LaVern Baker - Sings Bessie Smith

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:47
Size: 95.7 MB
Styles: R&B/Blues/Jazz vocals
Year: 1958/1988
Art: Front

[3:06] 1. Gimme A Pigfoot
[3:36] 2. Baby Doll
[3:12] 3. On Revival Day
[2:50] 4. Money Blues
[4:03] 5. I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle
[4:41] 6. Back Water Blues
[4:50] 7. Empty Bed Blues
[2:41] 8. There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight
[3:55] 9. Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
[3:08] 10. After You've Gone
[2:49] 11. Young Woman's Blues
[2:50] 12. Preaching The Blues

Baritone Saxophone – Jerome Richardson, Sahib Shihab; Bass – Wendell Marshall; Drums – Joe Marshall; Guitar – Danny Barker; Piano – Nat Pierce; Tenor Saxophone – Paul Quinichette; Trombone – Jimmy Cleveland, Urbie Green, Vic Dickenson; Vocals – LaVern Baker. This record was recorded in January, 1958 and previously released as Atlantic 1281 (20th of October 1958).

This is an album that should not have worked. LaVern Baker (a fine R&B singer) was joined by all-stars from mainstream jazz (including trumpeter Buck Clayton, trombonist Vic Dickenson, tenor-saxophonist Paul Quinichette and pianist Nat Pierce) for twelve songs associated with the great '20s blues singer Bessie Smith. Despite the potentially conflicting styles, this project is quite successful and often exciting. The arrangements by Phil Moore, Nat Pierce, and Ernie Wilkins do not attempt to re-create the original recordings; Baker sings in her own style (rather than trying to emulate Bessie Smith), and the hot solos work well with her vocals. ~Scott Yanow

Sings Bessie Smith

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Bennie Green & Paul Quinichette - Blow Your Horn

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:20
Size: 76.3 MB
Styles: Trumpet jazz
Year: 1956/2012
Art: Front

[2:39] 1. Blow Your Horn
[3:03] 2. Blues In Lament
[2:48] 3. People Will Say We're In Love
[2:49] 4. Rhumblues
[3:03] 5. Takin' My Time
[2:19] 6. I Wanna Blow
[3:00] 7. The Heat's On
[2:42] 8. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
[3:10] 9. Humpty Dumpty
[2:56] 10. I Remember Harlem
[2:24] 11. Mine
[2:20] 12. The Heat's Off

Great album that features rare 50's sides by Bennie Green and Paul Quinichette. Tracks 1 to 6 are hard blowin' tracks from Bennie, with some of the best material he recorded away from the Prestige label. Tracks include "Blow Your Horn", "I Wanna Blow", "Rhumblues", and "Blues In Lament", and the set features him with orchestra or quintet (which features Billy Root on tenor and Cliff Small on piano). On tracks 7 to 12, the Quinichette sides are equally great, and have him playing with small – one of which includes Marlowe Morris on organ! Tracks on the Quinichette side include "The Heat's Off", "I Remember Harlem", and "The Heat's On". Great stuff, and a really tough one to find.

Blow Your Horn

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Charlie Rouse & Paul Quinchette - The Chase Is On

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1957
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:03
Size: 87,1 MB
Art: Front

(3:14)  1. The Chase Is On
(5:46)  2. When The Blues Come On
(5:21)  3. This Can't Be Love
(4:27)  4. Last Time For Love
(5:13)  5. You're Cheating Yourself
(6:16)  6. Knittin'
(4:21)  7. Tender Trap
(3:21)  8. The Thing I Love

The twin tenor sax tradition yielded grand pairings with the likes of Wardell Gray and Dexter Gordon, Arnett Cobb and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, and Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. This one-shot teaming of Charlie Rouse and Paul Quinichette brought forth a union of two distinctly different mannerisms within the mainstream jazz continuum. Rouse, who would go on to prolific work with Thelonious Monk and was at this time working with French horn icon Julius Watkins, developed a fluid signature sound that came out of the more strident and chatty style heard here. By this time in 1957, Quinichette, nicknamed the Vice Prez for his similar approach to Lester Young, was well established in the short term with Count Basie. His liquid, full-bodied, soulful tone became an undeniable force, albeit briefly, before he dropped out of the scene shortly after this date to be an electrical engineer. The stereo split of the saxophonists in opposite channels, a technique endemic of the time, works well whether they play solos or melody lines together. It enables you to truly hear how different they are. Working with standards, there's a tendency for them to play the head arrangements in unison, but then one of them on occasion plays an off-the-cuff short phrase that strays from the established melodic path. 

They also seem to do a hard bop jam, then a ballad, and back to hard swinging. The title track is simply a killer, a perfect fun romp of battling duelists, and one that you'd like to hear in any nightclub setting. Some slight harmonic inserts set "This Can't Be Love" apart from the original and "The Things I Love" displays the two tenors at their conversational best, while the lone original, "Knittin'," is a fundamental 12-bar swing blues, straight up and simple but with some subtle harmonic nuances. The rhythm section of pianist Wynton Kelly, bass player Wendell Marshall, and drummer Ed Thigpen do their usual yeoman job. But on two tracks, pianist Hank Jones and rhythm guitarist Freddie Green take over, and the sound of the band changes dramatically to the more sensitive side on a low-down version of "When the Blues Come On" and the good-old basic vintage swinger "You're Cheating Yourself." An LP-length CD (under 40 minutes), it is a shame there are no extra tracks or alternate takes. The combination of Rouse and Quinichette was a very satisfactory coupling of two talented and promising post-swing to bop individualists, who played to all of their strengths and differences on this worthy and now legendary session. ~ Michael G.Nastos   

http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-chase-is-on-mw0000651184

The Chase Is On

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