Artist: Eric Dolphy
     Album: Music Matador
     Label: Le Jazz
     Year: 1963, Release 1998
     Format: mp3@320 kb/s
     Size: 114MB w/scans
     Time: 48:09
     AMG rating

In the spring of 1963, in the last full year of his life, Eric Dolphy recorded nine tracks in New York with producer Alan Douglas. Working with an ensemble that was mixed and matched in different configurations and included Prince Lasha on flute, Clifford Jordan on soprano sax, Woody Shaw on trumpet, Huey Simmons on alto sax, Bobby Hutcherson on vibraphone (there was no pianist at the sessions), bassists Richard Davis and Eddie Kahn, and drummers J.C. Moses and Charles Moffett, Dolphy tracked material that clearly anticipated his landmark Out to Lunch album that appeared in 1964 while still providing a bridge to the more traditionally accessible work that preceded it. Dolphy delivered some of the best and most striking work of his career, whether offering full-band treatments of originals like "Iron Man" and "Burning Spear"; giving a loose and lilting calypso feel to "Music Matador"; turning Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz" upside down and sideways; or playing wonderful lines on flute, bass clarinet, and alto saxophone. The sessions were split up and originally issued as a pair of LPs, Conversations and Iron Man, and have been reissued in different configurations and under different titles many times since. The complete sessions are available on CD as the double-disc Dolphy Sound from Jazz World, and that's ultimately the way to go, although this set holds up quite well as a sequence. The bottom line is that no Dolphy fan should be without the material recorded at these 1963 New York sessions. The music is brilliant no matter whether it's presented in part or in whole, but once you hear it, you'll want it all.

     Artist:Art Blakey
     Album: Soul Finger
     Label: Verve
     Year: 1965, release: 2009
     Format, bitrate: Mp3 320kb/s
     Size: 85 MB
     AMG rating

Soul Finger, released on Limelight in 1965 marks Lee Morgan's and Freddie Hubbard's final studio appearances as members of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Morgan had been an on-again-off-again member since the 1950s, but his tenure with Blakey through the early 1960s remained fairly constant. The set also includes a young John Hicks on piano, bassist Victor Sproles, and veteran saxophonist Lucky Thompson. While this set may lack the sheer high-energy crackle of some of the Jazz Messengers Blue Note dates, there is quite a bit to enjoy here. The title tracks kicks the joint off in bluesy style with the three-horn front line in a slightly dissonant intro before moving in a fingerpopping groover with some killer wood by Sproles used as fills between lines. The spunky Latin groove of "Buh's Bossa" offers Blakey's consummate chops accenting the knotty, sometimes snaky melody line with some excellent comp work by Hicks. Thompson's underrated soprano work makes a beautiful appearance on "Spot Session," a sultry little groover. The real highlight of the set is "Freedom Monday," that offers taut hard bop lyric lines, extended harmonies in the front line — especially between Hubbard and Morgan — and a smoking Afro-Cuban rhythmic line highlighted by Blakey and Hicks. The program here showcases the sounds of a band in transition to be sure, but also the sound of a group with nothing to lose; in other words, plenty of chances get taken that might not otherwise fly. Reissued on CD by Verve in 2009 as part of its Originals series, this date is well worth seeking out for fans of Blakey's long running, ever evolving unit.

     Artist: Sammy Davis Jr.
     Album: I Gotta Right To Swing!
     Label: Brunswick
     Year: 1960
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps (LP-rip)
     Size: 78 mb
     Total time: 35:55
     AMG rating

One of Sammy Davis, Jr.'s best studio albums, I Got a Right to Swing is an invigorating mix of up-tempo swing and hard-hitting rhythm & blues that secretly featured the Count Basie band, with the Count himself replaced by George Rhodes on the piano (this is most probably due to contractual obligations). The awesome ensemble plays jazz- and drum-heavy arrangements that excite Davis to such an extent that on half of the tracks he replaces his pure, Broadway croon with a rough R&B howl that makes Ray Charles sound like Sam Cooke. The album kicks off with the zany hit version of "The Lady Is a Tramp" that shows off Davis' gift for mimicry as he barrels through a boat-load of showbiz clichés ("they went that away," etc.), but the rest of the album finds Davis at his least stereotypical, with the Basie band playing charts provided by Sy Oliver, Jack Pleis, and Davis' musical director, Morty Stevens. Sadly out of print for decades, I Got a Right to Swing has been reissued by Universal on a two-for-one CD that couples it with the torch song album It's All Over but the Swingin, and it's a must-have for fans of classic pop and vocal jazz.

     Artist: Fred Anderson
     Album: Staying in the Game
     Label: Engine Studios
     Year: 2008; release: 2009
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320
     Size: 147 mb
     AMG Rating:


     Fred Anderson's reputation as one of the premier creative improvising saxophonists is well deserved, but he is also a formidable and able player within the modern mainstream of jazz. This trio recording is easily accessible to both camps, a studio session done in his native Chicago, and where the music is completely original and mostly made up on the spot, its straight-ahead nature makes compelling comparisons to another peer and icon that made this type of recording 50 years prior — Sonny Rollins. The fluid nature of Anderson's elongated solos and inexhaustible ideas fare well alongside those of Rollins, and at his advanced age are as fresh as any in the business. Bassist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Tim Daisy are very supportive, never get in the way, and use their own good common sense in swinging these pieces along with forcing a single measure or phrase. "The Elephant and the Bee" is as evocative as the title, a behemoth deep tone from Anderson's observant tenor meandering about as Bankhead's buzzing bowed bass zig-zags around. The hard to free bopping "Sixty Degrees in November" musically depicts the nicer days in Chi-Town via Anderson's tuneful, non-threatening tones, while "Springing Winter" is a loose, free, not-so-chilled association between melody and Daisy's flexible drumming. The 25-minute magnum opus "Sunday Afternoon" starts with a simplified, child-like stairstep scale, then settles inside on a blues groove, and ramps up to some faster expressionistic, extended improvisations where the ultimate comparison to the Zen-like Rollins is unmistakable. "Wandering," in its shorter form, starts with a mbira and sax in opposing squirrely keys, pretty and Afro-centric, while "Changes and Bodies and Tones" has Daisy's tom-tom drum rolls and Bankhead's arco or pizzicato harmonic overtones setting of Anderson's Coltrane-like spirituality. The remarkable, pliant flexibility Anderson employs during this program might surprise those who may prefer his harder-edged works. Fact is he's always been able to play it both ways with class and taste. Fred Anderson is not merely staying in the game, but dictating how the points are played, and winning every game, set and match, with virtue, the savvy of a veteran, and the heart of a jazz champion.

     Artist: Trio Di Roma
     Album: 33
     Label: Universal Music Italia
     Year: 2009
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kbps
     Time: 52:43
     Size: 133 Mb

     I wonder if Danilo and Roberto Enzo, three guys who met many years ago at home to play and have fun, thought they could one day become, respectively: Rea, Pietropaoli and cats, or three pillars of the national jazz scene, and beyond.
     I wonder if for them, after each has traveled a lot of road in different directions, it was really time to be finally signed a record as the Trio of Rome, under which the identity, then and now, meet their intent.
     And the answer is definitely yes, because 33 (as the years of the trio, not tell the doctor when your head for breathing) is a record that can not remain indifferent, for freshness of ideas, imagination and excellent quality of the interpreters.
     Music films (those of Elmer Bernstein and Henry Mancini, Nino Rota, not to mention) choice as the common denominator, units of expression or a simple excuse for being among friends: does not matter. What counts for the listeners, is that the three millimeter show an understanding that results in a chameleon-like ability to do well with both dress seriously ("Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," "Moon River," The Shadow of Your Smile ") and with the bright (" The Pink Panther "), and know how to move between sets of mirrors confusing (" The Magnificent Seven ") and in situations which, framed (" The Great Espape).
     But where it tracked the direction of this record? Probably not in the desire to show everyone what he is capable Trio of Rome, this is well known, but the unconscious urge to be back, if only for an hour, Danilo and Roberto Enzo.

     Artist: Tal Farlow
     Album: The Return of Tal Farlow/1969
     Label: Prestige
     Year: 1969
     Time: 41:25
     Format: FLAC
     Size: (90MB x 2) + 42:43MB (Covers 300ppp)



     After recording a series of rewarding albums in the '50s, guitarist Tal Farlow largely dropped out of the jazz scene, being quite content to be a sign painter in New England. This Prestige set (reissued on CD) was his first in a decade and would be followed by another seven years of silence. Fortunately, Farlow had continued playing on a low-profile basis in the interim, and he was still very much in top form. Joined by pianist John Scully, bassist Jack Six and drummer Alan Dawson, Farlow performs swinging versions of seven standards, including "Straight, No Chaser," "I'll Remember April" and "Crazy, She Calls Me." Recommended.

     Artist: The Don Pullen / George Adams Quartet
     Album: Breakthrough
     Label: Blue Note
     Year: 1986
     Format, bitrate: MP3, 320 CBR
     Time: 53:17
     Size: 117 Mb
     AMG Rating:


     Yes, this is a career breakthrough in a sense, for the Don Pullen/George Adams Quartet finally got a chance to record for a major American label after several Europe-only opuses. They seemed genuinely thrilled about it, for the supercharged leadoff track Mr. Smoothie sure sounds like a breakthrough with its ebullient mood. While grounded in hard-swinging post-bop, soul-jazz, and the blues, Adams and Pullen use the mainstream as a base for taking off into free regions at times, Adams with his gritty, combustible tenor, Pullen his trademark piano clusters. They can also groove in a melodic yet highly charged fashion on Song From the Old Country and reflect yearningly in the opening bars of A Time for Sobriety. Drummer Dannie Richmond adds his Mingus-trained flexibility and drive, fluidly teamed with bassist Cameron Brown. Throughout the record, the band's creativity burns at white heat, making this disc a good first choice for newcomers to Pullen.

     Artist: Pink Anderson
     Album: Carolina Blues Man Vol. 1
     Year:1961, release: 1992
     Label: Original Blues Classics
     Quality: 320kbs
     Total Time: 00:39:49
     Total Size: 91mb
     AMG Rating

A vast majority of the known professional recordings of Piedmont blues legend Pink Anderson were documented during 1961, the notable exception being the platter he split with Rev. Gary Davis -- Gospel, Blues and Street Songs -- which was documented in the spring of 1950. This is the first of three volumes that were cut for the Prestige Records subsidiary Bluesville. Carolina Blues Man finds Anderson performing solo -- with his own acoustic guitar accompaniment -- during a session cut on his home turf of Spartanburg, SC. Much -- if not all -- of the material Anderson plays has been filtered through and tempered by the unspoken blues edict of taking a familiar (read: traditional) standard and individualizing it enough to make it uniquely one's own creation. Anderson's approach is wholly inventive, as is the attention to detail in his vocal inflections, lyrical alterations, and, perhaps more importantly, Anderson's highly sophisticated implementation of tricky fretwork. His trademark style incorporates a combination of picking and strumming chords interchangeably. This nets Anderson an advanced, seemingly electronically enhanced sound. "Baby I'm Going Away" -- with its walkin' blues rhythms -- contains several notable examples of this technique, as does the introduction to "Every Day of the Week." The track also includes some of the most novel chord changes and progressions to be incorporated into the generally simple style of the street singer/minstrel tradition from which Pink Anderson participated in during the first half of the 20th Century. Listeners can practically hear Anderson crack a smile as he weaves an arid humor with overtly sexual connotations into his storytelling -- especially evident on "Try Some of That" and "Mama Where Did You Stay Last Night." Aficionados and most all students of the blues will inevitably consider this release an invaluable primer into the oft-overlooked southern East Coast Piedmont blues. ~ Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide

     Artist: Elizabeth Shepherd Trio
     Album: Start to Move
     Label: Do Right! Music
     Year: 2006, release: 2007
     Format, bitrate: 192kbps MP3
     Time: 50:54
     Size: 70MB




Elizabeth Shepherd pushes the boundaries of what is considered conventional jazz, all the while creating a sound completely her own. From London to Tokyo, Elizabeth has captivated audiences and critics on both sides of the pond. Her Juno nominated debut album, Start To Move continues to receive critical acclaim, and was voted the Top 3 Jazz Albums of the Year by the listeners of the Gilles Peterson show on BBC Radio 1 UK in 2006. Do Right! Music

     Artist: Arkady Shilkloper acoustic quartet / Аркадий Шилклопер акустик-квартет
     Album: The Brass Complot / Заговор медных
     Label: Ermatell Records
     Year: 1995 ; release : 1997
     Format, bitrate: 320 CBR
     Time: 35:38
     Size: 86 Mb

"The Independent", London:
"Unlike other European groups... the Moscow Art Trio don't have to try to sound Post-Modem, they just are, and in a way that is what makes what they play look and sound both utterly contemporary and timeless... Once word gets out, this will be the band to book for every Festival going".

Безусловно лучший в мире импровизирующий валторнист Аркадий Шилклопер записал этот альбом в середине 90-х годов. К работе он привлек Игоря Паращука (кларнет, альт-саксофон, бас-кларнет) и Сергея Проня (труба, флюгельгорн). Все трое имеют блестящее академическое прошлое и богатый новоджазовый опыт, так что их подготовленные пьесы звучат как тотальная импровизация, а коллективная импровизация - как строгая классика, разыгрываемая по нотам. Звук альбома захватывает - весь в едином звуковом плане, весьма близкий к слушателю, субъективно прозрачный, но очень динамически плотный. ~Кирилл Мошков

     Artist: Art Ensemble Of Chicago
     Album: The Third Decade
     Label: ECM
     Year: 1984, release: 1994
     Time: 41:49
     Format: FLAC
     Size: (90MB x 2) + 79.14MB (with covers)
     AMG Rating

For the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Third Decade marked both the end of their relationship with the ECM label and the beginning of a more streamlined stretch of music making. The band would cut back on their once predominant, free-form explorations to make room for more bebop and crossover material, like "Funky AECO" and the Caribbean-tinged bop tune "Zero," straightforward genre pieces the band still undermine with playful "found sounds" (bike horns, sirens, chimes, etc.). Along these more traditional lines, the lovely, '20s-style jazz ballad "Walking in the Moonlight" is also included. The group stretches out on more open-ended pieces like Joseph Jarmen's dirge-like opener "Prayer for Jimbo Kwesi" and Mitchell's magisterial number "The Bell Piece," but even here the group's traditionally frenetic playing is kept in check. This is not necessarily bad, considering the Art Ensemble's consistently top-notch and provocative solo work, straight-ahead or otherwise. The band does end the album, though, with the decidedly frenetic and free "Third Decade," as if to say they are equally adept at a variety of styles and so should not be restricted to only one. The point is well taken with this varied yet cogent set.