Artist: Aynsley Lister
     Album: All Or Nothing
     Label: Ruf Records
     Year: 2003
     Format mp3, bitrate: 320 kbps
     Time: 47:12
     Size: 95.78+20.37 Mb (+3% на восст.)


After nearly three years since his last full band album, 'All Or Nothing' has been long in the coming so you would be forgiven for wondering what this new album sounds like. Lister's last release on Ruf was an all out stripped down solo acoustic album full of Blues classics - a contrast if any to the power blues-rock of his previous album 'Everything I Need'. So what next you might ask?
Three years is a long time and a lot can happen - for better or for worse. In this case its most definitely for the better. Although Lister's blues roots are still evident in his playing, it's his song writing that has progressed. Not content to just stay at one level, this album positively pushes the boundaries on every level. "I wanted an album that represented where I am at right now. My musical tastes have diversified a lot over the last couple of years which is probably reflected in my writing." ~ Ruf Records

     Artist: Frances Faye
     Album: Relaxin' With Frances Faye
     Label: Bethlehem
     Year: 1956
     Format, bitrate: 320 Kpb/s
     Time: 31:02
     Size: 68 MB

     Frances Faye (real name Frances Cohen, November 4, 1912 - November 8, 1991) was an American cabaret and show tune singer and pianist. She was born to a working-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, NY. She was a second cousin of actor Danny Kaye.
     Faye's showbiz career began at age 15 in nightclubs where she first became a star. She appeared in one Bing Crosby film; Double or Nothing singing After You. She wrote the song "Well All Right" recorded by the Andrews Sisters. Faye made her solo recording debut in 1936. Her act became famous for including double entendres and references to homosexuality and lesbianism.[1] Faye herself was bisexual and hinted at this frequently in her act[2]; she would often playfully alter pronouns in love songs or weave her girlfriend's name into lyrics of song. For instance, she inserted "it's a Teri, Teri day" into "The Man I Love" and on national television sang "why do all the boys treat Teri so right" in "Shimmy Like My Sister Kate."
     She recorded about a dozen albums for many different record companies, including Capitol Records and Imperial Records and jazz labels Verve Records and Bethlehem Records.
     Faye was married twice in the 1940s. In the late 1950s, a woman named Teri Shepherd became her manager and lifelong partner.
Faye was arrested in 1955 on a narcotics charge in Los Angeles; police asserted that she and the three men arrested at the same time possessed marijuana.
     During in the 1960s, Faye suffered a number of health related problems brought on by a hip accident in 1958. She nevertheless continued to tour into the early 1980s. Peter Allen credits her as a major influence. She returned to film in 1978, playing a madam in the Louis Malle film Pretty Baby. Faye retired shortly afterward. At the time of her death in 1991, Faye was living with Teri Shepherd.

     Artist - Art Van Damme
     Album - Art And Four Brothers
     Year - 1966
     Label - MPS
     Quality - MP3@320 kbps (LP-rip)
     Size - 60,5 mb
     Total time - 32:09

     Artist: Lorraine Feather
     Album: Such Sweet Thunder: Music Of The Duke Ellington Orchestra
     Year: 2004
     Label: Sanctuary
     Quality: mp3 CBR 320
     Size: 103 MB
     AMG rating

It's a shame that Lorraine Feather wasn't able to contribute lyrics to the music of Duke Ellington prior to his death in 1974, as she's a natural storyteller. Ellington composed or co-wrote most of the 11 songs on this CD, though Feather chose lesser-known and especially challenging material to embellish with her gifts. She is also a superb singer who gets the most out of every track, joined by a large cast of talented musicians who sound as if they've played every chart together night after night for years. It's hard to beat her hilarious "Imaginary Guy" (based upon "Dancers in Love"), a terrific ditty about a girl so fed up with the opposite sex that she dreamed up the ideal man in her mind. The obscure bossa nova "The Ricitic," written by Ellington for his small group session with Coleman Hawkins, is transformed to the sidesplitting "Antarctica" (sample lyrics: "I cried all night/That's half a year"), a song that is guaranteed to tickle the funny bone of the sourest curmudgeon. The dark-tinged "Lovely Creatures" (based upon the second movement to "Night Creature") is not without its humorous moments ("You've got looks and bucks and yet these blues/Seem to stick to you like gum to shoes"). She wrote the words to "September Rain" (adapted from Billy Strayhorn's gorgeous ballad "Chelsea Bridge") a number of years earlier and recorded it with her group In Full Swing. This chart, with the rhythm section arranged by pianist Mike Lang and the vocal group by Morgan Ames, is every bit as lush as the original instrumental, showcasing Feather's upper range and Terry Harrington's mellow tenor sax. "The 101" is a hard-charging reworking of "Suburbanite" that tells of a dash down a highway to catch up with her lover. The finale, "Mighty Like the Blues," features words and music by the late Leonard Feather, Lorraine's father. Ellington recorded it in 1938 and again in 1960, though her version, jointly arranged by Russell Ferrante and Bill Elliott, will likely eclipse the maestro's own recordings.

    Artist: Eddie Higgins
    Album: Standards By Request 2CD
    Label: Venus Records
    Year: 2008; release: 2009
    Genre: Piano-Jazz
    Format mp3, bitrate: 320 kb/s
    Time: 2:02:16
    Size: 280 Mb

EVERY DAY IS A MAGIC PIANO-JAZZ DAY !

Venus Records presents here Eddie Higgins's last live piano solo recordings that were performed in two days on August 2008 in Tokyo. The tracks are presented in the exact order in which they were performed and recorded. Higgins played without any sheets or notes about his personal arrangements of the great standards presented, demonstrating one more time, if it was still necessary, his great class and inspiration for which he is and will be loved by generations of music lovers.

     Artist: Ron Carter
     Album: Uptown Conversation
     Label: Atlantic
     Year: 1969
     Release: 1989
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kbps (cbr)
     Time: 62:04
     Size: 150 mb (megaupload)
     AMG Rating:


     A beautiful album by Ron Carter - and quite rare, too! The record features a group that's got a nice 70s modal soul jazz sound - with players that include Herbie Hancock on acoustic and electric piano, Hubert Laws on flute, Sam Brown on guitar, and both Billy Cobham and Grady Tate on drums - all working in sweet small group mode alongside Carter's excellent work on acoustic and Fender bass. The sound is sometimes spacey, sometimes groovy - and marks a key chapter in Carter's career, one that has him stepping out of the background into a great role as a leader -- setting the stage for many more albums to come in the 70s! Titles include the very funky "Uptown Conversation", plus the tracks "Half A Row", "Doom", and "Einbahnstrasse". Very soulful, with a stone mellow moody groove!

     Artist: Sammy Davis Jr
     Album: That's All! (LIVE) 2CD
     Label: Reprise/Rhino
     Year: 1966, release: 2002
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps
     Size: 97,05+99,74 Mb (sharebee)
     Total time: 48:00+49:17
     AMG Rating



That's All (1967) captures the irrepressible Sammy Davis, Jr. (vocals) at the Copa Room of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, NV, June 1966.. This marks Davis' return to the casinos after a two-year stint in the play Golden Boy had made him a fixture on Broadway. However, it is safe to say that judging by the strength of his performance, it was just as if he had never been gone. During his absence rock & roll had taken much of the attention away from the Rat Pack-era artists, yet there is still an effervescence and enduring quality to Davis' comparatively "old school" one-man show. Under the direction of George Rhodes (conductor/piano) and joined by the Antonio Morelli Orchestra, Davis turns in exceptional readings of familiar favorites such as "The Lady Is a Tramp," "As Long as She Needs Me," "Birth of the Blues," "Where or When," and "What Kind of Fool Am I." These are offered alongside the freshly arranged and jam-packed medleys stringing together the pop standards "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "On the Road to Mandalay" with an infusion of newer selections. Among them are covers ranging from Roger Miller's "Dang Me," the scintillating "Girl From Impanena," a rousing rendition of Brother Ray Charles' "What'd I Say," and Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John" -- the latter having actually been a part of Davis' live repertoire for several years at this point. One of the nonmusical highlights is the nearly ten-minute "Monologue" reinforcing the political incorrectness of the period and proving beyond reproach the essence of Davis' superior timing and seemingly effortless rapport with his audience. In 2001 That's All was expanded onto a double-CD set that included the previously unavailable "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody" and the theme song to "My Mother the Car." Collectors and earnest enthusiasts should also note The Sounds of '66 (1966), a companion release with the Buddy Rich Big Band combo backing Davis during the same June of 1966 run. Either or both titles should be considered mandatory for interested parties.

     Artist: James Brown
     Album: Out of Sight
     Label: Polygram Records
     Year: 1964, release: 1996
     Format, bitrate: mp3\VBR
     Size: 57.51 МБ





Brown actually recorded this album in 1964, during his brief alliance with Smash; a court injunction from King Records prevented its release at the time, and it wasn't issued until four years later. Despite the presence of the groundbreaking title track, it's not as funky a set as you might expect. Most of the numbers are surprisingly conservative reworkings of pop standards and R&B oldies, with decidedly non-funky arrangements (by Sammy Lowe) that often employ strings and large bands. High points are "Maybe the Last Time," a gospel-ish R&B throwback, and an interesting, jazzy take on "I Got You" that predates the much more celebrated 1965 hit version. Reissued on CD in 1996.

     Artist: Lester Young, Count Basie
     Album: Classic Columbia, Okeh and Vocalion: Lester Young with Count Basie (1936-1940)
     Label: Mosaic
     Year:rec.Nov 9, 1936-Nov 19, 1940 / rel.2008
     Format:MP3 @ 320 Kb/s
     Time: 59:27, 61:19, 53:59, 68:33
     Size: 136 Mb, 141 Mb, 124 Mb, 157 Mb.
     AMG rating: