Artist: Monty Alexander Trio
     Album: To Nat With Love
     Label: Mastermix
     Year: 2003
     Quality: FLAC Tracks.
     Size: 150 mb

     Artist: Ahmad Jamal
     Album: All of You
     Label: Argo
     Year: 1961
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s (vinyl rip)
     Time: 41:05
     Size: 94,40 MB
     AMG rating:

     The second of two LPs documenting the Ahmad Jamal Trio's recordings at Jamal's Chicago club (the Alhambra), this out-of-print set also has some of bassist Israel Crosby's last recordings with Jamal before his premature death in 1962. With drummer Vernell Fournier completing the group, Jamal's group had a personal sound of its own, often playing quietly and leaving space but never losing the passion. These versions of "Time on My Hands," "Star Eyes" and "All of You" in particular are well worth hearing.

     Artist: Fred Frith, Jean-Pierre Drouet, Louis Sclavis
     Album: I Dream Of You Jumping
     Label: Les Disques Victo
     Year: 2001
     Format, bitrate: FLAC
     Size: 281M


     I Dream of You Jumping is a live recording from the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. On May 21, 2000, legendary avant-garde guitarist Fred Frith, theatrical percussionist Jean-Pierre Drouet, and French new jazz clarinetist Louis Sclavis played an extended 48-minute improvisation, followed by a shorter encore. Their rock, world, and jazz backgrounds met with mixed results. Frith chose a delicate approach, with his electric guitar remaining below the average amount of decibels produced, and often adopting folkish stylings. Sclavis jumped from post-bop licks to East European scales and avant-garde bubblings. Drouet used mainly small objects, bells, and hand drums. He often sounds like he's playing above the improvisation and not taking a serious interest in it, an impression reinforced when he resorts to his voice. "There Are Great Stories, We Must Lift Them" offers nice moments, mostly in its first 15 and last five minutes (there is a delectable kind of flamenco dance happening at the end). The middle part finds Frith and Sclavis trying desperately to find something to cling to among Drouet's ramblings. On "Will Remain Always," Frith gets a brighter spotlight, but once again the improv does not soar very high. Not an essential item for either Frith or Sclavis fans, I Dream of You Jumping remains a honest, if not exciting, performance.

~ Franis Couture, All Music Guide

     Artist: Phillip Manuel
     Album: Love Happened To Me
     Label: MAXJAZZ
     Year: 2000
     Format, bitrate:mp3, 192kb/s
     Time: 59:30
     Size: 81.9MB

     The smooth and elegant style of jazz vocalist Phillip Manuel lights up this 2001 release. The New Orleans singer teams up with a stellar cast of musicians from the Crescent City to put on the ritz with jazz standards from the likes of Duke Ellington and George Gershwin. Several tunes, including the title cut, are written by Manuel himself, along with pianist Michael Pellera. The musical artists backing Manuel up on the CD are some of the best New Orleans has to offer. They include Ellis Marsalis on piano, Roland Guerin and Bill Huntington on bass, and Fred Sanders on organ. Together, they swing on pieces such as "Summertime," "Just Squeeze Me," and "'Round Midnight." The silky and sophisticated voice of Phillip Manuel lends itself to work like this, creating a romantic ambience. The title track, as well as "These Foolish Things" and "Only All of Me Will Do," help set that tone. The CD's most shining jewel is the artist's rendition of Frank Loesser's "If I Were a Bell." With the bell-like clarity of his voice, Manuel makes the song his own. Add this CD to the wine and roses.

     Artist: Monty Alexander Trio
     Album: Taste of Freedom
     Label: Universal Distribution
     Year: 1970, release: 2008
     Quality: FLAC (Tracks)
     Size: ~ 200 mb

Monty Alexander long ago combined together the influence of Oscar Peterson with the soul of Gene Harris and Nat "King" Cole to form his own appealing and personable style. Long a bit underrated (due to the shadow of Peterson), Alexander has recorded more than a score of excellent albums. Monty Alexander began piano lessons when he was six and he played professionally in Jamaican clubs while still a teenager; his band, Monty and the Cyclones, was quite popular locally during 1958-1960. He first played in the U.S. when he appeared in Las Vegas with Art Mooney's Orchestra. Soon he was accompanying a variety of top singers, formed a friendship with vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and began gigging with bassist Ray Brown. With the recording of a pair of Pacific Jazz albums in 1965, an RCA date in 1967, and a Verve session in 1969, Alexander began to gain a strong reputation. His series of exciting albums for MPS during 1971-1977 found him in prime form, and his recordings in the '80s, '90s, and 2000s found him building on his original style. Alexander, who often pays tribute to his Jamaican heritage, performs regularly with his own trio and swings hard in his own voice.

     Artists - Zoot Sims, Bob Brookmeyer
     Album - Stretching Out
     Label - United Artists/Liberty
     Quality - MP3@320 kbps
     Year: 1958, release: 2009
     Size - 81 mb (sharebee)
     Total time - 36:07

Like many studio sessions recorded for United Artists, this 1958 session co-led by Zoot Sims and Bob Brookmeyer can be a bit tricky to find. Brookmeyer contributed most of the charts, including the easygoing blues which serves as the title track, as well as updated treatments of Jelly Roll Morton's "King Porter Stomp" and "Ain't Misbehavin'." Al Cohn is responsible for a swinging chart of "Pennies from Heaven" during which he switches to baritone sax, while Bill Potts wrote and arranged "Bee Kay." The rest of the superb band includes Harry "Sweets" Edison, Hank Jones, bassist Eddie Jones, guitarist Freddie Green, and drummer Charlie Persip. Aside from a few innocuous reed squeaks, the music is essentially flawless and has stood the test of time very well. Although U.S. reissues have been sparse, Fresh Sound re-released an LP of this music and Toshiba also put out a CD edition in Japan. In any case, fans of cool jazz will want to locate a copy of this session.

     Artist: Al Cohn
     Album: Cohn On The Saxophone
     Label: Blue Moon
     Year: 1956, release: 2004
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps
     Size: 75 Mb mb
     Total time: 44:50


     Downbeat Magazine awarded "Cohn on the Saxophone" five stars when it appeared on the Dawn label back in 1956, when inventively-played, heart-felt music counted as much as innovation and novelty. The well-worn disc remains one of the few genuine treasures in a collection of LPs, cassettes, and CD's that has become massive if not always selective over the past 40 years. Cohn may have become more aggressive and adventurous in his later years, sporting a harder tone, but he was never more "at home" with his horn or his musical persona than on this set. From the opening bars of "We Three"--as unforced and unaffected a performance as I've heard committed to record--to the soul-satisfying closure of "When Day Is Done" he's the plain-talking raconteur, a compelling story-teller precociously wise beyond his relatively young years at the time.
     At one point in the fifties Cohn was practically revered as a master storyteller (listen to his climactic and definitive solo as featured instrumentalist on Manny Albam's ambitious "The Blues Is Everybody's Business"), someone who could be counted on to weigh in with only the most essential, vital musical words, no more, no less. Zoot was always the happy swinging dancer; Al the equally swinging but more coherent and purposeful narrative craftsman. I never felt that he performed "on" the saxophone or, for that matter, that he "played" saxophone. The horn was his voice: "The Saxophone IN Al Cohn" would have been my title for this session, made all the more satisfying by Al's sympathetic, genial company--Hank Jones, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson and, on a couple of engaging up-tempo tunes, trombonist and musical soul mate, Frank Rehak.
     There are no big surprises, no tricks, no cutting-edge revelations destined to be dulled and blunted by later developments. This is indeed timeless and inexhaustible music. If it fits like a comfortable old shoe, it's of the highest quality leather made to last. ~ Samuel Chell, amazon.com

     Artist - Al Cohn
     Album - Cohn's Tone
     Label - Savoy
     Years: 1950,1953; release - 1956
     Quality - MP3@320 kbps (LP-rip)
     Genre - bop, cool
     Size - 70 mb
     Total Time - 32:18
     AMG rating:


     Backed by some of the top bop players of the day, Al Cohn stretches out here for a program heavy with up-tempo swingers. Cut in two sessions during 1950 and 1953, Cohn's Tones finds the usually more mellow tenor great feeding off the driving drum work of both Tiny Kahn and Max Roach. Besides the ballad evergreen "How Long Has This Been Going On" and a bluesy "Ah-Moore," the eight-track set is all Cohn originals done in a Lester Young-on-the-West Coast style. Also featuring the talents of pianist Horace Silver, this early Cohn release is at once hot and cool, vigorous and lithe.

     Artist: The Bill Potts Big Band
     Album: The Jazz Soul Of Porgy & Bess
     Label: Capitol Jazz
     Year: 1959, release: 1991
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps
     Size: 106 mb (sharebee)
     Total time: 47:37

Perhaps best known among collectors for his 1956 live quartet recordings with Lester Young in Washington, D.C., pianist/arranger Bill Potts also had a subsequent career, which, among other things, involved the production of this swinging 1959 big band jazz version of Porgy And Bess highlights. Diametrically opposed in conception to the justifiably more famous 1958 Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaboration on Columbia, Potts' approach here was largely to showcase the straight-ahead blowing abilities of his star-studded cast of New York regulars: Art Farmer, Harry Edison, Charlie Shavers, Marky Markowitz, Bob Brookmeyer, Jimmy Cleveland, Phil Woods, Gene Quill, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Sol Schlinger, Bill Evans, and more. Needless to say, he achieved his end, as each of the many featured soloists contributed immeasurably to the success of his respectfully constructed charts. Interestingly, a few months before this date, Rex Stewart had directed a similar session for a Warner Brothers LP that included, among others, Cootie Williams, Lawrence Brown, Hilton Jefferson and Pinky Williams in key positions. Would that that obscurity also find a new life on CD


“Bill Potts is an originator in the truest and best sense of that word. It is impossible to hear more than eight bars of any of his arrangements without recognizing the man behind the pencil ...And the band plays with an ‘esprit’ and a precision hardly ever encountered in a ‘one-timetogether’studio ensemble.

     Artist: Various Artists
     Album: Hot Dance Bands From Okeh - 1923-1931
     Label: Retrieval Records
     Release: 2007
     Format, bitrate: Mp3/320 Kbps
     Time: 142:00
     Size: 319 Mb
     AMG Rating:



     Альбом включает в себя два диска записи представленные на которых охватывают период с 1923 по 31 год, и принадлежат белым танцевальным бендам чьи пластинки были реализованы на знаменитом звукозаписывающем лейбле "Okeh". Среди них есть как и известные (Сем Ланин, Винцент Лопез, Асе Бригоде, Фред Рич, Гарри Ресер, Гус Арнхейм) так и почти не записывавшиеся.

     Artist: Sonny Sharrock
     Album: Guitar
     Label: Enemy
     Year: 1986
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kb/s
     Size: 85 mb
     AMG Rating:

     This is pure, undiluted Sonny Sharrock. Taking advantage of the overdubbing process, Sharrock accompanies himself in a series of duets that demonstrate the range of his playing, from menacing to tender. The songs are fairly simple; a brief introduction and chord statement lays the foundation, then Sharrock flies about on top of it. The purity of his tone is both powerful and beautiful. "Broken Toys" is almost like a lullaby after the flying shrapnel of "Devils Doll Baby," where Sharrock shows off his dizzying, visceral slide guitar technique. "Black Bottom" is his take on the blues. "Princess Sonata" is a beautiful suite that encompasses all these aspects of his playing. Guitar makes a nice counterpoint to both Seize the Rainbow, a more rock-oriented release, and Ask the Ages, his reunion with Pharoah Sanders. Bill Laswell deserves some credit for revitalizing Sharrock's career in the '80s, and for sympathetic production on all three of these recordings. Guitar is a beautiful statement by one of jazz music's most unique voices.

     Artists - Ben Webster & Harry Edison
     Album - The Quintet Studio Sessions
     Label - Lone Hill Jazz
     Year - 1962, release - 2006
     Quality - MP3@320kbps
     Size: 127 mb (sharebee)
     Total time - 56:13



     This CD issued in 2006, contains the Ben & Sweets 1962 session, by Ben Webster and Harry Edison. As a bonus to this outstanding album, tracks from Porgy And Bess by Mundell Lowe's Septet (featuring solos from Ben Webster) have been added.

     Artist: Jay McShann
     Album: Hootie!
     Year: Rec.26,27,29 & 30 October, 1997/Rel. 2000
     Label: CHIAROSCURO Records
     Format: MP 3@320Kb/s
     Time: 70:43
     Size: 95.3+52.7 Mb
     AMG rating:

     Artist: Billy Strayhorn's Septet
     Album: Cue For Saxophone
     Label: London
     Year: 1959, release: 1989
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps
     Size: 88,3 mb (sharebee)
     Total time: 40:31
     AMG Rating:





Composer/arranger/pianist Billy Strayhorn led surprisingly few sessions throughout his career, and this was only his second full-length album. Actually, the main star is altoist Johnny Hodges (who goes here under the pseudonym of "Cue Porter"), while Strayhorn (who plays piano on the seven songs) only co-wrote two basic tunes ("Cue's Blue Now" and "Watch Your Cue") with Hodges and played a fairly minor role. Also in the septet are three fellow Ellingtonians (trumpeter Shorty Baker, trombonist Quentin Jackson and clarinetist Russell Procope), along with bassist Al Hall and drummer Oliver Jackson. The results are a fine mainstream session (which has been reissued on this CD) with highlights including "Gone With the Wind," the ten-minute "Cue's Blue Now" and "Rose Room."

     Artist: Red Nichols
     Album: Red Nichols 1929-1930
     Label: Classics
     Years: 1929-1930; release: 2004
     Format, bitrate: Flac
     Time: 65:53
     Size: 236 Mb
     AMG rating

The fifth installment in the Classics Red Nichols chronology focuses upon records he made between September 9, 1929, and August 27, 1930. This was a particularly fruitful period for Nichols, as he was able to hire a number of excellent players who would all be leading their own bands throughout the next couple of decades: Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Bud Freeman, and Gene Krupa. Other jazz aces found throughout this album are multi-instrumentalist Adrian Rollini, pianists Joe Sullivan and Rube Bloom, saxophonist Babe Russin, bassist Joe Tarto, and drummer Dave Tough. This veritable infestation of great jazz talent centered around (and partially resulted from) Nichols' high-profile gig as conductor of the pit orchestra that steered the George and Ira Gershwin show Strike Up the Band through 191 performances at New York's Times Square Theatre. Vocalists include Scrappy Lambert, Teg Brown, and the ever-amiable Jack Teagarden.


В начале осени 1929 Ред Николс со своим оркестром принял участие в открывающемся шоу Джорджа Гершвина "Strike Up the Band" которое шло в театре Таймс Сквера. Большинство записей на этом диске представляют собой программу этого шоу. Оркестр в это время представлял собой собрание будующих звезд и включал в себя Джека Теагардена (который показывает отличный вокал на The Sheik Of Araby), Бенни Гудмана, Глена Миллера, мульти инструменталиста Адриана Роллини, пианистов Джо Салливана и Рубе Блума, басиста Джо Тарто, Джина Крупу и (на трех последних записях) Бада Фримена.

     Artist: John Surman
     Album: Brewster's Rooster
     Label: ECM
     Year: Aug 4, 2009
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kb/s
     Size: 136MB
     AMG rating:

     Saxophonist and composer John Surman has, in his nearly 50-year career, played and recorded in as many settings as one might imagine. Whether it's experimental free music, rockist fusion projects, large ensembles, solo, duets, concept recordings, you name it. His ECM tenure has been a fascinating one. That said, no matter how far afield his explorations have taken him, the place he always returns to, is playing jazz -- some might meritoriously argue the point that no matter what he does, jazz lies at its root. Brewster's Rooster is indeed a pretty straight-ahead jazz date. Accompanied by guitarist John Abercrombie, drummer Jack DeJohnette, and bassist Drew Gress. The sound on the recording, while contemporary, does hearken back to the heady days of ECM in the late '70s. Seven of the nine cuts here are Surman originals, the two covers are an utterly gorgeous reading of "Chelsea Bridge," and John Warren's "Slanted Sky," which opens the set. The band can swing when they need (or want) to: check the set's second cut, "Hilltop Dancer," with some beautifully understated work by Abercrombie and double-timed, Latin syncopation by DeJohnette. The lyric line is Spanish-tinged and Surman is in excellent post-bop form, extending the harmonic possibility with a gloriously knotty chorus. "Slanted Sky" is a more atmospheric tune. It's slow, but flows nearly pastorally with Surman's horn moving through the melody and taking the improvisation into subtle territory. "No Finesse" is another swinger and "Kickback," which begins with a taut, labyrinthine lyric line, quickly moves into adventurous harmonic terrain before a duet between Surman and DeJohnette move it to the stratosphere. It's kinetic, head-to-head, and a real "moment" in jazz terms. The reading of Billy Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge" is particularly lovely here. Surman's baritone saxophone is painted beautifully by Abercrombie's subtle chord voicings and the sparse arrangement. But it's Surman's lyricism that impresses most. It's tender and tough with that slight edge in his tone. The track loses none of its grace or elegance, but feels less nostalgic in this context. "Haywain" is slightly more out with an excellent and prolonged contrapuntal exchange between Surman and Abercrombie. Brewster's Rooster is another high point in Surman's career. This studio band is as sympathetic as his working road unit, and his willingness to place the tradition in the context of his more contemporary, sometimes ambiguous harmonic explorations reveals the roots, shoots, and branches of his art and discipline.

     Artist: Kenny Garrett
     Album: Live At Yoshi's, May 2009 (Bootleg)
     Label: Record of Independent Origin (FM Broadcast)
     Year: 2009; release: 2009
     Format: mp3, bitrate: 320kb/s
     Time: 50:39
     Size: 115, 22 MB


Even though it was over 25 years ago, Kenny Garrett will forever be associated with Miles Davis, in whose band he spent several years in the 1980s. Perhaps to spite the collective public mind beneath Miles’ shadow, Garrett has since made a career out of versatility. His latest studio album, the incredible Beyond the Wall, was an Eastern-tinged outing of dense, rich composition; Garrett dedicated it to McCoy Tyner. Last year, the celebrated alto saxophonist released Sketches of MD: Live at the Iridium, a scorching concert set with guest Pharaoh Sanders.

Tonight at Yoshi’s, Garrett, now 49, displayed that trademark versatility with his quartet, playing short melodic duets alongside long, rhythmic barn-burners in a powerhouse set that had the audience on their feet and begging for more even after the house lights came up.>>>

     Artist: Rob Rio
     Album: Boogie Woogie Valentine
     Label: BOSS PRODUCTIONS
     Year: 1998, release: 2002
     Format mp3 CBR 320 kbs
     Time: 55 min
     Size: 129734 KB

Los Angeles, 2006 Known by some as the "Boss of the Boogie", pianoman/vocalist ROB RIO plays the boogie-woogie and jump blues of the 40's and 50's with a virtuosity and elan that has excited audiences around the world for more than 20 years. RIO has performed with many of the original blues greats, such as Muddy Waters, Willy Dixon, Charles Brown, Joe Cocker and many more, and has recorded with Mick Jagger, Canned Heat, Billy Boy Arnold, William Clarke, Coco Montoya, Finas Tasby and others, and continues to do session work.

This cd is the most essential out of all of Rob Rio's highly enjoyable and recomended cd's. Rio is an exellent boogie woogie swing and jump blues style pianist, who also posseses a smooth and 1950's sounding voice. The music crosses many generes, and although it generally swings hard, it is a mixture of 1950's walin' r&b, rock'n'roll, boogie woogie and jivin' bop. Rio sounds as equally influenced by Albert Ammons as he does by Jerry Lee Lewis or Fats Domino. This music is timeless fun, and creative. There is a honking wailin' sax present on this cd, as well as a tight rhythm section, thsi band really jumps and is very popular among swign dancers across Southern California and Los Angeles. So those who like modern swing bands like Royal Crown Review or Indigo Swing will equally enjoy Rio & his Revolvers, whose high musicianship and fun songs make this cd a jitterbug or Lindy Hop party favorite. ~ From liner note