Artist: Freddie Redd
     Album: Redd's Blues
     Label: Blue Note 40537
     Year: 1961
     Format, bitrate: mp3@320 kb/s
     Time: ~ 39 min
     Size: 88,25 MB

     The exceptionally talented Jazz artist Freddie Redd has released him CD entitled Redds Blues. I am very confident and happy to announce that I believe Freddie Redd fans, and Jazz fans alike will be pleased with this one. With the release of Redds Blues Freddie Redd’s artistic excellence is on full display as Redd has once again delivered a brilliant collection of tracks that could very well be him best work to date.
     I wish it weren’t the case but, it’s not everyday that I get a CD from an artist that I can just pop in and comfortably listen to from beginning to end. There is usually a song or two that I just can’t force myself to get through. Not at all the case with Redds Blues. Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.
     Jazz music fans will recognize some of the well known guests that have been assembled to play along with Redd on several of the tracks.

     Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
     Album: Ella Fitzgerald 1950 The Chronogical
     Years: 1950
     Original Release Date: 2002
     Label: Classics
     Genre: Jazz Vocal
     Format, bitrate: MP3/320 kbps
     Size: 145 MB

     Another fine entry into this series of chronological releases on the Classics label, from France. As the new decade opened, Ella immersed herself in poppier material, but even on forced, subpar material like "Santa Claus Got Stuck In My Chimney," the clap-hands gospel of "Standing On A Rock," and "Molasses" (with its giggling kiddie chorus), Ella's crystalline voice rises above the mediocrity. She also still kept good company -- this disc features duets with Sy Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan, and a couple of tunes with the Inkspots, show there was no shortage of talent to jam with. But her muse was definitely in a lull, as she adjusted to the rise of the pop vocals era... Some of the more interesting, experimental stuff on here includes a brace of slowed-down ballads, with Ella shedding the swing bounce she had perfected in order to linger on the lyrics. This isn't the cotton-candy goodness of her best work, but hey, man, it's still Ella, and she's the best there ever was.

     Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
     Album: Ella Fitzgerald 1949 The Chronogical
     Years: 1949
     Original Release Date: 2001
     Label: Classics
     Genre: Jazz Vocal
     Format, bitrate: MP3/320 kbps
     Size: 122 MB

     In her live performances of 1949, Ella Fitzgerald (who turned 33 that year) often showed the influence of bebop in her phrasing and improvising. However, her studio recordings for Decca (all 21 selections that she cut that year on are on this CD) are surprisingly absent of bebop, instead alternating ballads and bluish pieces with a few swing-oriented numbers. Fitzgerald sounds typically wonderful and cheerful, but the arrangements (for the orchestras of Sy Oliver, Goron Jenkins, and Sonny Burke) are often closer to middle-of-the-road pop music than to jazz. Fitzgerald sounds in fine form on such numbers as "Old Mother Hubbard," "Happy Talk," "Black Coffee," "In the Evening," and "I Hadn't Anyone Till You," imitating Louis Armstrong a bit on "Basin Street Blues." In addition, there are two numbers with Louis Jordan's Tympany Five (including "Baby It's Cold Outside") and two forgettable selections with the Mills Brothers. This CD is a real gap-filler (few of these selections are ever reissued), but not essential. ~ Review by Scott Yanow, AMG.

     Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
     Album: Ella Fitzgerald 1947 – 1948 The Chronogical
     Years: 1947-1948
     Original Release Date: 1999
     Label: Classics
     Genre: Jazz Vocal
     Format, bitrate: MP3/320 kbps
     Size: 112 MB

     Nearly a decade after she took over the late Chick Webb's orchestra, Ella was a full-fledged powerhouse, solid and professional in the postwar years, but not quite as formal and stately as she would become in the '50s. This disc is part of the outstanding chronologically-arranged releases on the French Classics label -- and it's all first-class material. Lots of examples of Ella fronting poppily-arranged group vocals, with Pied Piper-ish backup singers toot-toot-tootling along. She also gets funky and scats a bit, although this is mostly pretty restrained material, more pretty pop than sly jazz vocals. Plus, it's Ella -- which is to say, it's great! Notable tracks include her first scat version of "How High The Moon," which became a concert staple, heard later on her fab "Live In Berlin" album. Then there's "My Baby Likes To Bebop," which makes the postwar jazz revolution sound as if it were just a dance craze like the jitterbug -- silly novelty material, which Ella transcends by an effortless, and incredibly complex scat solo at the end.

      Artist: Miles Davis
      Album: Aura
      Label: CBS Records Inc.
      Year: 1984, release 1989
      Genre: Fusion
      Format, bitrate: MP3@256 kbps
      Time: 66:01 min
      Size: 127 mb + covers

     Поздний альбом Майлза Дэвиса — титана современного джаза, самого успешного и авторитетного музыканта в жанре.
     Концептуальный альбом, где каждый из 10 инструментальных треков представляет определенный цвет. Майлз Дэвис — самый авторитетный музыкант в современном джазе, более того, его идеи повлияли на развитие большинства направлений поп-музыки. Дэвис — автор самого популярного и продаваемого альбома в джазе "Kind of Blue" (1969), но любая пластинка его бескрайнего каталога представляет интерес как для серьезных критиков, так и для простых меломанов. Не исключение — альбом Aura, записанный в поздний период творчества музыканта в сотрудничестве с датским музыкантом и композитором Палле Миккельборгом. В 1989-м году этот альбом удостоился сразу двух премий "Грэмми".

     Artists: Bill Frisell, Kermit Driscoll, Joey Baron
     Title of Album: Live
     Label: Gramavision
     Year: 1991
     Format: FLAC/CUE + LOG
     Size: 350 Mb

     Bill Frisell had been working regularly with bassist Kermit Driscoll and drummer Joey Baron for five years when they recorded this concert in Spain in 1991. The familiarity shows in the spontaneity and in the intuitive grasp of every shifting musical gesture. The 70-minute performance may show Frisell's range and the ease with which he flows from one mood or genre to another better than any single studio CD.

     Artist: Bill Frisell
     Album: FURTHER WEST, FURTHER EAST (2005)
     Label: Nonesuch Records
     Year: 2005
     Quality: 192 kb/s
     Size: 73 mb

     The allusion of the title East/West is an apt one; this live double-CD set is a study in contrasts. Recorded just six months apart with two different trios, Bill Frisell really shows both sides of his musical personality. The "East" disc was recorded in December of 2003 at the Village Vanguard with Frisell on guitar (acoustic and electric) and loops, Tony Sherr on acoustic bass and a bit of acoustic guitar, and Kenny Wollesen on drums and percussion. The program here consists largely of well-known standards with a couple brief improvisations and a single Frisell composition. The "West" disc was recorded at Yoshi's in May of 2004 and features Frisell (guitars, loops), Viktor Krauss (acoustic bass), and, well, Kenny Wollesen on drums (no other percussion), but this time the program is half Frisell compositions, a couple pop songs, and the traditional "Shenandoah." On the "East" disc, only three of the ten tunes are longer than five minutes, but on the "West" disc only one track is shorter than eight minutes! The preponderance of standards on the "East" disc keeps the players mostly on the inside tip, even eliciting laughter from some audience members when Frisell hits the intro to the old warhorse "People" (to which he replies, "you think I'm joking or what?"). They do loosen up a bit at the end, for a wonderful arrangement of Willie Nelson's "Crazy" with two acoustic guitars and looping aural detritus, and there's a fun gallop through "Tennessee Flat Top Box." The group improvisations also add a bit of spark. Folks who discovered Frisell in the late '90s with albums like Nashville are going to love this set. -->>

     Artists: Sonny Simmons & Billy Higgins
     Album: Backwoods Suite
     Year: recorded on January 19, 1982
     Label: West Wind (2074)
     Format: MP3@320 Kb/s (CD-rip)
     Time: 50:41
     Size: 66.8 Mb + 49.1 Mb

     Billy Higgins is one of my favourite drummers!
     I have never been disappointed with all the albums with his name.
     He is most prolific jazz drummer, I think.

     Ornette Coleman, Lee Morgan, Grant Green, Dave Pike, Dexter Gordon, Jackie Mckleen, Hank Mobley, Herbie Hancock, Donald Byrd, Carl Tjader, Sonny Rollins, Teddy Edwards, Steve Lacy, Bobby Timmons, Clifford Jordan, Sonny Stitt, Cedar Walton, Art Pepper, Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard, Harold land, Pat Martino, George Coleman, Frank Morgan, Bobby Hutcherson, Timeless All Stars, Steve Grossman, Pat Metheny, Joshua Redman, Charlie Haden, Charles Lloyd, etc...
     His swinging drumming can be heard on the album with these musician

     Artists: Laurindo Almeida & Bud Shank
     Album: Brazilliance Vol.1
     Genre: Jazz / Brazilian, boss nova
     Recording Date: April 15-22, 1953
     Time: 47:45
     Label: World Pacific
     Quality: MP3 @ 320 kbps
     Size: 106 mb (RS.com)

     More than seven years before Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd introduced the bossa nova of Antonio Carlos Jobim to American audiences, guitarist Laurindo Almeida and altoist Bud Shank (in a quartet with bassist Harry Babasin and drummer Roy Harte) recorded the intriguing music heard on this CD reissue. The performances are very close to bossa nova in their combination of cool-toned jazz and Brazilian rhythms; in fact, these are arguably the first bossa nova recordings, long before even Jobim and Joao Gilberto initially recorded. Only four of the 14 tunes ("Speak Low" is heard in two versions) are not based on Brazilian folk songs, and many of the songs (particularly "Carinoso") are quite memorable. This historically significant, very accessible, and highly recommended release is a gem. - AMG

Artist - Леонид Утесов
Album - Жди меня
Label - Коминформ-центр
Years: 1939-1942, release - 1996
Quality - MP3@320 kbps
Size - 130 mb
Total time - 60:11

Leonid Osipovich Utyosov (Russian: Леонид Осипович Утёсов; real name - Leyzer (Lazar) Vaysbeyn, or Weissbein, Russian: Лазарь (Лейзер) Иосифович Ва(й)сбейн, 21 March [O.S. March 9] 1895 in, Odessa - 9 March 1982, Moscow) was a famous Soviet jazz singer and comic actor, who became the first pop singer to be awarded the prestigious title of People's Artist of the USSR (1965).

Leonid Utyosov was brought up in Odessa and attended the Faig School of Commerce, from which he dropped out and joined the Borodanov Circus troupe as an acrobat. He started his stage career in 1911 in Kremenchug, then returned to Odessa, changed his artistic name to Leonid Utyosov, and performed as a stand up comedian with the Rosanov troupe and with the Rishelyavsky Theattre. In 1917, he won a singing competition in Gomel, Belarus, then performed in Moscow.>>>

     Artist: Bill Frisell
     Album: This Land
     Label: Elektra
     Date: March 15, 1994
     Size: 110 mb
     Format, bitrate: MP3/192 kbps

     Famed photographer Walker Evans' black-and-white photo of a rural Mississippi railroad station sets the stage for guitarist Bill Frisell's homespun depiction of Americana on this 1994 release. Here, the artist and his horn-based sextet serve up an aural panorama consisting of country blues motifs, modern jazz, and even Caribbean grooves. The guitarist's now familiar penchant for constructing climactic opuses framed upon his deft utilization of volume control and often-slithery mode of attack counterbalances the horn sections' pumping notes and harmonious choruses. Essentially, melody is the key throughout these pleasantly arranged pieces, as Frisell makes his axe talk and cry while also partaking in lustrous unison lines with Don Byron (clarinet), Curtis Fowlkes (trombone), and Billy Drewes (alto sax). Overall, This Land signifies yet another powerful statement by this wonderfully inventive musician. Recommended!
Glenn Astarita, AMG

     Artists: Delta Moon
     Album: Goin' Down South
     Label: Delta Moon
     Year: 2004
     Genre: Blues-Rock, Slide Guitar
     Format: mp3/ CBR 320 kbps, 44.1kHz, Stereo
     Size: 85,9 Mb

     Artist: Freddie Redd (with Jackie McLean and Tina Brooks)
     Album: Shades of Redd
     Year: 1960
     Label: Blue Note
     Time: 53:17
     Format: MP3 @320kbps + flac
     Size: 130mb (RS.com, with 5% file recovery)
     Includes Covers + Scans
     AMG Rating:


     

     Artist: Jaco Pastorius
     Album: Holiday for Pans
     Year: rec. 1980 – 1982; rel.1993
     Genre: Fusion, Post-Bop
     Label: Sound Hills Records (Japan)
     Type: Compilation
     Format: Mp3@320/kbs
     Size: 124.97 MB

     Holiday for Pans was legendary bass player Jaco Pastorius's final solo album. While he still guested on various releases during the mid-1980s, his alleged erratic behavior prevented him from securing a contract with a record company to be able to create another solo release before his untimely and tragic death in 1987.
     In the case of Holiday For Pans, even though said behavior was beginning to affect his emotional and creative well being, he still managed to record this album, which made it as far as some unpolished demo tapes. The tracks were recorded in early 1981, while Pastorius was still under contract to Warner Bros. Records. The original intent was to release this album as an Othello Molineaux (who plays the steelpans that is the prominent sound of Holiday For Pans) solo album with Pastorius and Peter Yianilos as co-producers. The style of the music was a small forerunner in a way of Westernizing World Music. It was a steel pans tinged release, which, like the solo record that came before Holiday For Pans, the big band Word Of Mouth, once again showcased Pastorius as more of a tunesmith and producer than a bass player. Upon the completion of the album in a demo form, Pastorius was released from his Warner Bros. Records deal but retained exclusive rights to the tapes. Said Garland Hogan, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., attorney who represents the estate of Pastorius. "During the period of confusion and chaos for Jaco, (following his severance with [[Warner Bros. Records] Jaco shopped it around the record companies but couldn't find a distributor for the album and the album was never released. Shortly after that, the master tapes were alleged to have been stolen, then recovered, but not before it had been widely bootlegged. In 2003, a cut from "Holiday For Pans", entitled "Good Morning Anya", was included on Rhino Records' Pastorius Anthology Punk Jazz, marking the first time an official release had included a song from Holiday For Pans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaco_Pastorius
     Примечательно то, что это самый не рейтинговый альбом Пасториуса, отвергнутый в своё время Warner Bros. из-за якобы коммерческой бесперспективности.

     Artist: Hans Theessink
     Album: Hard Road Blues
     Label: Blue Groove / Minor Music
     Year: 1994
     Genre: Blues » Modern Electric » Modern Delta Blues
     Format, bitrate: 320 Kb/s mp3
     Size: 111 Mb