Artist: Various Artists
     Album: La Grande Storia Del Jazz CD12 - Oggi
     Label: la Repubblica
     Year: 2000
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 71:19
     Size: 90+82 Mb (+ scan)

   Вашему вниманию предлагается La Grande Storia Del Jazz CD12 - Oggi. В переводе с итальянского Oggi - Сегодня. Но на диске собраны записи 1987-1998 г.г. Наверное, это не совсем сегодня? Но с точки зрения истории, да и вообще … есть только миг под названием жизнь… Кстати, в составе коллеккции 2009 года, с которой я знакомил членов клуба, этот диск обновлен - добавлены имена Стефано Ди Баттисты, Риты Маркотулли, Энрико Рава и Мауро Негри, появился и Джейсон Моран. И это нормально время течет… Но мне по душе старый диск, потому что исполнители, представленные на нем, это все люди наиболее ярко работающие в современном джазе. Здесь Джошуа Редман, Мишель Петруциани, Кассандра Уилсон, Джо Ловано, Рой Харгрув и др. Подробнее состав исполнителей привожу ниже. Достаточно удачная музыкальная компиляция. Приятного прослушивания!

    Artist: John Mayall
    Album: Empty Rooms
    Label: Polydor/Polygram International
    Year: 1969
    Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 kb/s
    Time: 46:32
    Size: 113 Mb (covers)
    Bubu's Rating: 4,5 stars

   This was John Mayall's studio-recorded follow-up to the live The Turning Point, featuring the same drumless quartet of himself, guitarist Jon Mark, reed player Johnny Almond, and bassist Steve Thompson. Mayall was at a commercial and critical peak with this folk-jazz approach; the album's leadoff track, "Don't Waste My Time," had become his sole singles chart entry prior to the LP's release, and although his former label, London, confused matters by releasing the two-year-old Diary of a Band, Vol. 1 in the U.S. just before this new album appeared in early 1970, the new crop of fans he'd found with The Turning Point stuck with him on this gentle, reflective release. Empty Rooms hit Number 33 in the U.S.; in the U.K. it got to Number Nine.
   William Ruhlmann, AMG

   Artist: Bud Powell
   Album: Autumn Sessions
   Label: Magic Music 30007-CD
   Year: 1953
   Format, bitrate: mp3@320 kb/s
   Time: 45:30
   Size: 99 MB (+ full [but scarce] original art)
   AMG Rating:

   These tracks come from three radio broadcasts; the second of which erraneously is dated sept 19, '53 on the CD when it was really the 9 sept. The first of these dates plays bassist George Duvivier, the others Curly Russell and the whole three are with drummer Art Taylor.

    Says Gary Giddins in his excellent book "Visions of Jazz":
   "The reason we read more deeply into Powell than into many of his contemporaries may be quite simple: no other pianist, and precious few musicians in any age, speak to us with such electrifying urgency. One paradox of Powell's career is that he influenced virtually every pianist who followed him, yet none fully captures his immediacy, emotional power, and vulnerability. He was our Schubert and Liszt rolled into one, perhaps the only jazz musician who could impart the stately melancholy of the former's Sonata in B flat and the demoniacal exhilaration of the latter's Sonata in B Minor.
For me, he remains the central figure in the holy hexagram of jazz piano- Hines, Wilson, Tatum, Powell, Monk, Taylor- but I can also imagine a day when a great interpreter will program transcriptions of Powell's masterpieces alongside those of the ninteenth-century icons, at which time Powell will be recognized as one of the most formidable creators of piano music in any time or idiom."

   Artists: John Zorn
   Album: Naked City
   Label: Elektra/Nonesuch
   Year: 1989
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kbs
   Time: 54:35
   Size: 129 Mb

   Вот так сухо пишут про один из лучших альбомов Джона Зорна на AllMusicGuide. У меня же с первого дня прослушивания альбома не проходит ассоциация с книгой "Naked Lunch" Уильяма Берроуза. Но, отметая мои личные предпочтения, можно с уверенностью сказать, что эти два современных гения творили для open-minded listeners and open-minded readers.

   The violent cover photo (which shows a man after he was shot dead) sets the stage for the rather passionate music on this John Zorn set. With guitarist Bill Frisell, keyboardist Wayne Horvitz, bassist Fred Frith, drummer Joey Baron, and guest vocalist Yamatsuka Eye making intense contributions, altoist Zorn performs his unpredictable originals, abstract versions of some movie themes (including "A Shot in the Dark," "I Want to Live," "Chinatown," and "The James Bond Theme"), plus Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman." The stimulating music rewards repeated listenings by more open-minded listeners.
   ~Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

    Artist: Steve Kuhn
    Album: Temptation
    Label: Venus Records
    Year: 2001
    Release: 2003
    Format: FLAC
    Size: 367 MB (covers)

   Artist: John Pizzarelli
   Album: Kisses In The Rain
   Year: 2000
   Label: Telarc
   Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 Kbps
   Size: 122 Mb
   AMG Rating:

   John Pizzarelli takes his nifty little act over to the folks at Telarc, and in fact, little has changed at all; if anything, the act has gotten better. The good news is that Pizzarelli shows continued improvement as a vocalist; the nasal, callow, youthful sound slowly gives way to a less naive, more rhythmically hip style in the manner of early Nat Cole. Pizzarelli was a fine, versatile guitarist from the start, and he continues to astonish at lightning tempos here. His airtight longtime trio (brother Martin Pizzarelli on bass, Ray Kennedy on piano) keeps right up, switching tempos on a dime. As you would expect, the menu consists of mostly Tin Pan Alley/swing standards from way back ("When I Take My Sugar to Tea," "When Lights Are Low," "Don't Be That Way," "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," etc.); the idiom is King Cole Trio all the way, with some Oscar Peterson when Kennedy gets rolling. The only thing missing is Pizzarelli's good-natured kidding around with his band and his audience, which has become one of the main attractions of his live act. This artist is a good match for Telarc's growth as a jazz label -- young faces, old repertoire -- and of course, the Pizzarelli brothers and Kennedy are now the beneficiaries of Telarc's vaunted, depth-charged engineering.
    ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide

    Artists - Louis Armstrong, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Barney Bigard, Jack Teagarden
    Album - Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars
    Label - Laserlight
    Year - 1951, release - 1992
    Quality - MP3@320 kbps
    Size - 101 mb
    Total time - 48:18



    The minimal liner notes neglect to mention where or for whom this 1951 radio date was recorded. There's no argument with the title, however, as the seven-piece band includes Earl "Fatha" Hines on piano, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Arvell Shaw on bass, Big Sid Catlett on drums and the great Jack Teagarden on trombone and vocals. The 48-minute set includes spirited takes of popular favorites like Duke Ellington's "C Jam Blues," Rodgers and Hart's "Lover" (on which Teagarden plays a lovely, lyrical solo) and Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In," which features a sassy and highly entertaining duet between Armstrong and singer Velma Middleton. Armstrong's customary crowd-pleasing showmanship is on full display, but so are his remarkable chops his solo on "Ain't Misbehavin'" even features a few forward-looking be-bop runs! LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND HIS ALL-STARS documents an always-remarkable performer at his most entertaining.

    Don't let the budget price and generic packaging lead to the impression that Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars is a substandard release musically. Although the All-Stars are less heralded in comparison to the classic Hot Five or Hot Seven sides, this late-'40s return to his small-combo roots (five players, plus the requisite girl singer, Velma Middleton) was the last truly great jazz band Armstrong led before his move into orchestrated pop records in the '50s. Although the skimpy liner notes don't state where this show was recorded, the All-Stars lineup listed -- Earl Hines, Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, Big Sid Catlett, and Arvell Shaw -- only played together from February 1948 to May 1949. It's likely that this disc is a radio transcription from a series of shows Armstrong and the All-Stars played at Ciro's in Philadelphia June 2-12, 1948. (Actually, the last track, the first studio recording of this band's unofficial theme song "Jack Armstrong Blues," is from June 10, 1947, and features Jack Cary on piano.) Wherever the recording took place, the band sounds super tight, with Teagarden's sly trombone answering Armstrong's vocals and trumpet and Hines' barrelhouse piano driving the combo. Though it's a common perception that Armstrong lost his fire by the '40s, this set is a solid piece of old-fashioned small-combo jazz.
    ~ Stewart Mason, AMG

   Artist: Gennady Golshtein , Jana Radion, David Goloschokin,
                Vladimir Lytkin, Stanislav Streltzov & Saint Petersburg's Saxophones
   Album: Overtaken By Joy
   Year: 2007
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kbps
   Time: 75:10
   Size: 172 Mb

   Gennady Golshtein is legendary russian jazz musician and composer. There is some information about this CD in English in this post.

   Предлагаю послушать второй диск с участием уникального оркестра "Саксофоны Санкт-Петербурга" под руководством легендарного джазового музыканта, композитора, аранжировщика Геннадия Львовича Гольштейна.
   Тем же, кто еще не настигнут этой чудесной музыкой, рекомендую ознакомиться. Не пожалеете!
   

    Artist: Steely Dan
    Album: Pretzel Logic
    Label: MCA
    Year: 1974
    Format, bitrate: MP3, 160 & 320 kbps & FLAC
    Time: 34:01
    Size: 38.6MB/74.1MB & 211.7MB
    AMG Rating:

   This is Steely Dan's 3rd album and a great album it is. The songs are an eclectic mixture of styles yet they are also somehow unified by the band's trademark airtight jazz/rock sound that had by this time become perfected. That sound is characterized by tight, syncopated horns, energetic and propulsive drumming, and killer keyboard and fretwork. The riffs and solos are always so memorable that you wonder if they ever left the studio or how they managed to put out an album per year and maintain the level of perfection that they did. Add to that the street-wise, clever, knowing lyrics full of double meanings and veiled nods to various cultural entities and you have an extremely compelling and entertaining musical brew. From their irresistable mega-hit "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" to the beautiful "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" to the retro Duke Ellington tune "East St. Louis Toodle-oo" to the cowboy ballad "With A Gun" to the plaintive, spare, piano etude-like biography of "Charlie FreaK" to the deep and dirty groove of "Monkey In Your Soul" this album covers a lot of ground yet it never loses its way. How many Charlie Parker references can you spot in the cookin' "Parker's Band"? By the way, the AMG review above describes "Barrytown" as a "backhanded Dylan tribute" although I have also read that "Barrytown" is actually about the members of the Unification Church known as "Moonies" who are based in Barrytown, NY which seems to make more sense considering the lyrics. I guess you'd have to ask Becker and Fagen to know for sure. AMG gives this one 5 stars and I can see why. This is a fantastic album that can and should be listened to time and time again. Absolutely highly recommended!

    Artist: John Mayall
    Album: The Turning Point (Remastered Extra Tracks)
    Label: BGO/Polydor / Umgd records
    Year: 1969
    Release: 2001
    Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 kb/s
    Time: 1:03:44
    Size: 152 Mb (full covers)
    AMG Rating:


   Mick Taylor's decision to quit the Bluesbreakers for the Rolling Stones in May 1969 consolidated John Mayall's reputation as a mentor for new talent, but left him without a band. His response was to recruit two experienced session musicians - Jon Mark and Johnny Almond - and to use them, and remaining bassist Steve Thompson, to push his music into new areas of jazz-blues fusion. Dispensing with a drummer, he immediately put this "revolutionary", and in the end short lived line-up on the road, recording "The Turning Point" at the Fillmore East only two months later. . . .

    Artist: Oscar Peterson
    Album: Something Warm
    Label: Verve Records
    Year: 1962
    Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 kb/s
    Time: 37:21
    Size: 85,9 Mb
    Bubu's Rating:

            EVERY DAY IS AN OSCAR PETERSON DAY!


   This refined, warm and sentimental recording called ”Something Warm” was a mono LP issued by Verve Records Company on vinyl only in 1962, when Oscar Peterson was 37 years old, at his peak of his powers and creativity.
   This strong collection consists of live, good quality recordings, one original and the rest standards.