Various - Legends & Lions: Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:17
Size: 133.4 MB
Styles: Jazz/Blues
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[6:09] 1. Terry Gibbs - St. Louis Blues
[5:37] 2. Sean Jones - Blues For Matt B
[6:48] 3. The Gerald Wilson Orchestra - Equinox
[6:20] 4. Cedar Walton - Willow Weep For Me
[2:58] 5. Oscar Brown, Jr. - But I Was Cool
[6:08] 6. Kenny Burrell - River's Invitation
[4:55] 7. Ilona Knopfler - Unchain My Heart
[4:51] 8. Terry Gibbs - Jumping With Symphony Sid
[5:39] 9. Eugene Maslov - Groove Merchant
[8:46] 10. The Gerald Wilson Orchestra - Blues For Manhattan

Legends & Lions: Blues is a series assembled by Detroit's Mack Avenue label that pairs its roster's veteran artists with its up-and-coming personas thematically. The first two volumes in the series -- Swingin' and Swoonin' -- were successful in their way. The Blues volume is another attempt at the formula and it meets with very mixed results. First off, one wonders how the label defines the word blues. The version of John Coltrane's "Equinox" here, by the brilliant Gerald Wilson Orchestra, brings out the blues in its soloist's parts, but the band underscores the changes and stretches them until the blues all but disappears. Far more successful is their second number "Blues for Manhattan (The Diminished Triangle)" where the blues are out, front and center, and it's a killer track to close with Too bad everything here isn't that good. Ilona Knopfler's reading of "Unchain My Heart," is, for this performer, typically daring and uses a polyrythmic approach to the blues. The cut feels more like Santana playing the blues with a female vocalist, until the strings kick in. It works beautifully. Terry Gibbs' version of "Jumpin' with Symphony Sid" is strident but stiff, as is the version of "St. Louis Blues" that's so laid-back it's almost unrecognizable. It should be mentioned that some of the sidemen on these sessions are very prominent names in jazz -- Eddie Gómez, Ralph Moore, Jon Faddis, Renee Rosnes, Cedar Walton, Jimmy Heath, and Oscar Brown, Jr. (whose "But I Was Cool," is one of the real high points here) just to name a few. Interesting but forgettable, Legends & Lions: Blues doesn't quite measure up to Mack Avenue's previous compilations. ~Thom Jurek

Legends & Lions= Blues mc
Legends & Lions= Blues zippy

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Oscar Brown Jr - Live Every Minute

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:19
Size: 108.3 MB
Styles: Bop, Vocal jazz
Year: 1998
Art: Front

[4:47] 1. Long As You're Living
[3:19] 2. Dat Dere
[3:17] 3. The Snake
[5:40] 4. It's October
[2:47] 5. Mr. Kicks
[3:53] 6. World Full Of Grey
[7:41] 7. Haven't I Loved You Somewhere
[3:56] 8. A Column Of Birds
[3:50] 9. Hazel's Hips
[3:13] 10. Billie's Bounce
[4:50] 11. Old Lovers Song

Oscar Brown, Jr. was 71 when, in June 1998, the veteran jazz vocalist traveled to Hamburg, Germany and recorded Live Every Minute for Minor Music, a German label. By that age, some singers will lose a lot of their vocal power -- Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Ella Fitzgerald are three examples of once-great singers whose voices had deteriorated considerably by the time they reached their late sixties or early seventies. On the other hand, Carmen McRae and Jimmy Scott still sounded great at 70; so it varies from singer to singer. Thankfully, Brown's voice is holding up nicely on Live Every Minute, which finds him revisiting the lyrics that he wrote for Bobby Timmons' "Dat Dere," Stanley Turrentine's "Long As You're Living, " and Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce" in his younger days. These 1998 versions aren't definitive, but they're enjoyably swinging -- and they demonstrate that Brown still had a lot of soul at 71. Although the Chicago native is famous for writing lyrics to familiar bop tunes that started out as instrumentals, most of the melodies that he embraces on this CD are his own -- melodies that range from playfully funky ("Mr. Kicks") to reflective ("It's October") to melancholy ("World Full of Gray"). The latter is about growing older and coming to the realization that the world usually isn't black and white but rather, a shade of gray. So why is the song melancholy? Because seeing two sides of the story (political, romantic, or whatever) when you're 35 or 40 is tougher, harder, and more challenging than seeing things in black and white when you're 19 and mindlessly idealistic; ignorance is bliss, after all. Live Every Minute isn't among Brown's essential releases, but it's a solid, pleasing effort that the singer's diehard fans will appreciate. ~Alex Henderson

Live Every Minute mc
Live Every Minute zippy

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Oscar Brown, Jr. - Sin & Soul... And Then Some

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:45
Size: 107.1 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 1961/1996
Art: Front

[2:31] 1. Work Song
[2:53] 2. But I Was Cool
[1:27] 3. Bid 'em In
[3:58] 4. Signifyin' Monkey
[2:36] 5. Watermelon Man
[3:05] 6. Somebody Buy Me A Drink
[3:41] 7. Rags And Old Iron
[2:49] 8. Dat Dere
[3:05] 9. Brown Baby
[1:58] 10. Hum Drum Blues
[2:28] 11. Sleepy
[2:38] 12. Afro Blue
[2:02] 13. Mr. Kicks
[2:41] 14. Hazel's Hips
[3:30] 15. World Of Grey
[3:31] 16. Forbidden Fruit
[1:41] 17. Straighten Up And Fly Right

Oscar Brown, Jr.'s debut recording, Sin & Soul, is a true classic. A brilliant lyricist, a dramatic singer, and a highly individual genius in his own way, Brown performed a dozen memorable selections for this album. His lyrics to "Work Song," "Watermelon Man," "Afro-Blue," and particularly "Dat Dere" are famous; "But I Was Cool" and "Signifyin' Money" are humorous; "Bid 'Em In" is a chilling depiction of a slave auction; and "Rags and Old Iron" is quite touching. Essential music from an underrated great. ~Scott Yanow

Sin & Soul... And Then Some

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Oscar Brown, Jr. - Tells It Like It Is!

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 32:52
Size: 75.2 MB
Styles: Jazz/Funk/Soul/Blues vocals
Year: 1963/1989
Art: Front

[2:29] 1. Sing Hallelujah
[2:22] 2. One Foot In The Gutter
[2:57] 3. So Help Me (A Little 3 4 For God And Co.)
[2:30] 4. Man, Ernest Boy
[3:07] 5. The Tree And Me
[3:02] 6. Jeannine
[2:41] 7. The Snake
[3:44] 8. A Young Girl
[4:04] 9. All Blues
[3:16] 10. If I Only Had
[2:35] 11. Tall Like Pine

This is a small-group date, recorded in Chicago, featuring a couple of Brown's originals, plus new lyrics for Miles Davis' "All Blues" and Clark Terry's "So Help Me." ~John Bush

Although rooted in jazz, singer, poet, and activist Oscar Brown, Jr. defied musical categorization throughout his long and eclectic career -- a forerunner of the political consciousness that would become predominant in soul, funk, and hip-hop in the decades to follow, his efforts to exact social change spread across the arts and even into government, spurring two unsuccessful but memorable campaigns for office. Born on Chicago's South Side on October 10, 1926, Brown was the son of a successful attorney and property broker who wanted his firstborn someday to assume control of the family business; instead, Brown was drawn to writing and performing, and by 15 was a regular on writer Studs Terkel's radio program Secret City. After skipping two grades, he entered the University of Wisconsin at 16, but finding the world of academia little to his liking, Brown returned to broadcasting, and in 1944 was tapped to host Negro Newsfront, the nation's first black news radio broadcast. Dubbed "America's first Negro newscaster," he relinquished the gig in 1948 to run for the Illinois state legislature on the Progressive Party ticket -- he did not win, and spent the remainder of the decade working on writer/producer Richard Durham's Black Radio Days series, followed by a two-year stint in the U.S. Army. ~partial bio by Jason Ankeny

Tells It Like It Is

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Oscar Brown, Jr. - Movin' On

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:05
Size: 75.7 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 1972/2002
Art: Front

[3:09] 1. A Dime Away From A Hotdog
[4:29] 2. Walk Away
[3:28] 3. Feel The Fire
[4:23] 4. A Ladiesman
[3:41] 5. No Place To Be Somebody
[3:17] 6. To Stay In Good With You
[3:25] 7. Gang Bang
[3:15] 8. First Lady
[3:55] 9. Young Man

Oscar Brown, Jr.'s vocal and lyrical talents shine on this reissue of his 1972 album Movin' On. Brown's witty, politically conscious scats meld art and humor into innovation. Movin' On's nine songs, including highlights like "A Dime Away from a Hot Dog," "Ladiesman," and "No Place to Be Somebody" enhance Brown's reputation as an inventive jazzman. ~Heather Phares

Movin' On

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Oscar Brown, Jr. - In A New Mood

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 34:06
Size: 78.1 MB
Styles: Jazz, Funk, Soul
Year: 1962/1988
Art: Front

[2:38] 1. Where Or When
[2:42] 2. Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
[3:41] 3. Mood Indigo
[2:47] 4. Please Send Me Someone To Love
[2:32] 5. Hey There
[3:45] 6. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
[2:19] 7. Sixteen Tons
[3:32] 8. God Bless The Child
[2:38] 9. Work Song
[3:12] 10. Go Down Moses
[2:27] 11. It Ain't Necessarily So
[1:49] 12. Straighten Up And Fly Right

Oscar Brown, Jr.'s third recording features the brilliant lyricist/singer performing a dozen standards. Surprisingly, his only writing contribution is the words to "Work Song," easily the most notable performance on this otherwise so-so date. Brown is backed by an unidentified orchestra (only trumpeter Joe Newman, who pops up briefly a few times, is distinctive) on tunes mostly arranged in somewhat anonymous fashion by Ralph Burns. Brown's voice is fine on such numbers as "Where or When," "Mood Indigo," "One for My Baby" and "Straighten Up and Fly Right," but he adds little fresh and new to the material. This is one of his lesser efforts. ~Scott Yanow

In A New Mood

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