Sheena Easton - No Strings

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:17
Size: 106.0 MB
Styles: Pop/Jazz vocals
Year: 1993
Art: Front

[3:18] 1. Someone To Watch Over Me
[4:14] 2. Medley:I'm In The Mood For Love/Moody's Mood For Love
[3:18] 3. The Nearness Of You
[3:41] 4. How Deep Is The Ocean
[5:53] 5. If You Go Away (Ne Me Quitte Pas)
[5:51] 6. Body And Soul
[6:10] 7. Medley:Little Girl Blue/When Sunny Gets Blue
[3:24] 8. The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else
[4:24] 9. The Man That Got Away
[2:37] 10. I Will Say Goodbye
[3:22] 11. Never Will I Marry

Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Fred Jackson, Jr.; Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Bob Sheppard, Fred Jackson, Jr.; Bass – Ken Wild, Reggie Hamilton; Cornet – Ray Brown; Drums – John Guerin, Ndugu Chancler; Flugelhorn – Ray Brown; Flute – Valerie King; French Horn – Marni Johnson), Richard Todd; Guitar – Paul Jackson, Jr., Phil Upchurch; Piano – Patrice Rushen; Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet – Larry Williams; Tenor Saxophone, Soloist – Bob Sheppard; Trombone – Lew McCreary, Reggie Young; Trombone [Bass] – Lew McCreary; Trumpet – Ray Brown; Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Rick Baptist. Recorded and mixed at Group IV Recording, Los Angeles, CA. Mastered at Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood, CA.

"'NO STRINGS' has a Pop/Jazz feel that is the result of my pop vocals over the superb jazz musicians who deliver Patrice Rushen's arrangements so beautifully. It is a style that blends the past and the present, the era the songs were written in leaves its traces in a contemporary interpretation. The lyrics of yesterday still touch the heart so deeply today. I hope they will touch you, too. Listen and you will hear a story which charts the course of a relationship from hopeful beginnings to its bittersweet end - love found, love lost, but life must go on - with or without strings." ~Sheena from Liner Notes

No Strings

---

Joe Williams - Nothin' But The Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:49
Size: 134.7 MB
Styles: Blues/Jazz vocals
Year: 1983/1992
Art: Front

[5:17] 1. Who She Do
[4:45] 2. Just A Dream
[2:41] 3. Hold It Right There
[5:12] 4. Please Send Me Someone To Love
[4:49] 5. Goin' To Chicago Blues
[3:52] 6. Ray Brown's In Town
[6:55] 7. In The Evening/Rocks In My Bed
[4:40] 8. Alright, Okay, You Win
[7:33] 9. Mean Old World Wee Baby Blues
[5:05] 10. The Come Back
[4:26] 11. Tell Me Where To Scratch
[3:27] 12. Sent For You Yesterday (And Here You Come Today)

Bass – Ray Brown; Drums – Gerryck King; Guitar – Phil Upchurch; Organ, Piano – Jack McDuff; Saxophone, Leader – Red Holloway; Vocals – Joe Williams; Vocals, Saxophone – Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson.

According to Joe… Enthusiasm coming from every pore! That’s how I’ve felt about this album, right fromt he first day, when Ralph Jungheim hit me with the idea of doing an all-blues album with an all-star blues band. Overseas, jazz is looked on and respected as part of our classical presentation. So, recording the first jazz album on a prestigious American classical label like Delos is a giant step toward broadening our audience here in this country. About this band. I’ve worked with most of these guys before at one time or another, but never expected to work with them all at once! That’s why these dates were such a tremendous experience for me. I don’t remember singing the blues with such verve for a long time! All four sessions were special. For one thing, there wasn’t one note on paper, except for “Ray Brown’s Back In Town,” Red Holloway’s instrumental. All the other tunes were spontaneous, on-the-spot head arrangements, which really only works when you have players with really big ears, all really listening to each other and everybody contributing. You can’t rehearse the blues (not that we needed to) so we nailed most of the tunes on the first take. Another special thing was the relaxed atmosphere we had happening in the studio, with friends dropping in to visit. You know how you can get that magic and electricity going on a live date with a good audience? Well, that’s the feeling we had right there in the studio. There was a lot of love in that room. “Nothin’ But The Blues” captures the magic. It is the blues! – Joe Williams

Nothin' But The Blues

---

Ben Sidran - Don't Let Go

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s

Time: 37:09

Size: 85.1 MB

Styles: Soul-Jazz-Funk

Year: 1974

Art: Front

[3:25] 1. Fat Jam

[3:11] 2. The House Of Blue Lights

[2:40] 3. Ben Sidran's Midnight Tango

[3:43] 4. The Chicken Glide

[3:35] 5. She's Funny That Way (I Got A Woman, Crazy)

[1:28] 6. Monopoly

[3:18] 7. Don't Let Go

[3:28] 8. Hey Hey Baby

[3:44] 9. The Foolkiller

[3:29] 10. The Funky Elephant

[3:47] 11. Snatch

[1:16] 12. Down To The Bone

Alto Saxophone – Bunky Green; Bass – Kip Merklein, Phil Upchurch, Randy Fullerton; Drums – Tom Piazza; Drums, Percussion – Clyde Stubblefield, George Brown, Phil Upchurch; Guitar – James P. Cooke, Phil Upchurch; Harmonica – Jerry Alexander; Organ – Jim Peterman; Piano, Vocals – Ben Sidran; Tenor Saxophone – Sonny Seals.

Issued by Blue Thumb in 1974, Don't Let Go was Ben Sidran's third for the label, and his fourth overall. After his 1971 debut on Capitol, Feel Your Groove -- a rootsy, bluesy, and jazzy rock record, populated by everyone from Peter Frampton to Jesse Ed Davis -- Sidran began to indulge his jazz muse, and by 1974 the transformation was complete; he fit right in with Blue Thumb's funky, wide-reaching jazz, funk, fusion, and whatever-else-comes-down-the-pipe-that's-interesting philosophy. After all, this was the label that had issued recordings by Phil Upchurch, Luis Gasca, Mark-Almond, Ike & Tina Turner, the Crusaders, Sun Ra, Dan Hicks, the Last Poets, the Pointer Sisters, Paul Humphrey, Captain Beefheart, and Robbie Basho, among others. The players surrounding Sidran on this session are stellar; some of them had been recording with him since his second album, I Lead a Life. The players here include Upchurch, Clyde Stubblefield, Bunky Green, Sonny Seals (the saxophonist), Tom Piazza, James Curly Cooke, and Randy Fullerton. Musically, the material walks a thin line between funky and straighter jazz and pop with an equal division between vocal and instrumental numbers over its 12 tracks. Sidran was establishing himself as a serious pianist and intricate composer, and as a songwriter with Mose Allison's sophisticated sense of irony. The set opens with the killer, funked up instrumental "Fat Jam" composed by Cooke. One can hear traces of the Bill Cosby television show in Cooke's lyric line, but with its killer shimmering cymbal work, breaks, and the low-slung yet taut bassline, it's something else, too. When Sidran's Rhodes piano kicks into high gear with the Sonny Burke-arranged horns it becomes a smoking intro to a record that, in spite of its wide-ranging ambition, succeeds on virtually every level. Being pushed to this sense of hot groove, Sidran changes up on his cover of the roadhouse standard "House of Blue Lights." It starts with a spoken word hipster rant that abruptly shifts into a fine nearly spoken read of the boogie-woogie crazy original. Sidran's pianism is red hot and rooted in the Albert Ammons stride, and the rhythm section lights it up when he goes into a solo that moves right into bebop. Given how dizzy the proceeding is, this is only the beginning; as it turns out, Don't Let Go contains some of Sidran's most memorable songs, including the darkly cool "Ben Sidran's Midnite Tango," with a fine string arrangement that outdoes Michael Franks at his own game. There is also the slow strutting jazz shuffle "She's Funny That Way" and the proto-uptown soul stepper "Hey Hey Baby." Of the instrumentals, the low-key funky jazz of "The Chicken Glide," and the now infamous "Snatch" are the highlights, but these are all terrific. Don't Let Go only made it onto CD in Japan, but that shouldn't stop you from scoring a legal download digitally or from Verve's out-of-print online store. This is a killer, adventurous record from a magical time that doesn't sound a bit dated in the 21st century. ~Thom Jurek

Don't Let Go

---