Artist: Johnny "Hammond" Smith & Willis Jackson
     Album: Johnny Hammond Cooks with Gator Tail
     Label: Prestige
     Year: 1962, release: 1993 (Japanese CD Reissue)
     Genre: Hard Bop / Soul Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 86 Mb

     This Smith/Jackson joint session is typical early-'60s Prestige soul-jazz, with all the good and bad that implies. The good? It hits a lockstep earthy groove with funky organ by Smith, smoky sax from Jackson, and some smooth guitar from Eddie McFadden. The bad? Well, it's not bad, really, just predictable. The compositions usually have easygoing, unchallenging bluesy progressions, and the whole thing has the agreeable ambience of a good-time bar where the music fades more into the background the longer it continues. Smith wrote four of the seven songs, the program balanced by Jackson's "Y'All" and covers of "Besame Mucho" and the traditional "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen." "Sonja's Dreamland" goes the furthest into ballad territory, while "Neckbones" swings the hardest. The album was combined with Hammond's 1965 LP The Stinger on the Smith CD compilation Good 'Nuff. ~ Richie Unterberger , AMG

     Artist: Johnny "Hammond" Smith
     Album: Talk That Talk
     Label: Prestige
     Year: 1960
     Genre: Hard Bop / Soul Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3/320
     Time: 34:00
     Size: 77,1 Mb

     An excellent piece of early soul-jazz, 1960's Talk That Talk isn't as bop-oriented as Shirley Scott's albums with Stanley Turrentine from the same period, as flashy and ornate as the albums Jimmy Smith was starting to make with Creed Taylor and Lalo Schifrin, or as funky and blues-based as the best of Jimmy McGriff or "Brother" Jack McDuff. Smith's playing on this album is low-key almost to the point of being conservative, deeply soulful without resorting to what would soon become tired funk clichйs. For the most part, the settings are the standard organ/bass/drums trio, with occasional appearances by tenor saxophonist Oliver Nelson. Smith is always at the center of the arrangements, taking almost all the solos, which means that less organ-besotted listeners might find the album a bit samey, but on tracks like a loping, gentle version of "An Affair to Remember" and a gorgeously soulful "Misty," Johnny "Hammond" Smith shows exactly why he deserves his nickname.

     Artist: George Benson
     Album: Giblet Gravy
     Label: Verve
     Year: 1968, release: 2000
     Genre: Soul Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3/320
     Time: 55:32
     Size: 122 Mb

     No, you're not in Creed Taylor country yet, but you might as well be, for many of the ingredients that would garnish Benson's albums with Taylor are already present in this often enjoyable prototype. The immediate goal was to groom Benson as the next Wes Montgomery (who was about to leave Verve) -- and so he covers hit tunes of the day ("Sunny," "Along Comes Mary," "Groovin'"), playing either with a big band plus voices or a neat quintet anchored by Herbie Hancock, and the sound is contoured to give his guitar a warm mellow ambience. But the eclectic Benson is his own man, as his infectious repeated-interval rhythm trademark tells us on his self-composed title track, and despite Tom McIntosh's mostly lame arrangements, George's work is always tasty and irresistibly melodic.

     Artist: George Benson
     Album: The George Benson Cookbook
     Label: Columbia
     Year: 1966, release: 1994
     Genre: Soul Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3/320
     Time: 41:00
     Size: 90,4 Mb

     The second album by Benson's great 1966 quartet is an absolutely burning affair, with a terrific balance of up-tempo swing and soulfully strutting grooves. The one vocal is a hard-swinging version of the standard "All of Me". Rather than create the kind of large production that Creed Taylor would embrace on George's later CTI recordings, producer/A&R legend John Hammond basically documented a great band in the studio. A joyful listening experience.

     Artist: Donald Byrd
     Album: At the Half Note Cafe Vol. 2
     Label: Blue Note
     Quality: FLAC & MP3@320
     Size: 287 MB & 86 MB
     Time: 37:42

     Artist: Donald Byrd
     Album: At the Half Note Cafe Vol. 1
     Label: Blue Note
     Quality: FLAC & MP3@320
     Size: 316 MB & 99 MB
     Time: 43:37

     This 2004 remastered Rudy Van Gelder edition of Donald Byrd's At the Half Note Cafe (the original double-disc version was only issued for the first time in 2000) appears to add one extra track -- "Theme (Pure D. Funk)," which clocks in at 1:51 and is also on the second volume in its full form, and a slightly shorter version of "Cecille." Here it clocks it at 12:52; on the 2000 issue it was 14:46. The sequence has also been altered slightly. The real deal is that, while this is the live date showcasing the Byrd quintet with Pepper Adams (and with Duke Pearson, Lex Humphries, and Laymon Jackson in the rhythm section), there is little here to make this worth purchasing yet again if you have the previous set. The sound is only marginally better -- and is likely only to be noticed by audiophiles. However, if you don't have the originals, this is one of the most essential hard bop purchases in the canon. The performances of Pearson -- of his own four tunes, five by Byrd, and the standards -- showcase his improvisational acumen at its height. His soloing on studio records pales in comparison. This was a hot quintet, one that not only swung hard, but possessed a deep lyricism and an astonishing sense of timing, and one need only this set by them to feel the full measure of their worth. Forget the Riverside date that caught them live early on; this is the one. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

     Artist - Little Sonny
     Album - Sonny Side Up
     Label - Glynn
     Year - 1995
     Quality - MP3@192 kbps
     Size - 63,17 mb



     It's unequivocally nice to have Little Sonny back in harness after a long recording hiatus, but the harpist's comeback offering suffers from backing that feels too mechanical to really do his supple harp justice. A little more earthiness would have suited the project much better. ~ Bill Dahl, AMG

     Album: Notes From Underground
     Artist: Stekpanna Trio and Vintskevich
     Genre: Jazz
     Year: 2002
     Лейбл: Jazz Province Records
     Format, bitrate: mp3 320 kbs: 159Mb
               FLAC : 431Mb

     The NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND project is a collaboration between the Anglo-Scandinavian trio Stekpanna and the Russian Jazz luminaries Leonid and Nikolai Vintskevich.

     Artists: Lester Young & Nat King Cole
     Album: Complete Recordings
     Release: 1999
     Label: Definitive Records
     Genre: Jazz
     Quality: FLAC(tracks)
     Size: 193 mb + 3%
     Time: 65:00


     Definitive edition of the recordings made joint by Nat 'King' Cole and Lester Young on two studio dates and one transcription of the 'Jubilee' broadcasting program.