Artist: Lonnie Smith Trio
     Album: Afro Blue
     Quality: mp3@320 Kbps
     Size: 125 MB (scans)
     Year: 1993
     Label: MusicMasters (1997)
     Total time: 54:43

     After a long hiatus from the record shelves, the turbaned Dr. Lonnie Smith -- along with guitarist John Abercrombie and drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith -- sets his sights upon John Coltrane, turning in five 'Trane tunes plus Mongo Santamaria's "Afro-Blue" and a grooving Smith tribute, "Traces of Trane." The propulsive title track is mostly dominated by Abercrombie, while "Impressions" continues the driving pace as Lonnie sprays Hammond B-3 organ notes all over the place with constant brief call-and-response dialogues with himself. Another highlight is one of the two breathers, the aptly named "Lonnie's Lament," which has a nice haunting lilt. Carelessly left off the label and booklet copy -- but embedded in your CD anyway -- is any mention of a 12-minute workout on "Greensleeves" in the push-pull, modal Coltrane manner, with a strong hint of Jimmy Smith. Abercrombie usually plays in his veiled, out-of-tempo manner, while "Smitty" is a volatile, hyperkinetic workhorse most of the time, offering a complex individualistic challenge to the Elvin Jones standard. ~ by Richard S. Ginell, AMG

     Artist: Eddie Boyd And His Blues Band
     Album: Eddie Boyd And His Blues Band Featuring Peter Green
     Label: Gott Discs
     Year: 2004
     Genre: Blues
     Tracks: 16
     Format: mp3, Bitrate: @ CBR 320
     Size: 61 MB + 59 MB


     Eddie is backed up none-other by the legendary Peter Green. Also on this CD they are joined by John McVie, Aynsley Dunbar, John Mayall and Tony McPhee. A truly legendary session.

     Artist: Kenny "Blue" Ray
     Album: Blues Obsession
     Label: Tone King
     Year: 2000
     Genre: Blues
     Tracks: 14
     Format: mp3, Bitrate: @ CBR 320
     Size: 52 MB + 49 MB


     Although guitarist Kenny "Blue" Ray may not be the most recognized name in Blues, he has been featured on over 30 albums and has released twelve CDs in the past eight years. Kenny has recorded, toured and/or played with many of the great Blues masters such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Lee Hooker, James Cotton, Ronnie Earl just to name a few.

     Artist: Johnny "Hammond" Smith
     Album: That Good Feelin'
     Label: New Jazz / Prestige
     Year: 1959 , release : 1996
     Genre: Hard Bop / Soul Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3 / 320
     Time: 74:08
     Size: 160

     Johnny "Hammond" Smith (b. 1933, and no relation to Jimmy), who recorded extensively for Prestige and Riverside between 1959 and 1971, was among the best of the post-Jimmy Smith crew. The two LPs collected here feature the same quartet throughout (including former Jimmy Smith guitarist Thornel Schwartz) in an easygoing standards/blues/ballads bag. Over an unfaltering groove, the leader draws so many different sounds from his instrument that it's almost as if one is listening to a multi-organist anthology.
     But it's nobody else but Johnny "Hammond" Smith.

     Artist: Earl Bostic
     Album: Complete Quintet Recordings
     Label: KING/LONEHILLJAZZ
     Year: 1963 (rec), release: 2006
     Genre: R&B/SoulJazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3/320 kbit/s
     Time: 73:46
     Size: 153 Mb

     This outstanding CD brings together for the first time two unique albums by the inimitable Earl Bostic playing in a quintet format, which reunites him with jazz and blues stars Richard "Groove" Holmes & Joe Pass, plus other big names like Shelly Manne, AI McKibbon and the arranging hand of Buddy Collette. Both sessions belong to the last phase of Bostic's career. After these sessions, he would record just one more LP, in 1964, playing music from movie classics, before his death on October 28, 1965, at the early age of 52. The second album, originally titled "A New Sound", appears here on CD for the first time ever.

     Artist: Jamiroquai
     Album: Dynamite
     Label: Epic / Sony BMG
     Release Date: 20/06/2005
     Genre: Jazz, Funk, Soul
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
     Size: 61,7+55,8 MB

     Not unlike one of its lead singer Jay Kay's much publicized Lamborghinis, the U.K. funk band Jamiroquai is primarily a vehicle for its frontman's various fetishes. Which is another way of saying that Kay loves disco and fancy retro sneakers and he wears both well. He has done so ever since he hippie-danced his way out of the acid jazz ghetto of the early '90s with Jamiroquai's revelatory debut album, Emergency on Planet Earth. That album featured Kay's bright and soulful vocals against '70s-style funk and drew obvious comparisons to Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, and sundry other icons of vintage R&B. Not too much has changed in the years since and 2005's Dynamite finds Kay and Co. delving once again into various '70s- and '80s-inspired dance sounds. Similar to 2001's dazzlingly slick Funk Odyssey, Dynamite reveals Kay as a dancefloor eclectic, inclined to grab as much from Chic and Parliament as Kajagoogoo, the Police, and Terry Callier. Keeping to this grab bag aesthetic, Kay makes the most of his experimentation with some "vocal bass synthetics" on the hard funk title track. Also engaging is the melancholy soul-folk of "Seven Days in Sunny June" and the similarly quiet storm-ready ballad "Talullah." On the funky side of things, "Starchild" finds Kay proclaiming the coming of a disco superman while "Time Won't Wait" is an infectious Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson boogie fest with Kay urging people to make their dreams come true over a bed of pulsating disco beats. The Jamiroquai faithful would accept nothing less. -- Matt Collar, All Music Guide.

     Artist: Joss Stone
     Album: Soul Sessions
     Label: VIRGIN RECORDS US
     Year: 2003
     Genre: Blues, Soul
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
     Size: 99,9 MB

     Appearances can be deceiving. And in the case of 16-year-old British singer Joss Stone, that's certainly true. Her beach-blonde looks might suggest Britney, but on her impressive debut, Stone belts with passionate, soulful pipes more akin to American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson. Perhaps that's because this fellow talent show discovery was, like Clarkson, influenced by classic soul legends such as Aretha Franklin. Playing up the old-school R&B flavor in her music, Stone was whisked to the States to record with Betty Wright (best known for her 1972 hit "The Clean Up Woman"), resulting in The Soul Sessions. Wright, in the producer's chair, recruited key musicians to rekindle the fire of '70s Miami soul, including guitarist Willie "Little Beaver" Hale and keyboardist Timmy Thomas. The upshot is a yearning collection of revamped covers -- some familiar, such as the Isley Brothers' "For the Love of You" and Franklin's "All the King's Horses," and some more obscure, such as Joe Simon's "The Chokin' Kind" and Laura Lee's "Dirty Man." The cover most likely to resonate with Stone's peers, however, is a stripped-down, funked-up version of the White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl," featuring backing vocals by neo-soul star Angie Stone and instrumental accompaniment by the Roots. It's a remarkable setting for Joss Stone's smoky pipes, and the entirety of the quickly recorded The Soul Sessions kicks this young singer's career off to a momentous start. Tracy E. Hopkins, Barnes & Noble.

     Artist: Charlie Haden
     Album: The Private Collection (2CD)
     Year: 2007
     Label: Naim
     Tracks: 7+6
     Size: 270 Mb
     Quality: mp3@320 Kbps


     This is Charlie Haden's last published album..

     Artist: Buddy Guy & Junior Wells
     Album: First Time I Met The Blues
     Label: Pid
     Release Date: Jun 05, 2007
     Genre: Blues
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
     Time: 62:33
     Size: 79,2+66,8 MB

     Artist: Charlie Haden
     Album: Helium Tears
     Year: 2006
     Label: By
     Quality: mp3@320 Kbps
     Size: 120 Mb


     There's a really different sound here, at least different from the mellow approach Haden has been specializing in for the last decade or so. There's fire in the drums, noisy electric guitar, trombone by Julian Priester...altogether, it seems closer to the free jazz with which Haden was first associated.

     Artist: Lee Morgan
     Album: Sextet
     Label: Blue Note
     Quality: FLAC & MP3@320
     Size: 133 MB & 70 MB
     Time: 40:45

     Trumpeter Lee Morgan's second recording as a leader (which has been reissued in his four-CD "complete on Blue Note" Mosaic box set) is as notable for the writing of Benny Golson (who composed and arranged four of the six selections) as for the solos of the leader. The set is highlighted by the debut version of "Whisper Not." Actually Morgan, tenor-saxophonist Hank Mobley, pianist Horace Silver, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Charlie Persip and the obscure altoist Kenny Rodgers all play quite well. Morgan was just 18 and starting to come out of the shadow of his early influence Clifford Brown. An above-average hard bop set. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide