Artist: John Hicks
     Album: Live at Maybeck Hall
     Label: Concord Jazz
     Year: 1990, release: 1991
     Quality: mp3; 320 kbps
     Size: 98 mb
     AMG rating:



The friendly wood-paneled interior of Maybeck Recital Hall in the Berkeley hills has inspired many pianists to reach beyond their usual limits in the real world outside; after a tentative start, John Hicks latches on tightly to his muse here. He is at his most emotionally affecting in John Coltrane's quietly aching "After the Rain." "Speak Low" takes off on flights of near ecstasy, and he crashes through excitingly convoluted takeoffs on Monk's "Rhythm-A-Ning" and Bud Powell's "Oblivion." Hicks contributes a single rollicking improvisation of his own, "Blues for Maybeck Recital Hall," amidst the program of pop and jazz standards and touching newer material like Billy Childs' "Heroes." Though not a consistently inspired concert, there are several stretches of truly breathtaking piano playing here, beautifully recorded as usual.

    Artist: Count Basie
    Album: Count Basie's Jam Session At The Montreux Jazz Festival 1975
    Label: Pablo/OJC
    Year: Jul 19, 1975; release: 1975/1997
    Genre: Jazz
    Format mp3, bitrate: 320 kb/s
    Time: 42:44
    Size: 105 Mb (covers)

Brilliant music from multitalented cross-generation group of jazz giants: Granz style sessions of this sort (particularly at festivals) sometimes went overboard with honkin, screeching and squeeking, but this is rhythmically extremelly potent and yet tasteful affair. Roy Eldridge gives a great performance for this late a stage of his career, with lot of growling fire and incinerating high tones, Johnny Griffin, one of the fastests guns in modern jazz tenor sax field lets loose with one eye on the glorious jazz tradition. Then there is Milt Jackson who gave blues and energy to the Modern Jazz Quartet, explosive Louis Bellson and the greatest Danish invention since Dreyer and Douglas Sirk: Niels Henning Oersted Pedersen on bass.
Basie sets the tone, playing some more than fine piano, but the whole group is jumping, connecting the present with the past in glorious performances of Parker's "Bilie's Bounce", collective impro effort "Festival Blues" and the brilliant "Lester Leaps In", a heritage of Basie's greatest tenor collaborator...
The shortest song clocks at 11.58, so there is plenty of magnificent mainstream jazz on this heated CD. - Nikika Galic at Amazon.com

     Artist: Duke Ellington
     Album: The OKeh Ellington 2CD
     Label: Columbia
     Years: 1927-1930, release: 1991
     Quality: mp3@160 kb/s
     Size : 170,1 MB (84.5+85.6)
     Total time: 2:33:04
     AMG Rating


Although generally not as celebrated as his Victor recordings of the same period, Duke Ellington's performances for OKeh (late acquired by Columbia) are among the best of the period, featuring distinctive solos by the likes of trumpeter Bubber Miley (and later his replacement Cootie Williams), trombonist Tricky Sam Nanton (who, like Miley, was an expert with wah-wah mutes), clarinetist Barney Bigard, and altoist Johnny Hodges, among others. These 50 performances (which bypass Ellington's alternate takes) contain many classics, including his original theme "East St. Louis Toodle-oo," "Black and Tan Fantasy," "The Mooche," "Mood Indigo," and his two earliest solo piano sides. This is one of the best sets of early Ellington available.

     Artist: Herbie Hancock
     Album: Lite Me Up
     Label: Sony Music Distribution
     Year: 1978 ; release: 1982
     Format, bitrate: MP3 , 192 kbps
     Time: 37:56
     Size: 52.2 Mb

By 1978, Hancock had another identity as a dance/fusion attraction with the albums Feets Don't Fail Me Now and Sunlight. Lite Me Up is an even more concerted effort to fuse jazz with pop. Hancock handled all of the production chores on all but two of the eight tracks. His main arranger and lyricist here is Rod Temperton, the former Heatwave member who worked with Quincy Jones on albums Off the Wall and Light Up the Night. The title track and "The Bomb" are glossy, propulsive offerings reminiscent of prime Jones without his skill at making it all stick. The biggest hit here, the sleek "Getting' to the Good Part" adheres to the Steely Dan's Gaucho style, has a gorgeous bridge, and has Hancock doing his loved or hated vocoder lead vocals. From a jazz perspective, there is precious little of it on Lite Me Up. In fact, the songs "The Fun Tracks" and the humorous "Motor Mouth" sound like Heatwave retreads. The last song stands out, however. The beautiful, hooky ballad "Give It All Your Heart" features both Hancock and Patrice Rushen both doing their vocal leads on vocoder. The track perfectly captures both prime Temperton and Hancock's '78-'82 fusion ballad style. Songs with producers Jay Graydon and Narada Michael Walden both feature the artist doing vocals without the gadgetry, and, believe it or not, the vocoder is more definitive. Despite the better tracks, Lite Me Up doesn't have the adventurous nature of Hancock's jazz/pop of the era.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix
     Album: Jimi Plays Monterey
     Label: Reprise
     Year: 1967; release: 1986
     Format mp3, bitrate: 320 kbs
     Time: 41:11
     Size: 98,2 mb
     AMG Rating



Jimi Hendrix's show at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival was the performance that broke him in the United States. While half of this was previously available as one side of an LP that also featured a side of live Otis Redding from the same event, Jimi Plays Monterey has his whole performance. Jimi and the Experience were in fine, lean, fiery form on this nine-song set, which showcased the most well-known tunes from the Are You Experienced? album and covers of "Killing Floor," "Like a Rolling Stone," "Rock Me Baby," and "Wild Thing." ~ Richie Unterberger , All Music Guide

     Artist: Shelly Manne
     Label: Contact Records
     Year: 1944, release: 1962
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps (LP-rip)
     Size: 104 mb (sharebee)
     Total time: 47:27



A really great little album on the short-lived, Bob Thiele-run Contact label an early 60s set that collects rare early work by Shelly Manne from 1944! The set features a series of New York recordings with Shelly 4 tracks with the Barney Bigard Trio with Eddie Heywood on piano; 4 more with the Eddie Heywood Orchestra with Don Byas; and 4 more with the Eddie Heywood trio. The sound is quite different than Manne's more famous LA sides of the 50s but hearing him with Heywood's unique phrasing, we can hear where he got a lot of his ideas! Titles include "Sarcastic Lady", "Step Steps Up", "Step Steps Down", "Night & Day", "Them There Eyes", and "Moonglow".

     Artist: Acon
     Album: Konvicted, African WestSide
     Label: SRC/Universal Motown
     Years: 2007-2008
     Quality: mp3, VBR
     Size: 482Мб

Although he was born in St. Louis, MO, Aliaune Thiam -- aka Akon -- grew up in Senegal before he and his family (including his father, jazz percussionist Mor Thiam) returned to the United States and settled in New Jersey when he was seven. There he discovered hip-hop for the first time, as well as crime. He was eventually jailed but he used the time -- three years, he claimed -- to work on his musical ideas. Upon release, Akon began writing and recording tracks in a home studio. The tapes found their way to SRC/Universal, which eventually released Trouble, Akon's debut LP, in June 2004. The album was an interesting hybrid of Akon's silky, West African-styled vocals with East Coast- and Southern-styled beats. The success of the song "Locked Up," a Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 hit, made Akon a star and desired collaborator. After appearing on Young Jeezy's "Soul Survivor," his number of guest appearances seemed to multiply each month. Konvicted, his second album was released in November 2006. Soon enough, two of the album's singles, "I Wanna Love You" and "Smack That," made their way to the upper regions of the Billboard charts. The surprisingly Euro-pop-flavored Freedom, his third album, followed two years later, and it repeated Konvicted's chart success by peaking within the Top Ten of the Billboard 2009.

     Artist: Roy Ayers
     Album: Virgo Vibes
     Label: Atlantic / Warner Jazz
     Year: 1967 CD 2008 (Atlantic 1488)
     Quality: mp3@320
     Size: 125MB w/scans
     Time: 53:15
     AMG Rating



Long before he switched to playing disco and pop music, Roy Ayers was considered a promising young jazz vibraphonist. This LP, his second as a leader, was one of his finest. On four of the seven selections (obscurities and pieces by group members), Ayers teams up with trumpeter Charles Tolliver, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Reggie Workman, drummer Bruno Carr, and the mysterious pianist Ronnie Clark (Herbie Hancock under a disguised name). On "Glow Flower," Ayers and Tolliver are joined by Harold Land on tenor, pianist Jack Wilson, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Donald Bailey. The music is primarily advanced hard bop with some freer moments on Tolliver's "The Ringer." This underrated music is long overdue to be reissued on CD and displays Roy Ayers' long before he was known as an R&B artist.

     Artist: Vance Kelly
     Album: Bluebird
     Label: Wolf Records
     Year: 2008, release: 2009
     Format MP3, bitrate: 320 kbps
     Time: 1:05:23
     Size: 169,45 Mb (+3%)




Already a Chicago blues institution for over a quarter century, Vance Kelly finally began raising his international profile during the mid-1990s. Born January 24, 1954, he began making waves on the South Side club circuit while still a teenager, performing both as a solo artist and as a sideman; over time he developed a ringing guitar sound, and a 1987-1990 tenure as a member of A.C. Reed's Sparkplugs also profoundly influenced his supple vocal style. A favorite among his peers, Kelly and his Backstreet Blues Band still failed to attract record company attention prior to 1992, when he signed with Wolf; his acclaimed debut Call Me appeared in 1994, followed a year later by Joyriding on the Subway. He resurfaced in 2000 with What Three Old Ladies Can Do. Kelly's sixth release for Wolf in 2005, Nobody Has the Power, featured his daughter, Vivian, making her vocal debut on three tracks.

     Artists: Charlie Shavers& Ray Bryant Quartet
     Album:Charlie Shavers & Ray Bryant Quartet - Complete Recordings (Disc 2)
     Label:Lone Hill Jazz
     Years: 1959-1964; release: 2005
     Format: Flac-EAC-Cue-Covers
     Time: 76:00
     Size: ~393MB


Most of Charlie Shavers' recordings from the 1954-1964 period have been reissued on five single CDs by the Lone Hill Jazz label. The virtuoso trumpeter was at the peak of his powers during this period but his recordings were made for small labels and he was greatly overshadowed by quite a few other brassmen. Complete Recordings, Vol. 2 has the complete contents of the LPs Memorial and Here Comes Charlie, plus three numbers from his Charlie Shavers at Le Crazy Horse Saloon album. The focus is almost entirely on Shavers' horn, for he is in the spotlight throughout while backed by pianist Ray Bryant (who is very much in a supportive role), bassist Aaron Bell, and drummer Roy Burns. Shavers takes quite a few spectacular solos and, although the performances are mostly very concise (nearly all of the selections are under three-minutes long), the trumpeter makes every note count during the consistently exciting program.