Artist: Stan Getz
     Album: Apasionado
     Genre: cool, latin
     Quality: MP3@320 Kbps
     Size: 116 MB
     Year: 1990
     Label: A&M
     Total time: 45:03


     This rather commercial album (the next to last of Stan Getz's long career) is saved only by the great tenor's tone and creativity. The originals by Eddie del Barrio and Herb Alpert are quite forgettable and the backup by a variety of studio musicians is anonymous. But somehow the wonderful playing of Stan Getz makes this a worthwhile session despite it all. ~ Scott Yanow, AMG

     Artist: Bernard Allison
     Album: Keepin' The Blues Alive
     Label: Cannonball Records
     Year: 1997
     Genre: Blues
     Tracks: 11
     Format: mp3, Bitrate: @ CBR 320
     File Size: 60 MB + 59 MB


     Bernard has been well-schooled in the Blues genre and this album along with "Times Are A-Changin" efforts prove it. Very enjoyable to listen to. Although as son of Blues legend, Luther Allison, Bernard is no clone and as the next generation takes his music to the next level.

     Artists - Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, John Coltrane
     Genre - hardbop
     Label - EmArCy
     Year - 1959, release - 1988
     Quality - MP3@320kb/s
     Size - 78,1mb
     Total time - 34:05
     AMG Rating:

     This LP (whose contents have been reissued many times) features the Miles Davis Sextet of 1959 without the leader. Altoist Cannonball Adderley and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane really push each other on these six selections, with this version of "Limehouse Blues" really burning. Coltrane's very serious sound is a striking contrast to the jubilant Adderley alto; the latter is showcased on "Stars Fell on Alabama." With pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb playing up to their usual level, this gem is highly recommended. ~ Scott Yanow AMG

     Artist: Blues Delight
     Album: Rock Island Line
     Label: Blues Del Records
     Year: 2006
     Bitrate: 192 K/s
     Total Playing Time: 47:45
     Total Size: 65.6 MB

     Top professionals from the Montreal International Jazz Festival blues scene joined forces yesterday with a team of unknown top gun songwriters to high jack a mystery train from Chicago to Mexico. "It all started with a song. Slowly. Like a ghost train picking up speed on a line that does not exist anymore. A train of thoughts slowly making its way in our minds, building its own tracks as it travels in the darkness, making rails of steel guitar strings, burning up any word or blues melody it could lay its wheels on."

     "The musicians of Blues Delight are seasoned professionals. What brings us together is friendship, and our love for playing blues in the traditional way, with honesty and sincerity."

     Artist: Archie Shepp
     Album: Stream
     Quality: MP3@320 Kbps
     Size: 146 MB
     Year: Rec. Jul,18 1975 - CD Rel. 1989
     Label: A jazz Hour With - Dist. by Movieplay
     Total time: 63:48

     Archie Shepp has been at various times a feared firebrand and radical, soulful throwback and contemplative veteran. He was viewed in the '60s as perhaps the most articulate and disturbing member of the free generation, a published playwright willing to speak on the record in unsparing, explicit fashion about social injustice and the anger and rage he felt. His tenor sax solos were searing, harsh, and unrelenting, played with a vivid intensity. But in the '70s, Shepp employed a fatback/swing-based R&B approach, and in the '80s he mixed straight bebop, ballads, and blues pieces displaying little of the fury and fire from his earlier days.

     Artist: Dirty Dozen Brass Band
     Album: Open Up (Whatcha Gonna
               Do for the Rest of your Life)
     Label: Columbia
     Quality: MP3@320 Kbps
     Size: 126 MB
     Year: 1991
     Total time: 50:39

     The Dirty Dozen Brass Band sticks to originals (except for Johnny Dyani's "Eyomzi") on this fairly adventurous set. The octet (which consists of two trumpets, two saxes, one trombone, sousaphone, snare drum and bass drum) still had a unique sound in 1991 but three songs on the date only used part of the unit and the DDBB seemed to be trying to escape the sound of the brass band tradition (they had long had a more modern repertoire). Not all of the pieces work although the music in general is pretty colorful and somewhat unpredictable, even if it falls short of essential. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

     Artist: Stan Getz
     Album: Another World
     Quality: MP3@320 Kbps
     Size: 173 MB
     Year: Recorded 1977 - Compilation Rel. 1990
     Label: CBS
     Total time: 66:48

     Stan Getz's recordings with his late-'70s group have often been criticized because Andy LaVerne backed the veteran tenor with electric keyboards and the originals by LaVerne and bassist Mike Richmond were open to the influence of fusion. On one selection on this out-of-print double LP Getz uses a digital delay to create an echo effort that must have distressed some of his longtime fans, but actually the music heard throughout this set is generally quite rewarding. The musicianship is high and Stan Getz was open to new challenges. And for closeminded beboppers, there are versions included of "Willow Weep for Me" and "Blue Serge" along with the newer material. ~ Scott Yanow AMG

     Artist: Fenton Robinson
     Album: Somebody Loan Me A Dime
     Label: Alligator
     Year: 1974
     Genre: Blues
     Tracks: 11
     Format: mp3, Bitrate: @ CBR 320
     File Size: 94 MB

     I’ve often heard and read that the 1970’s wasn’t a good period for blues; from a popularity standpoint that may have been true but certainly not from a recording standpoint. One of the era’s true masterpieces is Fenton Robinson’s magnificent ”Somebody Loan me A Dime” cut for Alligator in 1974. Fenton had been recording sporadically since the late 1950’s, cutting some terrific material, but ”Somebody Loan me A Dime” was his pinnacle. Fenton’s guitar playing draws deeply from B.B. King and T-Bone Walker but with a strong jazzy inflection and plenty of grit; his guitar darts and weaves in unexpected directions, is full of probing invention and breaks out into some truly stupendous solos. His voice is a thing of beauty, a deep, rich baritone that glides along and is a perfect counterpoint to his elegant guitar work.

     Artist: Cuby & The Blizzards
     Album: Kid Blue
     Quality: MP3@320 Kbps
     Size: 78 MB (covers)
     Year: 1976
     Label: Universe
     Total time: 33:16

     Although unknown to the English-speaking market, Cuby & the Blizzards have been one of Holland's top blues bands since the mid-'60s. Some of their early singles had a beat/punk orientation, particularly "Stumble & Fall" and "Your Body Not Your Soul," both of which would be reissued on various Dutch beat compilations a few decades later. They quickly settled into a straighter blues groove, however. Their claims to fame in the larger rock/pop world are that they briefly backed Van Morrison in the gap between his departure from Them and the beginning of his solo career, although details of the association remain murky; also, at one point lead guitarist Eelco Gelling was asked to join John Mayall's Bluebreakers, although he declined. - by Richie Unterberger, AMG

     Artist: Kenny Drew Trio
     Album: Cleopatra's Dream
     Label: Alfa Jazz (LP)
     Release: 1992
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 131 MB



     Let's dream with Cleopatra...

     One more nice album from Kenny Drew, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen and Alvin Queen

     Enjoy...

     Artist: Lee Morgan
     Album: Sextet vol. 3
     Label: Bue Note, RVG-edition
     Year: 1957
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps +Flac
     Size: 62,9+67,9 Mb Flack: 228mb
     Total time: 38:05
     AMG Raiting:



     Although trumpeter Lee Morgan (then only 18) was the nominal leader of this set, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson contributed all five of the compositions and the arrangements for the sextet (which also includes altoist Gigi Gryce, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Charlie Persip). Most notable among the songs is the original version of "I Remember Clifford"; Morgan was the perfect trumpeter to play the tribute to Clifford Brown, who had died in a car crash a year earlier. A fine hard bop date, Lee Morgan, Vol. 3 also features an alternate take of "Tip Toeing" to the original program. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

   Artist: Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble
   Album: The Essential
   Year: 2002
   Label: SONY
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kb/s
   Size: CD1:92,5+94,4MB
           CD2:98,7+81,6MB

   Epic's The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble gathers two discs' worth of the late blues guitarist's work, including many live performances and a few tracks with the Vaughan Brothers. The collection presents Vaughan's material in roughly chronological order, from the 1980 live recording "Shake for Me" to 1989's "Life by the Drop." It also touches on most of Vaughan's definitive songs and performances, including "Tightrope," "Wall of Denial," "Couldn't Stand the Weather," and "Cold Shot," and live versions of "The Sky Is Crying," "Superstition," and "Rude Mood/Hide Away." Though this album doesn't offer anything that hasn't already been released in some form or another, it does go into slightly more depth than several of the other Stevie Ray Vaughan retrospectives by presenting both his greatest studio hits and some of his best live work.
Heather Phares, All Music Guide

     Artist - Joe Pass Quartet
     Album - Live At Yoshi's (Vol.1)
     Year - 1993
     Label - Pablo
     Quality - MP3@320 kbps
     Size - 89 & 44 MB (incl. covers)
     Total time - 55:00
     AMG rating:

     An inspired and exciting set by jazz's guitarist nonpareil, it ranges from a blistering race through Sonny Rollins' "Oleo" to the gentle duet with Pass's longtime partner Pisano on "Alone Together." "Swingin' Till the Girls Come Home" is a feature for Budwig, the great West Coast bass player who died shortly after this set.
     It's one of the best of the many Joe Pass albums. -- AMG review by Les Line