Lizz Wright - Holding Space (Lizz Wright live in Berlin)

Styles: Vocal, Neo-Soul
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:00
Size: 153,8 MB
Art: Front

(6:57) 1. Barley
(6:37) 2. Old Man
(4:56) 3. Wash Me Clean
(5:50) 4. Somewhere Down The Mystic
(7:22) 5. The New Game
(8:33) 6. Walk With Me Lord
(3:47) 7. Southern Nights
(5:52) 8. Grace
(3:15) 9. No More Will I Run
(8:04) 10. Seems I'm Never Tired Lovin' You
(5:41) 11. All The Way Here

Lizz Wright’s seventh album, Holding Space, is a glorious declaration of independence. It’s the first release on her artist-centric new label Blues & Greens Records, a platform that allows musicians to retain the masters and rights to their music. Artistically, the project presents Wright at her most elemental, backed by a working combo with guitarist Chris Bruce, bassist Ben Zwerin, keyboardist Bobby Ray Sparks II, and drummer Ivan Edwards.

Recorded in Berlin in the summer of 2018 at the conclusion of a European tour, the album captures Wright in full flight, focusing on music from 2017’s Grace while also drawing from her previous Concord release, 2015’s Freedom & Surrender, and her project with the WDR Big Band. Since the release of her star-making 2003 debut Salt, Wright has tried on several instrumental settings. Her producers tended to gussy up her songs with an array of keyboards and string instruments; the results didn’t always serve her well. Holding Space is Wright unadulterated, from Allison Russell’s carved-oak “Barley” to a lusciously slow version of k.d. lang’s “Wash Me Clean.”

Wright’s own work as a songwriter is also well represented, with the rapturously folk-rocking “Somewhere Down the Mystic” and swampy anthem “The New Game.” Most striking is when Wright seizes a song indelibly linked to another artist and makes it her own, gently wrestling Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights” from Glen Campbell and positively pocketing Neil Young’s “Old Man.” (Have two artists ever offered greater tonal contrast?)

Wright’s voice is one of the marvels of the contemporary scene, but it’s her preternatural calm that sets her apart. Rather than evoking the Black church’s ecstatic fervor, she channels her intensity into the density of her sound. Her phrasing flows imperturbably. She’s a rock, and with Holding Space she’s building an edifice of her own.https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/lizz-wright-holding-space-blues-greens/

Holding Space (Lizz Wright live in Berlin)

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Denise Jannah - Take It From The Top

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 1991
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:46
Size: 134,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:04)  1. Pennies From Heaven
(8:01)  2. Willow Weep For Me
(6:29)  3. Fragile
(4:12)  4. I've Got the World On a String
(7:41)  5. I'm in a Minor Key Today
(3:51)  6. I Get Along Without You Very Well
(4:16)  7. Groovin' High
(5:49)  8. I'm a Fool to Want You
(4:56)  9. A Sleepin' Bee
(8:22) 10. My Funny Valentine

Denise Jannah made her debut as a leader with this 1991 session for Timeless. This native of Surinam (Dutch Guiana) has a strong voice that swings mightily and conveys emotion without ever resorting to sappiness. You have to like a singer who restores the often omitted verse to an oldie like "Pennies from Heaven," then scats up a storm to boot. No one does the verse to the standard "Willow Weep for Me," yet Jannah's haunting introduction, backed solely by pianist Michel Herr, sets up the message of the song perfectly. But nowhere does Jannah pack as big a punch as she does in her moving take of "I Get Along Without You Very Well." Bop fans will love the intricate take of "Groovin' High" featuring a fine alto sax solo by Rolf Delfos and muted trumpet by Angelo Verploegen in which she alternates between adept scatting and singing Kirby Stone's vocalese lyrics. She is also open to contemporary material, delivering a heartfelt interpretation of rocker Sting's "Fragile" in an easygoing bossa nova setting. Though Denise Jannah has made many rewarding CDs following this remarkable debut, this CD is well worth acquiring, too. ~ Ken Dryden http://www.allmusic.com/album/take-it-from-the-top-mw0000426428

Personnel: Denise Jannah (vocals); Jan Verwey (harmonica); Rolf Delfos (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone); Boris Vanderlek (tenor saxophone); Angelo Verploegen (trumpet, flugelhorn); Michel Herr (piano).

Take It From The Top

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Ernie Andrews - Girl Talk

Styles: Vocal And Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2001
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:38
Size: 112,7 MB
Art: Front

(4:07) 1. Girl Talk
(5:17) 2. Don't Touch Me
(4:47) 3. Old Man River
(4:45) 4. I Want to Be Loved
(4:14) 5. I Only Have Eyes for You
(5:10) 6. Everybody's Somebody Fool
(4:03) 7. Once in a Lifetime
(5:54) 8. A Cottage for Sale
(3:51) 9. That's What I Thought You Said
(6:24) 10. It Might as Well Be Spring

There were so few male jazz singers active at the beginning of the 21st century that it was a good time to appreciate the singing of veteran Ernie Andrews. For this set, he is joined by a four-piece rhythm section that includes pianist Aaron Graves and guitarist Dom Minasi, plus either Teddy Edwards or Houston Person on tenor. Andrews is quite expressive and bluesy throughout the set, and in particularly fine form on Edwards' "Don't Touch Me," "Everybody's Somebody's Fool," "That's What I Thought You Said" (which is humorous, if repetitive), and "A Cottage for Sale," even if the words for "Girl Talk" are long overdue to be retired. Recommended.~Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/girl-talk-mw0000006645

Girl Talk

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Dave Brubeck - On Time

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2001
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:24
Size: 111,4 MB
Art: Front

(5:23) 1. Take Five
(6:42) 2. Blue Rondo à la Turk (Album Version)
(1:59) 3. Unsquare Dance
(6:59) 4. Out Of Nowhere
(4:13) 5. Somewhere
(1:57) 6. There'll Be Some Changes Made
(5:50) 7. You Go to My Head
(5:54) 8. Besame Mucho (Album Version)
(4:45) 9. Win A Few, Lose a Few
(4:38) 10. Forty Days

In the 1950s and '60s, few American jazz artists were as influential, and fewer still were as popular, as Dave Brubeck. At a time when the cooler sounds of West Coast jazz began to dominate the public face of the music, Brubeck proved there was an audience for the style far beyond the confines of the in-crowd, and with his emphasis on unusual time signatures and adventurous tonalities, Brubeck showed that ambitious and challenging music could still be accessible. And as rock & roll began to dominate the landscape of popular music at the dawn of the '60s, Brubeck enjoyed some of his greatest commercial and critical success, expanding the audience for jazz and making it hip with young adults and college students.

David Warren Brubeck was born in Concord, California on December 6, 1920. Brubeck grew up surrounded by music his mother was a classically trained pianist and his two older brothers would become professional musicians and he began receiving piano lessons when he was four years old. Brubeck showed an initial reluctance to learn to read music, but his natural facility for the keyboard and his ability to pick up melodies by ear allowed him to keep this a secret for several years. His father worked as a cattle rancher, and in 1932, his family moved from Concord to a 45,000-acre spread near the foothills of the Sierras. As a teenager, Brubeck was passionate about music and performed with a local dance band in his spare time, but he planned to follow a more practical career path and study veterinary medicine. However, after enrolling in the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California, Brubeck played piano in local night spots to help pay his way, and his enthusiasm for performing was such that one of his professors suggested he would be better off studying music. Brubeck followed this advice and graduated in 1942, though several of his instructors were shocked to learn that he still couldn't read music.

Brubeck left college as World War II was in full swing, and he was soon drafted into the Army; he served under Gen. George S. Patton, and would have fought in the Battle of the Bulge had he not been asked to play piano in a Red Cross show for the troops. Brubeck was requested to put together a jazz band with his fellow soldiers, and he formed a combo called "the Wolfpack," a multi-racial ensemble at a time when the military was still largely segregated. Brubeck was honorably discharged in 1946, and enrolled at Mills College in Oakland, California, where he studied under the French composer Darius Milhaud. Unlike many composers in art music, Milhaud had a keen appreciation for jazz, and Brubeck began incorporating many of Milhaud's ideas about unusual time signatures and polytonality into his jazz pieces. In 1947, Brubeck formed a band with several other Mills College students, the Dave Brubeck Octet. However, the Octet's music was a bit too adventurous for the average jazz fan at the time, and Brubeck moved on to a more streamlined trio with Cal Tjader on vibes and percussion and Ron Crotty on bass. Brubeck made his first commercial recordings with this trio for California's Fantasy Records, and while he developed a following in the San Francisco Bay Area, a back injury Brubeck received during a swimming accident prevented him from performing for several months and led him to restructure his group.

In 1951, the Dave Brubeck Quartet made their debut, with the pianist joined by Paul Desmond on alto sax; Desmond's easygoing but adventurous approach was an ideal match for Brubeck. While the Quartet's rhythm section would shift repeatedly over the next several years, in 1956 Joe Morello became their permanent drummer, and in 1958, Eugene Wright took over as bassist. By this time, Brubeck's fame had spread far beyond Northern California; Brubeck's recordings for Fantasy had racked up strong reviews and impressive sales, and along with regular performances at jazz clubs, the Quartet began playing frequent concerts at college campuses across the country, exposing their music to a new and enthusiastic audience that embraced their innovative approach. Brubeck and the Quartet had become popular enough to be the subject of a November 8, 1954 cover story in Time Magazine, only the second time that accolade had been bestowed on a jazz musician (Louis Armstrong made the cover in 1949). In 1955, Brubeck signed with Columbia Records, then America's most prestigious record company, and his first album for the label, Brubeck Time, appeared several months later.
(cont.) https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dave-brubeck-mn0000958533/biography

On Time

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Kent Jordan - Essence

Styles: Flute Jazz
Year: 1988
File: MP3@160K/s
Time: 40:21
Size: 47,4 MB
Art: Front

(7:26) 1. Curtain Call
(5:01) 2. Essence
(5:27) 3. Rio
(4:33) 4. Well You Needn't
(4:51) 5. Moments Notice
(6:39) 6. Stella by Starlight
(6:21) 7. Stablemates

Flutist Kent Jordan's third Columbia set is far superior to his first two rather commercial efforts (No Question About It and Night Aire). Jordan is well-featured on four standards (including "Well You Needn't," which finds him switching effectively to piccolo, and "Moment's Notice"), two tunes by bassist Elton Heron, and Wayne Shorter's "Rio" in a variety of instrumental settings.

With such sidemen as pianists Kenny Barron and Billy Childs, guitarist Kevin Eubanks, bassists Dave Holland and Ron Carter, drummers Jack DeJohnette and Al Foster, and (on the opening "Curtain Call") trumpeter/brother Marlon Jordan and tenor saxophonist Branford Marsalis, among others, Jordan interacts with an all-star cast. Most of the music is fairly straight-ahead, and throughout, the flutist realizes some of the potential that was wasted on his first two recordings.~Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/essence-mw000019508

Personnel: Flute – Kent Jordan; Bass – Dave Holland, Elton Heron; Drums – Al Foster, Tommy Campbell; Piano – Billy Childs, Kenny Barron; Tenor Saxophone – Branford Marsalis; Trumpet – Marlon Jordan

Essence

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Pete Malinverni - On The Town, Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein

Styles: Piano Jazz
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:52
gwo Size: 135,9 MB
Art: Front

(5:04) 1. New York New York
(5:36) 2. Lucky to Be Me
(5:18) 3. Somewhere
(5:33) 4. Cool
(6:05) 5. Simple Song
(6:00) 6. I Feel Pretty
(5:56) 7. Lonely Town
(5:04) 8. Some Other Time
(8:04) 9. It’s Love
(6:08) 10. A Night on the Town

Pianist Pete Malinverni's album, On the Town, is subtitled "Plays Leonard Bernstein," and it's an homage he has wanted to put on record for many years ever since he met Bernstein in person while performing at an opening-night party for a production of the opera Tosca at the Met in NYC. Bernstein, he recalls, spent much of the evening hanging around the piano, not with his more celebrated dinner companions. ("Real musicians want to hang out with the band," Malinverni says).

And Bernstein was a real musician, one who loved jazz as well as classical music, as Stan Kenton learned one evening when Bernstein was in the audience for a performance by the Kenton Orchestra of the composer's score for West Side Story. Afterward, Bernstein approached Kenton and said simply, "My music has never sounded better."

Bernstein's music sounds pretty good here too, thanks to Malinverni's discerning piano and unerring support from his blue-chip rhythm section: bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Jeff Hamilton. The music with two exceptions is from Bernstein's Broadway oeuvre (On the Town, West Side Story, Wonderful Town). The outliers are the endearing "Simple Tune" from Bernstein's "Mass" and "(A Night) on the Town," Malinverni's clever harmonic synthesis of several Bernstein tunes, which rings down the curtain.

Bernstein's uncanny ear for a lovely melody is everywhere present, as on "Lucky to Be Me," "Somewhere," "I Feel Pretty," "Lonely Town," "Some Other Time" and "It's Love," each one given its due with a masterful treatment by the trio. The opener, "New York New York," isn't the familiar paean to the Big Apple by John Kander and Fred Ebb but the ebullient anthem sung by a trio of sailors on one-day leave in On the Town.

Malinverni and his mates give each song their tender love and care, refreshing a series of masterworks in a way that surely would have brought a smile to Bernstein's lips and perhaps a tear or two to his eyes. Malinverni is a superb pianist, and there is simply no rhythm section that could lend more earnest and agreeable support than Okegwo and Hamilton. Blend in music by the incomparable Leonard Bernstein, and what's not to like?~Jack Bowers https://www.allaboutjazz.com/on-the-town-pete-malinverni-plays-leonard-bernstein-pete-malinverni-planet-arts-records

Personnel: Pete Malinverni: piano; Ugonna Okegwo: bass; Jeff Hamilton: drums.

On The Town, Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein

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Nellie McKay - La promesse

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:27
Size: 82,7 MB
Art: Front

(2:54) 1. You and me (radio edit)
(3:13) 2. Comment vas tu
(3:15) 3. Je te retrouverai
(2:45) 4. La promesse
(3:28) 5. Ma vie s'écrit comme ça
(3:43) 6. l'Enfant aux pieds nus
(3:21) 7. On rêve parfois
(2:58) 8. Tout ce qu'elle aime
(3:06) 9. Serre-moi (radio edit)
(3:01) 10. Un monde uni
(3:40) 11. You and me (album version)

A sharp and thoughtful artist lurking beneath the surface of a sunny, playful chanteuse, Nellie McKay is a singer and songwriter whose performing style is largely informed by vintage jazz and vocal pop, with occasional dashes of indie rock and hip-hop. McKay's songs are witty and stylish variations on the themes of the Great American Songbook (she's been compared to Cole Porter more than once), but often feature pointed satirical observations on politics and society. (On her website, McKay states, "Nellie is an annoyingly vocal advocate for feminism, civil rights and other deeply felt progressive ideals.") Born in London, England, McKay spent most of her first ten years living in Harlem, New York, and she developed a keen interest in retro fashions and female pop vocalists of the '40s and '50s.

After spending two years studying vocal jazz in New York City, McKay headed out on her own, and developed a following that led to her signing with Columbia Records. McKay's debut, 2004's Get Away from Me, was a critical favorite, but her insistence on doing things her own way led to her being dropped by her record label. Despite this, McKay continued to write and record on her own terms for a variety of imprints, earning praise for her songwriting on 2006's Pretty Little Head and 2007's Obligatory Villagers, while later demonstrating her skills as an interpretive vocalist, paying homage to Doris Day on 2009's Normal as Blueberry Pie and reworking classic rock and pop hits of the '60s on 2015's My Weekly Reader.

Nellie McKay was born in London, England on April 13, 1982. Her father, Malcolm McKay, was a novelist and television director, while her mother, Robin Pappas, was an actress. Nellie's parents divorced in 1984, and she lived a nomadic childhood with her mother, first moving to Harlem, New York, then relocating to Olympia, Washington after ten-year-old Nellie was mugged. She later settled in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, where she was something of a misfit, listening to Dinah Shore, Doris Day, and Jo Stafford records while reading up on stars of the '30s and '40s and developing a retro fashion sense. At the age of 16, McKay moved back to New York City to study jazz vocals at the Manhattan School of Music, but quit after two years, eager to launch her career. After dabbling in standup comedy, she began performing her own songs, musically rooted in classic styles but revealing a dry and often dark sense of humor as well as a keen social conscience while accompanying herself on the ukulele.

McKay began appearing at Manhattan night spots like the Sidewalk Cafe and Fez, and word of mouth led to a bidding war among record labels to sign her, with Columbia Records the winner. McKay released her debut album, Get Away from Me, in February 2004; produced by Geoff Emerick (whose résumé included work with the Beatles and Elvis Costello), the album earned rave reviews and was nominated for the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize, but it proved hard to market, especially after McKay butted heads with Columbia over her decision to make the debut a two-disc set. Further skirmishes with Columbia over her follow-up (much of which was financed by McKay herself) led to her parting ways with the label, and her self-produced sophomore effort, Pretty Little Head, was released in October 2006 on her own Hungry Mouse label, distributed by SpinART Records. By this time, McKay had made her Broadway debut, playing Polly Peachum in a production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera, which also featured Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper. Her performance earned her the Theater World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance.

After releasing two two-disc sets in a row, McKay made a more concise statement with 2007's Obligatory Villagers, a nine-song set that ran less than 30 minutes. McKay returned to the world of major labels when she signed with the venerable jazz label Verve Records; her first release for the label was Normal as Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day, in which she paid homage to a major influence and fellow animal lover. The album was co-produced by McKay's mother, Robin Pappas, who also helped produce 2010's Home Sweet Mobile Home, which featured a guest appearance by David Byrne. (McKay has previously appeared on Byrne's concept album about Imelda Marcos, Here Lies Love, recorded in tandem with Fatboy Slim.) For the next several years, McKay primarily devoted herself to live work; she also wrote and staged musical performance pieces honoring the lives of celebrated felon Barbara Graham (I Want to Live!), environmental activist Rachel Carson (Silent Spring: It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature), transgender musician Billy Tipton (A Girl Named Bill: The Life and Times of Billy Tipton), and comedian Joan Rivers (The Big Molinsky Considering Joan Rivers).

She also appeared in the 2013 off-Broadway revue Old Hats with David Miner and Bill Irwin. In 2015, McKay returned with My Weekly Reader, in which she offered new interpretations of rock & roll songs of the '60s, running the gamut from the Kinks' "Sunny Afternoon" to the Mothers of Invention's "Hungry Freaks, Daddy." Released in 2018, Sister Orchid was McKay's third interpretative album, in which she put her own spin on ten classic jazz standards. Another standards set, the EP Bagatelles, arrived the following year and found McKay offering distinctive takes on classic songs like "How About You," "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," and "The Best Things in Life.
~Mark Deming https://www.allmusic.com/artist/nellie-mckay-mn0000382298/biography

La promesse

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Angelika Niescier & Alexander Hawkins - Soul in Plain Sight

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2021
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:30
Size: 132,4 MB
Art: Front

(2:55) 1. Brawls And Squabbles
(4:57) 2. Arhythm Songy
(2:46) 3. Why Didn’t You?
(5:54) 4. Un:Tamed
(3:40) 5. Shipwrecked Words
(3:11) 6. Scops
(0:57) 7. Weft
(6:41) 8. Nexus
(4:30) 9. Metamorphose einer Karelle
(1:33) 10. Loom
(5:03) 11. As Hemispheres at Home
(3:45) 12. Limnetic Zone
(4:36) 13. Tar’ai
(1:56) 14. Scope

Some pairings were just meant to be. Exhibit one, Soul In Plain Sight by the duo of Angelika Niescier and Alexander Hawkins. Niescier, the Polish-born Germany-based saxophonist, met the British pianist Hawkins at the Berlin Jazzfest. Their mutual admiration led to a brief tour and this recording. The music succeeds here because of the musicians' balanced approach and compatible natures. Opening with the cleanse and purge of the improvised "Brawls And Squabbles," the pair spar with push/pull jabs. Hawkins hammers fisted notes while Niescier delivers squawks and overblown notes as this opening salvo announces this new partnership.

Of the fourteen tracks, eight are improvised, three were penned by Niescier and two by Hawkins. The lone cover is "Arhythm Songy" by Muhal Richard Abrams. Recorded in 1977 in a session with saxophonist Anthony Braxton, the composition links Niescier and Hawkins to both the AACM and Braxton. Hawkins would be engaged by Braxton to tour Europe in 2020 playing jazz and pop standards, which can be heard in the massive 13-CD box set Quartet (Standards) 2020 (New Braxton House, 2021) and Niescier draws much of her inspiration (and sound) from Braxton.

That connection can be heard or her Intakt recordings with Tyshawn Sorey and Christopher Tordini. The listener can can favor either musician's compositions or choose their free improvisations. Niescier's "Metamorphose Einerka Karelle" plays out as drunken bebop and Hawkins' "Scops" tinkle trinkles as an alluring ballad. The very brief "Weft," "Loom," and "Scope," which together don't add up to five minutes of music, are classics in miniature asking for an encore, as does this duo. More please.~ Mark Corroto
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/soul-in-plain-sight-angelika-niescier-alexander-hawkins-intakt-records

Personnel: Angelika Niescier: saxophone; Alexander Hawkins: piano.

Soul in Plain Sight

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Tyler Mitchell featuring Marshall Allen - Dancing Shadows

Styles: Avant-Garde Jazz
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:56
Size: 111,1 MB
Art: Front

(7:24) 1. Interstellar Lowways
(4:22) 2. Spaced Out
(5:19) 3. Angels and Demons at Play
(3:19) 4. Skippy
(3:08) 5. Nico
(3:40) 6. Dancing Shadows
(2:35) 7. Carefree
(3:03) 8. Marshall the Deputy
(3:51) 9. Nico Revisited
(1:49) 10. Space Travelers
(6:13) 11. Enlightenment
(3:07) 12. A Call for All Demons

There's a buzz to Dancing Shadows that is akin to the first time one stumbled upon a late 1950s to late 1960s Blue Note, Riverside, Verve, Impulse! or Prestige recording and time just stopped and the music took you places you were eager to go whether you knew where you were going or not. You stared at the cover, the wall, into the new, opening world. It may well have been your first mind-altering experience without, (or in conjunction with) any of the pharmaceuticals of the time.

A great head with jaunty moves Dancing Shadows certainly is, and for that we owe bassist Tyler Mitchell a good deal of gratitude. Serving as the session's swing-spring anchor, Tyler gives the floor over to elder statesman and Sun Ra alum saxophonist Marshall Allen who, at the very creative age of 97, takes us loosely through a twelve-song set consisting of Tyler and Marshall originals, a couple of prime Sun Ra takes and "Skippy," an inverted bop bounce courtesy of Thelonious Monk that may leave you dancing on clouds.

Sounding like they all convened in a New York studio via Chicago and Hackensack, the remaining sextet Chris Hemingway tenor sax, Nicoletta Manzini alto sax. drummer Wayne Smith, and percussionist Elson Nascimento follow Tyler and Mitchell's lead with a fluid affinity that locks the listener in and moves him or her on. Just try to resist the groove to Sun Ra's 1966 gem "Interstellar Low Ways," a groove that has lost none of its power to sway. The title track is a hard bop free-fall with the horns ripping and declaring, tripping and daring the listener and the rhythm section to keep up. The trippy lure of "Angels and Demons," the brief, casual fire of "Care Free," the burst and blare of "Space Travelers," all add up to that rare rush that seems to get harder and harder to find. Listen to this one at the start of the day what watch how easy the day gets.~ Mike Jurkovic Mike Jurkovichttps://www.allaboutjazz.com/dancing-shadows-tyler-mitchell-mahakala-music

Personnel: Tyler Mitchell: bass; Marshall Allen: saxophone, alto; Chris Hemingway: saxophone, alto; Nicoletta Manzini: saxophone, alto; Wayne Smith: drums; Elson Nascimento: percussion.

Dancing Shadows

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Buck Clayton - Back In Town, Still Around: Live In New York

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s

Time: 94:51

Size: 217.1 MB

Styles: Mainstream jazz

Year: 2012

Art: Front

[8:04] 1. Lulu's Back In Town

[8:02] 2. Basin Street Blues

[4:18] 3. Ballin' The Jack

[7:21] 4. Medley: Misty/I'm Old Fashioned/Old Folks/Don't Take Your Love From Me

[3:55] 5. Big Noise From Winnetka

[5:44] 6. At The Jazz Band Ball

[4:09] 7. Wolverine Blues

[6:51] 8. When The Saints Go Marching In

[8:28] 9. Fidgety Feet

[5:18] 10. Medley: I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan/Everything Happens To Me/Body And Soul

[7:11] 11. Ja Da

[5:59] 12. Indiana

[5:04] 13. Bye Bye Blackbird

[4:31] 14. All The Jazz Band Ball (Alt Vers)

[5:17] 15. Basin Street Blues (Alt Vers)

[4:34] 16. Original Dixieland One Step

An excellent bandleader and accompanist for many vocalists, including Billie Holiday, Buck Clayton was a valued soloist with Count Basie Orchestra during the '30s and '40s, and later was a celebrated studio and jam session player, writer, and arranger. His tart, striking tone and melodic dexterity were his trademark, and Clayton provided several charts for Basie's orchestra and many other groups. Clayton began his career in California, where he organized a big band that had a residency in China in 1934. When he returned, Clayton led a group and played with other local bands. During a 1936 visit to Kansas City, he was invited to join Basie's orchestra as a replacement for Hot Lips Page. Clayton was also featured on sessions with Lester Young, Teddy Wilson, and Holiday in the late '30s. He remained in the Basie band until 1943, when he left for army service. After leaving the army, Clayton did arrangements for Basie, Benny Goodman, and Harry James before forming a sextet in the late '40s. He toured Europe with this group in 1949 and 1950. Clayton continued heading a combo during the '50s, and worked with Joe Bushkin, Tony Parenti, and Jimmy Rushing, among others. He organized a series of outstanding recordings for Columbia in the mid-'50s under the title Jam Session (compiled and reissued by Mosaic in 1993). There were sessions with Rushing, Ruby Braff, and Nat Pierce. Clayton led a combo with Coleman Hawkins and J.J. Johnson at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, then reunited with Goodman in 1957 at the Waldorf Astoria. There was another European tour, this time with Mezz Mezzrow. He appeared in the 1956 film The Benny Goodman Story and played the 1958 Brussels World Fair with Sidney Bechet. Clayton later made another European visit with a Newport Jazz Festival tour. He joined Eddie Condon's band in 1959, a year after appearing in the film Jazz on a Summer's Day. Clayton toured Japan and Australia with Condon's group in 1964, and continued to revisit Europe throughout the '60s, often with Humphrey Lyttelton's band, while playing festivals across the country. But lip and health problems virtually ended his playing career in the late '60s. After a period outside of music, Clayton once again became active in music, this time as a non-playing arranger, touring Africa as part of a State Department series in 1977. He provided arrangements and compositions for a 1974 Lyttleton and Buddy Tate album, and did more jam session albums for Chiaroscuro in 1974 and 1975. He also became an educator, teaching at Hunter College in the early '80s. Clayton led a group of Basie sidemen on a European tour in 1983, then headed his own big band in 1987 that played almost exclusively his compositions and arrangements. That same year Clayton's extensive autobiography Buck Clayton's Jazz World, with Nancy Miller-Elliot, was published. ~bio by Ron Wynn

Back In Town, Still Around: Live In New York

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George Shearing - The Outlaw

Styles: Piano Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 2022
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 74:19
Size: 171,5 MB
Art: Front

(2:09) 1. The Outlaw
(3:50) 2. The Be-bop Irishman
(3:12) 3. I'll Be Around
(3:55) 4. Jumpin' With Symphony Sid
(6:13) 5. This Nearly Was Mine
(4:04) 6. My New Mambo
(2:29) 7. When April Comes Again
(3:17) 8. Monophraseology
(2:39) 9. Cocktails For Two
(4:13) 10. Jordu
(3:01) 11. As I Love You
(4:44) 12. Confirmation
(3:57) 13. The Nearness Of You
(3:25) 14. Mambo Inn
(3:34) 15. Bernie's Tune
(4:10) 16. Some Other Spring
(4:30) 17. Joy Spring
(5:57) 18. Drume Negrita
(4:50) 19. Lullaby Of Birdland

For a long stretch of time in the 1950s and early '60s, George Shearing had one of the most popular jazz combos on the planet so much so that, in the usual jazz tradition of distrusting popular success, he tended to be underappreciated. Shearing's main claim to fame was the invention of a unique quintet sound, derived from a combination of piano, vibraphone, electric guitar, bass, and drums. Within this context, Shearing would play in a style he called "locked hands," which he picked up and refined from Milt Buckner's early '40s work with the Lionel Hampton band, as well as from Glenn Miller's sax section and the King Cole Trio. Stating the melody on the piano with closely knit, harmonized block chords, with the vibes and guitar tripling the melody in unison, Shearing sold millions of records for MGM and Capitol in his heyday.

The wild success of this urbane sound obscured Shearing's other great contribution during this time, for he was also a pioneer of exciting, small-combo Afro-Cuban jazz in the '50s. Cal Tjader first caught the Latin jazz bug while playing with Shearing, and the English bandleader also employed such esteemed congueros as Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, and Armando Peraza. As a composer, Shearing was best known for the uniquely constructed bop standard "Lullaby of Birdland," as well as "Conception" and "Consternation." His solo style, though all his own, reflected the influences of the great boogie-woogie pianists and classical players as well as those of Fats Waller, Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson, Erroll Garner, Art Tatum, and Bud Powell and fellow pianists long admired his light, refined touch. He was also known to play accordion and sing on occasion.

Shearing, who was born blind, began playing the piano at the age of three, receiving some music training at the Linden Lodge School for the Blind in London as a teenager but picking up the jazz influence from Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller 78s. In the late '30s, he started playing professionally with the Ambrose dance band and made his first recordings in 1937 under the aegis of fellow Brit Leonard Feather. He became a star in Britain, performing for the BBC, playing a key role in the self-exiled Stéphane Grappelli's London-based groups of the early '40s, and winning seven consecutive Melody Maker polls before emigrating in New York City in 1947 at the prompting of Feather. Once there, Shearing quickly absorbed bebop, replacing Garner in the Oscar Pettiford Trio and leading a quartet in tandem with Buddy DeFranco. In 1949, he formed the first and most famous of his quintets, which included Marjorie Hyams on vibes, Chuck Wayne on guitar, John Levy on bass, and Denzil Best on drums. Recording briefly first for Discovery, then Savoy, Shearing settled into lucrative associations with MGM (1950-1955) and Capitol (1955-1969), the latter for which he made albums with Nancy Wilson, Peggy Lee, and Nat King Cole. He also made a lone album for Jazzland with the Montgomery Brothers (including Wes Montgomery) in 1961, and began playing concert dates with symphony orchestras.

After leaving Capitol, Shearing began to phase out his by-then-predictable quintet, finally breaking it up in 1978. He started his own label, Sheba, which lasted for a few years into the early '70s, and made some trio recordings for MPS later in the decade. In the '70s, his profile had been lowered considerably, but upon signing with Concord in 1979, Shearing found himself enjoying a renaissance. He made a number of acclaimed albums with Mel Tormé, raising the singer's profile in the process, and recorded with the likes of Ernestine Anderson, Jim Hall, Marian McPartland, Hank Jones, and classical French horn player Barry Tuckwell. He also recorded a number of solo piano albums where his full palette of influences came into play. He signed with Telarc in 1992 and, from that point through the early 2000s, continued to perform and record, most often appearing in a duo or trio setting. Shearing, who had remained largely inactive since 2004 after a fall in his New York City apartment, died of congestive heart failure at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital on February 14, 2011. He was 91.By Richard S. Ginell https://www.allmusic.com/artist/george-shearing-mn0000642664/biography

The Outlaw

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The Tubby Hayes Quartet - A Little Workout: Live At The Little Theatre

Styles: Saxophone And Flute Jazz

Year: 2018

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 65:20

Size: 150,8 MB

Art: Front

( 8:30) 1. A Change Of Setting

( 7:59) 2. Seven Steps To Heaven

(11:19) 3. For Members Only

( 5:58) 4. Here's That Rainy Day

(17:06) 5. Dear Johnny B.

(14:26) 6. Walkin'

William Blake wrote that ‘energy is eternal delight’. That thought prefigures the work here: the intensity, the tumbling ideas, the burning passion, the unrelenting drive. The opening of ‘A Change of Setting’ injects the spiralling dynamism that frequently underpins Hayes’ work. At times on ‘For Members Only’ the intensity is almost too much, it veers close to creative ecstasy. It is all part of a profound artistic vision based on intense impassioned energy that somehow is rooted in a technique that is at the complete service of Hayes’ ideas. ‘Here’s That Rainy Day’ is an interlude partially devoted to Mick Pyne. Hayes’ flute playing is almost an afterthought. Ron Mathewson is not favoured by the recording and the sound of Levin’s drums is at times reduced to a clatter. However, the recording as a whole, is more than acceptable and the sound of the tenor is rendered beautifully. I just can’t help wondering what this marvellous quartet would have sounded like with modern recording techniques. Hayes’ ‘Dear Johnny B’ is almost unrestrained. Hayes, at this time, obviously felt the need to cut free but he never loses the theme. Hayes aspired to be free but he was the most grounded of free players and all the more interesting for that. ‘Walkin’’ is the key track of the album. Hayes unfurls fifty choruses as he roars and races through: investigating, selecting, critiquing, assaying, all at turbo speed, music that is unrelenting, not for the faint-hearted. Hayes has been criticised for playing too many notes. If that was all he did, that criticism would be valid. There is more, over and over, Hayes tells an intense, fervent tale.

In the substantial notes, Simon Spillett angrily quotes a critic who wrote a disparaging review of Tubby Hayes claiming that Hayes lacked an artistic vision. Spillett strongly disputes that assessment. His passion for his subject permeates his writing. I always read Spillett’s writing, before listening to the music. He illuminates. As he often does, he puts the music into the historical context, setting the scene and whetting the appetite. Here, accompanying this album, there are 30 pages. Spillett mentions two other albums that were recorded at the same venue ‘Addictive Tendencies’ 4/12/66 and ‘Lament’ 2/4/67 both with Mathewson, Pyne and Levin. Obviously, the venue suited the quartet because the intensity on all three albums is similar. There is no doubt in Spillett’s mind that this album contains remarkable music.

Even now, there is nothing quite like Tubby Hayes in UK jazz: the energy, passion and drive still startles. This is a superlative example of his work from the mid-sixties as he moves forward. At the moment, we are living in an age of restraint in jazz; there are lessons to be learnt from this tumultuous music. Energy is eternal delight. ~ Jack Kenny http://www.jazzviews.net/tubby-hayes-quartet---a-little-workout.html

Personnel: Tubby Hayes(tenor saxophone and flute); Mike Pyne (piano); Ron Mathewson (bass); Tony Levin (drums)

A Little Workout: Live At The

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Jessica Williams - Dedicated To You

Styles: Piano Jazz

Year: 2007

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 60:03

Size: 138,5 MB

Art: Front

(7:04) 1. Dedicated To You

(4:20) 2. That Old Feeling

(4:10) 3. Sue's Blues

(4:53) 4. El Salvador

(6:54) 5. Dirty Dog Blues

(3:53) 6. If And When

(5:28) 7. Getting Sentimental

(7:06) 8. My One And Only Love

(5:00) 9. Newk's Fluke

(5:11) 10. Sometimes, Silence

(5:59) 11. Where Or When

Jessica Williams is a well-known and highly respected American pianist and composer.

She advocates for feedom, justice, and equality among all peoples of the Earth, and has always made it clear that she believes in good over evil, love over hate, and peace over war. She defiantly opposes the present regime in the US and abroad, and is a staunch supporter of GLBT rights, particularly focusing on an end to the hate and violence endured by transgendered, and transsexual people everywhere. She was born with A.I.S., and had gender corrective surgery in 1976. Jessica has fought her entire life against inequality and hate. At 70, she continues to make new music and fight for freedom.

Dedicated To You

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Ran Blake & Jaki Byard - Improvisations

Styles: Piano Jazz

Year: 1981

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 45:05

Size: 103,6 MB

Art: Front

( 6:09) 1. On Green Dolphin Street

( 4:11) 2. Prelude

( 8:31) 3. Chromatics

( 3:47) 4. Wende

( 7:00) 5. Tea for Two

( 4:45) 6. Victoria

(10:38) 7. Sonata for Two Pianos

This very interesting release matches together Ran Blake and Jaki Byard in a set of piano duets. Because Byard (who can play credibly in virtually every jazz style) is highly flexible, he was able to meet Blake on his own terms and inspire him to play more extrovertedly than usual. Their seven collaborations (a pair of standards, one recent obscurity, Blake's "Wende" and three songs co-written by the pianists) have their playful moments, are quite exploratory, and always hold one's interest. In other words, this matchup works. ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/improvisations-mw0000193412

Personnel: Ran Blake, Jaki Byard (piano)

Improvisations

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Boris Kozlov - First Things First

Styles: Crossover Jazz

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 66:30

Size: 158,4 MB

Art: Front

(6:18) 1. Page One

(4:01) 2. Flow

(5:35) 3. The More Things Change

(6:51) 4. I.S. Adventure

(7:53) 5. Aftermath

(5:49) 6. Second Line Sally

(5:45) 7. Viscous

(7:13) 8. Mind Palace

(6:49) 9. Warm Sand

(7:39) 10. Once A Fog In Babylon

(2:32) 11. Eclipse

During the early days of pandemic-induced isolation, old folkways and techniques suddenly became new again (remember the shortages of baking yeast and canning supplies?). The old ways are nothing new at Posi-Tone records, which has maintained an unflagging allegiance to swing, juicy melodies and fiery playing. Those qualities, all present on bassist Boris Kozlov's First Things First, situate this recording firmly within Posi-Tone's house style, one that calls back to the glory days of Blue Note Records. So, it's no surprise that this session was made in the manner of classic Blue Note sessions.

Like those sessions, First Things First begins with a great rhythm section: pianist Art Hirahara and drummer Rudy Royston. Posi-Tone founder and producer Marc Free used them on trumpeter Alex Sipiagin's Upstream (2021) and on Maximum Enjoyment (2018) by the collective Something Blue. Joined by vibraphonist and occasional A&R guy Behn Gillece, they gathered for four days in August, 2020 to record sessions that would eventually be issued as Hirahara's Open Sky (2021) and Gillece's Still Doing Our Thing. (2021) According to Kozlov's notes to the recording, Free was so pleased with the results that the four became a house rhythm section for a number of Posi-Tone sessions recorded later that fall.

Like a college basketball team that starts five highly recruited seniors, this rhythm section plays with a balance of freedom and discipline that's rare in today's contingent, project-oriented bandscape. And when Free called Donny McCaslin to turn one of their sessions into Kozlov's Posi-Tone debut as a leader, the team was complete.

Despite their workload, there's no evidence of complaisance or routine on First Things First. Instead, the band's chemistry fuels joyous music making that explodes out of your speakers. It's as though they couldn't wait to get this music out. And given the isolation and grimness of the year, who can blame them?

Of the eleven tunes, six are by the leader, two by McCaslin and one each by Gillece and Hirahara, with Charles Mingus's "Eclipse" the lone non original. They cover a vast stylistic range. McCaslin's "Page One" is a modern update on the title cut Joe Henderson's iconic 1963 Blue Note album of the same name never had. Henderson is also evoked in Kozlov's "I.S. Adventure," but mainly in McCaslin's tumbling, cascading solo; the "I.S." of the title is Igor Stravinsky. The Moscow-born bassist looks back to his homeland again on "Once A Fog In Babylon," a suite of ancient Russian folk tunes that culminates in a thunderous, tornadic Royston solo.

Yet there are quieter moments, too, starting with "Flow," a serene showcase for flute, vibes, hand percussion and the composer's expressive electric bass. "Warm Sand" shows how group interplay can chart a throughline at a relaxed tempo, one that's just a few beats per minute easier than the flowing, Basie-esque stroll of Hirahara's sparkling "The More Things Change."

It seems almost obligatory these days to program a tune set to a New Orleans party beat, but McCaslin's "Second Line Sally" ups the ante on Hirahara's tootling B-3 and Kozlov's strutting bass with a swagger and energy that's pure Manhattan. It's musical shrimp po' boy served from a Times Square dirty water hotdog cart, and it's delicious as is the entire record.Can we please have another?~John Chacona https://www.allaboutjazz.com/first-things-first-boris-kozlov-posi-tone-records

Personnel: Boris Kozlov: bass; Donny McCaslin: saxophone, tenor; Art Hirahara: piano; Behn Gillece: vibraphone; Rudy Royston: drums.

First Things First

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Stephanie Nakasian - If I Ruled The World

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:07
Size: 148,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:55) 1. Almost in Your Arms
(6:09) 2. Too Many Tears
(4:56) 3. Im All Smiles
(3:59) 4. When Your Lover Has Gone
(4:06) 5. By Myself
(5:08) 6. You Aint Had the Blues
(4:55) 7. A Second Chance
(3:54) 8. Blizzard of Lies- Little White Lies
(3:53) 9. If I Ruled the World
(4:33) 10. The Moth and the Flame
(5:50) 11. (You May Not Be An Angel But) I'll String Along With You
(3:06) 12. Love Is Just Around the Corner
(3:36) 13. Who Cares'

Stephanie Nakasian is listed in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz as one of the world’s leading jazz singers. She first came to international attention in the mid-80s when she sang and toured with the vocal jazz master Jon Hendricks and Company her “vocal jazz apprenticeship.” Since then, she has toured and recorded as a leader and with her partner and internationally acclaimed jazz pianist Hod O’Brien. Together with their daughter Veronica (who also sings and records under the name Veronica Swift) they make their home in Charlottesville,Virginia. Since 1980 Ms. Nakasian has been actively recording. Her debut CD “Comin’Alive” (V.S.O.P.) features legendary saxophonist Phil Woods and received four stars from critic Leonard Feather.
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“French Cookin’” (V.S.O.P.) spotlights the beautiful combination of Ms. Nakasian’s voice with virtuoso French hornist Bobby Routch. Her “Bitter Sweet” CD (JazzMania) was also very well received. Her “Escapade” takes the audience on a fantasy swing voyage and her “Lullaby in Rhythm” is in tribute to Kenton singer June Christy and features tenor saxophonist Harry Allen. In 2006 two CDs were released: “Thrush Hour” (VSOP), a tribute to 20 great jazz singers featuring a 20 page booklet co-authored by Scott Yanow with pictures, bios and educational tips as to how to listen to each singer to hear the nuances of style and phrasing. “I Love You” (Spice of Life) was released in Japan to rave reviews and a full article in “Swing Journal” in which they called Stephanie “the perfect jazz singer.”

There are many jazz singers on the scene now. Jon Hendricks chose her because of her hip, swinging rhythm. The Jim Cullum Jazz Band features her frequently on their internationally syndicated show Riverwalk portraying Lee Wiley, Peggy Lee, Helen Ward, Helen Humes, 20s singers and blues singers. Their reason swing and authenticity. She portrayed herself on the show with Dick Hyman on tributes to composers Hoagy Carmichael and Walter Donaldson. The Richmond Times Dispatch “compared her to Ella…and (she) deserves it.” In Europe they have heard similarities to Sarah Vaughan. In New York, they heard early Margaret Whiting. Her clean, clear lovely tone is another reason for her popularity.

Her original concert revues such as “The Great Ladies of American Song” and various composer and singer tributes have been favorites with schools and universities and concert goers. Her “Great Ladies” revue tracing the development of jazz singing has also been offered as an academic course at the University of Virginia where Ms. Nakasian teaches private voice. She teaches jazz voice and vocal jazz improvisation at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. She has directed and coached vocal jazz ensembles and gives numerous workshops each year to schools and conferences. Ms. Nakasian authored the vocal jazz book “It’s Not on the Page! How to Integrate Jazz and Jazz Rhythm into Choral and Solo Repertoire” which she has presented in workshops to over 25 state and national music education conferences in the U.S., including MENC, IAJE and MTNA. She also adjudicated at the McKnight Fellowship Competition in Minneapolis in 2005.

Ms. Nakasian has appeared on television and radio in the U.S., Europe, Japan and the Caribbean. National Public Radio featured her on a one-hour concert on “Jazz Set” hosted by Branford Marsalis. Her many festival appearances include the Northsea Jazz Festival (Holland), the Kool Jazz Festival (NYC), S.C. Jazz Festival, N.C. Jazz Festival, Main Street (Columbia, SC) Jazz Festival, the Big Gig (Richmond, VA), the Bethlehem Musikfest (PA), numerous appearances at the Delaware Water Gap Jazz Festival (PA) and a Public Television special featuring duets with trumpet legend Clark Terry.

She was featured on tributes to June Christy with the Pete Rugolo Orchestra at the West Coast Jazz Festival in Newport Beach, CA, and at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and also with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra (OH) and Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, the Fargo Arts Group (ND), and at the NJ Jazz Festival. Since then, appearances include the Kennedy Center Jazz Club (DC), The Jazz Standard (NYC), Pensacola Jazz Festival, three cruises including James Moody’s 80th Birthday Cruise, Great Waters Festival (NH), Gulf Coast Festival (Panama City, FL), a week’s stint at Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase in Chicago, and the Telluride Jazz Celebration. She also headlined with her daughter Veronica Swift at the Women in Jazz Festival at Lincoln Center in NYC.

Concert appearances as a featured performer include performances with Urbie Green, Pat Metheny, Bobby McFerrin, Milt Hinton, Clark Terry, J.R. Monterose, Joe Temperly, Scott Hamilton, Harry Allen, Sheila Jordan, Bob Dorough, Valery Ponomarev and (with Jon Hendricks) Red Mitchell, Hank Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Roy Haynes, and Annie Ross to name a few.
https://www.last.fm/music/Stephanie+Nakasian/+wiki

If I Ruled The World

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Dave Brubeck - The 1965 Canadian Concert

Styles: Piano
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 78:38
Size: 180,9 MB
Art: Front

(11:19) 1. St. Louis Blues
( 8:23) 2. Take The 'A' Train
( 6:54) 3. Cultural Exchange
( 6:46) 4. Tangerine
( 5:11) 5. Someday My Prince Will Come
(10:55) 6. These Foolish Things
( 5:01) 7. Koto Song
( 1:50) 8. Take Five (incomplete)
( 5:41) 9. St. Louis Blues
( 6:13) 10. Nomad
( 5:51) 11. Thank You (Dziekuje)
( 4:30) 12. Brandenburg Gate

This release contains a splendid 1965 concert by the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond recorded in Ontario, Canada & presented here for the first time ever on CD. As a bonus, all of the music from an extremely rare 1962 TV broadcast featuring the same group has been added.
https://www.jazzmessengers.com/en/5325/dave-brubeck/the-1965-canadian-concert

Personnel: Paul Desmond - alto sax; Dave Brubeck - piano; Eugene Wright - bass; Joe Morello - drums

The 1965 Canadian Concert

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Bob James Trio - Feel Like Making LIVE !

Styles: Piano Jazz
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 76:34
Size: 176,2 MB
Art: Front

(6:57) 1. Angela
(4:50) 2. Rocket Man
(4:42) 3. Maputo
(5:48) 4. Topside
(4:51) 5. Misty
(6:02) 6. Avalabop
(2:47) 7. Nautilus
(6:28) 8. Downtown
(4:47) 9. Niles A Head
(9:16) 10. Feel Like Making Love / Night Crawler
(5:40) 11. Submarine
(8:31) 12. Mister Magic
(5:48) 13. Westchester Lady

Bob James keyboardist, pianist, composer and arranger opens Feel Like Making Live! with his original tune, "Angela (Theme From 'Taxi')." Everyone has heard it that is what exposure from a popular television show can do. That series ran from 1978 to 1983. Taxi music, along with his albums on Creed Taylor's CTI Records during this time, in addition to his taking on arranging chores for the label, for the likes of saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr. and more, made a name for James. So, a short history of a sixty year career: his first album, Bold Conceptions (Mercury Records) released in 1963, fifty or so more albums followed, a dozen with his group Fourplay; his contribution to hip hop via sampling of his recordings, and finally coming around now to a trio offering a mode of making music he calls ..."a perfect way that I can express myself" with Feel Like making Live!, an audio/visual experience that includes, along with the CD, a Blue Ray disc of James and his trio performing in the studio.

After "Angela" leaves, James and the trio take on Elton John, with "Rocket Man." Laying aside the goofy lyrics of the tune, and hearing it in a purer form, reveals the accessible loveliness of the melody. And that is a trademark of James' approach finding the beauty of a tune, then putting his stamp on it, via embellishment with lush and polished arrangements, or using subtle adjustments and "just" a trio to make his mark.

Also included are "Misty," written and made famous by Erroll Garner, and a Clint Eastwood movie; "Feel Like Makin' Love,'' written by Eugene McDaniels and covered by Roberta Flack and then Bob James in 1974 again, a pop tune turned into an engaging jazz listening experience. Marcus Miller's "Maputo" is here, and "Downtown," made famous by Petula Clark; Miles Davis' "Nardi" and a couple of handfuls of James more popular originals: "Westchester Lady," "Topside," "Angela" (of course), "Avilabop..."

For an artist who made a good part of his name with lush, broad-stroke arrangements and polished production that earned him a "smooth jazzer" tag (sometimes employed derisively, by people who don't know their hindquarters from a hole in the ground in regards to James' sound), a lot of late career trio work from Bob James is showing up. 2018 saw the release of Expresso (Evosound Records); and in 2021 Once Upon A Time: The Lost 1965 New York Studio Sessions (Resonance Records) was released, looking back at James' early days. He started his jazz journey with a trio, and with Feel Like Making Live! he returns to it. Put in the strings and intricate horns, charts and keyboards, and Bob James makes beautiful music. Pare it down to the trio, and he does the same thing.

And the Blue-Ray: This captures James and company in a spacious studio in warm lighting, the leader's electric and acoustic keyboards set at right angles so he can play them simultaneously, offering an intimate "in the room with them" listening experience.
~Dan McClenaghanhttps://www.allaboutjazz.com/feel-like-makin-live-bob-james-trio-evolution-music-group

Personnel: Bob James: piano; Michael Palazzollo: bass; Billy Kilson: drums.

Feel Like Making LIVE !

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Jimmy McGriff - Greatest Hits

Styles: Soul Jazz, Hard Bop
Year: 1997
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:18
Size: 154,3 MB
Art: Front

(3:56) 1. All About My Girl
(4:34) 2. I've Got a Woman, Pts. 1 & 2
(3:24) 3. Discotheque U.S.A.
(2:44) 4. Kiko
(4:23) 5. See See Rider
(3:42) 6. Cash Box
(5:37) 7. Gospel Time
(4:45) 8. Where It's At
(4:17) 9. The Last Minute
(5:00) 10. Blue Juice
(3:36) 11. Step One
(3:45) 12. Chris Cross
(3:35) 13. South Wes
(3:35) 14. Black Pearl
(3:20) 15. The Worm
(3:39) 16. Ain't It Funky Now
(3:19) 17. Fat Cakes

Blue Note's Greatest Hits doesn't limit itself to the recordings Jimmy McGriff made for the label during the late '60s and early '70s. Instead, it culls from his Sue, Veep, and Solid State recordings as well, making it a definitive overview of his career as a gritty, funky singles artist. And, as Greatest Hits demonstrates, McGriff could create a monster groove, making his singles intoxicating slices of funky jazz. All of his R&B hits "I've Got a Woman," "All About My Girl," "Kiko," "The Worm" are here, as are lesser-known singles and terrific album tracks, resulting in a compilation that isn't just a terrific introduction for neophytes, but also a useful retrospective for collectors.
~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine https://www.allmusic.com/album/greatest-hits-mw0000594445

Greatest Hits

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Brian Lynch - Unsung Heroes, Vol. 2

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:16
Size: 164,4 MB
Art: Front

(7:39)  1. It Could Be
(8:14)  2. Heleen
(7:42)  3. Sandy
(6:55)  4. Short Steps
(6:09)  5. Marissa's Mood
(8:05)  6. Out / Dancing Shoes
(5:38)  7. Gone but Not Forgotten
(5:19)  8. 'Nother Never
(7:34)  9. Orange Blossoms
(7:57) 10. I'm so Excited by You

An aurea classicism substantiates the high artistic level of a superb trumpet player, able to absorb and reshape the tradition of his instrument. The latest Bryan Lynch CD is a fascinating excursion into the repertoire of the musicians' musicians of the '50s and' 60s, including Tommy Turrentine , Idrees Sulieman , and Joe Gordon of whom Lynch offers unpublished scores. The ten tracks proposed revive a brilliant technique, which starts from a full knowledge of the past to outline a path of strong emotional impact. The intent is to bring to the general attention some unrecognized pearls of jazz trumpet literature, in the belief that the strength of this music does not reside only in the most celebrated protagonists. Above all the ballads enhance the poetic and emotional voice of the leader when he is engaged in the flugelhorn. As added value, a vibrant expressiveness that seems to summarize the essence of jazz: communication, swing, ability to convey deep emotions, enclosed in the unrepeatable moment of bewitching improvisational games. And this is precisely the legacy handed down by the great trumpeters honored by Lynch, who gives us an engaging and palpating CD like few others listened to in recent years. It follows a highly recommended listening, thanks to a group of rare expertise and compactness. ~ Maurizio Zerbo https://www.allaboutjazz.com/unsung-heroes-vol-2-brian-lynch-hollistic-musicworks-review-by-maurizio-zerbo.php

Personnel: Brian Lynch: trumpet, flugelhorn; Vincent Herring; Alex Hoffman: tenor saxophone; Rob Schneiderman: piano; David Wong: double bass; Pete Van Nostrand: battery.

Unsung Heroes, Vol. 2

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