Artist: John Coltrane
   Album: Last Giant: The John Coltrane Anthology
   Label: Rhino (R2 71255 Compilation 2CD-Set)
   Year: 1946-1967
   Release: 1993
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kbps
   Time: 2:06:26
   Size: 257.4 Mb

   Несомненно 2 компакт-диска - маловато, чтобы вместить богатейшее наследие великого музыканта. И тем не менее эта компиляция даёт хорошее представление о музыкальной карьере Джона Колтрейна (John Coltrane).

   This deluxe two-CD set is a major disappointment. It contains a few revelations (a brief 1946 recording of "Hot House" featuring a 20-year-old John Coltrane, an aircheck with Dizzy Gillespie and a rare side by Gay Crosse & the Good Humor Six in 1952) but mostly repackages familiar material and includes nothing from Coltrane's very important years with Impulse. Why weren't all four of the 1946 sides included and why are only the first 90 seconds heard from Coltrane's final performance before it fades out? The accompanying booklet is quite attractive but this set (which will greatly frustrate completists) only gives an incomplete picture of the great saxophonist.
   ~ Scott Yanow, AMG

   Director: Vladimir Vorobjev / Владимир Воробьёв
   Title: When The Sants Go Marshing In / Когда святые маршируют
   Year: 1990
   Film studio: Lenfilm (Ленфильм)
   Genre: Musical, Drama
   Language, subtitles: Russian, English
   Video: AVI, 1399 Kbps, 25.0 fps, 640x480 (1.33:1), DivX
   Audio: MP3 128 Kbps, 44100 Hz, 2ch
   Time: 1:31:27
   Size: 1008 MB

   Life has scattered participants of the first Leningrad jazz-bend. On the eve of the jazz-club's 30-years anniversary one of enthusiasts tries to gather them...
   Many Leningrad jazz musicians of that time have acted in this film. One of leading roles was executed by the great russian jazzman David Semyonovich Goloschokin. He also has written music to this film.

   Ленинградский джаз-клуб готовится отметить свое тридцатилетие и юбилей основателя клуба, первого руководителя джаз-банда Алексея Сокольникова. Один энтузиаст решил найти весь первый состав этого коллектива и пригласить его на праздник. Но это не так-то просто сделать, к тому же существует некая загадка, таящаяся в прошлом, и послужившая в свое время причиной распада коллектива…

    Artist: Buddy Guy
    Album: Live The Real Deal
    Label: Jive Records
    Year: 1996
    Format, bitrate: Mp3, 256 kb/s
    Time: 59:42
    Size: 93,7 Mb (cover)
    AMG Rating:

    As close as Buddy Guy's ever likely to come to recapturing the long-lost Chess sound. Cut live at his popular Chicago nightspot, Buddy Guy's Legends, with guitarist G.E. Smith's horn-leavened Saturday Night Live Band and pianist Johnnie Johnson in lush support, Guy revisits his roots on sumptuous readings of "I've Got My Eyes on You," "Ain't That Lovin' You," "My Time After Awhile," and "First Time I Met the Blues." No outrageous rock-based solos or Cream/Hendrix/Stevie Ray homages; this is the Buddy Guy album that purists have salivated for the last quarter century or so.
    ~ Bill Dahl, AMG

   Artist: Buddy Guy
   Album: My Time After Awhile (compilation)
   Label: Vanguard Records
   Release: 1992
   Format, bitrate: Mp3, 192 kb/s
   Time: 1:01:56
   Size: 87,1 Mb (covers)
   AMG Rating:

   Artist: Hank Jones
   Album: Upon Reflection: The Music of Thad Jones
   Label: Verve
   Release: 1994
   Format, bitrate: MP3@320
   Size: 171 MB
   Time: 75:16


   Out of print in the U.S. 1994 release from the Jazz piano great finds Hank, alongside George Mraz and brother Elvin, paying tribute to his younger brother, the late trumpeter Thad Jones. 10 tracks including 'Thad's Pad', 'Lady Luck' and 'Mean What You Say'.
   ~ Universal

   You gotta go back to a time when Gregg Allman was sentient to find an artist carrying on his departed brother's legacy with the soulful empathy that pianist Hank Jones brings to the compositions of Upon Reflection-The Music of Thad Jones. Third brother/drummer Elvin (with bassist George Mraz, who used to play with Thad) completes this classiest of reunions. And the loving ensemble bop they make flows with the life-giving richness of real blood.
   ~ David Hajdu

    Artist: Jeff Beck
    Album: Blow by Blow
    Label: Epic
    Year: 1975
    Format, Bitrate: MP3, 320 kbps
    Time: 44:40
    Size: 102 mb + 3% recovery
    AMG Rating:

    "Многим понравился Blow by Blow, потому что это был упрощенный Маклафлин и усложненный рок-н-ролл. Это был один из тех альбомов, что делаются так легко. Было много исполнителей, желавших играть, и превосходный материал. За четыре дня мы записали все. А наложения заняли четыре года! Джордж Мартин просто не знал, за что берется. Я взял и положил на его стол пленки. Он задумчиво посмотрел и сказал, что в этом может что-то быть".
    Джеф Бек

    Blow by Blow typifies Jeff Beck's wonderfully unpredictable career. Released in 1975, Beck's fifth effort as a leader and first instrumental album was a marked departure from its more rock-based predecessors. Only composer/keyboardist Max Middleton returned from Beck's previous lineups. To Beck's credit, Blow by Blow features a tremendous supporting cast. Middleton's tasteful use of the Fender Rhodes, clavinet, and analog synthesizers leaves a soulful imprint. Drummer Richard Bailey is in equal measure supportive and propulsive as he deftly combines elements of jazz and funk with contemporary mixed meters. Much of the album's success is also attributable to the excellent material, which includes Middleton's two originals and two collaborations with Beck, a clever arrangement of Lennon and McCartney's "She's a Woman," and two originals by Stevie Wonder. George Martin's ingenious production and string arrangements rival his greatest work. . . .

   Artist: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
   Album: How Big Can You Get? – The Music of Cab Calloway
   Label: Vanguard
   Release: 2009
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320
   Size: 96 MB



   Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's reputation as a pop star styled retro-jazz band has to be enhanced and authenticated by this homage to the leading commercial proponent of jump, jive, and wailing swing in the '30s and '40s, Cab Calloway. The band, with its solid horn section and half-crazed vocal cops channeled through the Hi-De-Ho Man by Scotty Morris is faithful to the core from the originals. Though the band does not do all of Calloway's big hits (missing are "Viper's Drag," "St. Louis Blues," and "Kickin' the Gong Around," among many others), their selection of tunes is a delightful mix of favorites and some zingers, all well done in the style that made Calloway both revered and in some circles reviled. His overly dramatic songs are avoided, and fun is the operative word for these tunes that still are good to hear. Among the true blue covers: the definitive shuffle "Calloway Boogie" with the animated vocals of Morris, the energetic and stoned "Reefer Man," the easy swinger "Hey Now" with the band's vocal choruses, and the Gene Krupa bompity bomp beat tacked onto "Tarzan of Harlem." There are two versions of the all-time classic "Minnie the Moocher," one laid-back featuring growl trumpet, the other in a quicker mode with rhythms rolling along. "The Jumpin' Jive" is pretty typical, a stomp-down rhythm identifies the title track, and a horse-drawn clippity clop beat steadies "The Old Man on the Mountain," with phrases inserted similar to "Comes Love." It's clear that the band has always enjoyed these tunes and this era of jazz, and now that they have a bit of success under their belts, their desire to do a tribute close to their hearts is fully realized. Perhaps their March 2009 showcase on Dancing with the Stars playing vintage throwback swing also prompted this excursion way back to the roots. Their first recording in five years, it would seem Big Bad Voodoo Daddy have career longevity in mind, and a tribute to Louis Jordan, Slim Gaillard, or a second volume of Calloway's tunes would also be in order for a future project. This recording comes easily recommended to their fans and early period jazz lovers.
   ~ Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide

   Artist: Ornette Coleman
   Album:Beauty is A Rare Thing: The Complete Atlantic Recordings 6 CD Box Set
   Label: Rhino
   Year: 1959-1961
   Release: 2005
   Format, bitrate: MP3, 320 kbs
   Time: 424:09
   Size: 978 Mb
   AMG Rating:


   BEAUTY IS A RARE THING contains Ornette Coleman's entire surviving recorded output for the Atlantic label from 1959-1961 (a number of other sessions were recorded, but they were destroyed, along with countless other priceless Atlantic masters, in their infamous warehouse fire of the mid-1970s.) BEAUTY IS A RARE THING features over seven hours of music, six previously unreleased tracks, and contains a booklet of photos, a discography and contemporary commentaries by Ornette Coleman and a host of supporters and detractors.
   This epic 6-CD set chronicles the joy and controversy that distinguished alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman's coming out party on Atlantic Records. Coleman was a transplanted Texan, a jazzman steeped in the blues, who struggled throughout the '50s on the Los Angeles scene just to find people to play with--let alone to accept his very personal sense of pitch and form. A prodigious composer, Coleman had accumulated hundreds of tunes by the time he made his first two albums for Contemporary, and began recording for Atlantic in 1959 with THE SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME. . . .

   Artist - Benny Carter Orchestra
   Album - Live At The Trianon Ballroom, Southgate, California 1944
   Label - Hindsight Records
   Year - 1944, release - 1985
   Quality - MP3@320 kbps
   Size - 85,6 mb
   Total time - 38:23




   Benny Carter's wartime big band only made a handful of studio recordings but seems to have broadcast fairly regularly, particularly from California. This Hindsight LP gives a fine all-around look at Carter's 1944 band although the complete personnel is not known. Clarinetist Barney Bigard guests on "Tea for Two," the young trombone master J.J. Johnson is heard throughout "J.J. Jump" and Carter himself has three features on trumpet in addition to many alto solos. Although not essential, this swinging music is quite enjoyable.

   Artist: Barney Kessel
   Album: The Poll Winners
   Year: 1957
   Label: 1999
   Format, bitrate: FLAC & mp3 (320k/s)
   Size: 276 & 94 MB (full scans)
   Time: 40:32
   AMG Rating:

   If the picture of three grown men hanging onto giant, colored swirl sticks looks a bit odd, or if the title The Poll Winners seems a bit conceited, the music, nonetheless -- recorded in 1957 -- still sounds great in 2002. Besides, guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Shelly Manne really did win polls in Down Beat, Playboy, and Metronome in 1956, and this is precisely what brought the players together. Here, on their first outing, they interpret nine pieces for 40 lovely minutes of modern jazz. After kicking off with a fine take on Duke Jordan's "Jordu," the group delivers an emotionally warm, six-minute version of "Satin Doll," one the album's highlights. While each player is always fully engaged in this small setting, Kessel's guitar supplies the lead voice. His expressive style has more in common with bluesy players like Kenny Burrell than cool ones like Tal Farlow. This quality leads to sensitive interpretations of melody-filled standards like "On Green Dolphin Street" and "It Could Happen to You." As is traditional in small settings, both Manne and Brown are also given a piece of the action, usually near the end of a tune. The choice of material, the interplay between the three players, and the lead work all meld together beautifully on The Poll Winners, making it a classic guitar album in a small-group setting.
   ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., AMG

   Artist: Chaka Khan
   Album: The Jazz Channel Presents Chaka Khan
   Language: English (English and Portuguese Subtitles)
   Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
   Time: 62 min.
   Quality: ISO + 300dpi HQ Scans
   Size: 3.79 GBs | (200MB) RARs (Full Art Scan)

   Most mainstream fans associate vocalist Chaka Khan either as the lead singer for the seminal '70s funk band Rufus or as the R&B singer who became a short-lived '80s sensation with the infectious cover of Prince's pop hit "I Feel for You." However throughout the years Khan has shown an interest in jazz as well, and this 60-minute live performance gives the artist a chance to show off her nuanced versatility by covering a handful of old jazz standards. Khan sets the evening's mood by allowing her superb band (which is not credited, unfortunately) to warm up and take individual solos on the instrumental "Dark Secret" before finally making an appearance on stage. Once she does, it's a bit shaky at first. During "Them There Eyes," she sounds tentative and nervous, but by the time she hits "My Funny Valentine," the singer hits her stride. Throughout this brief but thoroughly enjoyable set, Khan consistently picks the right spots to demonstrate that her unmistakable voice hasn't lost a thing over the years. She can still belt them out with the best of 'em. Even if they're not Chaka Khan fans, jazz loyalists will want to see this show, simply because her band powers the evening; the bass and horn playing often outshine the singer. Make no mistake: Khan is good here, but her band is better.
   ~ Dave McCoy

   Artist: Michel Legrand
   Album: The Windmills Of Your Mind (The Very Best Of Michel Legrand)
   Year: 1969
   Release: 1999
   Label: Master Sound
   Format, bitrate: MP3, 320 kbps
   Time: 34:38
   Size: 78 MB

   Legendary French pianist and composer Michel Legrand created a wonderful variety of music ranging from global pop hits to symphonic suites. This "Greatest Hits" album contains his best known songs including the unforgettable title track, themes from "Summer of '42" and "The Go Between" ("I Still See You") plus tributes to his home town "Paris Was Made For Lovers" and "A Place In Paris". Star guests vocalists Dusty Springfield and Matt Monro boost the considerable appel of this collection.
   Booklet notes.

    Artist: Oscar Peterson
    Album: Oscar Peterson Trio '77
    Studio: Eagle Rock Ent
    Year: 1977
    Release: 2004
    Format, bitrate: avi, 218 kb/s
    Time: 55:00
    Size: 799 Mb
    AMG Rating:

            TODAY IS A GREAT OSCAR PETERSON DAY!

   Oscar Peterson was in prime form during this performance at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival, joined by two of his favorite bassists, Ray Brown and Niels-Henning Шrsted Pedersen. Following Peterson's breathtaking solo interpretations of three standards (ending with a breakneck "[Back Home Again In] Indiana"), the pianist introduces the two men, who take turns playing rhythm and soloing, with Peterson playing unaccompanied during the transitions between them to avoid overly cluttering the performances. All three men are obviously enjoying this unique format and there is no clash of egos, just three masters playing to the best of their abilities. Peterson not only does a great job with standards, but even makes something of the often trite ballad "People," though the crowd-pleasing dash through "Reunion Blues" takes top honors during this portion of the concert. Except for Peterson's opening solo tracks, all of this music was initially issued by Pablo on Oscar Peterson & the Bassists: Montreux '77, though "Soft Winds" (which appeared on the earlier album) is omitted. The photography and editing are superb throughout this DVD, though its sound is strangely inferior to the album, possibly due to deterioration of the master videotape. But this amazing DVD should be considered an essential acquisition for any fan of jazz piano.
   Ken Dryden, AMG