Artist: Stanley Jordan
     Album: Bolero
     Label: Arista
     Release: 1994
     Format, bitrate: MP3, 192 kbit/s
     Size: 84mb




    To those who know and love Ravel's original orchestral version of "Bolero", I ask you to listen to this contemporary mix with an open mind. We have done our best to maintain Ravel's high musical standards. And to those who haven't heard the original I suggest you check it out - it's a masterpiece!
    ~ Stanley Jordan
Nobody plays the guitar quite like Stanley Jordan. Defying categorization, Bolero is another in a line of Jordan hit releases. After perfecting his skill at playing with two hands on the guitar's fretboard and hammering or tapping the strings to produce melody, countermelody, and rhythm all at the same time, Jordan has gone on to break new musical ground with Bolero in fusing jazz, pop and classical. Besides his jazzy version of "Bolero," Jordan mixes original pieces with "Drifting" by Jimi Hendrix and the funk-pop tune "Chameleon."
   ~ MusD, All Music Guide

    Artist: Marvin Gaye
    Album: I Want You
    Label: Motown
    Year: 1976
    Format, bitrate: MP3, 320 Kbps
    Time: 38:04
    Size: 75,7 MB
    AMG Rating:

    Together with Leon Ware, Gaye created 1976's I Want You. Some of these tracks were to go on Leon Ware's Motown debut, Musical Massage until Berry Gordy got a listen and decided that they'd be even better for Gaye, as the artist had not released a studio album since 1973's Let's Get It On. The title track to I Want You was the album's most successful effort, but certainly not the best. Like many of his albums, I Want You has Gaye's peaks not so much coming from the singles but rather the album cuts and the totality of the effort itself. Not that all of the lyrics and intentions here are crystal clear, though. In fact, Gaye does sound somnolent in spots, and it gives credence to the rumors that he did some of the tracks lying on a couch. "Come Live With Me," produced by Ware and Hal Davis, is the most focused track here. The refined and atmospheric "Feel My Love Inside" has Gaye giving a commanding upper-register vocal and has some doo wop backing vocals thrown in for good measure. To most fans, I Want You probably sounds unlike anything Gaye recorded. They're not wrong. In fact, this has the feel of a Leon Ware album with a more persuasive voice on top. "Since I Had You" typifies that idea as Gaye skillfully maneuvers through Ware's compelling and complicated arrangement, and he puts an accent on notes that other singers wouldn't even think to. I Want You is one of Gaye's best albums, and the production set a standard that few have been able to match.
   ~ Jason Elias , AMG

    Artist: Roy Buchanan
    Album: Hot Wires
    Label: Alligator Records
    Year: 1987
    Format, bitrate: mp3, 256 kb/s vbr
    Size: 69,3 Mb (covers)

   This was pitifully the last recording of this enfant terrible of the Rock: Roy Buchanan who still had so much to give and so much to say. He lefts us in a very early age. This album contains one of the Best Blues of hos persona career: Blues lover, extraordinary. We must mention the special version of 25 miles a remake of the original Soul singer Edwin Star of 1969. But there is still more: The instrumental Hot wires is atrue tour de force all the way; his flamboyant Flash Chordin, Country Boogie and the enrapturing Sunset over Broadway. Two of the stars on this album are not with us anymore:Roy,the genius,and Stan Szelest,his keyboard player.In many ways,this is a culmination of Buchanan's career,featuring four instrumentals,and a number of guest vocalists,such as:Kanika Kress and John Sayles.The style is exactly what we have become accustomed to expect from this guitar wiz(who also sings):lots of soul and scorching guitar that will leave your rock rolling.Roy Buchanan the master,gone but not forgotten...Go for this album it's a must in your personal collection.
   - Amazon.com

    Artist: Lenny Mac Dowell
    Album: Get Ready
    Label: Blue Flame Records
    Year: 2009
    Format, bitrate: mp3, 256 kb/s
    Time: 1:13:11
    Size: 103 Mb
    Bubu's Rating: 4,5 stars

   An ugly cover for a nice album, perhaps the most successful issue in its domain for 2009. The main feature of the flute player's album is not the accessibility and the dancing rhythms as appears first but the versatility & professional consistency and the extreme variety of modes and ways of expression (and instruments too). I'm sure that we'll here more from this artist. Take it in your car, home or to a party or a club and it will fit everywhere. . . .

ФИАЛКИ по СРЕДАМ (выпуск двадцать девятый)

   Composer: Antonio Vivaldi
   Artist: Jonathan Cohen (cello), The King's Consort, Robert King (conductor)
   Album: Vivaldi. Cello Concertos
   Label: Hyperion
   Year: 2005
   Release 2006
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kbps
   Time: 73 min, 30 sec.
   Size: 179 mb.

   Злые языки утверждают, что композитор Вивальди сочинил тысячу и один и тот же концерт для скрипки с оркестром. На самом деле (если верить Википедии), концертов было в два раза меньше. И не только для скрипки (хотя, во времена становления классических канонов она была самым главным солирующим инструментом). Великий маэстро сам виртуозно владел скрипкой, а это, согласитесь, уже повод для посвящения основных произведений именно этому инструменту. Но талант композитора не обошёл вниманием и лютню, и гобой, и флейту, и виолончель (ту здоровенную скрипку, которую ещё между ног зажимают ). Именно об этом инструменте (точнее, о произведениях маэстро для виолончели) сегодня пойдёт речь в моей цветочной лавке.

   Artist: Barney Bigard
   Album: Chronological 1944-1945
   Label: Classics
   Year: 1944-45
   Release: 1997
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
   Size: 148 mb
   Time: 60:28

Отличный веселый свинг от кларнетиста Barney Bigard! Великолепные Georgie Auld, Joe Thomas, Art Tatum и другие тоже поднимут вам настроение своими отличными раскованными соло!

   1944-1945 collects Bigard's output after the clarinetist left the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Although his brief time with a band fronted by Joe Thomas is not as consistently rewarding as his stint with Ellington (what could be?), it's still historically valuable and enjoyable for fans of the clarinetist.
   ~ Thomas Ward, AMG

    Artist: Ben Webster
    Album: Bounce Blues (compilation)
    Label: Blue Moon Records
    Year: 1951 - 1954
    Release: 1995
    Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
    Time: 1:06:39
    Size: 158 Mb (cover)
    AMG Rating:

          EVERY DAY IS AN OSCAR PETERSON DAY !

   Tenor saxophonist Ben Webster was incredibly active as both leader and sideman during the first half of the 1950s. Released in 1995 and reissued in 2004, Blue Moon's Bounce Blues paints a colorful portrait of this Ellington alumnus with 20 superb recordings cut under the supervision of producer Norman Granz between December 1951 and May 1954. A cousin to an identically titled collection released in 2002 by Past Perfect, Blue Moon's Bounce Blues covers almost the same ground as 1953-1954, a Classics Chronological series compilation that appeared in 2008, the difference being that Blue Moon chucked a few string orchestra-sweetened tracks in favor of material from an earlier sextet session that finds young trumpeter Maynard Ferguson moonlighting under the name of Tiger Brown. In addition to three titles that have Webster backed by the Johnny Richards Orchestra, he is heard leading four-, five-, six-, and seven-piece bands containing some of the strongest players in the entire Mercury/Clef/Norgran/Verve catalog. . . .