Artist: Bernie Williams
     Album: The Journey Within
     Label: Verve (GRP)
     Year: 2003
     Quality: 320 kb/s
     Size: 128 mb

Take note! If there's one lively Latin-flavored guitar jazz disc by an all-star center fielder you must listen to this year, make it this one. Don't do it however, just for the novelty of a .300 career-hitting New York Yankee legend making music for a hometown-based label, but because his hobby comes loaded with great melodic ideas and some buoyant, snappy playing. No doubt many critics will see this as a sports celebrity vanity project, and much will be made of all the top musicians who jumped into the fray (Bйla Fleck, David Sancious, T-Bone Wolk, Luis Conte), but Williams truly holds his own. The opening track, "La Salsa en Mi," is feisty Latin jamming with an instantly catchy melody, and sets a lofty standard that some of the mellower tracks simply can't match. High-spirited exotic sessions like that and the percussion-intense "Desvelado" run rings around more conventional but still engaging light funk-jazz tracks like "The Way" and the lush ballad "Just Because," whose contribution by labelmate pianist David Benoit is surprisingly subtle. Those who like simple fingerstyling may most enjoy the interlude "Samba Novo," while pop fans may best enjoy the mainstream readings of "Dust in the Wind" and Billy Joel's plaintive "And So It Goes." The best evidence that Williams can funk out as well as he can do salsa ( remember, he's a native Puerto Rican ) is the turbocharged fusion jam "Stranded on the Bridge." In contemporary jazz circles, Wayman Tisdale has made a successful move from basketball to bass. When Bernie Williams retires, more discs like this will ensure that he's more than a one-shot deal. ~ Jonathan Widran, AMG

While attending my very first Yankees game, which also happened to be my first live baseball game ever, I was told that one of the team - Bernie - was an excellent guitar player and composer. I was intrigued to hear his music, so when I heard this CD I was blown away by his talent. Go Bernie, it's a home run! ~ Paul McCartney

     Artist:Champion Jack Dupree
     Album: The Best of Champion Jack Dupree: Dupree Shake Dance
     Label: Blues Forever
     Years: 1940 - 1945, release: 2005
     Format, bitrate: mp3; 320 Kbps
     Time: 49:16
     Size: 114.0 MB

ФИАЛКИ по СРЕДАМ (выпуск сорок третий)

Artist: Sinfonia Lahti Cello & Bass Ensemble
Album: Bassic Instincts - Popular Works For Low Strings
Label: BIS
Year: 1993
Release November 30, 1993
Genre: classical music
Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kbps
Time: 58 min, 25 sec.
Size: 142 mb.
Честное слово, полдня просидел в раздумьях - что бы такого интересного выложить в сегодняшнем выпуске "фиалок..." Как-то так получилось, что классическую музыку на этой неделе попросту не слушал, свежих впечатлений не было...
Но вот мой внутренний голос сказал: Женька, чё ты паришься, выкладывай очередную порцию картинок, да пооригинальнее, и успех тебе обеспечен!
Я вяло попытался возразить моему ВГ, пробормотал что-то в стиле "А если они уже всем надоели", но ВГ демонстративно отвернулся и принялся разглядывать урбанистический пейзаж за окном.
Итак, друзья мои, сегодня для Вас опять звучит Мусоргский. На этот раз аранжировка для ансамбля виолончелей (тех скрипок, которые между ног зажимают) и контрабасов (а это вообще здоровенные скрипки, возле них стоять приходится). К сожалению, информации об ансамбле найти не удалось, посему ограничусь лишь трек-листом и ссылкой.
Итак...

     Artist: Dinah Washington
     Album: For Lovers
     Label: Verve
     Released: 2006
     Quality: mp3 CBR 320
     Size: 100 MB




     Although a little slim at 45 minutes, Verve's compilation of 11 romantic titles recorded by Dinah Washington includes some of her finest material. Concentrating on the mid- to late '50s, Dinah Washington for Lovers surveys the years when she finally bloomed as a popular purveyor of adult vocal jazz. Surprisingly, it doesn't include the most popular ballad of her career, "What a Diff'rence a Day Made," but Washington had a certain way with standards that never fails to delight; no other vocal interpreter can make listeners contemplate lyrics anew even after they've heard it enough times to memorize. While most of the selections here feature the rosy strings and orchestra that Washington preferred late in her career, a pair of mellow ballads ("Darn That Dream" and "Crazy He Calls Me") come from a very different type of recording, her 1954 jam session landmark, Dinah Jams. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide

     Artists: Dave Burrell Full - Blown Trio
     Album: Expansion
     Label: High Two Recordings
     Year: 2003, release: 2004
     Quality: MP3;VBR
     Size: 75 mb

Recorded at the tail end of 2003, Expansion features pianist/composer Dave Burrell's new Full-Blown Trio, which includes drummer Andrew Cyrille and the nearly ubiquitous William Parker on bass. These seven selections -- all but one composed by the pianist -- range in mood, tone, and focus. The title track opens the disc; it's a knot-like composition that swings on a round of post-blues concerns and vanguard explorations of harmony. Parker's bass playing is the force of transition from one motif to another throughout. The delightful version of Irving Berlin's "They Say It's Wonderful," is the literal centerpiece of the record. A solo piece, it holds to the original's melody while stretching its rhythmic dynamic to the breaking point without changing the actual time signature. Burrell's fills between the lyric lines are humorous, warm, and dazzling. Parker opens "In the Balance," by playing the kora, offering both mode and melody, while Cyrille shimmers on the cymbals behind him and Burrell extrapolates the harmonics in the upper register of the piano. It's the most beautiful -- and non-"jazz" track -- on the set. Expansion closes with the nearly straight-ahead swing of "Coup d'Etat," with Burrell pacing the rhythm section in angular (though not dissonant), Lennie Tristano-esque intervals. Expansion is a lovely record of short to mid-length pieces by a trio versed in understatement and nuance. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

     Artists - Dizzy Gillespie & The Mitchell Ruff Duo
     Album - Dizzy Gillespie & The Mitchell Ruff Duo In Concert
     Label - Mainstream
     Year - 1971
     Quality - MP3@320 kbps (LP-rip)
     Size - 80 mb
     Total time - 35:41


Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie sounds quite comfortable playing in an intimate setting with pianist Dwike Mitchell and Willie Ruff (who plays bass and occasional French horn). Gillespie explores a couple of recent collaborations with his sidemen plus "Con Alma," "Woodyn' You" and Ruff's "Bella Bella." This is one of Gillespie's stronger sets of the '70s; he was 54 years old at the time.~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

Pianist Dwike Mitchell and bassist Willie Ruff (who was also a talented French horn player) first met in the late 1940s when they were serving in the Army and playing in a band at the Lockbourne Air Force Base in Ohio. In 1954 they were both members of Lionel Hampton's Big Band and within a year they broke away to form the Mitchell-Ruff Duo. The Mitchell-Ruff Duo has since worked on and off for over 40 years. The high points of its existence include a touring the Soviet Union in 1959 (they were the first U.S. jazz musicians in Russia since World War II, helping to pave the way for Benny Goodman's tour of 1962), playing for Lyndon Johnson in Mexico in 1966, visiting China in 1981 and recording in a trio with Dizzy Gillespie. The Mitchell-Ruff Duo have recorded for Epic (1955-56 and 1966), Roulette (1957-60), Atlantic (1961 and 1965), Mainstream (1969) and Kepler (1983). ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

     Artist: Duke Robillard
     Album: Stomp!The Blues Tonight
     Label: Stony Plain Music
     Year: 2009,relise: June 2
     Format mp3 bitrate: 320kbps
     Time: 1:06:23
     Size:149.58 MB

Знаменитый американский блюзовый гитарист Дюк Робиллард организовал свой коллектив в 1967 году, когда ему было всего лишь девятнадцать лет.
С тех пор вот уже четыре десятилетия, Дюк Робиллард профессионально исполняет свинг, блюз и соул.

Since joining the Stony Plain roster in 1993, Duke Robillard has released an average of one album per year with the Canadian roots and blues label, and his sixteenth is a little bit of a departure: where his previous efforts have focused mainly on jazz and blues, this one is a celebration of the jump blues and R&B of the '40s and '50s, and Robillard sounds just as natural and is clearly having just as good a time with this repertoire as he always has on his previous projects. Highlights include a wonderful jump blues instrumental arrangement of the traditional song "Frankie and Johnny," an equally great vocal duet between Robillard and Sunny Crownover on "I Wanna Hug You, Kiss You, Squeeze You" and an absolutely brilliant rendition of the Ike Turner R&B classic "Tore Up." Slightly less essential is a rather mannered take on the old Wynonie Harris song "Playful Baby," on which Robillard sounds like he's trying to channel Harris rather than interpret the song on his own, but everything else here is really top-notch -- and part of what makes it great is that Robillard (an excellent guitarist but only a good singer) has the good sense to step aside several times to make room for the much more exciting vocals of Sunny Crownover. And on several of the album's best tracks, no one is singing at all ~ Rick Anderson, AMG

     Artist: Pink Martini
     Album: Splendor In The Grass
     Year: 2009
     Label: Heinz Records
     Bitrate: 320kbps / 44.1kHz / Joint-Stereo
     Total Size: 113,27 MB

Over the course of three superb albums that have sold more than two million copies worldwide, Portland, Oregon's mucho-eclectic outfit Pink Martini have served as international music tour guides imbuing a diverse collection of unpredictable influences ranging from Latin infused sambas, 30's orchestrated standards, Cuban jazz and lounge-y torch ballads. ”I'd call our music old fashioned pop with a global perspective,” says pianist and co-founder Thomas Lauderdale, who is also the band leader. “It has that feeling of the atmosphere of the 30s, 40s, 50s, early 60s, but global in scope.”

On their forthcoming fourth album Splendor In the Grass (October 27), Lauderdale, vocalist China Forbes and the 15-year-old "little orchestra" again serve up 13-course musical meal of exotic flavors, a project that they say is decidedly "upbeat and optimistic". There's a certain amount of chic whimsy at play when a sitar solo livens up the playful "Tuca Tuca" or Wordsworth poetry, a Tchaikovsky piano concerto and the melody from the theme from an old Clint Eastwood film get tossed together -- and that's just in one song, the album's title track. Fun and smartly, delightfully frivolous, Spendor is, simply, splendid. ~ directcurrentmusic.com

     Artist: George Russell
     Label: GRP/Decca
     Year: 1958, release:2001
     Quality: FLAC remastered
     Size: 265 mb
     AMG Rating


George Russell was one of the most forward-thinking composers and arrangers on the jazz scene during the 1950s, but his work was generally more appreciated by musicians than the jazz-buying public. New York, New York represents one of many high points in his career. He assembled an all-star orchestra, including pianist Bill Evans (a frequent participant on Russell's recordings), Art Farmer, Bob Brookmeyer, John Coltrane, and Milt Hinton, among others. In Rodgers & Hart's "Manhattan," Russell has the soloists playing over the orchestra's vamp, while he also creates an imaginative "East Side Medley" combining the standards "Autumn in New York" and "How About You." His original material is just as striking as his arrangements, while vocalist Jon Hendricks serves as narrator between orchestra segments. While this release has been reissued several times, it rarely remains in print for long, so don't miss the opportunity to acquire this elusive CD. ~ Ken Dryden, All Music Guide

    Artist: Keith Jarrett
    Album: Arbour Zena
    Label: ECM
    Release: 1975
    Style: Neo-Classic
    Format mp3, bitrate: 320 kb/s vbr
    Time: 52:59
    Size: 87,9 Mb (cover0

With saxophonist Jan Garbarek and bassist Charlie Haden along for the ride, Keith Jarrett indulges in three slow, rambling, meditative, vaguely neo-classical concertos for piano and string orchestra. While a few of Jarrett's and Garbarek's passages here and there have a syncopated jazz feeling, this is mostly contemporary classical music, perhaps even somewhat ahead of its time (it might fit in with the neo-Romantic and minimalist camps today). However, although this music can be attractive in small doses, the lack of tempo or texture contrasts over long stretches of time — particularly the nearly 28-minute "Mirrors" — can be annoying if you're not in the right blissful mood. Mladen Gutesha and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra perform the string parts with what can only be described as commendable patience. - Richard S. Ginell at AMG

    Artist: Keith Jarrett
    Album: The Art of Improvisation
    Studio: Euroarts
    Year: 1993
    Release: 2005
    Genre: Avant-Garde Jazz
    Format avi, bitrate: 160 kb/s
    Time: 1:18:08
    Size: 641 Mb (covers)
    Bubu's Rating:

This wonderful documentary is all about improvisation, and particularly the kind of improvisation the superb jazz pianist Keith Jarrett does. It was made with the full cooperation of Jarrett and there are many minutes of conversation with him as well as with such collaborators as Manfred Eicher, Jack de Johnette, Gary Peacock, his brother Scott, his wife Roseanne, Chick Corea, Gary Burton and many more. Interspersed are many performance clips going back to the very beginning of his career (and including some scenes from his childhood) right up to the present. His ordeal with chronic fatigue syndrome in the mid-1990s is touched upon (but, not surprisingly, given Jarrett's reticence about personal matters, not dwelt upon). There is a ten-minute uninterrupted clip from a concert by his Standards Trio (Jarrett, de Johnette, Peacock). There are also clips of the Köln Concert, concerts with Jan Garbarek (particularly gorgeous), with Miles Davis, and many others. Jarrett comes across as a hugely intelligent and deeply thoughtful man who is nonetheless humble in the face of his talent. - J. Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) at Amazon.com

    Artist: Keith Jarrett
    Album: In The Light 2 CD
    Label: ECM
    Release: 1974
    Style: Modern Classic
    Format mp3, bitrate: 320 kb/s vbr
    Time: 1:31:05
    Size: 191 Mb (covers)

Even before his solo concerts became popular successes, Keith Jarrett was clearly getting a free hand from ECM founder Manfred Eicher, as this ambitious double album of classical compositions proves. In this compendium of eight works for all kinds of ensembles, the then-28-year old Jarrett adamantly refuses to be classified, flitting back and forth through the centuries from the baroque to contemporary dissonance, from exuberant counterpoint for brass quintet to homophonic writing for a string section. Though the content is uneven in quality, Jarrett is clearly sincere and skilled enough to exploit his European roots with only a handful of syncopated references to his jazz work. The strongest, most moving individual pieces are the strange, gong-haunted "In the Cave, In the Light" (the probable source of the title of Jarrett's publishing company, Cavelight); "Metamorphosis," with its rich, flowing string lines, prominent solo flute, and free journeys in and out of tonality; and the Bartok-streaked String Quartet. Jarrett himself plays formal solo piano in the eclectic "Fughata" and "A Pagan Hymn," and even conducts the Stuttgart Radio Symphony strings. All of it is richly recorded in the ECM way, making four strings sound like twelve - Richard S. Ginell at AMG

     Artist: Dollar Brand
     Album: Anatomy of a South African Village
     Label: Black Lion
     Year:Jan 30, 1965
     Format: MP3, 320 kbps
     Time: 37:21
     Size: 86 MB




     In the mid-1960's, Abdullah Ibrahim (then known as Dollar Brand) was an avant-garde pianist influenced by Thelonious Monk who was not yet displaying much of his South African heritage in his music. This CD reissue is quite valuable for Ibrahim (in a trio with bassist Johnny Gertze and drummer Makaya Ntshoko) performs the intriguing title cut, brief versions of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and "Mamma" and a rather hypnotic suite. All of the selections but "Anatomy Of A South African Village" were released for the first time on this 1992 CD, one of the better recordings of the early Abdullah Ibrahim. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide