Artist: Kenny Drew
     Album:Trippin'
     Release: 1984
     Label:Baystate (LP)
     Format/Bitrate:MP3/320
     Size:105MB




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Artist:Paul Quinichette
Album:On The Sunny Side
Label: OJC/Prestige
Year:1957
Quality:Mp3 320+covers+5%recovery
Size:122Mb

Yet another example of the informal creativity of the Prestige jam session format, in this case bringing together the Lester Young'd tenor stylings of "Vice-President" Paul Quinichette with two Bird-like alto men, John Jenkins and Sonny Red, and the J.J. Johnson-inspired trombone of Curtis Fuller.
Jenkins (from Chicago) and Red and Fuller (from Detroit) were newly arrived in New York in 1957, the year this session was taped. The fresh combination helped revitalize Quinichette, whose career was flagging at the time. Pianist Mal Waldron supplied three originals on which everyone plays and the number from which the album derives its title--Jimmy McHugh's "On the Sunny Side of the Street"--is mellowed out by Quinichette and Jenkins as the only horns. Jenkins is not currently active and Quinichette and Sonny Red are dead. On this jam their music is very much alive.

This CD reissue adds a previously unreleased version of "My Funny Valentine" to the original four-song program. The swing-based tenor Paul Quinichette is heard with a more modern group of players than usual: trombonist Curtis Fuller, both Sonny Red and John Jenkins on altos, pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Doug Watkins and drummer Ed Thigpen. Waldron's three originals (highlighted by "Cool-Lypso") allow plenty of room for swinging, and Quinichette (who also performs "On the Sunny Side of the Street") sounds comfortable interacting with the younger musicians. An enjoyable and underrated release. ~ Scott Yanow, AMG

Artist: Perez Prado
Album: Voodoo Suite
Label: RCA
Genre: swing, latin
Quality: FLAC & MP3@320
Size: 168 MB & 84 MB
Time: 37:59

Though The Voodoo Suite, with its larger-than-life orchestra -- six saxophones, three trombones, seven drummers, six trumpets, and more -- was equal parts a Latin dance band and a jazz orchestra, its tight charts by Shorty Rogers made it a dramatic beast to wrestle and a sublime one to listen to. For all the critics who had discussed Prado in the derogatory, The Voodoo Suite gave them something to listen to, because here was the first popular attempt at the marriage of Cuban, African, and jazz elementals ever attempted in a work that was essentially for the general populace a mood record. The loping horn arrangements, bluesy solos, and hypnotic drumming took it outside the realm of mood music and placed it squarely into the camp of progressive big band jazz. To prove it was no fluke, the original album was rounded out with the other tracks that appear here from another session: "St. James Infirmary," "In the Mood," "I Can't Get Started," and others which burned the Latin jazz flame just as bright. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Artist:Mal Waldron and David Friesen
Album:Encounters
Label:Muse
Year:1984
Quality Mp3 320 +5%recovery
Size:95 Mb

Longtime fans of Mal Waldron will find his duo session with bassist David Friesen to be of a very different character. The pianist's solo and trio recordings are typically intense, very moody performances, but his touch is much lighter in his partnership with Friesen. The two play as equals with Waldron often fading somewhat into the background during Friesen's solo in "If I Were a Bell." "Encounters" is evidently a free-form duo improvisation in the studio and full of surprising twists. The bassist's unaccompanied "My Toby," dedicated to his youngest son, finds him utilizing a delay to make it sound like he overdubbed a second line. Friesen switches to playing shakuhachi (a delicate Japanese wind instrument) for "Night Wind," a soft work with an obviously Far Eastern flavor. The piano-bass duet of the standard "Imagination" is played at a very slow tempo with an almost reverent touch. The finale, "Outside's Inside Too," is a solo feature for Waldron that sounds as if it was improvised on the spot. Long out of print, this album is definitely worth acquiring.

Artist: Houston Pearson
Album:Blue Odyssey
Label:Prestige
Year:1968
Quality:Mp3 320+covers+5%recovery
Size:97Mb

Much to the chagrin of many critics the late 1960s was a heyday of sorts for Soul Jazz. The number of cats dipping their paws into the sweet nectar of the style would never again reach such denominations as it did during the close of the decade. Person, a saxophonist with both soulful touch and a bluesy sensibility balanced a tough tenor tone with a healthy supplication to the almighty beat. As each of the disc's tracks generously demonstrates his reverence for a groove never came at the cost of creativity and Person with Walton enlisted as ad hoc musical director devises a program that stretches his sidemen's faculties while still adhering to a finger-popping affability.

From the opening bars of the locomotive title track to the closing choruses of "Starburst" Person plans a trip well worth taking. Walton's "Holy Land" catches a sanctified groove and refuse to let go with earthy expositions from each of the horns and colorful rhapsodic fills from the pianist during the breaks. The sextet's version of "I Love You, Yes I Do" spotlights Person's gorgeous tone which references the full-bodied spirit of Gene Ammons while still remaining true to a highly personal sound. "Funky London," builds off its somewhat contradictory title into a smoking workout for Walton punctuated by a solid string snapping solo from Cranshaw. Fuller and Adams, two of the undisputed heavyweights of their respective instruments also take numerous and highly enjoyable opportunities to weigh in on the solo front. My only real complaint is that the disc comes up so short on running time. With Person and Walton at the helm these six players could have easily filled another forty minutes with high caliber grooves like these and it's a shame that the restrictions of the LP format prevented them from doing so. Or maybe the truncated nature of the session was simply a savvy marketing ploy on the part of Person designed to entice listeners into laying down the bread for his other Prestige records in search of more of the same. In the case of this listener, mission accomplished.

Artist: Curtis Fuller
Album:Soul Trombone
Label:Impulse
Year:1961
Quality:Mp3 320 + covers + 5% recovery
Size:95Mb

Curtis Fuller was very busy as a leader between his recording debut in 1957 and these 1961 sessions, which made up his first LP for Impulse and his eighteenth overall disc of his own. Not quite as adventurous on the trombone as J. J. Johnson, but Fuller more than holds his own leading a band including Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Heath, Jymie Merritt and either Jimmy Cobb or G. T. Hogan on drums. The solos on this hard bop disc are superb, with Fuller giving his musicians plenty of room, while his own work is first rate. Three of the six pieces are originals and even if they never caught on, there is no filler present anywhere. This long unavailable LP was finally reissued on CD in Japan, almost four decades after its release

Artist: Miroslav Vitous
Album: Universal Syncopations
Year: 2003
Label: ECM
Size: 127 Mb
Quality: mp3@320 Kbps
Total time - 50:16

On his first jazz date as a leader since 1992, Czechoslovakian bassist and composer Miroslav Vitous comes out of the gate with a host of heavyweights on one of the more lyrically swinging dates in modern jazz. Vitous' engaged, pulsing, and deeply woody tone is featured in the company of John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea, and Jack DeJohnette. While the crystalline sound of Manfred Eicher's ECM is everywhere here, as is the open-ended speculative jazz that the label is renowned -- and ridiculed for -- Vitous offers some startlingly beautiful twists and turns with his ensemble. Vitous, who has been through every music, from jazz-rock fusion as a founding member of Weather Report to being a classical composer, decided to revisit the skeletal remains of his very first session for the label in 1969. Produced by Herbie Mann the disc was, from a musical standpoint, a contentious, utterly brilliant marriage of ideas both old and new. Bandmembers DeJohnette and McLaughlin were present on those sides as well. Universal Syncopations is by turns a return to not the old forms, but rather to the manner of illustrating harmonic concepts in a quintet setting that allows for a maximum space between ensemble players while turning notions of swing, counterpoint, and rhythmic invention on their heads. From the wooly, expressionistic "Tramp Blues," with Vitous vamping around the changes, to the wide-open legato guitar phrasing of McLauglin against the double time in Vitous' bass on "Univoyage," to the simmering undulations of Garbarek's saxophones on top of Corea's intricate melodies and right-hand runs on "Brazilan Waves," all of it propelled, not anchored, by the leader's rich tone and accented and punctuated by Garbarek's tight, loping saxophone lines. This is one of those recordings that feels familiar in tone, but is timeless in concept and execution. Universal Syncopations is one of the most gorgeous sounding and toughly played dates of the calendar year. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Artist: The Jazz Crusaders
Album: The Festival Album
Year: 1966
Label: Pacific Jazz
Genre: Jazz, Hard-Bop, Soul-Jazz
Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kb/s
Time: 0:57:05
Size: 133,80 MB

The Festival Album was the only live set by the Jazz Crusaders not recorded at the Lighthouse. As such, it is a compilation of performances recorded at the Pacific Jazz and Newport Festivals in 1966. The band had two different bass players during these gigs: Jimmy Bond was at the Newport Festival, while Herbie Lewis joined for the Pacific Jazz Festival. The band was well established everywhere but in New York, bewilderingly, and had recorded a dozen records, all of which were popular. And it's easy to see why. The version of Ken Cox's "Trance Dance" that opens the set showcases all of the band's strengths: solid hard bop chops and arrangements with a deep accent on the blues as it was emerging into soul-jazz. Soloists Joe Sample, Wayne Henderson, and Wilton Felder are all in fine form here. The deep groove on "Summer's Madness" by the trio is actually the signature piece of the Jazz Crusaders' sound at the time. Sample's "Freedom Sound," from the Pacific Jazz gig, illustrates the deep lyricism at the heart of the band's front line. The CD version contains two bonus tracks recorded later that year at Shelly Manne's Hole, with Buster Williams on bass. The sound gels here to make something truly unique, as evidenced by the funkier than funky "Wilton's Boogaloo," with killer solos by the saxophonist and Henderson, and a smoking beat by Stix Hooper. It's loose, in the pocket and freewheeling -- and over 11 minutes in length! The set closes with the driving "Half and Half" by Charles Davis, which is a vamp on "My Favorite Things," with a knotty arrangement, a sprightly tempo, and features some incredible snare and cymbal work by Hooper. ~ Thom Jurek, AMG

Artist: Ludovico Einaudi
Album: Eden Roc
Quality: Ape (230 MB) + mp3@320Kbps (150 MB) (scans)
Label: Ricordi
Total time: 64:35

Einaudi is a unique talent and this is still his best album to date. Joined this time by The David Quartet, Einaudi perfects his clever and powerful melodies which he fills with emotion even in his minimalist pieces. This music has the unique quality of making the listener yearn for the very next phrase, as each tune rogresses. Some of the pieces like Nefeli and Yerevan you will probably recognise from television and advertising. The tracks are not instant-this is far from a simple disposable pop album. Instead these tracks are beautifully composed and expertly arranged which came from the labours of a perfectionist. They will stand the test of time. After hearing the strongest track, in my opinion, called Giorni Dispari, I knew that I had found something for which I had been looking for a long time. Ludovico Einaudi is a special discovery. There are not many like him. Fully recommended. - by S. Morris, Amazon.com