Don Sebesky - Giant Box

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1973
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:35
Size: 140,1 MB
Art: Front

(13:56)  1. Firebird/Bird Of Fire
( 5:50)  2. Song To A Seagull
( 8:15)  3. Free As A Bird
( 8:11)  4. Psalm 150
( 5:40)  5. Vocalise
( 9:48)  6. Fly/Circles
( 7:52)  7. Semi-tough

It's a bit bizarre to find an album called Giant Box in a small cardboard case, or as a download lacking physical form, but times change. When Don Sebesky's grand musical statement on CTI hit the marketplace in 1973, it came in a classical-type record box, befitting the stature of the music. Opinions vary as to whether Sebesky can be said to have been a savior of jazz in the '70s, or a jazz Judas who helped to commercialize the music. Truth be told, he's neither. Sebesky is simply a great arranger and talent who happened to thrive in this music during a period when the ideology of jazz was fractured in so many ways. Sebesky bore the brunt of critical attacks against this new offshoot, but he wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel. While his arrangements were occasionally excessive, many of his works are also masterful musical creations that create an entire universe of sound, in service of a particular artist's vision. While there may be reservations about the "Sebesky Sound," hindsight shows his arranging brilliance, as demonstrated on Giant Box.

The early '70s success of CTI afforded Creed Taylor the opportunity to give Sebesky some musical freedom on this project, and what he came up with is astonishing. Sebesky fuses Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird" and John McLaughlin's "Birds Of Fire" into a single work, featuring cinematic orchestral episodes and exciting solos from the likes of Hubert Laws and Freddie Hubbard. Joni Mitchell's "Song To A Seagull" becomes a feature for Paul Desmond's distant and lonely sounding alto saxophone, but Ron Carter's bass makes friends with him and the pair proves to be simpatico in its conversational work. The first of three Sebesky originals ("Free As A Bird") is also the first number that deals in hard swinging big band writing, and it also features some wonderful solo work from pianist Bob James, Freddie Hubbard now on flugelhorn and Grover Washington Jr. on soprano saxophone. Sebesky's take on Jimmy Webb's "Psalm 150" is the one number that doesn't stand up too well, as it comes off like a combination between solemn chanting, Donald Byrd's A New Perspective (Blue Note, 1963), standard-issue funk, and "Aquarius" from Hair (1967). Things get back on track with Desmond's sad-eyed saxophone work on "Vocalise," which also features vibraphonist Milt Jackson and Sebesky's superb string writing. The final pair of pieces on the album are representative of Sebesky's experimental side ("Fly/Circle") and understanding of popular, groove-based music ("Semi-Tough"). "Fly/Circle" is an episodic number that features Laws' effects-laden flute runs, Sebesky's pleasant vocals, an eerie Bernard Hermann-esque woodwind statement, solos over a small group setting, and more. "Semi-Tough" goes in a completely different direction, as Sebesky taps into raunchy, straight-up street funk that's part-Isaac Hayes and part Sanford And Son. While Giant Box is indicative of the bigger-is-better approach of the times, it also serves as a benchmark for creativity in arranging and composition, and helps to place Sebesky's talents in the proper light. ~ Dan Bilawsky https://www.allaboutjazz.com/giant-box-don-sebesky-cti-masterworks-review-by-dan-bilawsky.php

Personnel: Don Sebesky: piano (7), electric piano (1, 2, 3), organ (7), accordion (3, 6), clavinet (7), vocals (4, 6); Bob James: piano (3, 5, 6), organ (4, 7); Ron Carter: bass, electric bass, piccolo bass; Billy Cobham: drums (1, 4, 7); Jack DeJohnette: drums (2, 3, 5, 6); George Benson: guitar (7); Harry Leahey: guitar (1); Airto: percussion (1, 6, 7); Rubens Bassini: conga drums (4); Dave Friedman: percussion (4); Phil Kraus: percussion (4); Ralph MacDonald: percussion (4); Paul Desmond: alto saxophone (2, 5); Joe Farrell: soprano saxophone (6); Grover Washington, Jr.: alto saxophone (7), soprano saxophone (3); Milt Jackson: vibraphone (5); Freddie Hubbard: trumpet (1, 5), flugelhorn (3); Hubert Laws: flute (1, 6); Jackie Cain: vocals (4); Roy Kral: vocals (4); Randy Brecker: trumpet; Alan Rubin: trumpet; Joe Shepley: trumpet; Wayne Andre: trombone, baritone; Warren Covington: trombone, baritone; Garnett Brown: trombone; Paul Faulise: bass trombone, baritone; Alan Raph: bass trombone, baritone; Jim Biffington: french horn; Earl Chapin: french horn; Phil Bodner: flute, piccolo, clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, oboe, English horn; Jerry Dodgion: flute, piccolo, clarinet, soprano saxophone; Walt Levinsky: clarinet, tenor saxophone; George Marge: flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone, oboe, English horn; Romeo Penque: flute, piccolo, clarinet, soprano saxophone, oboe, English horn; Tony Price: tuba; Al Brown: violin; Harry Cykman: violin; Max Ellen: violin; Paul Gershman: violin; Harry Glickman: violin; Emanuuel Green: violin; Harold Kohon: violin; Charles Libove: violin; Harry Lookofsky: violin; Joe Malin: violin; David Nadien: violin; Gene Orloff: violin; Elliot Rosoff: violin; Irving Spice: violin; Seymour Barab: cello; Charles McCracken: cello; George Ricci: cello; Alan Shulman: cello; Margaret Ross: harp; Homer Mensch: concert string bass; Lani Groves: background vocals (7); Carl Caldwell: background vocals (7); Tasha Thomas: background vocals (7).

Giant Box

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Michela Lombardi - Live to Tell

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2017
Time: 81:13
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 187,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:38) 1. Burning Up
(5:32) 2. Lucky Star
(4:32) 3. Material Girl
(7:35) 4. Rain
(4:49) 5. Music
(5:18) 6. Frozen
(4:32) 7. True Blue
(5:51) 8. Live to Tell
(5:08) 9. Like a Virgin
(4:06) 10. Holiday
(5:48) 11. Papa Don't Preach
(5:24) 12. You'll See
(4:20) 13. Into the Groove (Tahwos)
(4:29) 14. Take a Bow
(3:32) 15. La Isla Bonita
(6:38) 16. Dear Jessie

The new album from Italian vocalist Michela Lombardi “Live To Tell” was recorded together with the Riccardo Fassi Trio and features a full set of re-imagined music first recorded by pop icon Madonna. Featuring special guests Steven Bernstein (trumpet) and Don Byron (clarinet), this album, firmly rooted in the jazz idiom, brings a new and unique vision to this repertoire that is rarely heard in an acoustic setting.https://www.dottimerecords.com/product/live-to-tell/

Personnel: Michela Lombardi – vocals; Steven Bernstein – trumpet; Don Byron – clarinet

Live to Tell

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Jaimee Paul - The Gershwin Songbook

Styles: Vocal Jazz
Year: 2025
Time: 42:27
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 97,7 MB
Art: Front

(3:03) 1. They Can't Take That Away From Me
(3:08) 2. I Got Rhythm
(5:15) 3. I've Got A Crush On You
(2:54) 4. A Foggy Day
(2:58) 5. Love Is Here To Stay
(5:12) 6. It Ain't Necessarily So
(3:51) 7. ‘S Wonderful
(4:49) 8. The Man I Love
(3:15) 9. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
(4:38) 10. Embraceable You
(3:19) 11. But Not For Me

Celebrated international jazz vocalist Jaimee Paul returns with fresh takes on George Gershwin's timeless classics. The Gershwin Songbook album includes hits "The Man I Love," "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off," "But Not For Me," and "They Can't Take That Away From Me." Produced by Jack Jezzro, the album is releasing on Green Hill Music in partnership with Burton Avenue.

The Gershwin Songbook

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Andy Sheppard Quartet - Romaria

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:07
Size: 110,7 MB
Art: Front

(8:06)  1. And A Day ...
(4:48)  2. Thirteen
(5:11)  3. Romaria
(4:21)  4. Pop
(5:56)  5. They Came From The North
(5:53)  6. With Every Flower That Falls
(7:07)  7. All Becomes Again
(6:42)  8. Forever ...

Where so much music treats silence as an exception, Andy Sheppard's recordings find it serving more as the rule. He's never been one for weaving flashy speed runs or feeling pressure to fill space. Even when his sax lines speed up from time to time through Romaria, they serve the mood with tasteful restraint, smoothly evoking the soothing coolness of its cover. Sheppard uses the term "dream band" to describe this quartet, which is appropriate in more ways than one. Dreaminess is the overarching quality of the session and the group's longstanding familiarity lets them trust each other wherever they drift. Sheppard had already explored the chordless trio format with Michel Benita on bass and Sebastian Rochford at the drumkit; the guitar and electronic tones of sometime collaborator Eivind Aarset made an excellent expansion on Surrounded by Sea (ECM, 2015). Their followup here is just a touch more active in comparison, keeping their identity while turning one more facet toward the light. The opening "And a Day..." could serve as the start of a proper ambient album if it wished, full of wide breathing space and gentle sweeps of guitar swaying like waves at low tide. It's not long before Sheppard steps into livelier territory with the mid-tempo lines through "Thirteen," though the album's pace never feels anywhere near rushed. Again Aarset provides an atmospheric backing framework while the other players keep the pulse at the most languid of lulls. The rhythm section is often here to provide shading more than actual rhythm throughout; when the pieces ebb, they judiciously choose their spots with tasteful strums and splashes rather than any recognizable beat. The leader's pieces generally alternate between these two modes to refreshingly tranquil effect. 

The groove builds to a light-floating cruise during "Pop" and "All Becomes Again," then an actual clatter in between with "They Came from the North." Open air takes prominence for the meditative ballad "Every Flower That Falls" and the finale of "Forever..." (bookended with that opener because they were two complementary takes of the same piece). In either mode it's an atmosphere to soak in at leisure. This quartet's easy chemistry creates a pretty soundscape both inviting and intriguing, and Romaria never loses the airy feel of a cozy reverie even at its busiest. ~ Geno Tackara https://www.allaboutjazz.com/romaria-andy-sheppard-ecm-records-review-by-geno-thackara.php

Personnel: Andy Sheppard: tenor and soprano saxophones; Eivind Aarset: guitar; Michel Benita: double bass; Sebastian Rochford: drums.

Romaria

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Alex Sipiagin - Generations: Dedicated To Woody Shaw

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:14
Size: 154,3 MB
Art: Front

(8:41)  1. Greenwood I
(5:48)  2. Obsequious
(5:49)  3. Cassandranite
(7:33)  4. Beyond All Limits
(8:35)  5. Windy Bahn
(7:11)  6. Katrina Ballerina
(7:12)  7. Chance
(8:13)  8. Blues For Wood
(8:07)  9. Greenwood II

Alex Sipiagin pays it forward with his eighth Criss Cross release, Generations, dedicated to the late Woody Shaw, a lesser celebrated but brilliant trumpeter who performed with artists including Anthony Braxton, Chick Corea, Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill. A fiery stylist with perfect pitch and lyricism, Shaw was admired by peers and emulated by up-and-comers as Sipiagin confirms, "Even now, many years later, every time I listen to Woody, I always find something new and inspiring." Sipiagin is also a stylist himself; an exceptional player and leader whose clarion horn has been called upon by bassist Dave Holland and saxophonist Michael Brecker. The trumpeter's band members are also leaders who have appeared on many of his releases, and were all members of various Brecker groups over the years, including the rhythmic underpinning of bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Antonio Sanchez. 

Adam Rogers, another leader in his own right, is the perfect complement to Sipiagin's warm tonality; a guitarist who continues to unveil his superlative skills on the similarly themed Due Reverence (Posi-Tone, 2010), saxophonist Ralph Bowen's tribute to other lesser-known but influential musicians. The trumpeter's group is convincing, with a persuasive mix of fresh Sipiagin originals and Shaw reworks that are pristine reflections and contrasts of both musicians. Rogers cooks up a funky riff throughout Sipiagin's "Greenwood I" and "Greenwood II" (an alternate take and a nod to older recordings), as the trumpeter throws down melodic notes with cool precision, shifting between multiple changes of swing. "Windy Bahn" is another original, initially sketched on the trumpeter's computer, a composition that features jagged tempo changes. The spirit of the great B3 organist Larry Young, with whom Shaw frequently performed, looms on three tracks Young's "Obsequious," as well as Shaw's "Cassandranite" and "Beyond All Limits." 

They're perfect examples of the elders' progressive ideas in structure and harmony, along with the keen arrangements with which Sipiagin highlights each musician the trumpeter's lucidity, Sanchez's detailed traps, Kozlov's meaty yet lithesome fingerings, and Rogers' liquid maneuvers. Referencing Shaw's biography and Sipiagin's liner notes, some historical points concerning these jazz musicians is noteworthy: First, Shaw felt an immediate connection to another forerunner, trumpeter Clifford Brown, who died in June 1956, the same month and year he started playing. Second, the first time Sipiagin heard Shaw was around 1985, while studying in Russia; four years before Shaw's untimely passing in 1989. From one impactful connection to the next; the music continues its vitality.By Mark F.Turner  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/generations-alex-sipiagin-criss-cross-review-by-mark-f-turner.php
 

Personnel: Alex Sipiagin: trumpet, flugelhorn; Adam Rogers: guitar; Boris Kozlov: bass; Antonio Sanchez: drums.

Generations: Dedicated To Woody Shaw

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Cyrille Aimée - à Fleur de Peau

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2024
Time: 35:15
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 85,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:47) 1. Beautiful Way
(3:28) 2. Again Again
(3:50) 3. For the Love f You
(4:18) 4. Inside and Out
(0:47) 5. Yo soy Diosa
(4:34) 6. Back to You
(2:44) 7. Feel What I Feel
(4:02) 8. Here
(3:36) 9. Ma Préférence
(4:03) 10. Historia de Amor

During the Covid-19 pandemic, she returned to the Costa Rican jungle and bought a plot of land in an eco-community inhabited mainly by expatriates. She spent time there during the lockdown, camping out at first, eventually designing and building her own off-the-grid homestead. After the fact, she describes the songs she wrote in Costa Rica as a kind of "journal" of the process. She declares in her lyric to "Inside and Out," the seed for the album, that "I will build a house so steady for you to come back to." At the time she wrote it, she had no real plans to build. In retrospect, she sees the house in the lyric as the real jungle dwelling she was to construct and the "you" as the music she was to create in it. The official video of the piece was shot on her Costa Rican property and in her home, a fantastic idiosyncratic colorful abode with charmingly primitive plumbing. It shows her singing and dancing on her porch and frolicking in the village swimming hole (YouTube, bottom of this page).

When she had written enough material for an album, she reconnected with Sherman, saying, "Hey, I have some fun, trendy songs. Let's finish what we started." The two of them realized the project together. The tunes on À Fleur de Peau are as described: they have a breezy pop flavor, gentle grooves, lovely melodies and lyrics that are sweet and personal. Aimée, accompanying herself simply on guitar or ukulele, is at the core of the production, with the other lines and instruments superimposed.

After more than a dozen well-received recordings of standards as a leader, including a Grammy nomination for her arrangement of Stephen Sondheim's "Marry Me a Little" (Move On: A Sondheim Adventure, Mack Avenue, 2019), this is Aimée's first album to feature original material. She intended for it to be "accessible" and it is. Situated among her pop confections are versions of "Ma Préférence" by French singer-songwriter Julien Clerc (Pathé, 1978) and The Isley Brothers' "For the Love of You" (The Heat is On, Epic, 1975), which is described in the album notes as "an unabashed, gloriously uplifting slice of sophisticated Yacht-Pop." By Katchie Cartwright https://www.allaboutjazz.com/a-fleur-de-peau-cyrille-aimee-whirlwind-recordings

Personnel: Cyrille Aimee – vocals, acoustic guitar, baritone ukelele | Jake Sherman – various instruments | Abe Rounds – drums & percussion | Jorge Roeder – bass (2) | Duncan Wickel – violin, cello (2, 6, 7) | Naseem Alatrash – cello (2, 7) | Jay Rattman – clarinet (2, 7) | Wayne Tucker – trumpet (1, 3) | Maria Cardona – vocals (5) | Jamison Ross – drums (6) | Chloe Rowlands – trumpet, flugelhorn (6, 8) | Andy Clausen – trombone (6, 8) | The Williamsburg School of Music Chorus – vocals (8) | Armando Young – additional drum production

à Fleur de Peau

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Isabella Lundgren - Songs To Watch The Moon

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2017
Time: 50:07
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 115,4 MB
Art: Front

(5:40) 1. I Wished On The Moon
(4:30) 2. Moon River
(4:27) 3. Isn't It Romantic
(5:30) 4. For Heavens Sake
(4:08) 5. Dream A Little Dream Of Me
(5:14) 6. I'm Old Fashioned
(4:48) 7. Moonlight In Vermont
(4:40) 8. When Lights Are Low
(4:02) 9. I'll Be Tired Of You
(5:12) 10. Pennies From Heaven
(1:51) 11. Blueberry Hill

I am sitting at a wooden table in the basement of the Scala theater in Stockholm. I am watching Isabella Lundgren from afar. Everywhere around us the party is swirling and swaying back and forth. Her party. An after party if you will, after her concert at the Stockholm Concert hall, which she sold out entirely on her own. Last time I was at the concert hall was when Patti Smith held a concert there after receiving the Polar Music Prize, it was not sold out. An hour ago Isabella held a somewhat sacred and rather magical concert with her own material, backed by a full classical orchestra. The seated audience applauded enthusiastically but politely. They were dressed up the way middle age people dress up for the theater. In Scala’s basement the mood in inverted. A wild band is blowing Dixie as underage girls spill Jack and Coke over their music-school-attending boyfriends and the in Sweden mandatory thick winter coats are trampled on the floor. In front of the stage the sweat is dripping down from the ceiling.

It is crowded and rowdy and hot. Isabella has a smile on her face and her adopted Romanian street dog in her arms. She is standing a little to the side, watching the party with mild amusement. She is drinking a non alcoholic cider. Out of the sea of people Rigmor Gustafsson emerges to thank Isabella. The Swedish jazz queen Rigmor has stars in her eyes. She gives Isabella, what seems to be, at least from where I am sitting, an overwhelming review. As they are holding each others arms I think of a moment I have only read about. When Johnny Cash made his way over to Bob Dylan after a concert in the late sixties, to give to him his finest acoustic guitar. I think of that and I think of this. An equivalent of that moment. A passing of the torch if you will. There it is, torch passed. They even hail from the same town.

I first heard Isabella Lundgren sing in a music high school practice room in that town. Karlstad in rural Sweden. As I recall her voice then it sounded just like it does now. And I think she was only fifteen years old at the time. She already had that voice. An old voice. With a tear in it. A voice that had seen the bottom of the glass and the top of the world.

A voice that had laughed its way through the night in a taxi with it’s fingers in a strangers hair. A voice that had thrown it all away and had to face its gaze in the mirror the morning after. A voice that had felt love. And seen hate. Though it was, at that time, a voice like a bird in a cage. That mostly had been secluded to a teenage girls bedroom, with her mothers jazz records, in an apartment building opposite a gas station and a McDonalds restaurant. A voice that had been singing for thousands of hours accompanied by her Cd-Walkman underneath black and white posters of the Manhattan skyline. A voice that maybe hadn’t lived but had longed to live. I started talking to that voice on the phone for hours on end. For we longed for the same things. We talked and talked, like only teenagers can, about our restless longing. About Bob Dylan and about old movies. About everything that had to happened and about everything that mustn’t. We longed to live and we longed to leave. She left before me. On a full scholarship to the New School University for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.

She ended up in New Jersey at first, at some remote relatives house, but she told a lie about having found another place to stay, in the city with a classmate, and again she did leave. A white lie from someone who had been longing. Longing to throw herself out from safety and into life with no safety net. And from what I heard, it was a hard fall. As hard as falls can become for someone who’s been longing. Longing for the night and the stage and the love. Longing for friendship and avenues and smoky clubs and bars. Longing for laughter and random encounters and booze and sex and dope. When she finally came back to Europe she was another. Wise somehow, beyond her years. She was still only twenty five but she had, it seemed, lived five lifetimes. She had found her faith and lost it. Dealt with her longing and her limitlessness. And it took time but she did start to sing again. To use the voice. Harness it. She had so many things to tell. And she now knew that music had to mean more. More than entertainment. It had to mean something real. She started writing her own material. Political, raw, and absolutely beautiful. With that same voice. Sometimes the girl have to catch up to the voice. Sometimes the woman first must live what the voice long have told.https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/isabella-lundgren/

Personnel: Vocals – Isabella Lundgren; Bass – Niklas Fernqvist; Drums – Daniel Fredriksson; Piano – Carl Bagge

Songs To Watch The Moon

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Gene Ammons - The Boss Is Back!

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1994
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 73:16
Size: 168,3 MB
Art: Front

(7:27)  1. Tastin' the Jug
(7:59)  2. I Wonder
(8:48)  3. Ger-ru
(6:06)  4. Here's That Rainy Day
(6:47)  5. Madame Queen
(5:34)  6. The Jungle Boss
(5:10)  7. Jungle Strut
(6:03)  8. Didn't We
(5:04)  9. He's a Real Gone Guy
(5:41) 10. Feeling Good
(4:06) 11. Blue Velvet
(4:26) 12. Son of a Preacher Man

The executives at Prestige must have been felt ecstatic when they heard Gene Ammons first play after his release from a very severe seven-year jail sentence. The great tenor proved to still be in his prime, his huge sound was unchanged and he was hungry to make new music. This CD, which completely reissues the first two LPs Ammons cut after his return (The Boss Is Back! and Brother Jug!) rewards repeated listenings. The first date (in an acoustic quintet with pianist Junior Mance) hints at his earlier bop-based music while the numbers from the following day (with organist Sonny Phillips) find Ammons playing over a couple of boogaloo vamps very much of the period. Actually it is his ballad statements (particularly "Here's That Rainy Day," "Feeling Good" and even "Didn't We") that really make this CD memorable, although on "He's a Real Gone Guy" Ammons shows that he had not forgotten how to jam the blues either. ~ Scott Yanow  http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-boss-is-back!-mw0000111625

Personnel: Gene Ammons (tenor saxophone); Billy Butler (guitar); Houston Person, Prince James (tenor saxophone); Junior Mance (piano); Sonny Phillips (organ); Bob Bushnell (electric bass); Frank Jones , Frankie Jones, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (drums); Candido , Candido Camero (congas).

The Boss Is Back!

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Happy Easter

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