Artist: The Dave Brubeck Quartet
    Album: Paper Moon
    Label: Concord Jazz
    Year: 1981
    Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
    Time: 42:01
    Size: 96,5 Mb
    AMG Rating:

          HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. LEX !

   The third of three Concord albums by this version of the Quartet (with Jerry Bergonzi on tenor, Chris Brubeck on bass and bass trombone and drummer Randy Jones) is the most rewarding of the trio although each one is recommended. Brubeck and the Coltrane-influenced tenor Bergonzi take consistently exciting solos on seven standards which are highlighted by "Music, Maestro, Please," "I Hear a Rhapsody" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"; Brubeck's solo version of "St. Louis Blues" is also noteworthy. -
   Scott Yanow, AMG

    Artist: The Dave Brubeck Quartet
    Album: London Flat, London Sharp
    Label: Telarc
   Year: 2004
    Format, bitrate: mp3, 256 kb/s
    Time: 56:17
    Size: 97,7 mb (cover)
    AMG Rating:

          HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. LEX !

   Dave Brubeck mixes old and new compositions in these outstanding studio sessions recorded in early 2004. The pianist not only composes a formidable output of inventive new works on a regular basis, but he maintains a distinctive sound at the piano, one that grows even more adventurous over time. "London Flat, London Sharp" is a typical new composition from his later years. When alto saxophonist Bobby Militello first heard it, he wasn't sure he could play it, as Brubeck's left hand moves chromatically down the scale in flats as his right simultaneously moves up in sharps at a brisk tempo. But Militello, like any musician who has worked regularly with the pianist, responded to the challenge and turns in a blistering performance, with the support of Michael Moore (one of the very best all-around bassists), longtime Brubeck drummer Randy Jones (whose tenure as Brubeck's drummer exceeded 24 years at the time of these sessions), and the composer; it has since become a part of the quartet's concert repertoire. "To Sit and Dream" is an excerpt from a commissioned work ("Hold Fast to Dreams") in which Brubeck set the poems of Langston Hughes to music. Beginning as a lush, deliberate solo, it quickly turns into a wailing number. One non-Brubeck composition is the haunting, beautiful "Steps to Peace," composed by Derrill Bradley after his daughter was killed in the crash of the hijacked Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. Militello switches to flute for this moving ballad. . . .

    Artist: Dizzy Gillespie
    Album: Live in Belgium '58
                 Live in Denmark '70
    Label: Reelin' In The Years Productions & TDK
    Years: 1958, 1970
    Release: 2006
    Format: Online-video
    Time: 86 min
    AMG Rating:


    Part of the first series of the impressive Jazz Icons DVD collection, this volume features two separate performances by Dizzy Gillespie. The first five songs, from 1958, find him accompanied by tenor saxophonist Sonny Stitt, pianist Lou Levy, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Gus Johnson. Gillespie and Stitt share the vocals for a portion of ”On The Sunny Side Of The Street”, while Stitt is featured on alto sax for "Lover Man," as Gillespie is off-stage. Then it is the leader's turn for "Cocktails for Two," played at a relaxed tempo, but with a few fireworks added. In the 1970 broadcast from the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Gillespie fronts the Francy Boland-Kenny Clarke Big Band. While there are a lot of familiar songs, newer works like "The Brother K" (a moving tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been murdered two years earlier) and the sassy blues "Let Me Outta Here" represent more recent compositions. Obvious highlights also include the Afro-Cuban compositions "Con Alma" and "Manteca." The band is literally filled with bandleaders, including expatriates like Art Farmer, Kenny Clarke, Idrees Sulieman, and Sahib Shihab, in addition to some of Europe's top jazz musicians. The camera work, video, and audio on both black-and-white programs is excellent throughout the DVD.
    ~ Ken Dryden, AMG

   Artist: Charlie Ventura
   Album: Legendary Pasadena Concert
   Label: Proper [Catalog #1264]
   Year: 2002
   Genre: Jazz, Bop, Swing
   Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
   Time: 73:34
   Size: 175 Mb

   All the music on this CD comes from the Pasadena Concert, an outstanding example of live jazz performed by some of the greatest players of the day. The recording quality is little short of miraculous. Gene Norman told Los Angeles based producer Dick Bank years later that he called RCA because Charlie Ventura was under contract with them, asking if they'd be interested in recording the concert. They sent technicians plus tape machines. But they didn't published the result and sold him the tapes for 100$. For this price, he purchased one of the greatest jazz concert ever recorded. You can hear it now for the first time in his complete version. Recorded at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, May 9, 1949.

    Artist: Brooklyn Funk Essentials
    Album: Cool and Steady and Easy
    Label: Groovetown
    Release: 1995
    Format: FLAC (cue+log)
    Total time: 63:10
    Size: 493 MB (artwork)
    AMG Rating:


   The Brooklyn Funk Essentials are the all-star session players of urban music. Their collective work has created a masterpiece melting-pot of spicy sound. This funky, jazzy, super-cool music soaks into your consciousness, while the clever lyrical content holds your unwavering attention.
   "The Revolution Was Postponed Because of Rain" is a great example of the BFE' lyrical dexterity. This self-effacing ditty could even bring a smile to those who have been taking our world's tensions too seriously. Adding this to the smooth horn section, the grooving beat, and the raga-delivery, every track comes up aces. This group has the skills where it counts - in making soothing, flavorful music that is the ultimate in entertainment with a sense of humor.
   It sure is 'cool', and the album does have that 'steadiness' ( you know...continuity), but 'easy'? It's not easy to be this good!
   ~ Jamie Roberts, www.westnet.com

     Artist: Zoot Sims
     Album: On the Korner
     Label: Pablo
     Year: 1983
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbit/s
     Time: 0.51:11
     Size: 117 MB
     AMG Rating:

     Прекрасный тенор-саксофонист Zoot Sims уже много раз появлялся в нашем Клубе.
     Послушайте ещё один довольно приятный его альбом...

     Artist: Herbie Mann
     Album: St. Thomas
     Label: United Artists
     Year: 1962
     Format: Mp3 320 kbps
     Time: 37:23
     Size: 87 MB

     Herbie Mann played a wide variety of music throughout his career. He became quite popular in the 1960s but in the '70s became so immersed in pop and various types of world music that he seemed lost to jazz. However, Mann never lost his ability to improvise creatively as his later recordings attest.
     Herbie Mann began on clarinet when he was nine but was soon also playing flute and tenor. After serving in the Army, he was with Mat Mathews's Quintet (1953-54) and then started working and recording as a leader. During 1954-58 Mann stuck mostly to playing bop, sometimes collaborating with such players as Phil Woods, Buddy Collette, Sam Most, Bobby Jaspar and Charlie Rouse. He doubled on cool-toned tenor and was one of the few jazz musicians in the 1950s who recorded on bass clarinet; he also recorded in 1957 a full album (for Savoy) of unaccompanied flute.

     Artist: Joey Calderazzo
     Album: Joey Calderazzo
     Format: FLAC + MP3 (320)
     Size: 369 + 134 MB (artwork)
     Label: Columbia
     Total time: 55:55

     A powerful trio outing, Joey Calderazzo's self-titled Columbia debut is comprised almost entirely of fine original compositions, in addition to Bill Evans' haunting "Time Remembered" and Michael Brecker's hard-swinging "Slings and Arrows." Bassist John Patitucci and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts provide an unwavering and hip rhythmic foundation for the blazing pianist. Calderazzo's tunes range from the richly contrasting waltz feels of "The Oracle," "Haiku," and "Catania" to the all-out uptempo fury of "Detonation." Combining melodic ingenuity, harmonic adventurism, and sheer aggressiveness of attack, Calderazzo's playing on this record stands as a yardstick against which all other post-bop pianists can be measured. - by David R. Adler, AMG

     Artist: Steve Tibbetts
     Album: Yr
     Format: FLAC + MP3 (320)
     Size: 231 MB + 89 MB (artwork)
     Label: ECM (1988)
     Total time: 38:23

     This is a must for every guitar player/ music fun. It's solid, strong and innovative with Steve playing at his best. It has beautiful moments and also some hard ones with the electric guitar screaming and jumping all over the place. It's amazing how this composer captures all the escense of the instrument and creates an atmosphere that can vary a 100% during the track/song. Probably this is the most mature and coherent work of Steve as of today. If you really appreciate the innovatives works on the guitar, such as the ones related to Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, David Torn or Pat Metheny you should have this record, which I think is one of the best (ever). - by Eugenio Rojas Bravo, Amazon.com

     Artist: Andrzej Jagodziqski
     Album: Chopin
     Year: December 1993, release 1994
     Label: Polonia Records
     Quality: mp3/320 kbps & FLAC
     Time: 36:57
     Size: 86 MB

     The most renowned Polish jazz performer of Chopin works, born in 1953, one of the best pianists in Poland, composer and arranger, received his degrees from the Frederick Chopin Conservatory where he studied French Horn while already engaged by the Polish Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra. In 1979 Jagodzinski received first prize for "pianist of the year" at the Old Jazz Meeting "Zlota Tarka". He has played with the best Polish jazz formations including The Old Timers, Swing Session, String Connection, The Zbigniew Namyslowski Quartet, The Janusz Muniak Quartet, The Big Warsaw Band, Quintessence, The Tomasz Szukalski Quartet, The Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski Quartet and Jarek Smietana's Polish All Star....
     Jagodzinski has toured in most European countries, Australia, and the United States, in India, Kuwait, Cuba and the former Soviet Union and has been representing Polish jazz for the past 16 years at: Jazz Yatra (Bombay — India), Ost-West (Nurnberg — Germany), Jazz in Europe (Paris — France), Skane Festivalen in Malmo (Sweden) , Edinburgh Art Festival (England), Leverkusener Jazz Tage (Germany), Istanbul International Festival (Turkey) and in all major Polish Jazz festivals. Since 1981 Jagodzinski has been performing with "Poland's first lady in jazz", Ewa Bem..

    Artist: Bruno Pelletier
    Album: Bruno Pelletier et le GrosZorchestre
    Label: Disques Artiste
    Year: 2007
    Genre: pop-jazz, vocal
    Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kbps
    Time: 1h, 2 min, 51 sec
    Size: 153 mb.

    Ну, друзья мои, как говорится, нет повода не выпить. Если вчера мы все дружно отмечали 77 лет со дна рождения джазовой арфистки Dorothy Ashby, то сегодня исполняется сорок семь лет со дня рождения канадского певца Брюно Пеллетье. Ну-ка, мальчики и девочки, вспоминайте французскую версию мюзикла "Notre-Dame de Paris", самый первый номер - "Le Temps Des Cathedrales". Вот-вот, именно этот самый Грингуар сегодня и празднует свой День Рождения. Кто-то недоумённо спросит, а что, мол, делает этот попсовик в нашем джазово-блюзовом клубе? Господа скептики, вы почитайте состав музыкантов, послушайте музыку, а потом задавайте Ваши вопросы.
Короче говоря, не знаю, как это будет по-канадски, поэтому

     Artist: Lazy Lester
     Album: Blues Stop Knockin'
     Label: Antone's Records
     Year: rec./rel. Aug 21, 2001
     Format: MP3@320 Kb/s
     Time: 49:35
     Size: 102 Mb

   Artist: The Temptations
   Album: For Lovers Only [Bonus Tracks]
   Label: Motown
   Year: 1995
   Release: 2002
   Format, bitrate: MP3, 192 kbps
   Time: 57:40
   Size: 93,6 mb

   Nominally, the Temptations' For Lovers Only is an album of pop standards. But producer Richard Perry and primary arranger Isias Gamboa have taken such a radical approach to presenting the familiar songs that listeners accustomed to versions of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Some Enchanted Evening" and Lerner & Loewe's "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" that derive from the Broadway musicals in which these songs originated may not recognize them as the same compositions, even after more than one listen. These tracks retain the basic lyrics and some melodic elements, but they go far beyond the usual matters of tempo and instrumental coloring that characterize what is called an arrangement; Gamboa has used the original songs as the merest basis for writing his own songs. And the Temptations pitch in enthusiastically in the transformations. Theo Peoples, singing lead vocals on "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," launches into an extended vocal improvisation at the end of the song that doesn't contain any of the words Alan Jay Lerner wrote. . . .

    Artist: Thelonious Monk
    Album: Live in Norway '66
                 Live in Denmark '66
    Label: Reelin' In The Years Productions & TDK
    Year: 1966
    Release: 2006
    Format: Online-video
    Time: 62 min
    AMG Rating:



    . . .The package itself gives us two Scandinavian concerts, lasting half an hour each, recorded within days of each other during a European tour in 1966. In addition to Monk and his long-standing tenor player Charlie Rouse the quartet comprised bassist Larry Gales and drummer Ben Riley.

    The first concert took place in Norway in what looks like the atrium of an Art Museum. There was no audience. The sound has been brilliantly restored. It sounds crisp, immediate and impressive. The visuals however are rather grainy and have suffered degradation. Those tell-tale lines that streak horizontally down the picture give a rather antique air to proceedings though in truth it’s no worse than many films of the period. One does however get a shock when the audio and visual images are so different, the ear anticipating a similarly muffly sound perspective.

    The second concert has similarly good sound and thankfully far better picture quality with the proviso that – both concerts were filmed in black and white – the image can get a bit dark now and then. Clarity however remains untroubled; sweat and ruffled cuffs are pleasingly visible. . . .
    ~ Jonathan Woolf, www.musicweb-international.com