar Jazz
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:58
Size: 156,1 MB
Art: Front

(12:25)  1. Wine & Roses
(16:38)  2. Body & Soul
(11:29)  3. You Or No 1
(14:32)  4. Black Orpheus
(12:52)  5. O O N (Out of Nowhere)

A steadfast champion of jazz guitar duos  a longstanding tradition that goes back to the first Eddie Lang/Lonnie Johnson collaborations from the late ‘20s (“Guitar Blues,” “Handful of Riffs”) and has continued through the decades with such modern pairings as John Scofield & John Abercrombie (1982’s Solar), George Van Eps & Howard Alden (1992’s Hand-Crafted Swing) and Jim Hall & Bill Frisell (2009’s Hemispheres) Joe Giglio organized a regular Friday night hang for his fellow plectrists at 107 West, an intimate restaurant in his Upper West Side neighborhood that served as the primary scene for guitar aficionados in New York City for eight years. During that period, Giglio played duos with a whole fraternity of accomplished, swinging and like-minded players as Jack Wilkins, Howard Alden, Paul Bollenback, Peter Bernstein, Carl Berry and others. On one memorable occasion in May 2004, jazz guitar master Joe Diorio made it down to 107 West to play duets with Giglio, and the two Joes established rare chemistry through the course of their harmonically and rhythmically sophisticated extrapolations on familiar jazz standards. That one-time performance, documented here on Rainbow Shards, is underscored by uncanny finesse on ballads and bristling with an exuberant, uninhibited swing feel on the up tempo numbers. It stands with some of the finest examples in the guitar duo genre and also represents one the last recordings that the great Joe Diorio made before being sidelined in 2005 by a stroke that robbed him of full use of his left hand. While the 73-year-old guitar great has been on the mend, going through a rigorous physical rehab regimen, ever-so-slowly making progress on the road to recovery, Rainbow Shards captures Diorio in full command of his powers, swinging and burning up the fretboard with a beautiful balance of technical mastery and sheer abandon. And Giglio rises to the occasion with some inspired six-string work of his own. The two Joes open with a jaunty, loosely swinging rendition of Henry Mancini’s melancholy “Days of Wine and Roses” with Diorio’s warm-toned, velvety-smooth lines flowing on top of Giglio’s insistent comping. They switch roles midway through as Diorio supplies dreamy chord voicings behind Giglio’s linear burn. When Diorio returns for his second solo through the last two-minutes of the piece, he blows over the barline with a sense of ease and melodic ingenuity until the piece reaches its sublime conclusion.  The oft-recorded jazz standard “Body and Soul” is handled here as a gently insinuating bossa nova, with Giglio’s rhythmic chording underscoring Diorio’s elegant melody line. By the 4-minute mark the two begin opening up the piece and at the 6-minute mark, as Giglio drops out, Diorio takes off on a daring right-brain solo extrapolation on the theme.

Giglio returns at the 7:45 mark with a brief unaccompanied statement of his own before Diorio begins comping lightly beneath him with a myriad of beautiful chord voicings through the next four-plus minutes of Giglio’s solo. They return to the head and take it out just as they had begun, in subtle samba fashion with Diorio blowing over the changes in his inimitable style, culminating in a short burst of furious speed licks at the tag before a sublime finish.  Sammy Cahn’s “You Or No One” is taken at a brisk clip, with Giglio carrying the melody first over Diorio’s lush chord work before opening up with a fleet-fingered solo. They switch roles at 4:40 and Diorio begins his solo with a bit of restraint before erupting with a fusillade of notes by the 5:30 mark. They interpret Luiz Bonfa’s melancholy bossa nova “Black Opheus” with tenderness and a touch of reverence for the original. Diorio’s unaccompanied intro simultaneously states and extrapolates on the theme, drawing on his vast harmonic language. Giglio enters at the 2:45 mark and they head into some intricate counterpoint playing that runs through the 5-minute mark before Diorio commences some freewheeling fretboard excursions. At the 7-minute mark, Giglio begins exploring in daring, unaccompanied fashion, alternating between rich chord voicings and deftly-spun single note lines. Diorio comps gently behind him at the 9-minute mark and returns to his opening role of playing the melody over Giglio’s changes through the remainder of the piece. Their expansive treatment is book-ended with Diorio’s two-minutes of gently introspective unaccompanied guitar that ends in a hush. The two Joes close out this telepathic session with an inventive take on “Out of Nowhere,” a romantic nugget introduced in 1931 by a young crooner named Bing Crosby. Their two-guitar version opens as a kind of fugue, with one guitarist shadowing the other, before they settle into the familiar form on this jazz standard, swinging the changes to a rousing climax while interweaving complex lines along the way. Diorio feeds Giglio with sly, shifting chord voicings before launching into an adventurous, unaccompanied solo of his own that he gradually develops to some impressionistic heights of six-string fantasia. And they return to the subdued fugue for the outro, putting a pretty bow on this gift to all guitar fans. Says Giglio of his intimate encounter with the revered guitarist: "It is an honor to know and make music with Joe Diorio. He has been an inspiration to me since I started to play jazz and his influence is more profound with each passing day. Joe has helped me to reach a deeper level in my expression, both through his playing and his deep insights into life. He has reached a zenith through deep inquiry and love." Those qualities come into play in a big way on this highly intuitive session that has both players pushing the harmonic envelope and nonchalantly flashing technical virtuosity on the fretboard while remaining wide open and strictly in the moment. https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/jdioriojgiglio

Rainbow Shards

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Eddie Harris - Exodus to Jazz

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1961
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:45
Size: 91,6 MB
Art: Front

(6:43)  1. Exodus
(3:43)  2. Alicia
(2:53)  3. Gone Home
(5:34)  4. A.T.C.
(2:48)  5. A.M. Blues
(3:24)  6. Little Girl Blue
(5:12)  7. Velocity
(4:34)  8. W.P.
(2:02)  9. Exodus (Single Version)
(2:48) 10. Alicia (Single Version)

One of the biggest hit jazz LPs of the post-rock & roll era, Eddie Harris' Exodus to Jazz seemed to come completely out of left field. It was the debut album by a previously unknown artist from an under-publicized scene in Chicago, and it was released on the primarily R&B-oriented Vee Jay label, which had originally signed Harris as a pianist, not a tenor saxophonist. The impetus for its breakthrough was equally unlikely; Harris adapted Ernest Gold's stately, somber theme from the Biblical film Exodus which had been covered for an easy listening hit by Ferrante & Teicher and made it into a laid-back jazz tune. Edited down to 45-rpm length, it became a smash, reaching the pop Top 40 and pushing the album to the upper reaches of the charts a nearly unprecedented feat for instrumental jazz in 1961. 

Its stunning popularity sent jazz critics into a tizzy after all, if it was that accessible to a mass audience, there just had to be something wrong with it, didn't there? In hindsight, the answer is no. Exodus to Jazz is full of concise, easy-swinging grooves that maintain the appealing quality of the strikingly reimagined title track (particularly Harris' four originals). Far removed from his later, funkier days, Harris plays a cool-toned tenor who owes his biggest debt to Stan Getz's bop recordings, though there are touches of soul-jazz as well. He's no slouch technically, either; he plays so far and so sweetly in the upper register of his horn that some still mistakenly believe he was using an alto sax on parts of the record. Exodus to Jazz paved the way for numerous other crossover successes during the '60s (many in the soul-jazz realm), and while that may not be a credibility-boosting trend to start, the music still speaks for itself. ~ Steve Huey  http://www.allmusic.com/album/exodus-to-jazz-mw0000117010

Personnel: Eddie Harris (tenor saxophone); Joe Diorio (guitar); Willie Pickens (piano); Harold Jones (drums).

Exodus to Jazz

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David Becker & Joe Diorio - The Color Of Sound

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:04
Size: 128.3 MB
Styles: Contemporary jazz, Guitar jazz
Year: 2010
Art: Front

[7:14] 1. Blues For Brother Bru
[5:38] 2. Beautiful Love
[4:08] 3. Waltz For Lavignia
[1:54] 4. Dance Of The Inner Valley
[6:59] 5. All The Things You Are
[2:41] 6. How Old Are You
[4:25] 7. The Color Of Sound
[2:42] 8. Reflections Of India
[9:10] 9. Stella By Starlight
[2:02] 10. How Old Do I Look
[6:44] 11. Summertime
[2:22] 12. In A Minute

David Becker's previous release, Euroland, was a multitracked affair where Becker himself played all the instruments to produce a layered sound that evoked different images through music.

On The Color of Sound, Becker plays duos with his mentor, Joe Diorio. For the most part, they both play standard electric guitar, but Becker throws in some synthesizer, a "tabla" guitar (a guitar with a playing card woven between the strings, plus an acoustic pickup to produce a pitched percussive sound), and a nine-string acoustic guitar (an open-tuned acoustic twelve-string with only nine strings). The two players perform live on the recording, except for some overdubbing of strings on "The Color of Sound" and "In A Minute," the sitar sound on "Reflections Of India," and brushes by Bruce Becker on the intro "Blues For Brother Bru."

In terms of actual guitar sound, the two players are similar, using "hot" pickups with a bit of drive and reverb that allows one to hear the pick touch the string. Stylistically Becker and Diorio are clearly related, as expected, and their music has an abstract quality marked by unique chord voicings and lines that are often miles away from standard boppish guitar. In the arrangements, Becker and Diorio have taken great care to maintain a distance from each other, so as to always present a clear picture to the listener. They stay out of each other's way and use different parts of the guitar's range. Also, Becker keeps to the left channel and Diorio to the right.

The tracks include a very nice mix of standards, Becker compositions, and extemporaneous compositions—a bit of something for everyone. On the standards, the emphasis is many times on the give and take of ideas, rather than merely trading places soloing and comping, thus providing much fascinating listening. The soloing does allow the listener to get a glimpse into each player's mind as they constantly flirt with the melody as well as the changes. Becker states that the compositions he brought were written with Diorio in mind. "The Color of Sound" is a beautiful ballad, full of emotion, while "Waltz for Lavignia" has fun with the 3/4 time as it dances and swings.

On the five fully improvised tracks the degree of musical ESP can be heard, along with the most "modern" playing and stretching out. On these tracks, Becker and Diorio embark on a number of musical expeditions into different colors of sound and manage to create coherent, albeit abstract music that is a joy to listen to. The Color of Sound is a very fine record that should appeal to more than just guitarists. Becker and Diorio clearly had fun in the studio, and the fact that Becker could finally record with his mentor inspired him greatly. If you don't know these players, this release might make you look into their catalogues. ~Budd Kopman

David Becker: electric guitar, tabla guitar, nine-string guitar, synthesizer; Joe Diorio: electric guitar

The Color Of Sound

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Joe Diorio Trio - Live

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:11
Size: 153.8 MB
Styles: Guitar jazz, Post bop
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[14:28] 1. Lover Man
[11:30] 2. Corcovado
[10:19] 3. Green Dolphin Street
[10:08] 4. A Child Is Born
[10:38] 5. Yesterdays
[10:05] 6. The Night Has A Thousand Eyes

Although this live gig by guitarist Joe Diorio was released for the first time in 2006, the music dates from a lost 1991 recording uncovered by his wife, with the guitarist joined by bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Jim Plank. This entirely unrehearsed set focuses on standards, all played in extended form with imagination and plenty of risk-taking. The trio members eschew the normal approach to the ballad "Lover Man," instead slowly working their way into it, repeating a series of chords before finally loosening up and increasing the tempo as they play straight-ahead. The leader softly hums to himself during his unaccompanied introduction to the old warhorse "On Green Dolphin Street," though this standard sounds very fresh in the hands of the trio, featuring terrific breaks by each musician. The slowly savored interpretation of Thad Jones' lush "A Child Is Born" is yet another highlight, as is the intense workout of "Yesterdays." It seems unfair that Joe Diorio has not been more widely recognized within the jazz community, but those who discover the music on this highly recommended CD will quickly become devoted fans. ~Ken Dryden

Live

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Cathy Segal-Garcia & Joe Diorio - Day By Day

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 46:32
Size: 106.5 MB
Label: Dash Hoffman
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2007
Art: Front

[4:01] 1. How Deep Is The Ocean
[5:27] 2. I Remember Clifford
[3:03] 3. Taking A Chance On Love
[5:08] 4. Estate
[3:59] 5. I Fall In Love Too Easily
[4:45] 6. Day By Day
[6:13] 7. Willow Weep For Me
[5:08] 8. You Are Too Beautiul
[3:47] 9. The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
[4:56] 10. Star Eyes

In 1976 while playing a gig at the jazz club "Donte's" in North Hollywood, I met Cathy for the first time. She asked me if she could sing "Lush Life" with me in Ab. I said, "I have hard enough trouble playing that in Db!" She sang a few tunes and floored us. Well, since then I've been a friend and a fan of hers. She has a sweet and gentle voice that I love. This makes it all the easier to play for her. In 1995 we finally made this CD in a tiny voice-over studio that was cluttered with all kinds of junk. I'm amazed that we got a great CD under such uncomfortable circumstances. But such is the power of music. JOE DIORIO

What a gift for me, to work on a recording with Joe! It turned out to be a ballad album, because every song we moved to, Joe would say, "Hey Cath, how about doing this a little slower?" Joe is a brilliant musician, but he's more than that, because music, of course, isn't all technical prowess... it's soul, spirit, elan vital, the muse, the lovers! That's what he brings to the music. Thank you Joe, and thank to you all for listening. CATHY SEGAL-GARCIA

Day By Day

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