Miles Davis Quintet - Live At The Oriental Theatre 1966 (CD1) And (CD2)

Styles: Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:08 (CD 1)
Size: 97,3 MB (CD 1)
Time: 48:38 (CD 2)
Size: 112,3 MB (CD 2)
Art: Front

(CD 1)

( 0:40) 1. Announcement
( 9:49) 2. Autumn Leaves
( 9:22) 3. Agitation
(10:31) 4. Stella By Starlight
(11:44) 5. Gingerbread Boy

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(CD 2)
( 9:30) 1. The Theme
( 9:32) 2. All Blues
( 8:51) 3. Who Can I Turn To?
( 9:06) 4. So What
(11:38) 5. My Funny Valentine

This release contains a complete previously unissued concert by the 1966 Miles Davis Quintet. Recorded at the impressing Oriental Theatre in Portland shortly before it was demolished, it presents the only existing testimony of bassist Richard Davis playing with Miles. Among its many highlights are many great trumpet solos by Miles, including his only existing version of "Who Can I Turn To ?" a free jazzoriented So What, and a beautiful reading of My Funny Valentine.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Oriental-Theatre-1966-2CD/dp/B004M3NKBC

Personnel: Miles Davis - tp; Wayne Shorter - ts; Herbie Hancock - p; Richard Davis - b; Tony Williams - d

Live At The Oriental Theatre 1966 (CD1)(CD2)

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Joe Henderson - The Complete Blue Note Studio Sessions (5-Disc Set)

Styles: Jazz
Year: 2021
Time: 79:01
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 180,9 MB
Art: Front

(15:18) 1. Una Mas (One More Time)
( 8:58) 2. Straight Ahead
( 7:20) 3. Sao Paulo
( 5:08) 4. If Ever I Would Leave You
( 8:01) 5. Blue Bossa
( 9:09) 6. La Mesha
( 4:14) 7. Homestretch
( 6:02) 8. Recorda Me
( 7:23) 9. Jinrikisha
( 7:24) 10. Out of the Night

If an artist stamps his jazz passport with any one of these labels Blue Note, Verve, Milestone it's pretty much a guarantee that you've arrived in style. Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson has traveled with all three and more. The 2021 reissue from the prestigious Mosaic Records focuses on Henderson's 1960s tenure with Blue Note offers a new opportunity to experience an abundance of rich and creative jazz from the decade.

Big band and bop were duking it out in the late 1940s, bebop gained a foothold in the 1950s and the 1960s saw some amazingly creative artists emerge as they conjured up even more jazz hybrids (straight jazz, Avant-Garde, fusion and more). Henderson began to come of age during the very late 1950s, the tail end of one of the most dynamic and creative decades for jazz. He then moved confidently into the 1960s and beyond. He began to gain momentum in the 1960s (sitting in with saxophone master Dexter Gordon early on), learned from listening to other sax giants including Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins and soon teamed up with numerous A-list artists including trumpeter Kenny Dorham, a Blue Note co-artist. The spotlight shifted a bit during the seventies and eighties for Henderson but he was amazingly prolific in the 1990s. Verve championed him during that decade with a high profile 'come back' campaign and sessions such as Lush Life (1982) contained everything from the supple and smoky "Isfahan" and "Blood Count" to the soaring and spontaneous "Johnny Come Lately." Touring took him to various venues and in a talk backstage after a mid-1990s concert, Mr. Henderson was dapper and smartly dressed, low key, quiet and reserved. He was a joy to talk to. But his constant companion, a lit cigarette, was absent, probably due to venue restriction (chain smoking eventually took him down in 2001.)

Mosaic collected nearly fifty cuts on five CDs and captured a world of spontaneous creativity. In addition, a modest yet informative booklet is included. A book's worth of praise could follow, so let's look at a few tracks from each compact disc: Everything gets underway with the title cut from trumpeter Kenny Dorham's Una Mas (1963) album in which Henderson joins as a featured sideman. At over fifteen minutes, the opening track is a celebration of the then contemporary sounds of Bossa Nova, with hints of other styles including the blues. He may be the second billed musician on the disc, but Henderson's sax is supple, lush and creatively enticing as a close bond was being forged between the two men. Everyone swings, and they are upbeat on "Straight Ahead," one of the other standout tracks from the Dorham-lead sessions. (full review => https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-complete-joe-henderson-blue-note-studio-sessions-joe-henderson-mosaic-records)

Personnel: Joe Henderson: Saxophone; Kenny Dorham: Trranumpet; Herbie Hancock: Piano; Tony Williams: Drums; McCoy Tyner: Piano; Bob Cranshaw: Bass; Duke Pearson: Piano; Richard Davis: Bass, Acoustic; s: Drums; Tommy Flanagan: Piano; Ron Carter: Elvin Jones: Bass; Cedar Walton: Piano; Lee Morgan: Trumpet; Curtis Fuller: Trombone; Grant Green: Guitar; Bobby Hutcherson: Vibraphone; J.J. Johnson: Trombone; Al Harewood: Drums; Woody Shaw: Trumpet; Andrew Hill: Piano.

The Complete Blue Note Studio Sessions CD1

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Styles: Jazz
Year: 2021
Time: 76:41
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 175,6 MB
Art: Front

( 8:17) 1. La Mesha (alternate take)
( 7:38) 2. Homestretch (alternate take)
( 8:33) 3. Teeter Totter
(10:05) 4. Pedro's Time
( 5:38) 5. Our Thing
( 6:20) 6. Back Road
( 8:06) 7. Escapade
( 7:11) 8. Teeter Totter (alternate take)
( 5:31) 9. Our Thing (alternate take)
( 9:18) 10. In 'N Out (alternate take)

The Complete Blue Note Studio Sessions CD2

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Styles: Jazz
Year: 2021
Time: 76:45
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 175,7 MB
Art: Front

(10:25) 1. In 'N Out
( 9:09) 2. Punjab
( 6:17) 3. Serenity
( 7:11) 4. Short Story
( 6:25) 5. Brown's Town
(12:24) 6. Trompeta Toccata
( 5:46) 7. Night Watch
(11:05) 8. Mamacita
( 8:00) 9. The Fox

The Complete Blue Note Studio Sessions CD3

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Styles: Jazz
Year: 2021
Time: 78:40
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 180,1 MB
Art: Front

(11:58) 1. Inner Urge
( 9:16) 2. Isotope
( 7:14) 3. El Barrio
( 7:21) 4. You Know I Care
( 7:24) 5. Night and Day
( 8:14) 6. Hobo Joe
( 8:30) 7. Step Lightly
( 6:07) 8. The Kicker
( 5:46) 9. Mo' Joe
( 6:45) 10. If

The Complete Blue Note Studio Sessions CD4

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Styles: Jazz
Year: 2021
Time: 59:11
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 135,5 MB
Art: Front

(7:08) 1. A Shade of Jade
(8:03) 2. Mode for Joe
(6:53) 3. Black
(6:43) 4. Caribbean Fire Dance
(7:23) 5. Granted
(6:41) 6. Free Wheelin'
(9:28) 7. Mode for Joe (alternate take)
(6:49) 8. Black (alternate take)

The Complete Blue Note Studio Sessions CD5

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Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Ron Carter - The Herbie Hancock Trio

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1977
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:14
Size: 106,2 MB
Art: Front

(12:25)  1. Watch It
(13:06)  2. Speak Like A Child
( 6:20)  3. Watcha Waitin For
( 7:42)  4. Look
( 6:40)  5. Milestones

Herbie Hancock Trio is an album by Herbie Hancock released in September 21, 1977 in Japan. It features performances by Hancock with Ron Carter and Tony Williams. A second selection of six tracks recorded by the trio during the same day's sessions was released under Ron Carter's name as Third Plane. This is the first of two albums with the same title. A second Herbie Hancock Trio, featuring the same personnel, was released in 1982. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_Hancock_Trio_(1977_album)

Personnel:  Herbie Hancock – piano;  Ron Carter – bass;  Tony Williams – drums

The Herbie Hancock Trio

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Tony Williams Lifetime feat John McLaughlin - Live In New York 1969

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:32
Size: 88,5 MB
Art: Front

( 6:56) 1. To Whom It May Concern
(12:24) 2. Emergency
( 7:01) 3. Unknown Title
( 6:43) 4. A Famous Blues
( 5:27) 5. Something Spiritual

Having fearlessly merged rock rhythms with jazz during a close association with Miles Davis, in 1969 the great Tony Williams founded Lifetime, featuring John McLaughlin at his innovative best, and the mighty organist Larry Young. The trio instantly won acclaim for their fiery, uncompromising improvisations, which are typified on this amazing performance. Recorded for radio broadcast in New York at the close of the year, the FM entire broadcast is presented here, digitally remastered, with background notes and images. https://www.directaudio.net/products/tony-williams-lifetime-featuring-john-mclaughlin-live-in-new-york-1969-vinyl-lp

Musicians: Tony Williams, drums; John McLaughlin, guitar; Larry Young, organ

Live In New York 1969

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Miles Davis - Seven Steps To Heaven

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 1963
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:09
Size: 131,6 MB
Art: Front

(10:27)  1. Basin Street Blues
( 6:23)  2. Seven Steps to Heaven
( 6:43)  3. I Fall In Love Too Easily
( 6:58)  4. So Near, So Far
( 8:25)  5. Baby Won't You Please Come Home
( 6:58)  6. Joshua
( 5:09)  7. So Near, So Far
( 6:02)  8. Summer Night

Seven Steps to Heaven finds Miles Davis standing yet again on the fault line between stylistic epochs. In early 1963, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb left to form their own trio, and Davis was forced to form a new band, which included Memphis tenor player George Coleman and bassist Ron Carter. When Davis next entered the studio in Hollywood, he added local drummer Frank Butler and British studio ace Victor Feldman, who ultimately decided not to go on the road with Davis. It's easy to see why Davis liked Feldman, who contributed the dancing title tune and "Joshua" to the session. On three mellifluous standards  particularly a cerebral "Basin Street Blues" and a broken-hearted "I Fall in Love Too Easily" the pianist plays with an elegant, refined touch, and the kind of rarefied voicings that suggest Ahmad Jamal. Davis responds with some of his most introspective, romantic ballad playing. When Davis returned to New York he finally succeeded in spiriting away a brilliantly gifted 17-year-old drummer from Jackie McLean: Tony Williams. On the title tune you can already hear the difference, as his crisp, driving cymbal beat and jittery, aggressive syncopations propel Davis into the upper reaches of his horn. On "So Near, So Far" the drummer combines with Carter and new pianist Herbie Hancock to expand on a light Afro-Cuban beat with a series of telepathic changes in tempo, texture, and dynamics. Meanwhile, Feldman's "Joshua" (with its overtones of "So What" and "All Blues") portends the kind of expressive variations on the basic 4/4 pulse that would become the band's trademark, as Davis and Coleman ascend into bebop heaven. ~ Rovi Staff https://www.allmusic.com/album/seven-steps-to-heaven-mw0000188023

Personnel: Miles Davis – trumpet; George Coleman – tenor saxophone; Victor Feldman – piano; Ron Carter – bass; Frank Butler – drums; Herbie Hancock – piano;  Tony Williams – drums

Seven Steps To Heaven

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Joe Henderson - Relaxin' At Camarillo

Styles: Saxophone Jazz 
Year: 1981
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:06
Size: 103,7 MB
Art: Front

(11:40)  1. Y Todavia La Quiero
(10:01)  2. My One And Only Love
( 5:23)  3. Crimson Lake
( 8:37)  4. Yes, My Dear
( 9:23)  5. Relaxin' At Camarillo

Henderson had been doing quality work for years on numerous independent and foreign labels, and 1979's Relaxin' at Camarillo, is just one among many examples of that. There are five selections, only one less than eight minutes long, with the usual Henderson attributes: full, deep tone, keen ideas, and an ability to sweep through registers and across octaves with ease. Chick Corea made an excellent partner, playing with none of the self-consciousness that crops up repeatedly in his fusion and electric fare. Bassists and drummers were interchangeable, although you can certainly tell Tony Williams from Peter Erskine (and that's no knock on Erskine). ~ Ron Wynn https://www.allmusic.com/album/relaxin-at-camarillo-mw0000619558

Personnel: Joe Henderson – tenor saxophone; Chick Corea – piano; Richard Davis;  Tony Dumas  – bass; Peter Erskine, Tony Williams  – drums

Relaxin' At Camarillo

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Herbie Hancock - Sunlight

Styles:  Piano Jazz
Year: 1978
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:20
Size: 90,8 MB
Art:

(8:55)  1. I Thought It Was You
(8:24)  2. Come Running to Me
(7:10)  3. Sunlight
(6:18)  4. No Means Yes
(8:32)  5. Good Question

After Man-Child, alas, Herbie Hancock's American jazz-funk records in the 1970s grew gradually more commercial, less stimulating, and crucially, less truly funky with each release, even as his equipment rack grew larger. Just take a look at the staggering collection of keyboards on the back cover of the Sunlight LP all sought-after collectors' items now yet Hancock makes so little use of their possibilities here. For much of the album, he seems most interested in establishing a new career as an electronic vocalist. "I Thought It Was You," "Come Running to Me," and the title track introduce the ghostly, gauzy sound of Herbie's singing voice as heard through a vocoder; there's even an electronic Herbie scat choir. Stevie Wonder, he's not. There are still occasional splashes of Hancock harmonic color on the keyboards, but he also relies upon superfluous, self-arranged brass riffs and string backgrounds. The backup bands shift from track to track, from combinations of Headhunters alumni that offer soft-focused facsimiles of the old funk drive to a surprisingly strait-jacketed pairing of Tony Williams and Jaco Pastorius on the eccentric "Good Question." ~ Richard S.Ginell https://www.allmusic.com/album/sunlight-mw0000473390

Personnel:  Herbie Hancock – keyboards, synthesizers, lead and background vocals (through vocoder) (1–3), string, brass and woodwind arrangements; Patrick Gleeson – additional synthesizers (5); Bennie Maupin – soprano saxophone solo (3); Wah Wah Watson, Ray Parker, Jr. – guitar (1, 3); Byron Miller (1), Paul Jackson (2–4), Jaco Pastorius (5) – electric bass; Leon "Ndugu" Chancler (1), James Levi (2, 3), Harvey Mason, Sr. (4), Tony Williams (5) – drums; Raul Rekow (exc. 3), Bill Summers (exc. 1) – percussion; Baba Duru – tabla (2); Bobby Shew, Maurice Spears, Robert O'Bryant, Garnett Brown – brass (exc. 4); Ernest J. Watts, Fred Jackson, Jr., Jack Nimitz, David Willard Riddles – woodwind (2, 5); Terry Adams, Roy Malan, Nathan Rubin, Linda Wood, Emily VanValkenburgh – strings (2)

Sunlight

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Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage

Styles: Piano Jazz 
Year: 1965
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:05
Size: 96,8 MB
Art: Front

( 7:57)  1. Maiden Voyage
( 6:01)  2. The Eye Of The Hurricane
( 8:47)  3. Little One
(10:03)  4. Survival Of The Fittest
( 9:16)  5. Dolphin Dance

Over the past forty-nine years there's been no shortage of ink spilled extolling the musical virtues of Herbie Hancock's 1965 recording, Maiden Voyage. Featuring the great trumpet of Freddie Hubbard and the bracing tenor of George Coleman, the record is as good as any effort turned in by Hancock during that period. It's a record every jazz fan should know. Unfortunately, Maiden Voyage also has a long standing reputation for mediocre sound quality. In another review of an expensive vinyl re-release of this record I wrote, "There is nothing to be gained by a first-class analogue pressing of a record that, sadly, was not recorded with the attention to sound quality that it deserved." In my record collection, the smeared quality of every instrument is prominent on a recent CD issue and the aforementioned double 45RPM LP, and an original 1965 vinyl copy while less smeared sounds flat and dull. I acquired each of these disks successively in a quest to find a truly good sounding copy of this date, and was disappointed each time. With that many different versions revealing similar deficiencies it's easy to conclude that this record just wasn't very well recorded in the first place.  All Rudy Van Gelder recordings from the 1950s and 60s have a certain period quality to them. Hard-panning instruments to the left and right channels creates an unnatural soundstage environment. Horns brass and woodwinds generally fare the best, with full-sized scale, realism, and even air surrounding the players (in some cases they're quite extraordinary). Drums and bass are also pretty good. The piano, however, has long been criticized for often sounding small, muffled and indistinct. 

That piano alone makes almost any Van Gelder recording instantly recognizable as such. For whatever the reason, other copies of Maiden Voyage seemed to suffer the additional indignity of an even more deeply truncated piano, blurring of the other instruments, and a collapsed soundstage that sounds as though it had been recorded in a closet. It's never sounded as good as it should have for the quality of its music, making it a frustrating record to love. So when Ron Rambach of Music Matters announced that he was shipping his 33rpm version of Maiden Voyage the first thing that sprung to mind was, "Why bother? It's been done to death and it never gets any better." I stuck it on a shelf without even opening it until Rambach followed up with several emails insisting that I listen to it. Finally relenting, I tossed it on the turntable with absolutely no expectation of being impressed. What else could I possibly hear in this fourth copy that I hadn't already heard in the first three? Boy, was I wrong. It is said that the original master tape for this date has deteriorated significantly over the years, making a truly great 1st generation analog copy supposedly impossible. Yet here it is. Rambach is pretty relentless about getting great sound out of his Blue-Note re-releases, but given its history the sound quality on this pressing is truly surprising. 

The smearing is gone, the instruments are distinct, the soundstage has actual depth that doesn't exist even on my original copy, and most impressively, the piano sounds like an actual piano: large(er. It's still a Van Gelder, after all.), weighty, and dynamic. The horns sound life-like and detailed, Ron Carter's bass has woody pluck, and Tony Williams' drums have resonance while the cymbals shimmer in space. Perhaps the only thing missing in comparison to the best Van Gelder Blue Notes is the scale of the instruments, which on certain recordings can be almost bigger than life. Here, they lack any vertical height, leaving them to sound a little small in a very wide soundstage, a minor quibble on an overall excellent mastering job from a troublesome tape. As usual with the Music Matters releases, the vinyl is dead quiet, which helps more detail emerge from the recording. Whatever hi-fi mojo Rambach and mastering Engineer Kevin Gray used to get this sound off that tape and onto new vinyl, it should be bottled and shipped to every recording engineer in the world. Maiden Voyage has always been musically first-rate, but I'd written off this recording as sonically dead years ago. It's been brought back to life in the most dramatic way. It's still a Van Gelder recording of course, and it sounds like one, with all of the period sonic hallmarks that entails, but now it sounds like a solidly good Van Gelder recording instead a botched job. I've often wondered, "What if Maiden Voyage had actually been recorded properly?" This Music Matters 33rpm pressing is the answer writ large. With sincere apologies to Rudy Van Gelder, this turns out to have been a pretty darned good recording after all. 

~ Greg Simmons https://www.allaboutjazz.com/maiden-voyage-herbie-hancock-blue-note-records-review-by-greg-simmons 7952.php

Personnel: Herbie Hancock: piano; Freddie Hubbard: trumpet; George Coleman: tenor saxophone; Ron Carter: bass; Tony Williams: drums.

Maiden Voyage

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Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles

Styles: Piano Jazz 
Year: 1964
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:51
Size: 124,4 MB
Art: Front

( 7:21)  1. One Finger Snap
( 8:30)  2. Oliloqui Valley
( 5:34)  3. Cantaloupe Island
(14:01)  4. The Egg
( 7:37)  5. One Finger Snap (Alternative Take)
(10:47)  6. Oliloqui Valley (Alternative Take)

As a member of Miles Davis' second quintet during the 1960s, pianist Herbie Hancock rarely performed live under his own leadership, but he did take the time to record. Hancock's 1964 effort, Empyrean Isles, remains one of the most diverse and often challenging records of the pianist's tenure with Blue Note Records. It's a rare jazz record that offers both a hugely popular hit, as well as an outré masterwork of rhythmic repetition and angular melodies. A masterpiece like Empyrean Isles deserves a first-class reissue, and the good folks at Music Matters have undertaken to press the ultimate vinyl version. With access to the original master tapes, some of the finest cutting and pressing equipment available, and a boatload of enthusiasm, they've cut what was a single LP onto two 180g 45 rpm discs that simply smoke any CD version ever released. Packaged with a deluxe, full-color gatefold jacket, and additional Francis Wolff session photographs inside, this pressing is a feast for both the aural and visual senses. Empyrean Isles is best know for the hit "Cantaloupe Island," which alone is worth hearing on this vinyl edition. The sound is large and smooth, and the piano which can sometimes sound boxed in on Van Gelder recordings is almost full-sized. Most importantly the weight of the piano chords come through loud and clear. What is most startling is the amount of additional information revealed through this true analog pressing. Freddie Hubbard's trumpet is brassy and rich, and Ron Carter's bass, which can often lack tone and depth on CD, is plump and three-dimensional. "Cantaloupe Island" has become one of the most ubiquitous jazz songs ever, especially after being sampled by Us3 for their hit 

"Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)." A pressing like this will make people question whether they've ever really heard it at all. The real meat of Empyrean Islesits adventurous heart lies with "The Egg," A thirteen-minute exploration of the limits of beat repetition that includes some of Hubbard's most restless trumpet playing. He strains his horn against the locked rhythm, looking for a way out that never comes. It's a fascinating juxtaposition of improvisation over rigid reiteration. On this Music Matters pressing, those elements have never been clearer, with the Tony Williams' drums revealing particular snap and scale. Like most albums in the Blue Note catalog of the 1950s and '60s, Empyrean Isles was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. That pedigree leaves a few period sonic fingerprints, but on the whole, with the proper care taken in this remastering, this recording offers a wealth of fresh detail and enhanced musicality. Empyrean Isles has fared well through the Music Matters process, yielding a pressing that will truly augment an understanding of the music. 

~ Greg Simmons https://www.allaboutjazz.com/empyrean-isles-herbie-hancock-blue-note-records-review-by-greg-simmons.php

Personnel: Herbie Hancock: piano; Freddie Hubbard: cornet; Ron Carter: bass; Tony Williams: drums.

Empyrean Isles

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Michael Wolff - Jumpstart

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1995
Time: 54:02
Size: 49,8 MB
Art: Front

(5:30)  1. Pinocchio
(5:31)  2. Ballade Noir
(6:03)  3. Cannonblues
(4:53)  4. Little M
(3:51)  5. Fall
(4:50)  6. Shades of Gray
(6:06)  7. Nefertitti
(5:36)  8. Jumpstart
(6:52)  9. I Fall in Love Too Easily
(4:47) 10. All Of You

From the first cunning abstractions the pianist improvises on Wayne Shorter's classic "Pinocchio," it's clear that Michael Wolff is more than just another one-trick pony. As the leader of Arsenio Hall's musical posse, Wolff proved himself an adept bandleader and sidekick, performing in a variety of styles, particularly in the jacked up contemporary funk mode the audience came to expect. However, as Jumpstart! makes plain, Michael Wolff is a modern jazz player with authentic credentials in the post-'60s idiom. This virtuoso keyboardist plied on his trade with numerous leaders, most notably Cannonball Adderley, whose heady blend of soul, hard bop, funk and modality made him one of jazz's most respected improvisers before his untimely death. Wolff evokes his presence through the tippling tempo, jagged harmonies, funky grace notes and teetering melodic runs of "Cannonblues." Like many pianists enamored of the '60s, Wolff is clearly indebted to the free-form inventions of Herbie Hancock, but throughout Jumpstart! Wolff betrays a knowledge of pre-bop piano evoking the likes of Milt Buckner when employing a bouncing two-handed attack. On the jittery starts and stops of the title tune, Wolff's jagged snaking lines, sudden rhythmic rushes of consonant and dissonant variations, and his agitated layers of chords indicate a broad romanticism of "I Fall In Love Too Easily" and his own "Ballade Noir" are indicative of a graceful touch and elegant melodic conception. https://www.allmusic.com/album/jumpstart-mw0000177266

Personnel:  Michael Wolff - Piano; Christian McBride - Bass; Tony Williams - Drums

Jumpstart

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Mulgrew Miller - The Countdown

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1989
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:25
Size: 115,8 MB
Art: Front

(8:18)  1. The Countdown
(5:23)  2. Exact Change
(7:32)  3. What the World Needs Now Is Love
(5:55)  4. '1684'
(6:44)  5. Tetragon
(5:41)  6. Crystal Palace
(4:45)  7. Ambrosia
(6:02)  8. August Afternoon

The great Joe Henderson joins pianist Mulgrew Miller for this wonderful album lending his sharp-edged tenor tone to really make the session stand out from Miller's more common trio dates! Henderson and Miller both have a great ear for the darker side of the spectrum hitting notes that are never too far out, nor too modern but which have a rich sense of color that's really wonderful a bottom-searching sort of feel that gives the album a hell of a lot of feeling! The rest of the quartet features Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums beautiful partners who are matched with years of experience, which they're only happy to bring to the date. Henderson sits out two numbers "Ambrosia" and "Exact Change" but sparkles strongly on the tracks "The Countdown", "Tetragon", "What The World Needs Now Is Love", "Crystal Palace", and "August Afternoon".  © 1996-2019, Dusty Groove, Inc. https://www.dustygroove.com/item/476435/Mulgrew-Miller:Countdown

Personnel:  Mulgrew Miller – piano; Joe Henderson – tenor sax; Ron Carter – bass; Tony Williams – drums

The Countdown

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Miles Davis - Miles In The Sky

Styles: Trumpet And Cornet Jazz
Year: 1968
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:12
Size: 117,7 MB
Art: Front

(17:03)  1. Stuff
(12:45)  2. Paraphernalia
( 7:30)  3. Black Comedy
(13:52)  4. Country Son

With the 1968 album Miles in the Sky, Miles Davis explicitly pushed his second great quintet away from conventional jazz, pushing them toward the jazz-rock hybrid that would later become known as fusion. Here, the music is still in its formative stages, and it's a little more earth-bound than you might expect, especially following on the heels of the shape-shifting, elusive Nefertiti. On Miles in the Sky, much of the rhythms are straightforward, picking up on the direct 4/4 beats of rock, and these are illuminated by Herbie Hancock's electric piano one of the very first sounds on the record, as a matter of fact and the guest appearance of guitarist George Benson on "Paraphernalia." All of these additions are tangible and identifiable, and they do result in intriguing music, but the form of the music itself is surprisingly direct, playing as extended grooves. This meanders considerable more than Nefertiti, even if it is significantly less elliptical in its form, because it's primarily four long jams. Intriguing, successful jams in many respects, but even with the notable additions of electric instruments, and with the deliberately noisy "Country Son," this is less visionary than its predecessor and feels like a transitional album and, like many transitional albums, it's intriguing and frustrating in equal measures. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine https://www.allmusic.com/album/miles-in-the-sky-mw0000652711

Personnel:  Miles Davis – trumpet, cornet on "Stuff" and "Country Son";  Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone;  Herbie Hancock – piano, electric piano on "Stuff";  Ron Carter – bass, electric bass on "Stuff";  Tony Williams – drums;  George Benson – electric guitar on "Paraphernalia"

Miles In The Sky

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Tommy Flanagan, Ron Carter, Tony Williams - The Trio

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1983
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 73:19
Size: 171,4 MB
Art: Front

(6:32)  1. It Don't Mean A Thing
(5:36)  2. St. Thomas
(5:48)  3. Angel Eyes
(4:08)  4. New Song #3
(4:41)  5. Minor Mishap
(4:20)  6. Misterioso
(4:44)  7. Milestones
(6:05)  8. Good Bait
(3:15)  9. Afternoon In Paris
(3:44) 10. Giant Steps
(6:49) 11. Blues in the Closet
(7:16) 12. Sister Cheryl
(6:25) 13. My Ship
(3:48) 14. Moose the Mooche

On June 16 & 17, 1983, three legendary instrumentalists recorded what would be their only collaboration as a unit. While the group's instrumentation consisted of a standard piano trio, the combination of Flanagan together with Carter and Williams was anything but standard. The studio sessions produced 14 tracks of superlative music - mostly modern jazz standards (including Rollins' "St.Thomas", Monk's "Misterioso", Davis' "Milestones", Dameron's "Good Bait" and many more great choices). The date also featured three classic standards as well as an original by each member of the trio. https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/tommy-flanagan-albums/4232-the-trio.html

Personnel:  Tommy Flanagan - piano;  Ron Carter - bass;  Tony Williams - drums

The Trio

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Various - The Miles Davis Sidemen

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 91:22
Size: 209.2 MB
Styles:
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[ 5:24] 1. Herbie Hancock - Cantaloupe Island
[ 7:48] 2. Sonny Rollins - Doxy
[ 5:46] 3. Herbie Hancock - Aung San Suu Kyi
[ 4:16] 4. John Coltrane - In A Sentimental Mood
[ 4:38] 5. Bill Evans - Everything Happens To Me
[ 6:41] 6. Paul Chambers - Dear Old Stockholm
[ 6:55] 7. Keith Jarrett - Bop-Be
[ 6:35] 8. John Scofield - A Go Go
[14:15] 9. Chick Corea - Spain
[ 6:48] 10. Jack Dejohnette - Indigo Dreamscapes
[ 4:59] 11. Tony Williams - Vashkar
[ 5:10] 12. The Cannonball Adderley Quintet - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
[ 3:39] 13. Stan Getz - Anything Goes
[ 4:07] 14. Kai Winding - Speak Low
[ 4:13] 15. Gil Evans - Moon And Sand

Miles Davis is widely regarded as one of the most important musicians of the 20th century, being at the cutting edge of bebop, hardbop and fusion, just to name a few of the jazz movements he helped shape. Along the way, he influenced generations of musicians, including many sidemen who would enjoy influential and successful careers of their own.

The Miles Davis Sidemen mc
The Miles Davis Sidemen zippy

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Wayne Shorter - The Soothsayer

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1965
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:07
Size: 115,0 MB
Art: Front

(7:16)  1. Lost
(4:51)  2. Angola
(6:42)  3. Angola (alternate take)
(8:23)  4. The Big Push
(9:40)  5. The Soothsayer
(5:36)  6. Lady Day
(7:37)  7. Valse Triste

A good month for tenor saxophone connoisseurs, April 2008, with a second Rudy Van Gelder re-master released alongside Ike Quebec's signature Blue & Sentimental (Blue Note, 2008). The Soothsayer may be comparably less of a benchmark in Wayne Shorter's discography, and remains to some extent overshadowed by its close contemporary Speak No Evil (Blue Note, 1964), but it's a solid and enduring album despite 15 years between the recording session and the original LP release. Things were happening big time for Shorter in early 1965, when The Soothsayer was recorded. After five years with drummer and band leader Art Blakey as musician, composer and, finally, musical director, the saxophonist had recently joined trumpeter Miles Davis' second great quintet. With Davis, Shorter would record six studio albums over the next three years the first, E.S.P. (Columbia, 1965) was recorded two months before The Soothsayer plus a further four under his own name. There was an embarrassment of Shorter riches around, and The Soothsayer was initially shelved to make way for the release of the more structurally adventurous The All Seeing Eye (Blue Note, 1965). When Shorter left Davis and joined Weather Report, The Soothsayer, temporarily, was overtaken by events. It was finally released in 1980. The album finds Shorter in the company of two Davis quintet colleagues bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams together with pianist McCoy Tyner, then a member of saxophonist John Coltrane's classic quartet, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and the relatively unsung alto saxophonist James Spaulding. Hubbard and Carter had been retained from Speak No Evil; Tyner had been featured on the earlier Shorter albums Night Dreamer (Blue Note, 1964) and Ju Ju (Blue Note, 1964). Spaulding and Williams were new recruits. Shorter's virile playing aside, the album is worthwhile for the presence of drum prodigy Williams (Shorter's regular drummers of the time were Elvin Jones and Joe Chambers) who turns in an inventive solo on "Angola" and for the strength of Shorter's writing. The triple meter, medium groove "Lost," the opener, is quintessential Shorter of the period. Eight years before the release of The Soothsayer it was featured on Weather Report's Live In Tokyo (Columbia, 1972). "Angola," which follows, sounds like it could have been written earlier, for Blakey's band. The haunting "Lady Day" is a ballad tribute to singer Billie Holiday. Of interest too is Shorter's re-arrangement of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' pretty "Valse Triste" on Speak No Evil, Shorter had credited Sibelius as a key inspiration for that album's "Dance Cadaverous." The word "deconstruction" may not have been common jazz parlance in 1965, but deconstruct is exactly what Shorter does here, sensitively and engagingly. ~ Chris May https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-soothsayer-wayne-shorter-blue-note-records-review-by-chris-may.php

Personnel: Wayne Shorter: tenor saxophone; James Spaulding: alto saxophone; Freddie Hubbard: trumpet; McCoy Tyner: piano; Ron Carter: bass; Tony Williams: drums.

The Soothsayer

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McCoy Tyner - Passion Dance

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1978
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:29
Size: 95,2 MB
Art: Front

( 9:23)  1. Moment's Notice
(11:47)  2. Passion Dance
( 6:37)  3. Search For Peace
( 6:28)  4. The Promise
( 7:13)  5. Song Of The New World

Recorded live in Tokyo, the great pianist McCoy Tyner performs three of his best originals ("Passion Dance," "Search For Peace" and "Song Of The New World") plus two John Coltrane songs ("Moment's Notice" and "The Promise"). He takes three selections unaccompanied while "Moment's Notice" and "Song Of The New World" are with a trio including bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams. This Lp (long overdue to be reissued on CD) has plenty of fiery and passionate music. All of Tyner's Milestone records of the 1970's are recommended and this is one of the better ones. ~ Scott Yanow http://www.allmusic.com/album/passion-dance-mw0000410863

Personnel: McCoy Tyner, piano; Ron Carter, bass (on "Moment's Notice and "Song for the New World ); Tony Williams, drums (on "Moment's Notice and "Song for the New World ).

Passion Dance

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Andrew Hill - Point of Departure

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1964
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:59
Size: 116,9 MB
Art: Front

(12:18)  1. Refuge
( 7:05)  2. New Monastery
( 9:49)  3. Spectrum
( 4:12)  4. Flight 19
( 3:49)  5. Flight 19 - alternate take
( 6:43)  6. Dedication
( 7:01)  7. Dedication - alternate take

The folks at Music Matters have been reissuing classic Blue Note albums of the 1950s and 1960s at an aggressive clip, and have been careful to include virtually every style of music the label recorded, including some of its more challenging material. Pianist Andrew Hill's Point of Departure (1964) will never be mistaken for light cocktail jazz, but it's inclusion in this reissue series displays Music Matters' commitment to more adventurous material. In 1964, the term avant-garde could have been applied to any number of different musical angles in jazz. The free experiments of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, with their pure emotional howling set within very limited contextual framework, are perhaps the most notorious. But there was another avenue that retained a significant structural environment with greater emphasis on composition,even if those compositions were themselves quite a stretch. Hill's third recording as a leader, the diabolically brilliant Point of Departure, may be the apex of this school. This album includes some of the fiercest, high density writing of the era, with each track featuring tight, byzantine written statements and full-throated blending of timbres. The music includes dissonant harmonies, often employing multiple melodic ideas, and often played very fast. It would be easy to imagine the musicians scratching their heads on the first run through, struggling with music that reached for new levels of complexity. Nevertheless, and despite the very complicated, wrought compositions, the band plays rather loosely. They're all there, but a perfect precision performance does not appear to have been Hill's core demand. Instead, people come in and out slightly ahead or behind the beats, and even when they're harmonizing, cacophonous filigrees abound. On top of all that and that's already a lot Point of Departure features extraordinary improvising. Eric Dolphy on alto sax, flute and his trademark bass clarinet pursues pathways that make perfect sense within the music, but still sound like they've arrived from another planet. Joe Henderson's tenor work is right out there with Dolphy, and Kenny Dorham's trumpet adds a bright brass blare over all of it. Hill's piano is all over the map, and he plays the way he writes: inventive, unpredictable, and fearless. Notably, although the improvising is very aggressive and forward-looking, everyone still keeps his statements within the context of the music. Nothing on this record ever veers off into free territory. As with all of Music Matters' reissues, Point of Departure comes as two 45 RPM LPs. A decent turntable is a necessity. But the vinyl itself is pressed with tremendous quality control, so with good equipment these records reveal details that no CD will ever approach. It also helps that the original session, engineered by Rudy Van Gelder, was particularly well-recorded, with excellent clarity and instrument scale. Point of Departure is a cornerstone jazz recording that every serious jazz listener should hear. The Music Matters pressing simply adds elevated sound quality to what was already a musical masterpiece. ~ Greg Simmons https://www.allaboutjazz.com/point-of-departure-andrew-hill-blue-note-records-review-by-greg-simmons.php

Personnel: Andrew Hill: piano; Kenny Dorham: trumpet; Eric Dolphy: alto sax, flute, bass clarinet; Joe Henderson: tenor saxophone; Richard Davis: bass; Tony Williams: drums.

Point of Departure

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Eric Dolphy - ‘Out to Lunch!’

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1964
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:30
Size: 97,5 MB
Art: Front

( 8:28)  1. Hat and Beard
( 6:06)  2. Something Sweet, Something Tender
( 7:24)  3. Gazzelloni
(12:10)  4. Out to Lunch
( 8:21)  5. Straight Up and Down

Out to Lunch stands as Eric Dolphy's magnum opus, an absolute pinnacle of avant-garde jazz in any form or era. Its rhythmic complexity was perhaps unrivaled since Dave Brubeck's Time Out, and its five Dolphy originals the jarring Monk tribute "Hat and Beard," the aptly titled "Something Sweet, Something Tender," the weirdly jaunty flute showcase "Gazzelloni," the militaristic title track, the drunken lurch of "Straight Up and Down" were a perfect balance of structured frameworks, carefully calibrated timbres, and generous individual freedom. Much has been written about Dolphy's odd time signatures, wide-interval leaps, and flirtations with atonality. And those preoccupations reach their peak on Out to Lunch, which is less rooted in bop tradition than anything Dolphy had ever done. But that sort of analytical description simply doesn't do justice to the utterly alien effect of the album's jagged soundscapes. Dolphy uses those pet devices for their evocative power and unnerving hints of dementia, not some abstract intellectual exercise. His solos and themes aren't just angular and dissonant they're hugely so, with a definite playfulness that becomes more apparent with every listen. The whole ensemble trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, vibist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Tony Williams takes full advantage of the freedom Dolphy offers, but special mention has to be made of Hutcherson, who has fully perfected his pianoless accompaniment technique. His creepy, floating chords and quick stabs of dissonance anchor the album's texture, and he punctuates the soloists' lines at the least expected times, suggesting completely different pulses. Meanwhile, Dolphy's stuttering vocal-like effects and oddly placed pauses often make his bass clarinet lines sound like they're tripping over themselves. Just as the title Out to Lunch suggests, this is music that sounds like nothing so much as a mad gleam in its creator's eyes. ~ Steve Huey http://www.allmusic.com/album/out-to-lunch-mw0000241418

Personnel: Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone, flute, bass clarinet); Freddie Hubbard (trumpet); Bobby Hutcherson (vibraphone); Richard Davis (bass); Tony Williams (drums).

‘Out to Lunch!’

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Charles Lloyd - Of Course, Of Course

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:05
Size: 128.4 MB
Styles: Bop, Saxophone jazz
Year: 1966/2014
Art: Front

[4:44] 1. Of Course, Of Course
[2:27] 2. The Song My Lady Sings
[5:16] 3. The Best Thing For You
[6:07] 4. The Things We Did Last Summer
[3:57] 5. Apex
[5:06] 6. One For Joan
[3:36] 7. Goin' To Memphis
[6:42] 8. Voice In The Night
[6:15] 9. Third Floor Richard
[4:53] 10. East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon)
[3:23] 11. Island Blues
[3:32] 12. Sun Dance

Bass – Ron Carter; Drums – Tony Williams; Guitar – Gabor Szabo; Saxophone [Tenor], Flute – Charles Lloyd.

Charles Lloyd's second album as a leader teams him with guitarist Gabor Szabo (his old friend from the Chico Hamilton group), bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams. Although Lloyd was still a member of Cannonball Adderley's group, his playing on the set shows that he was clearly ready to become a leader. Seven of the nine diverse compositions are his originals; he takes "The Things We Did Last Summer" as a duet with Szabo and rips through "Apex," a trio number without the guitarist, but it is this cut most certainly reflects Ornette Coleman's influence (whereas Lloyd and everyone else who played tenor were being written about in the shadow of Coltrane). Certainly Coltrane's flurry of notes and deconstruction of chords is evident in places, but here, it is Coleman's unshakable sense of melody and rhyme that is most prevalent, and it sports is a brief but wonderfully woody solo by Carter. Other notable selections include "Goin' to Memphis" and Sammy Kahn's "Things We Did Last Summer" (where, according to Stanley Crouch's new liner notes, the saxophonist directly quotes the melody of Coleman's "Free at 3:00 of..."). Other cuts that really stand out here are the title track and the serious blowing session of "One for Joan," where the twinning and counterpoint interplay between Szabo and Lloyd is almost synchronous. Whether on tenor or flute, Lloyd was quickly coming into his own as an original voice, and this underrated set is a minor classic. [In 2007, Mosiac Records in its Singles series, reissued the recording for the first time on CD. In addition to a beautiful remastering job that is warm and clean, there are three bonus tracks also recorded in 1965 but not released until Lloyd's Nirvana album in 1968. Two of these, "Island Blues," and "Sun Dance" feature Albert Stinson on bass and Pete La Roca on drums in place of Carter and Williams. Another oddity is that in addition to Szabo's guitar playing, the Band's Robbie Robertson makes an appearance on the Caribbean-flavored latter tune. The other bonus cut, "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," uses the primary rhythm section, and was recorded for the original session, and left off the final version of the LP.] ~Scott Yanow

Of Course, Of Course

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Hal Galper - Now Hear This

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:30
Size: 112,6 MB
Art: Front

(8:27)  1. Now Hear This
(6:16)  2. Shadow Waltz
(5:36)  3. Red Eye Special
(9:08)  4. First Song in the Day
(5:12)  5. Mr. Fixit
(6:16)  6. Bemsha Swing
(7:32)  7. First Song in the Day [#][*][Take]

Hal Galper has had a long, distinguished career as a jazz pianist, bandleader, composer and educator. While the pianist has made a flurry of recordings over the past few years, record labels are beginning to mine the wealth of material he produced during the '=1970s. Now Hear This was first issued by Enja in 1977 and subsequently reissued in its original form, though this edition sports a redesigned cover and a bonus track. Galper's inspired quartet includes trumpeter Terumasa Hino, bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Tony Williams. The title track, which was recorded by its composer with a different quintet during the same decade, benefits from the stripped-down quartet and a decent piano (something not available for the live Century LP Speak With a Single Voice (1978)and reissued as the Double Time CD Children of the Night).  "Now Hear This" is one of Galper's most infectious works, as the pianist launches into a furious solo, with Hino's contribution followed by Williams' simmering break. The playful "Red Eye Special" suggests a bit of McCoy Tyner's influence, punctuated by Hino's searing trumpet. Galper builds "First Song of the Day" upon a simple repeated riff, intermingling thunderous chords and lightning runs in his solo, while both Hino's and McBee's features are equally full of fire. This expanded reissue includes a previously unreleased alternate take of it, which is a bit shorter but no less intense than the master. In addition to Galper's five originals, he includes a sauntering, sassy interpretation of Thelonious Monk's "Bemsha Swing." This is easily one of Galper's best recordings of the 1970s and very desirable to have in this expanded, brighter sounding 24bit edition. ~ Ken Dryden https://www.allaboutjazz.com/now-hear-this-hal-galper-enja-records-review-by-ken-dryden.php

Personnel: Hal Galper: piano; Terumasa Hino: trumpet, flugelhorn; Cecil McBee: bass; Tony Williams: drums.

Now Hear This

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