Artist: Tiempo Libre
     Album: Bach In Havana
     Year: 2009
     Label: Sony Classics
     Quality: Flac
     Total Time: 00:47:10
     Total Size: 282mb
     AMG rating

Good music has long been adaptable into styles that the composer would have never envisioned. The Cuban group Tiempo Libre takes the Baroque music of Johann Sebastian Bach and transforms it by blending elements of various Cuban styles and vocals into a unique blend. "Tu Conga Bach" is adapted from "Fugue in C Minor" and transformed into an energetic street party that could get everyone on their feet. The musicianship is tight throughout the session, with the addition of two guests. The masterful Paquito D'Rivera plays alto sax in the warm rendition of "Air on a G String," recast as a soft bolero and retaining its romantic quality, switching to clarinet for the infectious "Baqueto con Bajo" (inspired by the "Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major"). Yosvanny Terry, a rising star in Cuban jazz, appears on alto sax in the driving rendition of "Minuet in G." The only thing that may disappoint some listeners is the presence of a synthesizer, which stays mostly in the background but remains an unsatisfactory substitute for acoustic piano.

     Artist: Oscar Peterson
     Album: Soul Espanol
     Years: 1966
     Quality: FLAC (cue, log, scans)
     Size: 252 MB
     Time: 38:22
    

     Making its CD debut, Oscar Peterson's Soul Espanol was recorded in Chicago in 1966 with his then regular trio (bassist Sam Jones and Louis Hayes on drums) augmented by three percussionists. It was the pianist's last session in a short-lived contract with Mercury-Limelight following his 1964 transfer from Verve, and while the five albums made for the label were all more than adequate--Peterson has yet to make a record that could possibly be called poor--they were somewhat muted in comparison to the trio's concert performances in their UK tour earlier that year. That said, there's much to enjoy and admire here. Tony Hatch's "Call Me" receives an extended workout both delicate and pulsating, Jobim's "Meditation" is a subtle essay in judicious dynamics, and "Mas Que Nada" generates a formidable head of steam. "Samba Sensitive" and "Soulville Samba" are a couple of attractive Peterson originals, while "Carioca" and "Samba De Orfeu" testify to his ability to be melodically imaginative at even the fiercest tempi. This is by no means an essential record, and some may consider it slight; however, its mellow charm has lasted well.

     Artist: Patty Waters
     Albums: College Tour
     Label: ESP-Disk
     Released: 1966
     Quality: mp3 CBR 320
     Size: 89 MB

     Одна из странных и малоизвестных джазовых певиц, которую сейчас, по прошествии сорока с лишним лет после ее первых записей, называют «новатором» в искусстве вокала.
Начав петь еще в школе, в начале 60-х она перебралась в Нью-Йорк, где в конце концов обратила на себя внимание таких мэтров джаза, как Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock и Albert Ayler. Последний познакомил ее с владельцем лэйбла ESP-Disk, специализировавшегося на экспериментальном джазе. В 1965 году был записан дебютный альбом ”Patty Waters Sings”, первая сторона которого состояла из коротких, полных меланхолии тихих композиций, в которых певица аккомпанировала себе на рояле. Вторая же сторона была полностью занята 14-минутной версией народной песни "Black is the colour of my true love's hair", по мере развития которой вокал переходил в неистовые крики, стоны и вообще трудноописуемые звуки, словно певица испытывала свой голос на прочность. Недаром в числе ее почитателей такие вокалистки, как Diamanda Galas и Lydia Lynch.
В том же году был записан концертный альбом ”College Tour”, вышедший в 1966 году. Через пару лет певица удалилась от музыки и посвятила себя воспитанию сына. Лишь спустя почти 30 лет она вернулась к музыкальной деятельности, но это – уже другая история...

     Artist: Patty Waters
     Albums: Patty Waters Sings
     Label: ESP-Disk
     Released: 1965
     Quality: mp3 CBR 320
     Size: 75 MB



     Patty Waters herself seems almost as mysterious as her debut record. Her birthplace and date do not usually appear in any articles written about her. All that is known is she moved to Denver, then to LA, where she came to the attention of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. She began voice lessons and Davis helped annotate her compositions. After doing her time through the ranks, she landed in New York. Albert Ayler spotted her at a gig, was impressed, and brought her to the attention of ESP. She recorded Sings and a few months later the live College Tour. Waters recorded with the Marzette Watts Ensemble, then by the end of the '60s had relocated to the west coast and raised a son, only sporadically doing shows until 1996's Love Songs. Despite her lack of output—two records in '65 and '66—she managed to leave an impact on the future of vocal jazz.

Movie: The Gene Krupa Story (1959)
Label: Columbia, B/W
Video Codec: XviD
Duration: 1h 41mn
Bit rate: 851 Kbps
Width: 672 pixels
Height: 368 pixels
Language: English



Sal Mineo, who'd previously registered well as the lead in the TV drama Drummer Man, essays a strikingly similar role in The Gene Krupa Story. The film details Krupa's troubled home life: (he wanted to be a musician; his father wanted him to become a priest), his rise to fame as drummer for the Benny Goodman orchestra, his years on top as a bandleader, and his ongoing problems with drug abuse. A fictional romantic subplot is grafted onto the proceeding involving clearly defined "good" and "bad" girls Ethel Maguire (Susan Kohner) and Dorissa Dinelli (Susan Oliver). Yvonne Craig has an entertaining scene as an anachronistically garbed good-time girl. Craig would later recall that, at the time of shooting The Gene Krupa Story, she weighed more than Sal Mineo, and that in the scene where he's required to lift her off the floor, she virtually had to lift him. Mineo, a drummer of some accomplishment, convincingly wields the sticks during the musical highlights, though the trickier drum solos were dubbed in by Gene Krupa himself. Real-life recording stars Anita O'Day, Red Nichols, Bobby Troup and Shelley Manne make cameo appearances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

      Artist: James Brown
      Album: Hell
      Label: Polydor
      Year: 1974
      Format, bitrate: MP3, 320
      Time: 69:36
      Size: 138 MB
      AMG Rating:


     Brown's early-'70s run of classic singles and good-to-great albums is still impressive. Hell was the double album released a year after the gold selling The Payback. To some, the title might put this effort in the realm of kitsch, but in many ways Hell was one of Brown's strongest albums. The album was the pinnacle of his work as the Minister of the Super New New Heavy Funk. From the tough and nimble Latin rhythms of "Coldblooded," and "Sayin' It and Doin' It" to the title track, all are prime pre-disco Brown. "My Thang" is probably as hard and unrelenting as he got without spontaneously combusting. The biggest surprise of Hell is that no matter how odd the song choices seemed, practically everything worked, excluding a few key songs of course. Both "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "Stormy Monday" don't belong in James Brown's catalogue, let alone the same album. Ballad-wise, Brown fares better. "These Foolish Things Remind Me of You" has him getting all warm and fuzzy as he inexplicably throws in an "I'm hurt, I'm hurt" for good measure. That song, as well as the weepers "A Man Has to Go to the Cross Road Before He Finds Himself" and "Sometime," were produced by David Matthews who could always get good ragged yet poised vocals from Brown. Although Brown did roll snake eyes on all of side three, he did leave Hell on a good note. "Papa Don't Take No Mess" is laid-back, funky jazz that's worth each of its 13-plus minutes. Despite a few detours, Hell is worth listening to.

     Artist: Anita O'Day & The Three Sounds
     Album: Anita O'Day & The Three Sounds [Bonus Tracks]
     Label: Verve
     Year: 1962, release: 2004
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps
     Size: 121 mb
     Total time: 56:08
     AMG Rating



This strange (and strangely compelling) album is the most controversial of all O'Day's Verve Records releases, popular among O'Day's hardcore fans for the showcase that the Three Sounds' near-minimalist accompaniment affords her singing. On a lot of levels, however, it wasn't a successful record. The album was a one-shot collaboration that happened in the narrowest possible window-of-opportunity. The Three Sounds, having left Blue Note, were passing through the Verve roster, where they would be active for about a week in October of 1962, cutting two albums in that time including this one with Anita O'Day, who was leaving the label after 10 years there. Anita O'Day & The Three Sounds is as much a Three Sounds record as it is an Anita O'Day recording -- the group is represented by four instrumentals, including "Someday My Prince Will Come," "My Heart Stood Still," and "Blues By Five," cut at the same time as their album Blue Genes, while O'Day sings five songs. She is amazingly restrained and low-key throughout most of her work here; on songs like the sultry "All Too Soon," that works out fine, but elsewhere the fit between singer and group seems uncomfortable. There's very little excitement or tension to give her songs energy, and O'Day never interacts with the trio in any discernable way. Additionally, she seems uninspired in terms of any inventiveness, with long stretches of silence where one would have expected her to improvise. What is here is fine, her husky yet playful voice a wonder to hear on "When The World Was Young" (where Gene Harris's piano does come to life), but there's amazingly little life to the procedings. The one exception is "Whisper Not," which also has the distinction of featuring O'Day's Gene Krupa-era collaborator Roy Eldridge on trumpet and is the most successful cut here, as what one would look for on a more conventional Anita O'Day album. The mid-1990's Japanese CD reissue features a second, previously unissued Eldridge cut from the same sessions, a hot remake of his and O'Day's Gene Krupa-era hit "Let Me Off Uptown," with the two of them in a duet on their old 1940's hit. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

     Artist: Jesse Van Ruller
     Album:Trio
     Label: Universal/Polygram
     Year: 2001
     Format, bitrate: MP3, 320kb/s
     Time: 57:03
     Size: 125MB


     Jesse van Ruller won the Thelonious Monk Competition in Washington in 1995. The jury, consisting of Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jim Hall, Pat Martino and Mark Whitfield, was of the opinion that van Ruller is one of the most promising talents of his time.
     He graduated summa cum laude from the Hilversum Conservatory in 1995, where he studied with Wim Overgaauw. Since then he has performed with numerous renowned musicians and ensembles amongst which are George Duke, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, Peter Erskine, Mike Stern, Tom Harrell, Philip Catherine, Toots Thielemans, the Roy Hargrove Quintet, Christian McBride, Seamus Blake, Metropole Orchestra, Asko Ensemble, WDR Big Band, Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
     Jesse's TRIO (Emarcy/Universal Music) features Frans van der Hoeven on bass and Martijn Vink on drums. The trio line-up gives Jesse the freedom and space to display his impressive talents as a jazzguitarist and composer, exploring standards and new compositions.