Artist: Willis Jackson with Jack McDuff
     Album: Together Again!
     Year: 2003
     Label: Prestige
     Genre: Jazz, Funk
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kb/s
     Size: 160,85 MB
     Time: 1:08:37
     AMG rating:


     On the five tracks of Together Again!, recorded with three separate lineups in 1959-1960, the Willis Jackson-Jack McDuff-speared combo offers respectable early soul-jazz, if not too different from many other Prestige-overseen sessions of the early '60s. They show their bop chops to good advantage on "Three Little Words" and "Tu' Gether"; take a slightly bluesier groove on "Glad 'a See Ya'"; and slow way down for a make-out mood on the cover of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "It Might as Well Be Spring." It's the slow-walkin'-tempoed "This'll Get to Ya," though, that gives them their greatest chance to stretch out, lasting ten minutes, and adding Buck Clarke on conga to the standard sax-organ-guitar-bass-drums lineup. All of the tracks are included on the 2003 Prestige CD reissue that's also titled Together Again!, which is a little more complicated than the standard expanded CD reissue; it combines all the tracks from Together Again! and the Jackson-McDuff-helmed sequel, Together Again, Again, though the songs are sequenced in the order in which they were recorded, not the order in which they were presented on the original LPs. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

     Artist: Lena Horne
     Album: It's Love
     Label: RCA Victor
     Year: 1955
     Size: 65 mb
     Quality: Mp3, 256 kb/s

     Even today the legendary Lena Horne has a quality of timelessness about her. Elegant and wise, she personifies both the glamour of Hollywood and the reality of a lifetime spent battling racial and social injustice. Pushed by an ambitious mother into the chorus line of the Cotton Club when she was sixteen, and maneuvered into a film career by the N.A.A.C.P., she was the first African American signed to a long-term studio contract. In her rise beyond Hollywood's racial stereotypes of maids, butlers, and African natives, she achieved true stardom on the silver screen, and became a catalyst for change even beyond the glittery fringes of studio life.

     Artist: Guy Barker
     Album: What Love Is
     Quality: mp3@320 Kbps
     Size: 136 MB (covers)
     Year: 1998
     Label: EmArcy
     Total time: 60:00

     There's a romantic in every jazz musician's heart. The opportunity to record love songs in a romantic setting is an ambition that so many jazz musicians aspire to. The musicians that I first heard doing records like this were Clifford Brown and Charlie Parker, but most of these projects have been based around well known standards with strings. When we started this project, I thought it would be interesting to have a lot of material by jazz composers. That's why Jimmy Rowles, Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman have come into it.

     Artist: Various
     Album: Preachin' the Blues: The Songs of Mississippi Fred McDowell
     Label: Telarc
     Year: 2002
     Genre: Blues
     Tracks: 12
     Format: mp3, Bitrate: @ CBR 320
     Size: 58 MB + 57 M


     If you like slide guitar, Delta blues or simply giving respect to a guy who deserves to be remembered, this album is terrific.

     Artist: Monti Amundson
     Album: The Mean Eighteen
     Label: Tramp
     Year: 1993
     Genre: Modern Electric Blues
     Tracks: 18
     Format: mp3, Bitrate: @ CBR 320
     File Size: 68 MB + 67 MB


     If you enjoy Stevie Ray Vaughn and Chris Duarte you'll love this album. While not quite the virtuoso SRV is, Monti does a great job laying down classic blues/rock.

     Artist - Ben Webster
     Album: Ben Webster 1953-1954
     Label - Classics
     Years: 1953-1954, release - 2008
     Quality - MP3@320 kbps
     Size - 115,0 mb
     Total time - 71:00


     Robust, soulful, and stunningly lyrical (especially on ballads), Ben Webster is one of the giants of the tenor sax. The French Classics label does its usual excellent job of compiling chronological recordings on BEN WEBSTER 1953-1954. Taken from sessions near the beginning of his career, these small-group dates show off Webster's formidable chops to fine effect. The fare is primarily hard-swinging bop, and the repertoire, which includes well-worn standards like "My Funny Valentine," "Tenderly," and "Pennies a shot in from Heaven," is given the arm by the Verve and vitality of the players. ~ Classics 1953-1954 Review

     Artist: Lena Horne
     Album: Lena, a New Album
     Label: RCA / BMG
     Year: 1976, release 2004
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbit/s
     Time: 0.43:43
     Size: 98 MB


     На этом альбоме, недавно переизданном на CD, Лена Хорн поёт в сопровождении оркестра Robert Farnon.

     Artist: Lena Horne
     Album: The Songs by Burke and Van Heusen
     Label: RCA
     Year: 1959
     Format, bitrate: MP3@256 kbit/s (LP-rip)
     Time: 0.35:52
     Size: 66 MB


     В День Рождения Лены Хорн предлалаю послушать один из её многочисленных альбомов...

     Artist - Ella Fitzgerald
     Album - Sings The Rodgers And Hart Song Book
     Label - Verve
     Year - 1956, release - 1997
     Quality - MP3@320 kbs/s
     Size: 120,0+125 mb
     Total time: 55:45 + 58:09



     The second of Ella Fitzgerald's famed Songbook series features her singing 34 of the best songs co-written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The arrangements by Buddy Bregman for the string orchestra and big band only border on jazz but she manages to swing the medium-tempo numbers and give sensitivity to the ballads. With such songs as "You Took Advantage of Me," "The Lady Is a Tramp," "It Never Entered My Mind," "Where or When," "My Funny Valentine," and "Blue Moon," it is not too surprising that these recordings (originally released on a two-LP set) were so popular. After being released on CD as part of the massive box set The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books, it was also released as a separate two-disc package in 1997. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

     Artist: Johnnie Bassett
     Album: I Gave My Life To The Blues
     Label: Black Magic Records
     Genre: Blues
     Styles: Blues, Modern Electric Blues
     Original Release Date: May 27, 1997
     Quality/Bitrate: MP3/320kb/s/44.1Khz/Stereo
     Cover: No
     Size: 76.2 MB + 65.6 MB

     В Детройте в 60-х много работал, как студийный музыкант, для души играя блюз по вечерам в клубах. В 1994 Детройтское блюзовое общество (Detroit Blues Society) вручило ему «Награду за достижения всей жизни» (lifetime achievement award). Два года спустя он выпустил первый альбом под собственным именем: «Я отдал свою жизнь блюзу» (I Gave My Life to the Blues), после чего отправился на гастроли со своей группой «Блюзовые повстанцы» (The Blues Insurgents).

     Artist: Dave Brubeck
     Album: In Montreux, 1982
     Label: WestWind
     Recording Date: July 22, 1982
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbit/s
     Time: 1.08:42
     Size: 157 MB


     Послушайте выступление квартета Дейва Брубика на джазовом фестивале в Монтре...

     Artists: The Thelonious Monk Quartet feauturing John Coltrane
     Album: Live At The Five Spot - Discovery!
     Year: 1993 (Recorded 1957)
     Label: Blue Note
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbit/s
     Time: 42:56
     Size: 87.7 MB
     AMG Rating:

     At first, the sound quality of this homemade recording will be a bit of a turn off but it doesn't take long before the music takes you over and all you can think about is how cool it is to "be there" on that summer night in New York in 1957 with the great Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane. A must-have for fans of either musician.

     Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
     Album: Songs in a Mellow Mood
     Label: Decca (LP)
     Release: 1954
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/256
     Size: 66 MB


     Ella Fitzgerald's Songs in a Mellow Mood finds the singer in the ideal and intimate company of pianist Ellis Larkins....Fitzgerald is equally at home with Gershwin, Porter, and Rodgers & Hammerstein, never faltering while she balances vocal power and interpretive nuances. Larkins only adds to the rarefied atmosphere with supple voicings of his own. A perfect way to soak up one of jazz's most glorious singers.(AMG)

     Enjoy...

     Artist: Eddie Shaw
     Album: Four Decades Of Eddie Shaw
     Label: North Atlantic Blues Records
     Genre: Blues
     Styles: Blues, Modern Electric Blues
     Original Release Date: 2005
     Quality/Bitrate: MP3/224kb/s/44.1Khz/Stereo
     Cover: Yes
     Size: 92.6 MB



     Еще один альбом отличного блюзового саксофониста. Приятного прослушивания.

     Artists - VA
     Album - Hello Young Lovers:
                    Capitol Sings Rodgers And Hammerstein ||
     Label - Capitol
     Years: 1949-1965, release - 1994
     Quality - MP3@256 kbps
     Size - 107,0 mb
     Total time - 59:09

     For nostalgia buffs and fans of the American popular song hit parade, here's a blast directly out of "this was your life ": 20 tracks from the good old days of pop-cum-jazz viathe Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein songbook bring you such talented — but ultimately soft-soap — singers, as Peggy Lee, Al Martino, Vic Damone, and Judy Garland, vocal groups the Andrews Sisters and the Starlighters, a jazzier young Nancy Wilson, and the much hipper Bobby Darin.
     The funniest number is Jo Stafford's "The Gentleman Is a Dope," the weirdest is Tennessee Ernie Ford doing "My Favorite Things," and the most out-of-context cut is the finale — by the Sinfonia of London? Quaintness and reverence for the old days does have an appeal, albeit limited in modern times, so if you wax poetic for this type of show tunes and don't have these artists in your home, this could fill the bill. ~ Michael G. Nastos AMG

     Artist: Blue Mitchell
     Album: The Cup Bearers
     Year: 1962
     Label: Riverside
     Time: 43:28
     Format: MP3 @320 kbps
     Size: 106 mb (RS.com, with 5% file recovery)
     Includes Covers and Scans
     AMG Rating: 4 Stars

     Trumpeter Blue Mitchell and four-fifths of the Horace Silver Quintet (with Cedar Walton in Silver's place) perform a variety of superior songs on this CD reissue including Walton's "Turquoise," Tom McIntosh's "Cup Bearers," Thad Jones's "Tiger Lily" and a couple of standards. The music swings hard, mostly avoids sounding like a Horace Silver group, and has particularly strong solos from Mitchell, tenor-saxophonist Junior Cook and Walton; excellent hard bop. -- AMG

     Artist: Eddie Shaw
     Album: Movin’ And Groovin’ Man
     Label: Evidence Records
     Genre: Blues
     Styles: Blues, Modern Electric Blues
     Original Release Date: 05/14/1982
     Quality/Bitrate: MP3/320kb/s/44.1Khz/Stereo
     Cover: Yes
     Size: 86.7 MB




     Саксофон, губная гармоника, отличный вокал, что еще пожелать. Приятного прослушивания.

     Artists - VA
     Album - Isn't It Romantic:
                    Capitol Sings Rodgers & Hart
     Label - Capitol
     Years: 1943-1967, release - 1992
     Quality - MP3@256 kbps
     Size - 183 mb
     Total time - 72:06

     Richard Rodgers was the most successful composer of popular music for the theater in the 20th century. Over the course of a 60-year career, he wrote the song scores for 42 musicals staged on Broadway or in the West End, as well as 11 movie musicals and two television musicals (not counting numerous film and TV adaptations of his stage productions), along with a few instrumental works. Although many of his songs became popular hits in sheet music and on records, he never wrote music independent from some dramatic context.

     Artist - Donald Byrd
     Album - Blackjack
     Label - Blue Note
     Years: 1963, 1967
     Quality - 320 kbps + covers
     Size -
     Total time - 40:36

     One of three Donald Byrd albums from 1967 (the end of his hard bop period), this recording features the trumpeter/leader with altoist Sonny Red, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Walter Booker, and drummer Billy Higgins. The six tunes (five of which are originals by Byrd or Red) are all quite obscure and to one extent or another quite explorative. One can sense that Byrd wanted to break through the boundaries and rules of hard bop but had not yet decided on his future directions. The music does swing and highlights include "West of the Pecos" and "Beale Street"; Byrd and Red in particular are in excellent form throughout the date. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide