Dianne Reeves - The Nearness of You

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1988
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:12
Size: 115,3 MB
Art: Front

(4:55) 1. Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
(5:41) 2. Like A Lover
(4:08) 3. How High The Moon
(8:05) 4. For All We Know
(3:19) 5. The Nearness of You/Misty
(6:18) 6. You Taught My Heart To Sing
(5:39) 7. Ancient Source
(9:02) 8. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
(3:01) 9. Oh What A Freedom

Five-time Grammy winner DIANNE REEVES is the pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world. As a result of her breathtaking virtuosity, improvisational prowess, and unique jazz and R&B stylings, Reeves received the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for three consecutive recordings a Grammy first in any vocal category.

Featured in George Clooney’s six-time Academy Award nominated Good Night, and Good Luck, Reeves won the Best Jazz Vocal Grammy for the film's soundtrack.

Reeves has recorded and performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. She has also recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim and was a featured soloist with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. Reeves was the first Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the first vocalist to ever perform at the famed Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Reeves worked with legendary producer Arif Mardin (Norah Jones, Aretha Franklin) on the Grammy winning A Little Moonlight, an intimate collection of standards featuring her touring trio. When Reeves’ holiday collection Christmas Time is Here was released, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times raved, “Ms. Reeves, a jazz singer of frequently astonishing skill, takes the assignment seriously; this is one of the best jazz Christmas CD's I've heard.”

In recent years Reeves has toured the world in a variety of contexts including “Sing the Truth,” a musical celebration of Nina Simone which also featured Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo. She performed at the White House on multiple occasions including President Obama's State Dinner for the President of China as well as the Governors’ Ball.

Reeves’ most recent release Beautiful Life, features Gregory Porter, Robert Glasper, Lalah Hathaway and Esperanza Spalding. Produced by Terri Lyne Carrington, Beautiful Life won the 2015 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. Reeves is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Berklee College of Music and the Juilliard School. In 2018 the National Endowment for the Arts designated Reeves a Jazz Master the highest honor the United States bestows on jazz artists.
https://diannereeves.com/media/
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Personnel: Lead Vocals [Vocals] – Dianne Reeves; Acoustic Guitar – Kevin Eubanks (tracks: 2); Alto Saxophone – Greg Osby (tracks: 1, 4); Bass – Charnett Moffett (tracks: 1, 3 to 7), Tony Dumas (tracks: 9); Drums – Marvin Smitty Smith* (tracks: 1, 4, 6, 7), Michael Baker (2) (tracks: 9), Terri Lyne Carrington (tracks: 3, 5); Keyboards – David Torkanowsky (tracks: 9); Piano – Donald Brown (tracks: 1, 7), Mulgrew Miller (tracks: 3 to 6, 8); Tenor Saxophone – Gerald Albright (tracks: 9); Vibraphone – Bobby Hutcherson (tracks: 1, 7); Wind Chimes – Ron Powell (tracks: 2).

The Nearness of You

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Anne Ducros - Something

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:33
Size: 121,5 MB
Art: Front

(4:53) 1. The very thought of you
(4:53) 2. Something
(5:55) 3. Estate
(2:48) 4. Honeysuckle rose
(3:48) 5. I didn't know what time it was
(5:28) 6. Nuages
(3:59) 7. Samba saravah
(4:03) 8. I thought about you
(4:24) 9. April in Paris
(4:30) 10. Your song
(3:18) 11. Tea for two
(4:30) 12. The good life

Whatever the way in which we approach the subject, it is indeed a question here of a matter of strings... Vocal cords, first of all, those of Anne Ducros who, in the company of the 6 strings of the guitar of Adrien Moignard and the 4 strings of Diego Imbert's double bass, revisits 12 memory pieces that have inhabited his past as a listener.

She dedicates this record to the brilliant jazz violinist Didier Lockwood, friend and source of inspiration, who died much too soon. Anne Ducros is surrounded for this tribute by Diego Imbert, the one who was the double bass player in the Trio Didier Lockwood and whose musical creations and artists with whom he collaborated, including Archie Shepp, Aldo Romano, Richard Galliano, Eric Legnini, Tigran Hamasayan, Philip Catherine or the Gypsy Project by Bireli Lagrene, and many others that I won't mention otherwise there would be lines and lines…

The guitarist, Adrien Moignard, has released 2 albums, “All The Way” in 2010 and “Entre Actes with Rocky Gresset” in 2012, and he already belongs to the restricted circle of the great and highly appreciated specialists of Gypsy Jazz. Anne Ducros, this great lady and great voice, is a multi-award-winning French Jazz singer (notably: the Billie Holiday Prize from the Jazz Academy, the Golden Django, the Vocal Artist of the Year, Victoire de La Musique or Victoire du Jazz) and today she publishes her 9th album.

An opus of great beauty which offers you 12 varied and diverse titles which marked her and which she remembers particularly well. This goes through the “Something” of the Beatles, the “Clouds” of Django Reinhardt, “April In Paris” or “Tea For Two”, to show that all music can appear on the same opus, when the heart and soul of the artists interpret them with sincerity and sensitivity. With this superb album you are entitled to twelve standards that the marvelous voice of Anne Ducros updates for our greatest happiness!Translate By Google https://www-paris--move-com

Personnel: Anne Ducros - Vocal; Adrien Moignard - Guitar; Diego Imbert - Double Bass

Something

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Dr. Lonnie Smith - The Art Of Organizing

Styles: Hammond b-3 organ
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 64:31
Size: 148,0 MB
Art: Front

( 8:42)  1. When We Kissed At Night
( 7:20)  2. My Little Suede Shoes
( 9:20)  3. This Ain't Right
( 5:14)  4. Polka Dots And Moonbeams
( 7:44)  5. Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
( 8:21)  6. Turning Point
(11:11)  7. Night Song
( 6:36)  8. Too Damn Hot

Brace yourselves for The Art of Organizing, the very first appearance on Criss Cross by organ master Dr. Lonnie Smith. Guitarist Peter Bernstein and Billy Drummond, one of the more prolific and sensitive drummers of our time, completes the lineup. From his early days with George Benson and Lou Donaldson to the present day, Dr. Lonnie Smith has always been a driving force in jazz. The Art of Organizing, featuring Smith and trio on standards and a batch of strong new originals, is another contribution that will remain timeless. ~ Editorial Reviews  http://www.amazon.com/The-Organizing-Lonnie-Smith-Trio/dp/B002G5FLSS

Personnel: Dr. Lonnie Smith (Hammond b-3 organ); Peter Bernstein (guitar); Billy Drummond (drums).

The Art Of Organizing

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Sara Caswell - The Way to You

Styles: Violin
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:57
Size: 117,9 MB
Art: Front

(6:28) 1. South Shore
(6:18) 2. Stillness
(4:49) 3. 7 Anéis
(7:25) 4. On My Way to You
(4:31) 5. Voyage
(5:41) 6. Warren's Way
(4:51) 7. Last Call
(5:38) 8. Spinning
(5:12) 9. O Que Tinha de Ser

Although The Way to You is heralded as Grammy-nominated violinist Sara Caswell's first album as a leader in more than seventeen years, it was actually recorded in 2019, roughly four years before its release date. Still, it is Caswell's first new album in quite a long time, and those who relish her tasteful and melodic violin should be grateful for that.

Caswell leads her longtime working quartet here, with vibraphonist Chris Dingman sitting in on four of the session's nine numbers. The other members of the group are guitarist Jesse Lewis, bassist Ike Sturm and drummer Jared Schonig, each of whom enhances the album in his own way. Even so, it is Caswell's voice that is most emphatic and leads the way, and so the enterprise's success or lack thereof rests for the most part in her gifted hands.

Caswell composed three of the album's eight originals, which are presented back-to-back-to-back before the handsome finale, Antonio Carlos Jobim's "O Que Tinha de Ser," on which Caswell sets aside the violin and instead plays the slightly more mellow hardanger d'amore. As for Caswell's themes, perhaps the best of the three is the last one, the shapely "Spinning," a pensive, spare piece of beauty, wherein Caswell delivers her most enticing solo.

The opening number, "South Shore," was written by Australian trumpeter/composer Nadje Noordhuis It has its moments, as does bassist Sturm's even-tempered "Stillness" (on both of which Dingman's vibraphone lends color), but they are outshone by Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti's light-hearted "7 Aneis," which leads to the pensive title song, a variation of Michel Legrand's "On My Way to You." Caswell is a superb soloist who excels on more animated numbers such as "Voyage" and "7 Aneis." That's not to imply that she is less than admirable in cooler climes, only that her more inspiring solos on The Way to You are delivered at faster tempos.

In sum, a stylish and well-played session that might have benefited from a more astute choice of material. As it is, Caswell and her colleagues make the most of what they decided to perform.By Jack Bowers
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-way-to-you-sara-caswell-anzic-records

Personnel: Sara Caswell: violin; Jesse Lewis: guitar; Ike Sturm: bass; Jared Schonig: drums; Chris Dingman: vibraphone.

The Way to You

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Teddy Wilson - What a Night... - The Definitive Swing Pianist

Styles: Piano Jazz, Swing
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:54
Size: 78,3 MB
Art: Front

(3:03) 1. Somebody Loves Me
(2:56) 2. What A Night, What A Moon, What A Girl
(3:04) 3. Sweet Lorraine
(2:51) 4. On Trasure Island
(3:03) 5. Life Begins When You're In Love
(2:58) 6. My Melancholy Baby
(3:19) 7. Sweet And Simple
(3:15) 8. Every Now And Then
(3:06) 9. I Found A Dream
(3:13) 10. I Feel Like A Feather In The Breeze
(3:06) 11. Breaking In A Pair Of Shoes

His airy, effortless style, with its emphasis on lightly accompanied right-hand melody, was a key element in the transition from swing to bebop, and many modern jazz pianists took Wilson's approach as their starting point. His early recordings were percussive and forceful, but as he matured his technique became graceful, almost elegant. He was a gifted artist who used the full range of his instrument to his advantage. His recordings with Billie Holiday and Benny Goodman’s trio and quartet during the 1930s are considered classics.

Wilson was born in Austin, TX in 1912, his parents were both schoolteachers. They left Texas in 1918 for positions at the prestigious Tuskegee College in Talladega, AL, one of the pioneer black universities. Wilson studied music at both the Tuskegee Institute and Alabama's Talladega College.

Moving on to Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, he started by joining up with Speed Webb and Milton Senior before heading to Chicago, where he played with the likes of Erskine Tate, Eddie Mallory, Clarence Moore, Jimmy Noone and Louis Armstrong. He traveled to New York in 1933 to join Benny Carter's orchestra, the Chocolate Dandies. After Carter disbanded the following year to take a position as arranger with Goodman's band Wilson worked with an all-star group led by Red Norvo in 1934 and with Willie Bryant's band during 1934 and 1935. He met Goodman in 1935 and in 1936 was asked to join the bandleader's trio, which also included drummer Gene Krupa. Lionel Hampton joined soon after, making it a quartet. Wilson became the first African-American publicly featured in Goodman's line-up.

During his time with Goodman, Wilson put together several small groups for recording sessions, and began a long career as a freelance recording artist that culminated in his marvelous series of discs with Billie Holiday. Other sessions featured such artists as Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Helen Ward, and Harry James. Wilson left Goodman in 1939 to form his own big band, which included such top musicians as Doc Cheatham, Ben Webster, Rudy Powell, and Hal Baker. Thelma Carpenter was vocalist. Wilson's subtle style failed to win over audiences, however, who often complained that his orchestra sounded ''too white.'' He disbanded the group after only a year and formed a sextet that played regularly at the Cafe Society in New York from 1940 to 1946.

After 1946 Wilson worked mostly as a soloist or in a trio. In 1946 he became a staff musician for CBS radio and operated his own music school, and produced a series of recordings, the “Teddy Wilson School for Pianists,” (reissued on Mosaic) to demonstrate various elements of jazz piano.

He taught at Julliard through the early 1950s, becoming one of the first jazz musicians to do so, and stayed on the staff for seven years. His recording partnerships of the 1950s included significant albums with Lester Young and Benny Carter (both for Verve) in which Wilson's economical style was a perfect setting for each saxophonist. He made a series of recordings for Columbia in the mid-50s, and by the ‘60s had expanded his scope to world wide appearances.. He was part of the mother of all jazz tours, Benny Goodman’s 1962 State Department tour of Russia. He performed with international musicians, developing a close relationship with the Dutch Swing College Band, with whom he made four tours. Wilsons discography for the 1970s includes recording sessions in Copenhagen, Tokyo, Munich, Nice, and London. He was truly an international jazz star. He continued to work right up to the end, making appearances with Goodman, Hampton, Krupa, Benny Carter, Red Norvo and other all-star survivors of the Swing Era, and he also worked extensively with a trio including his sons-Theodore on bass and Steven on drums.

Teddy Wilson passed away in 1986.

Teddy Wilson maintained a phenomenally consistent standard until the end of his life, because of his influence and longevity; he is regarded by many critics as a significant pianist of the swing era. His extensive catalog of recordings as a sideman and leader, and his distinguished reputation amongst jazz aficionados and musicians alike, are his enduring testament.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/teddy-wilson

What a Night... - The Definitive Swing Pianist

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The Verve Jazz Ensemble - The VJE: Very Live!

Styles: Jazz, Big Band
Year: 2021
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:32
Size: 141,4 MB
Art: Front

(6:19) 1. Big Swing Face
(3:43) 2. This I Dig of You
(8:06) 3. Softly as in a Morning
(6:11) 4. Sister Sadie
(5:37) 5. Autumn Left
(6:09) 6. Alone Together
(7:00) 7. My Shining Hour
(6:32) 8. Tin Tin Deo
(5:53) 9. Mothlight
(5:59) 10. Groovin' Hard

It takes a bold, knowledgeable, and inventive group to call itself The Verve Jazz Ensemble. The moniker Verve conjures the legendary jazz label Verve Records: once home to the greatest pioneering names in the artform from Duke Ellington, Stan Getz and Ella Fitzgerald to Bill Evans, Count Basie, and Buddy Rich. It is in the spirit of the Verve label’s 1950s - ‘60s hard bop heyday that The Verve Jazz Ensemble composes, arranges, and performs jazz of a timeless quality. Across eight albums and counting the latest entitled All In the “VJE” has been satisfying the cravings of critics and audiences alike, consistently placing near or at the very top of the JazzWeek radio chart for the past decade. No less than Ellis Marsalis, the late, revered patriarch of the highly distinguished Marsalis Family that gave us Wynton, Branford, Jason and Delfeayo Marsalis, observed, “The VJE is the new MJQ,” referring to the fabled Modern Jazz Quartet.

Drummer Josh Feldstein founded The Verve Jazz Ensemble in 2006 as a band that paid homage to the past while vehemently establishing newer, younger audiences for the now vintage sound. “Part of the band’s mission,” said Feldstein, “is to expand the audience of classic instrumental jazz, to identify melodies that pop audiences can easily relate and groove to but not need a degree in music to dig.”

The Verve Jazz Ensemble is a band that “chooses to move in a musical direction that’s appealing to radio as well as our broad base of US and international listeners,” Josh added. “Our mission is to bring forward the acoustic jazz artform in a way that both veteran listeners and newcomers to Jazz easily appreciate.”

Feldstein’s passion for acoustic jazz stems back to when he was 11 years old and living with his family in Queens, New York. He was taking drum lessons at the time from a teacher who turned him onto the volcanic Gene Krupa. “One day my teacher told me I sounded like Krupa,” Josh recalled. “Well, I don’t think that was remotely true, but I dug Gene’s drumming intensely and couldn’t stop listening.” The LP he pointed Josh to was “Verve’s Choice: The Best of Gene Krupa.” Josh was hooked.

“I spent the next 10 years grabbing up all of the jazz albums recorded for Verve Records that I could,” he states. “I hung out listening to Papa Jo Jones and the Countsmen at the West End Café on Broadway and 113th street in Manhattan. I’d catch the incredible Buddy Rich and his big band, and legends like Max Roach, Art Blakey, and Count Basie. Any given month would bring into town the best of the best like (saxophonist) Stan Getz, (pianist) Monty Alexander, and on and on.

“I put music on the backburner once I entered college, however, because I didn’t think I could make money as a jazz musician,” Josh said. “While I kept practicing and did play from time to time I even toured for a while with a big band in the mid-Atlantic area it was part-time stuff by and large.

“Some years later, when I was living in Connecticut, I came across the playing of a young saxophonist / keyboardist named Jon Blanck. He really impressed me as a young cat who could really play in the authentic hardbop idiom, which is my foundation. I approached him to play locally just for fun. We ended up booking restaurants and country clubs and becoming close friends. The band developed a strong reputation and a faithful following. Once the VJE started playing clubs throughout Connecticut and eventually in New York proper, things started happening.”

The VJE was a quintet when it first ventured into the studio to record its debut album, It’s About Time (2012), followed by East End Sojourn (2014) which featured guest Peter Bernstein on guitar. Both charted Top 10 on the JazzWeek radio charts. Those albums were followed by top 25 Perimeter (2016) and yet another top 10 album, Swing-A-Nova (2017), recorded by the rhythm section as a trio album. For 2018, Feldstein expanded the tenor sax, trumpet, piano, bass and drums quintet into a septet with alto / flute and trombone for the VJE’s fifth album, Connect The Dots, a change that shot the band to the #1 position atop the JazzWeek chart for two weeks. Next came Night Mode (2019) another top 10-charter followed during the Covid lockdown by The VJE: Very Live! (2021) recorded at a pre-pandemic benefit concert in Hadley, MA - which kept the VJE brand alive and well.

For VJE’s eighth and latest album, All In, the septet joyfully explores the theme of “Mid-20th century Americana” via two original compositions and eight arrangements of some classic and other little-heard material. The band consists of Tatum Greenblatt on trumpet, Willie Applewhite on trombone, Alexa Tarantino on alto sax / flute, Jon Blanck on tenor sax, Matt Oestreicher on piano and guitar, Elias Bailey on bass, and VJE leader Josh Feldstein on drums.

Highlights of the album include the Tatum Greenblatt original title track, “All In;” an Afro Cuban approach to Neal Hefti’s beloved “The Odd Couple Theme;” another Greenblatt original entitled “What I Meant to Say Was,” set up as a musical conversation between trumpet and alto sax; and a piano trio whirl through Jean “Toots” Thielemans “Bluesette.”

All this music, along with the rest of “All In,” is in passionate keeping of The Verve Jazz Ensemble’s sworn mission to expand the audience of instrumental jazz in the United States and worldwide. “This is very important to all of us,” Feldstein shares. “My daughter is in high school, and she and her friends like our music. There are listeners everywhere of all ages who don’t know any jazz history. But when they hear our approach to jazz, they soak it in. Identifying and performing jazz melodies that pop audiences can relate to catchy yet legitimate music, with a pulse that’s our target.”
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/the-verve-jazz-ensemble

Very Live!

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Jeremy Pelt - Profile

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2002
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:12
Size: 139,0 MB
Art: Front

( 8:41) 1. Aesop's Fables
( 4:01) 2. The Trivium
( 6:03) 3. Mystique
( 6:26) 4. Pieces Of a Dream
( 8:30) 5. A Song For You (Lovebird)
(10:37) 6. Jigsaw
( 6:07) 7. We Share a Moon
( 8:42) 8. You won't Forget Me

His original compositions flow from jazz's straight-ahead tradition. His sextet is keeping the flame alive through solid teamwork and gentle exploration. Their blend treats each instrumental voice equally, but highlights the drummer just a little more than the others. And why not? Ralph Peterson does a superb job of knitting them into one well-composed unit.

Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt hails from Los Angeles. After graduating from Boston's Berklee College of Music in 1988, he moved to New York and has paid his dues with several mainstream organizations. Now, his recording debut offers a larger audience the opportunity to hear this rising star. With his clarion tone and persuasive technique, Pelt rides a creative wave of straight-ahead dreams. Ballads and up-tempo romps take on his personal attitude. Passion and energy build his performance. Undoubtedly, Miles and Freddie and Chet and Booker and Lee came from the same roots as young Jeremy Pelt. It's all from the heart. On top of that, he's surrounded himself with a winning team. This year's top ten list wouldn't be complete without Profile. Tune in as soon as you can.By Jim Santella https://www.allaboutjazz.com/profile-jeremy-pelt-blue-moon-review-by-jim-santella

Personnel: Jeremy Pelt: trumpet; Jimmy Greene: tenor saxophone; Robert Glasper: piano; Gerald Cannon: bass; Ralph Peterson: drums; Jaleel Shaw: alto saxophone on "Pieces of a Dream"; Mike Moreno: guitar on "Aesop's Fables"

Profile

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Alyse Korn & Robert Kyle - Tuesday's Child

Styles: Cool Jazz
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:58
Size: 118,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:05) 1. Gratitude
(6:36) 2. What If
(4:55) 3. Your Light
(5:22) 4. Distance Between Us
(5:41) 5. Tuesday’s Child
(6:07) 6. Winter
(4:59) 7. Blue Jack
(4:36) 8. Vivian’s Danzón
(6:33) 9. Ruby’s Dream

Tuesday’s Child is a collection of peaceful and meditational jazz, featuring songs that softly build on its melodies and motifs. By employing a combination of European melodies with subtly and sparingly used Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Tuesday’s Child gives it introspective mood an occasional energetic boost that magnifies paired piano and woodwinds as they softly move across the songs on this album.

The albums’ songs are all effectively duets. Even when decorated with subdued rhythms. Tuesday’s Child focuses on the interplay between Kyle’s flute/saxophone and Korn’s piano/vocalese. Kyle and Korn wrote each song on the album with a specific memory in mind, but the songs transcend their inspirations. As the old nursery rhyme says, Tuesday’s Child is full of grace, and this is such an apt title for the album.

Gratitude is simultaneously peaceful and playful. Korn’s vocalese lays over the piano and spare saxophone and percussion and percussion, stirring it all together. On What if, Kyle’s graceful and reaching flute carries the listener into the clouds, especially when contrasted against Korn’s dynamic, Afro-Caribbean rhythm piano rhythm. The song glides between slower and faster tempos as if to suggest a mind contemplating two distinct aspects of the question what if?

Your Light is a lilting duo between tenor saxophone and piano. Kyle wrote this song about his relationships with Korn. Distance Between Us starts with a soprano saxophone that sounds melancholy suggesting that perhaps the distance of the title is farther than we think it might be. The piano and percussion again employing subtle Afro-Caribbean splashes, especially in Korn’s rhythmic piano suggest it may be closer.

Winter sounds like a winter morning where the air is cold, and the sky is bright blue and offers a playfulness to its delicate proceedings. Korn’s vocalese line at the end of the song is so subtle it a listener could miss it, but it’s to lovely not to miss! Blue Jack, which Kyle wrote in tribute to an Uncle, is the most swinging and blues-tinged song on the album.

The percussion on Vivian’s Danzo´n and the Kyle’s rolling, Brazilian piano chordal rhythms makes this song jump, especially compared to the more sedate songs on this album. Korn wrote Ruby’s Dream on a piano that Ruby Kyle dreamt she gifted to Robert Korn. It’s a fitting end to the album that shows how closely intertwined these musicians are. Robert Korn says, “There’s a lot of turmoil in the world today, and we hope that when people listen to our music, they will feel the peace that we feel when we play it.”

The music on “Tuesday’s Child” is indeed a musical island of peace and introspection. The instruments on each track softly sing to each other and sing to both the present moment and to the individual moments that each song.By Ben Miller
https://jazzviews.net/alyse-korn-robert-kyle-tuesdays-child/

Robert Kyle (saxophone and flute); Alyse Korn (piano and vocalese); Kevin Winard (drums and percussion); Hussain Jiffry and Ahmet Turkmenoglu (bass); Leonice Shinneman (tabla)

Thank You Maineime!

Tuesday's Child

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Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson With The Cannonball Adderley Quintet - Back Door Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:40
Size: 141.2 MB
Styles: Blues/Jazz/R&B, West Coast Blues
Year: 1962/2013
Art: Front

[2:12] 1. Bright Lights, Big City
[2:33] 2. This Time
[4:17] 3. Hold It
[6:30] 4. Arriving Soon
[4:17] 5. Kidney Stew
[2:19] 6. Back Door Blues
[2:46] 7. Person To Person
[3:02] 8. Just A Dream
[4:48] 9. Audrey
[4:03] 10. Vinsonology
[6:30] 11. Cannonizing
[6:20] 12. Bernice's Bounce
[4:16] 13. Kidney Stew (Alt Take)
[3:35] 14. Back Door Blues (Alt Take)
[4:04] 15. Vinsonology (Alt Take)

Alto Saxophone – Julian "Cannonball" Adderley* (tracks: 1 to 9, 11), Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (tracks: 3, 4, 6, 9, 11); Bass – Sam Jones; Cornet – Nat Adderley; Drums – Louis Hayes; Piano – Joe Zawinul; Vocals – Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10).

A plethora of "lost" recording dates have popped up since the dawn of the compact disc, especially in the jazz world. Unfortunately, most of them haven't been worth the wait and, indeed, as underwhelming as some of them have been, it might at least aesthetically speaking have been better had they not been unearthed. Happily, this isn't one of these occasions. The two sessions here were recorded in 1961 and 1962 in Chicago and New York, and feature Cannonball Adderley's quintet that included pianist Joe Zawinul, bassist Sam Jones, drummer Louis Hayes, and brother Nat on cornet. Cleanhead sings his ass off and plays some alto with Cannonball. These dates reveal an anomaly in jazz at the time: The recordings are the place on the map where jazz and R&B meet head on, bringing the full force of their respective traditions and neither giving an inch. And it works so well from the wild bluesy shout of Vinson in call and response with Adderley on "Bright Lights, Big City" and "Hold It!" to the shimmering dual jazz saxophones on "Arriving Soon" that it begs the question as to why it didn't happen more often.

The soloing is top-flight, with some especially knotty work by Nat on "Person to Person" and "This Time." Cannonball is excellent throughout; the R&B and blues idioms are all meat and potatoes for him, and he feels confident settling inside the groove without the need to push the boundary. Ironically, it's Vinson who compensates in that way. And the anchor in all of this is Zawinul, leading the rhythm section, condensing both musics to their most essential harmonics and tonalities, and building them out with a swinging style and cadence that are nothing short of remarkable. These two sets may be comprised of songs and standards from the repertoire, but make no mistake, they are blowing sessions. The digital transfer by Joe Tarantino is flawless and so lifelike it's startling. Highly recommended. ~Thom Jurek

Back Door Blues

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Harold Vick - Steppin' Out!

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1963
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:25
Size: 84,1 MB
Art: Front

(7:29) 1. Our Miss Brooks
(6:12) 2. Trimmed In Blue
(4:42) 3. Laura
(6:28) 4. Dotty's Dream
(5:41) 5. Vicksville
(5:51) 6. Steppin' Out

This soul-jazz outing by tenor saxophonist Harold Vick (his recording debut as a leader) casts him in a role that was often occupied by Stanley Turrentine. Vick, with a quintet that also includes trumpeter Blue Mitchell, guitarist Grant Green, organist John Patton, and drummer Ben Dixon, performs four blues, a slightly trickier original (five of the six songs are his), plus the ballad "Laura" on this CD reissue.

There are no real surprises, but no disappointments either on what would be Harold Vick's only chance to lead a Blue Note date. At 27, he was already a fine player.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/steppin-out%21-mw0001986414

Personnel: Harold Vick - tenor saxophone; Blue Mitchell - trumpet; John Patton - organ; Grant Green - guitar; Ben Dixon - drums

Steppin' Out!

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Paul Horn - The Jazz Years

Styles: Flute And Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2004
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 79:31
Size: 183,7 MB
Art: Front

( 3:01)  1. Benny's Buns
(11:52)  2. Mirage for Miles
( 3:42)  3. Fun Time
( 3:22)  4. Love and Hate
( 4:07)  5. Moer or Less
(12:04)  6. Abstraction
( 4:02)  7. Caesar and Cleopatra Theme
( 5:18)  8. My Funny Valentine
( 4:38)  9. Count Your Change
( 4:06) 10. Short Politicain
( 2:48) 11. Lazy Afternoon
( 3:57) 12. Antony and Cleopatra Theme
( 3:26) 13. Just Because We're Kids
( 4:51) 14. Cleopatra's Palace Music
( 3:40) 15. Without a Song
( 4:29) 16. Yazz Per Favore

When one evaluates Paul Horn's career, it is as if he were two people, pre- and post-1967. In his early days, Horn was an excellent cool-toned altoist and flutist, while later he became a new age flutist whose music is often best used as background music for meditation. Horn started on piano when he was four and switched to alto at the age of 12. After a stint with the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra on tenor, Horn was Buddy Collette's replacement with the popular Chico Hamilton Quintet (1956-1958), playing alto, flute, and clarinet. He became a studio musician in Los Angeles, but also found time during 1957-1966 to record cool jazz albums for Dot (later reissued on Impulse), World Pacific, Hi Fi Jazz, Columbia, and RCA, and he participated in a memorable live session with Cal Tjader in 1959. In addition, in 1964, Horn recorded one of the first Jazz Masses, utilizing an orchestra arranged by Lalo Schifrin. In 1967, the second part of Paul Horn's career began; he studied transcendental meditation in India and became a teacher. The following year, he recorded unaccompanied flute solos at the Taj Mahal (where he enjoyed interacting with the echoes), and went on to record in the Great Pyramid, tour China (1979) and the Soviet Union, record using the sounds of killer whales as "accompaniment," and found his own label Golden Flute. ~ Scott Yanow https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-jazz-years-selected-pieces-1961-1963/49491612

Personnel: Flute, Flute [Bass Flute], Khene – Paul Horn;  Flute, Flute [Alto Flute], Alto Saxophone – Paul Horn;   Bass – Chuck Israels, Jimmy Bond, Vic Gaskin;  Drums – Colin Bailey, Milt Turner; Piano – Paul Moer, Victor Feldmans: 4, 7, 12, 14); Vibraphone [Vibes] – Emil Richards

The Jazz Years - Selected Pieces 1961~1963

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Eldar Djangirov - Release

Styles: Pianao Jazz
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:22
Size: 121,3 MB
Art: Front

(2:22) 1. Release
(1:48) 2. Monday Night
(1:50) 3. Stealth
(2:35) 4. Giant Steps
(1:56) 5. Cassette
(1:46) 6. Tea Break
(2:30) 7. Drip
(0:58) 8. Sail (Interlude 1)
(1:43) 9. Open Water
(2:33) 10. On Green Dolphin Street
(2:14) 11. Pause
(1:38) 12. Biking
(0:40) 13. Piano Beat (Interlude 2)
(4:10) 14. Drifting
(1:45) 15. Restless
(1:21) 16. Hypervigilance
(2:35) 17. New Year
(0:50) 18. Load (Interlude 3)
(2:22) 19. Longing
(2:35) 20. Climb
(2:25) 21. Brooding
(2:53) 22. Desolate
(2:17) 23. Hiatus
(3:27) 24. Days Pass (Bonus Vocal)

The New York Times described the New York based pianist Eldar Djangirov as "a blend of musical intelligence, organizational savvy, enthusiasm and prowess that was all the more impressive for seeming so casual… an ebullient impressionist." Dr. Billy Taylor said, "Eldar Djangirov's playing shows brilliancy, complexity, and discipline... he's serious about his music, he's thoughtful about what he does.” Jazz Times said, “Maybe he made a pact with Lucifer to be the greatest pianist ever." Praised as “a genius beyond most young people I've heard” by Dave Brubeck. Downbeat magazine stated that "his command of his instrument is beyond staggering."

When Eldar Djangirov (pronounced john-'gear-ov) was signed to Sony Classical at the age of 17, the young pianist from Kansas City was already well known for his prodigious pyrotechnics and precocious knowledge of the bebop tradition. Along the way, he's had the good fortune to meet and work with the masters including Dr. Billy Taylor, Marian McPartland, Dave Brubeck, Michael Brecker, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Nicholas Payton, Harvey Mason, Ron Carter, Pat Martino and many others. Through these opportunities and other wonderful musical experiences, Eldar continues to explore new frontiers through composing and performing, enabling him to ultimately to realize his own musical vision.

Born on January 28, 1987, Eldar came to the U.S. from the former Soviet Union when he was ten. Among his first performances were in his hometown of Kansas City, as well as The Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. He quickly then moved up the ranks and was featured on the NPR Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz show at the age of twelve. He released two albums independently. Eldar signed with Sony and recorded his major label self-titled debut featuring the great bassist, John Patitucci, and Michael Brecker on tenor sax. He followed up with the critically acclaimed "Live at the Blue Note" with guest appearances by Roy Hargrove and Chris Botti in 2006. Eldar was nominated for a Grammy in 2008 for his album "Re-imagination."

Eldar has appeared at numerous major jazz festivals including Tokyo Jazz Festival, Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, Java Jazz Festival, Vienna Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, and San Francisco Jazz Festival and has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He has performed at venues ranging from the Hollywood Bowl to Carnegie Hall and has played at the most notable jazz venues across the world. Eldar has been seen on national TV including the 2000 and 2008 Grammy Awards, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, CBS Saturday Early Show, and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

In addition, he has also played with world renowned symphony orchestras such as NHK Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, and San Diego Symphony Orchestra. He has 4 critically acclaimed trio albums including the most recent "Virtue" featuring his trio Armando Gola (bass) and Ludwig Afonso (drums) as well as guest appearances by Joshua Redman and Nicholas Payton. "With the release of Virtue, Eldar may have sealed his role in future jazz history" (Bill Meredith, Jazziz).

Eldar's current album and first solo piano album entitled "Three Stories" has already garnered rave reviews. "This is certainly jazz piano, but it's the kind that belongs in a recital hall... Djangirov gets to the heart of every song" (Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz); "Something special goes on here… In Djangirov's hands, the piano is a dramatic personage" (Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer); "Djangirov's playing is, simply, flawless" (Jeff Tamarkin, All Music Guide)
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/eldar-djangirov

Release

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Anne Ducros - Ella...My Dear

Bitrate: 320K/s

Time: 42:40

Size: 97.7 MB

Styles: Vocal jazz

Year: 2010

Art: Front

[2:42] 1. It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

[5:51] 2. Laura

[3:44] 3. Save Your Love For Me

[4:57] 4. Stardust

[3:09] 5. Lullaby Of Birdland (Feat. Dany Brillant)

[2:38] 6. Ella… My Dear

[5:39] 7. Come Rain Come Shine

[5:31] 8. Bewitched

[4:14] 9. Fascinating Gershwin

[4:11] 10. Dindi

Native of the Pas de Calais, Anne Ducros began her classic training (musical and vocal) within the conservatoire of Boulogne Sur mer with Lyne Durian. Then at the same time she is studying law at the University of Lille, she completes and refines her vocal mastery thanks to the education of Yuri Anoff and Maddy Mespley. Afterward she has a practice of baroque music within training course at the University and investigates Couperin, Rameau or Bach’s music.

Introduced to the vocal jazz from 1986, she sets up her first quartet of jazz with which she gains various international competitions (Price for better soloist and first vocaliste in the festival of jazz of Dunkerque; First price of soloist and vocalist in the festival of jazz of Vienne in 1989). This growing recognition will stimulates her of an inexhaustible will to sing always more by accumulating concerts in France and specially by publishing her first album of vocal jazz, "Don't you take a chance" at JTB in 1989.

Ella... My Dear

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Stan Getz - Apasionado

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1990
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:41
Size: 116,7 MB
Art: Front

(8:06) 1. Apasionado
(7:06) 2. Coba
(6:07) 3. Waltz For Stan
(4:15) 4. Espanõla
(5:26) 5. Madrugada
(4:59) 6. Amorous Cat
(9:00) 7. Midnight Ride
(5:39) 8. Lonely Lady

In the liner notes to this album, Stan Getz comments about how producer Herb Alpert showed him aspects of recording he had never experienced before. In this case, it's how to over-produce without overwhelming a lead soloist, as Alpert loads up this date with synthesizer players, electric instruments, and effects as a backdrop for the ultra-cool tenor of Getz. While not going overboard, it would have been nice to hear this music without the caramel-thick arrangements, leaving just Getz and a rhythm section to play sans the unnecessary sugarcoating.

Initially released about a year before Getz passed away, the end result is a lazy and far too sweet group of pieces that muck up romance in a smothering fashion. Where string arrangements can sound beautiful, the sleepy synths on "Waltz for Stan" and echoplexed sax during "Madrugada" and especially the nine-minute ambling "Midnight Ride" are not just a trifle overbearing. Eddie del Barrio's "Coba" fares better in a fusion-on-the-rock-side mode mixed with Brazilian tropicalia, while the title track utilizes an acoustic big band mixed with synths and electric piano in a ballad-to-light-samba-to-heavy-beats sauce.

"Española" starts with an out of tune electric bass guitar followed by some clichéd electric guitar from Michael Landau, while "Amorous Cat" reflects its title in a light funk rhythm. Some very good players are included, like drummer Jeff Porcaro (Toto), percussionist Paulinho Da Costa, acoustic guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, and keyboardist Kenny Barron, with George Bohanon and Oscar Brashear in the big-band horn section. Otherwise, this recording is far from essential music made by Stan Getz, more suitable for mood music elevator wallpaper than a substantive listening experience. By Michael G. Nastos
https://www.allmusic.com/album/apasionado-mw0000655019

Personnel: Tenor Saxophone – Stan Getz; Bass – Jimmy Johnson ; Drums – Jeff Porcaro; Electric Guitar – Michael Landau; Oscar Castro Neves; Piano – Kenny Barron; Saxophone – William Green; Synthesizer, Electric Piano – Mike Lang; Trombone – George Bohanon, Reginald Young; Trumpet – Noland Smith Jr., Oscar Brashear, Rick Baptist; Tuba – Tom Johnson

Apasionado

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Paul Horn - Brazilian Images

Styles: Brazilian Jazz,  World Fusion
Year: 1989
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:02
Size: 124,6 MB
Art: Front

(5:48)  1. Streets of São Paulo
(5:48)  2. Parque do Flamengo (Flamingo Park)
(6:40)  3. Vida Noturna (Night Life)
(4:07)  4. Ana
(5:22)  5. Som do Rio (The Sound Of Rio)
(6:06)  6. Brazilian Images
(5:37)  7. Amazônia
(5:02)  8. Funky Town
(6:17)  9. Mulher Solitária (Lonely Woman)
(3:10) 10. Sambinha (Little Samba)

A magnificent collaboration with guitarist Andre Geraissati and percussionists Airto Moreira and Joao Parabyba creates this lush and intimate musical experience from the ultimate world musicain, Paul Horn. Paul Horn is the ultimate world musician, a sound traveler without peer.

By 1989, when Paul Horn recorded Brazilian Images, people were beginning to realize that he was no longer ahead of his time. In the 1960’s Horn began a quixotic musical journey that opened a whole world of places and people to him. He spent the 1970s and 80s playing in some of the worlds great sacred spaces, and collaborating with musicians from many traditions. As far back as the 60s he unwittingly anticipated the ‘World Music’ and ‘New Age’ trends; during the next two decades, he helped to define them. By the time he made this album at the dawn of yet another decade, the times had pretty well caught up to him.

“I love Brazil,’ says Horn, “even as a child. When I first had the opportunity to go there in 1970, I knew why. The atmosphere is charged with music, dance, sunshine and beautiful women. Paradise. It is also a country of paradoxes. From some of the worst slums of the world, the Favelas, comes the happiest music in the world, the samba. On a tour of Brazil in 1990 with guitarist Andre Geraissati, “I found the gentler side of Brazil through his writing and the unique voices he uses. We recorded this album in Sao Paulo at the completion of our tour.” His Brazilian music is among his most beautiful; and Brazilian Images, a collaboration with guitarist Andre Geraissati and percussionists Airto Moreira and Joao Parabyba, is music of unusual lushness and intimacy. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/paulhorn6

Personnel: Paul Horn (flute, alto flute, bansuri, soprano saxophone); André Geraissati (guitar); Joao Parahyba, Airto Moreira (percussion).

Brazilian Images

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Claire Martin, Scott Dunn & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - I Watch You Sleep

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:04
Size: 167,7 MB
Art: Front

(4:30) 1. I Watch You Sleep
(5:37) 2. Autumn in New York
(4:25) 3. It's Only a Paper Moon
(3:34) 4. For Ev'ry Man There's a Woman / It Was Written in the Stars
(5:35) 5. Round About
(4:32) 6. I'll Always Leave the Door a Little Open
(4:59) 7. I Wish I'd Met You
(5:13) 8. Don't Play Games with Love
(4:30) 9. Goodbye for Now
(3:27) 10. Early to Bed
(4:06) 11. I Never Went Away
(2:53) 12. Let's Go and Live in the Country
(4:24) 13. Not Exactly Paris
(3:59) 14. My Ship
(4:01) 15. I Wonder What Became of Me
(5:13) 16. It Was Written in the Stars

A flawless song list comprising Richard Rodney Bennett originals plus some of his favourite standards, stunning arrangements by conductor Scott Dunn, plus the unfailingly mellifluous vocals of Claire Martin, combine to produce an extraordinarily beautiful tribute to Bennett which marks the tenth anniversary of his death.

Whether it's the majestic sound of the RPO strings in the Bennett/Siegel opener ’I Watch You Sleep’ – an utterly gorgeous song in the hands of Bennett's great friends and erstwhile musical partners Martin and Dunn which, aside from Shirley Horn's exquisite version on her 1988 trio album, Softly, has been covered remarkably infrequently the iridescent vibraphone which introduces a deluxe arrangement of Vernon Duke's ‘Autumn in New York’ with its vivid imagery of “glittering crowds and shimmering clouds in canyons of steel”; the clarion call of Ryan Quigley's flugel in ‘Round About’ (another overlooked gem from the team of Duke and lyricist Ogden Nash which seems to hover atmospherically in the air); or the adroit splicing together of a brace of Harold Arlen/Leo Robin songs,

‘ For Ev’ry Man There's a Woman/It Was Written In The Stars’, penned for the 1948 US film noir Casbah, the 16-track album presents an incredibly touching statement from the heart. Whether navigating through the elegiac orchestral textures of ‘I Never Went Away’ or intimate duo and trio versions of ‘I Wonder What Became Of Me’ and ‘I Wish I’d Met You’, Martin's enormous gifts as a storyteller have never sounded more potent.
https://www.jazzwise.com/review/scott-dunn-with-claire-martin-and-the-royal-philharmonic-orchestra-i-watch-you-sleep-scott-dunn-celebrates-richard-rodney-bennett

Personnel: Claire Martin - vocals; Rob Barron - piano; Matt Skelton - drums; Jeremy Brown - double bass; Ryan Quigley - flugelhorn; Scott Dunn - conductor, arranger, piano on tracks 15&16; and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

I Watch You Sleep

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Anne Ducros - Either Way : From Marilyn To Ella

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 74:28
Size: 170.5 MB
Styles: Vocal jazz
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[3:37] 1. You'd Be Surprised
[4:54] 2. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
[5:22] 3. Summertime
[7:06] 4. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
[3:58] 5. Either Way
[4:24] 6. But Not For Me
[3:53] 7. You'd Be So Nice To Come To
[4:22] 8. A Fine Romance
[5:10] 9. Thou Swell
[3:53] 10. I Wanne Be Loved By You
[5:49] 11. I'm Through With Love
[6:04] 12. Diamonds Are The Girl's Best Friends
[5:19] 13. Laura
[6:57] 14. Dindi
[3:33] 15. It Don't Mean A Thing (If You Ain't Got That Swing)

You may think you have heard the songs from the Great American Songbook more than enough times so that you have no desire to hear them again. Think again. You haven't heard them like you'll hear them on Either Way: From Marilyn to Ella, the new album from French jazz singer Anne Ducros. That she makes these hoary standards her own doesn't come close to doing justice to what she does with them. She transforms them, and more important, her transformations are absolutely killer.

She takes the original song and pushes its musical possibilities as far as they will go. This is a singer who colors outside the lines. Her vocals are a perfect demonstration of what a jazz singer should be doing. Many jazz singers are content to interpret; Anne Ducros creates. In a sense, what she does with a song parallels what her deconstructionist countryman Jacques Derrida does with literature. The original song becomes a remembered shadow that marks just how far she's taken its ideas.

All this wouldn't make much difference if the lady couldn't sing. No problem, this is a lady with the chops to make her music work. If her performances don't quite make you forget the originals, they sure give them a run for their money.

Recording information: New Art Recording Studio, Milano, IT (01/11/2013-01/25/2013); Orfena Studio, Bruxelles, Bel (01/11/2013-01/25/2013); New Art Recording Studio, Milano, IT (05/19/2013); Orfena Studio, Bruxelles, Bel (05/19/2013).

Anne Ducros (vocals); Maxime Blesin (guitar, percussion); Benoit de Mesmay (piano); Nicolas Gilles (double bass, electric bass); Bruno Castellucci (drums).

Either Way : From Marilyn To Ella

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London Brew - London Brew

Styles: Jazz Contemporary
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 88:19
Size: 206,1 MB
Art: Front

(23:34) 1. London Brew
(15:48) 2. London Brew Pt 2.- Trainlines
( 7:27) 3. Miles Chases New Voodoo In The Church
( 8:55) 4. Nu Sha Ni Sha Nu Oss Ra
( 6:54) 5. It’s One Of These
( 2:50) 6. Bassics
( 9:52) 7. Mor Ning Prayers
(12:57) 8. Raven Flies Low

Concord Jazz has announced London Brew, a new album inspired by Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. Due out March 31, it was recorded at Paul Epworth’s the Church Studios in London by a dozen of contemporary UK jazz musicians, including Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings, Tom Skinner, and more. Check out the trailer and first single, “Miles Chases New Voodoo in the Church,” below.

The group, also called London Brew, was assembled by producer and guitarist Martin Terefe and executive producer Bruce Lampcov to perform a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of Bitches Brew; when it was canceled due to the pandemic, they summoned the musicians to the Church in December 2020 to create an improvisatory work inspired by the album. The group was rounded out by Benji B, Raven Bush, Theon Cross, Tom Herbert, Nikolaj Torp Larsen, Dave Okumu, Nick Ramm, and Dan See.
https://pitchfork.com/news/nubya-garcia-shabaka-hutchings-tom-skinner-and-more-announce-miles-davis-tribute-london-brew/

London Brew

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Stan Kenton - Solo: Stan Kenton Without His Orchestra

Styles: Hard Bop
Year: 1974
File: MP3@128K/s
Time: 40:47
Size: 38,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:02) 1. Theme to the West
(3:29) 2. Eager Beaver
(5:12) 3. Theme for Sunday
(2:58) 4. Reflection
(4:52) 5. Guess Where I Used To Work _ Blues
(4:23) 6. Concerto to End All Concertos
(2:47) 7. Sunset Tower
(4:18) 8. Interlude
(1:39) 9. Lush Waltz
(7:02) 10. Self Portrait

Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 - August 25, 1979) led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator.

Stan Kenton was born in Wichita, Kansas, and raised first in Colorado and then in California. He learned piano as a child, and while still a teenager toured with various bands. In June 1941 he formed his own band, which developed into one of the best-known West Coast ensembles of the Forties.

Kenton's musical aggregations were decidedly “orchestras.” Sometimes consisting of two dozen or more musicians at once, they produced an unmistakable Kenton sound--as recognizable as that of the bands of Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, or Count Basie. So large an orchestra was able to produce a tremendous, at times overpowering, volume in the dance and concert halls of the land; among musical conservatives it developed a reputation for playing strange-sounding pieces much too loudly, and indeed one comical MC introduced Stan Kenton as “Cant Standit.”

A Kenton specialty was Afro-Cuban rhythm, as exported to North America by such bandleaders as Machito (whose brass and reed sound, in turn, began to show the influence of Kenton). Translated into the Kenton idiom, however, the Latin rhythms might be scored for a full panoply of percussion instruments: tympani, bongos, conga, timbales, claves, and maracas. This component of Kenton's work may be heard on the 1947 recording “Machito” and on the album Cuban Fire, still in print after more than fifty years of ceaseless change in popular music.

Many of Kenton's band arrangements were written by Kenton himself, as well as other composers and arrangers such as Gene Roland, Pete Rugolo, W. A. Mathieu, Johnny Richards, Lennie Niehaus, Gerry Mulligan, Hank Levy, Bill Russo, Dee Barton, Bill Holman, Shorty Rogers, Ken Hanna, and Bob Graettinger (ref. his formidable but fascinating “City of Glass”). The music, which could be intensely dissonant, made use of powerful brass sections and unconventional saxophone voicings that showed Kenton's love of experimenting, reflected in the names he gave his ensembles: “Innovations Orchestra,” “Neophonic Orchestra,” and “Mellophonium Orchestra.” Kenton's theme song from the early days to the last was called, significantly, “Artistry in Rhythm.” It was owing in part to Kenton's ambitious musical nomenclature that many critics dismissed his work as mannered and pretentious. But apart from recording a few dance-band albums (Kenton's men could play standards beautifully), he avoided compromising his idea of jazz to please either critics or public.

Kenton played in the 1930s in the dance bands of Vido Musso and Gus Arnheim, but he was born to be a leader. In 1941 he formed his first orchestra, which later was named after his theme song “Artistry in Rhythm.” A decent Earl Hines-influenced pianist, Kenton was much more important in the early days as an arranger and inspiration for his loyal sidemen. Although there were no major names in his first band (bassist Howard Rumsey and trumpeter Chico Alvarez come the closest), Kenton spent the summer of 1941 playing regularly before a very appreciative audience at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa Beach, CA. Influenced by Jimmie Lunceford (who, like Kenton, enjoyed high-note trumpeters and thick-toned tenors), the Stan Kenton Orchestra struggled a bit after its initial success. Its Decca recordings were not big sellers and a stint as Bob Hope's backup radio band was an unhappy experience; Les Brown permanently took Kenton's place.

By late 1943 with a Capitol contract, a popular record in “Eager Beaver,” and growing recognition, the Stan Kenton Orchestra was gradually catching on. Its soloists during the war years included Art Pepper, briefly Stan Getz, altoist Boots Mussulli, and singer Anita O'Day. By 1945 the band had evolved quite a bit. Pete Rugolo became the chief arranger (extending Kenton's ideas), Bob Cooper and Vido Musso offered very different tenor styles, and June Christy was Kenton's new singer; her popular hits (including “Tampico” and “Across the Alley From the Alamo”) made it possible for Kenton to finance his more ambitious projects. Calling his music “progressive jazz,” Kenton sought to lead a concert orchestra as opposed to a dance band at a time when most big bands were starting to break up. By 1947 Kai Winding was greatly influencing the sound of Kenton's trombonists, the trumpet section included such screamers as Buddy Childers, Ray Wetzel, and Al Porcino, Jack Costanzo's bongos were bringing Latin rhythms into Kenton's sound, and a riotous version of “The Peanut Vendor” contrasted with the somber “Elegy for Alto.” Kenton had succeeded in forming a radical and very original band that gained its own audience.

In 1949 Kenton took a year off. In 1950 he put together his most advanced band, the 39-piece Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra that included 16 strings, a woodwind section, and two French horns. Its music ranged from the unique and very dense modern classical charts of Bob Graettinger to works that somehow swung despite the weight. Such major players as Maynard Ferguson (whose high-note acrobatics set new standards), Shorty Rogers, Milt Bernhart, John Graas, Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Laurindo Almeida, Shelly Manne, and June Christy were part of this remarkable project, but from a commercial standpoint, it was really impossible. Kenton managed two tours during 1950-1951 but soon reverted to his usual 19-piece lineup. Then quite unexpectedly, Kenton went through a swinging period. The charts of such arrangers as Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan, Lennie Niehaus, Marty Paich, Johnny Richards, and particularly Bill Holman and Bill Russo began to dominate the repertoire. Such talented players (in addition to the ones already named) as Lee Konitz, Conte Candoli, Sal Salvador, Stan Levey, Frank Rosolino, Richie Kamuca, Zoot Sims, Sam Noto, Bill Perkins, Charlie Mariano, Mel Lewis, Pete Candoli, Lucky Thompson, Carl Fontana, Pepper Adams, and Jack Sheldon made strong contributions. The music was never predictable and could get quite bombastic, but it managed to swing while still keeping the Kenton sound.

Critics of Kenton have not limited their attacks to his music only. In 1956, when the band returned from its European trip, the Critics Poll in Down Beat reflected victories by Negroes in virtually every category. The Kenton band was playing in Ontario, Canada, at the time, and Stan dispatched a telegram which brought near apoplexy to critic Leonard Feather.

The telegram lamented “a new minority, white jazz musicians,” and stated Kenton's “complete and total disgust [with the] literary geniuses of jazz.” Feather, alone of all the critics, took up his cudgel to answer and attack Kenton. In the October 3, 1956, issue he wrote an open letter which distorted Kenton's words, and in the heat of anger (though he claimed it was sorrow) he questioned Kenton's racial views, his alleged disparagement of Negro leaders like Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. Feather inferred that Kenton's failure to win the Critics Poll was the major reason for the complaint; that there had been a prejudice for many years and now it had to be expressed; that Kenton had not hired enough Negro musicians over the years.

All points except the last were based on conjecture, and events preceding and following Feather's complaint have shown how ridiculous they were. The latter point was based on a poor or prejudiced memory of the writer, for in noting the presence of only a handful of Negroes in Kenton's band he overlooked at least five times as many others who have played with or been aided by Kenton. (The night that Kenton sent the telegram there were two Negroes playing in the trombone section.) Not least among these would be Charlie Parker and, particularly, Art Tatum, who was given more exposure on a Kenton sponsored tour than he ever received elsewhere.Feather's weak memory tore his thesis to threads.

In reality, every musician who has ever played with Kenton will tell you that he has been a staunch defender of the Negro's place in jazz and that he has fought just as violently against the Crow-Jim concept of some Negroes that jazz is their music alone. As critic Ralph J. Gleason wrote, also in Down Beat, Feather's verdict was passed on Kenton “...without, unfortunately, any public statement from the only musicians really in a position to know.” Again, unfortunately, it took critic Feather four years to realise his error, for it was not until August, 1960, that he took stock and tried to clear the scene.Kenton later was asked if Feather had apologised for his article before the jazz world in Down Beat. The answer was: “Yes: I think it was on the back page of the Pittsburg Inquirer.” Kenton was pointing to the irony that Feather had created a great tempest, and no matter how apologetic the critic would be he had created great ill-feeling, and there is still much of that prejudice-in-reverse by Negro musicians toward Stan. Nearly three years before this, in the December 16, 1953, issue of Down Beat, critic Nat Hentoff had written that “...Stan is as free from prejudice of any kind as any man I know.”

Kenton's last successful experiment was his mellophonium band of 1960-1963. Despite the difficulties in keeping the four mellophoniums (which formed their own separate section) in tune, this particular Kenton orchestra had its exciting moments. However from 1963 on, the flavor of the Kenton big band began to change. Rather than using talented soloists, Kenton emphasized relatively inexpensive youth at the cost of originality. While the arrangements (including those of Hank Levy) continued to be quite challenging, after Gabe Baltazar's “graduation” in 1965, there were few new important Kenton alumni (other than Peter Erskine and Tim Hagans). For many of the young players, touring with Kenton would be the high point of their careers rather than just an important early step. Kenton Plays Wagner (1964) was an important project, but by then the bandleader's attention was on jazz education. By conducting a countless number of clinics and making his charts available to college and high-school stage bands, Kenton insured that there would be many bands that sounded like his, and the inverse result was that his own young orchestra sounded like a professional college band! Kenton continued leading and touring with his big band up until his death in 1979.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/stan-kenton

Solo: Stan Kenton Without His Orchestra

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Johnny Britt - After We Play

Styles: Vocal And Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:32
Size: 130,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:32) 1. Ain't Nothin' But The Funk (Feat. Tom Browne)
(4:56) 2. After We Play (Feat. Peter White)
(4:58) 3. Butterflies (Feat. Will Downing)
(4:06) 4. Summer Love (Feat. Gerald Albright & Kashan)
(4:34) 5. Ocean Waves (Feat. Blair Bryant)
(4:16) 6. Walk On By
(4:19) 7. Hold On Be Strong (Feat. Ricky Peterson)
(4:25) 8. Let's Do This (Feat. Nils)
(3:19) 9. Goin' Out Of My Head (Feat. Little Anthony & George Benson)
(3:37) 10. Love Paradise
(5:04) 11. Midnight
(4:31) 12. More Love
(3:48) 13. Love Paradise (Bonus Flugelhorn Version)

LOS ANGELES (20 March 2023): In response to an interviewer’s question, legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis said, “I’ll tell you after I play.” That philosophy struck a note with urban-jazz trumpeter-vocalist Johnny Britt, who titled his fifth album “After We Play,” that dropped on Friday (March 17) on J-Jams Records. Britt wrote ten new songs and produced the thirteen tracks on which he plays with an array of luminaries. The collection starts off on top as the title cut featuring guitar star Peter White recently went No. 1 on two national singles charts.

The recent Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award recipient will launch his multi-genre album at two Los Angeles-area record release concerts: March 26 at The Venice West and April 6 at the Catalina Jazz Club.

Simultaneous to the instrumental single “After We Play” summitting the Mediabase and Smooth Jazz Network charts, Britt’s vocal ballad with Will Downing, “Butterflies,” entered the top 50 on the R&B singles chart and is soaring skywards.

Two years in the making, Britt describes “After We Play” as “an album of feelings, emotions, thoughts and imagination. I wrote, produced and performed every song from within. Every song was birthed out of a deep sense of love, compassion and sincerity. I love singing and I love playing the trumpet. That’s what you’ll hear when you listen to the album, which came together wonderfully.”

According to Britt, the title song, a sultry midtempo flugelhorn and guitar duet captured in this video, sets up the entire album. There are many marquee moments to embrace from the album, including a dreamy version of “Goin’ Out of My Head” that finds Britt in the company of greats. He croons the song with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Little Anthony who sang the original version with The Imperials with whom Britt has been singing as first tenor since 2012. Gracing the tune with cool electric jazz guitar is ten-time Grammy winner George Benson.

The album opens with the twin trumpet powered “Ain’t Nothin But The Funk” spotlighting the horns of Britt and Tom Browne. Nine-time Grammy nominee Gerald Albright thumps his bass on “Summer Love,” an affair heated by Kashan’s mid-cut rap. “Ocean Waves” washes over like a sensual caress, thanks to Britt’s sultry voice and muted trumpet along with sinewy bass and Piccolo bass work from Blair Bryant. The album’s second remake is a haunting take on the Bacharach & David classic “Walk On By,” given an ethereal treatment on which Britt handles all the vocals and instrumentation except for drums. Ricky Peterson adds piano, organ and strings accoutrements to illumine the positive affirmation that is “Hold On Be Strong.” Billboard hitmaker Nils teams with Britt for “Let’s Do This,” an empowering horn and guitar instrumental that bodes to become a chart topper. “Love Paradise” is a heavenly slice of the best of Britt: a funky R&B groove, a splash of contemporary jazz nuance, and a vibrant pop hook. Nils reappears on “Midnight,” but it’s Britt’s flugelhorn that shines brightest. The seductive “More Love” is an amorous late-night mood setter. “After We Play” closes with an instrumental version of “Love Paradise.”

Britt will soon share his story in the autobiography “The Soloist.” He grew up “an inner-city kid” in Cleveland where he was in a band while in junior high school with a young drummer named Arsenio Hall. The multi-instrumentalist studied abroad at the prestigious Conservatoire de Versailles under the tutelage of Roger Delmotte, first trumpeter of the Paris Opera. After returning Stateside, The Temptations’ Otis Williams made Britt the youngest musical director ever for the iconic Motown Records vocal group. That led to Britt coproducing the music for the Emmy-winning miniseries “The Temptations.”

After the move to Los Angeles, Britt landed his own Motown record deal in 1995 for his group Impromp2, which recorded four albums. Always desiring to be a soloist, Britt finally made it happen in 2012 by releasing his debut album, “Feels So Good.”

“I loved singing in groups, but deep in my heart, I always wanted to stand alone in the spotlight in front of that microphone just me, my voice and my trumpet,” said Britt.

In addition to his solo catalogue, Britt has written three No. 1 Billboard hits for saxophonist Boney James as well as songs for Peabo Bryson, Rick Braun, Euge Groove, Paul Brown, Jeff Golub, Jessy J and The Temptations. He played trumpet on the big screen in Academy Award-winner “La La Land” and was hired by two-time Oscars and four-time Grammy winner Hans Zimmer to be the trumpet soloist for the Oscar nominated “Hidden Figures.”
https://news.theurbanmusicscene.com/2023/03/johnny-britt-releases-new-album-after-we-play/

After We Play

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