Artists: Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge
     Album: Just You, Just Me
     Label: Stash
     Year: 1959
     Format, bitrate: MP3 CBR 320 (LP-rip)
     Time: 75:00
     Size: 171 Mb
     Rating AMG:


In the late '50s trumpeter Roy Eldridge and tenor-saxophonist Coleman Hawkins teamed up on a fairly regular basis. Since they always brought out the best in each other (their solos could be quite competitive and fiery), all of their joint recordings are recommended. Two LPs from their gig at Washington D.C.'s Bayou Club in 1959 were previously released on the Honeysuckle Rose label. Five of those selections plus four previously unissued cuts are included on this Stash CD. Most of the tunes are medium-tempo jams such as "Just You, Just Me," "Rifftide," and "How High the Moon," but there is also an excellent ballad medley. Backed by a local rhythm section, Eldridge and Hawk are both in superior form, making this a highly recommended disc even for those listeners who already have the earlier LPs.

     Artist: Olivier Themines Trio
     Album: Miniatures
     Label: Yolk Records
     Year: 2008
     Format : Flac
     Size: 215.74 MB

Once relegated to sessions that attempt to revive Swing Music or Classic Jazz, members of the clarinet family have moved front-and-centre on the improvised music scene, at least since the early 1990s. This ends the reed hegemony of the saxophone which has been paramount at least since Bebop’s birth around 1939.

As these CDs demonstrate though, the newest generation of woodwind players is versatile enough to use technique and imagination to overcome the instrument(s) supposed soft tone and lack of suppleness when performing difficult music. At the same time, creating with equally committed players is a necessity – as is choice of proper material – or the woodwinds’ admirably pliable qualities turn squishy and spongy.

This certainly isn’t the case with Conscious Mental Field Recordings. Thick resonating vibrations from the bass of Norwegian Adrian Myhr make common cause with the microtonal timbres emanating from the clarinets of Paris’ Joris Rühl as well as the twanging distortions creaking scrapes and signal-processed electronic pulses from the guitar of Köln’s Maciej Sledziecki.

With Rühl, who often plays with other French improvisers such as pianist Eve Risser, alternating among angled chalumeau flutters, strident pockets of altissimo trills or restrained flat-line air expelling, the others have plenty of textures with which to deal. However at some points, the clarinet’s legit vibrato is seconded by watery string rubs; at others, the woodwind player’s strident peeps and screams are undermined by percussive guitar-string strums or knob-twisting amplified flams. >>>

     Artist: Barry Harris Trio
     Album: Complete Live In Tokyo
     Quality: mp3@320 kbps
     Label: Xanadu Records
     Year: 1976, release: 2008
     Size: 111 mb
     Total time: 79:25
     AMG Rating


All of pianist Barry Harris' Xanadu records of the 1970s are gems, featuring the bop master in particularly inspired form. Many of the Xanadu artists toured Japan in 1976, resulting in several records, including Harris' Live in Tokyo and this LP. This album of leftovers not released on the other sets sticks to bebop standards. Harris performs four numbers (lengthy explorations of "Like Someone in Love" and "Night in Tunisia," plus two versions of "Ornithology") in a trio with bassist Sam Jones and drummer Leroy Williams. [...] Although not containing any real surprises, this swinging, straight-ahead music is quite enjoyable.

     Artist: The Nels Cline Singers
     Album: Draw Breath
     Label: Cryptogramophone
     Year: 2007
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320
     Time: 73:29
     Size: 166 mb
     AMG Rating:


     Nels Cline has developed a very personal sound on guitar but musically he's a tough guy to pin down, playing everything from pure, noisy free improvisation to pure rock & roll. Fortunately, Cline has no interest in being pinned down, as the newest album from the Nels Cline Singers clearly shows. On Draw Breath, Cline and company (Devin Hoff on bass and Scott Amendola on drums and live electronics) shift gears stylistically on virtually every track (sometimes within the same track), highlighting Cline's singular guitar skills in a variety of contexts. "Caved-In Heart Blues" is a slow and largely acoustic blues with plenty of open space, although electric guitar and electronics surface briefly towards the end. "Attempted" starts in more bop flavored territory but gradually gets more aggressive and noisy before moving back to bop. Despite the arco bass solo, "Confection" is straight-up rock & roll. "An Evening at Pops'" has lots of guitar and effects, noise and more arco bass alternating with Amendola unleashing his inner Rashied Ali before they latch onto an ultra-heavy, super-sludgy riff then off into a slightly queasy ambience. "The Angel of Angels" is absolutely gorgeous, with acoustic pinnings and subtle electric swells that almost sound like pedal steel. The two "Recognize" tracks are pretty acoustic ballads while "Mixed Message" starts out as a barn-burner then devolves into squiggly electronics, delays and bass before a rock riff kicks it back up for a furious finish. Wilco compadre Glenn Kotche joins the fun on percussion and glockenspiel for the closer, "Squirrel of God." As a guitarist, Nels Cline is as restless as he is talented, and both those qualities are on full display on Draw Breath.

     Artists: VA
     Album: Ultra-Lounge, Volume Ten - A Bachelor in Paris
     Label: Capitol
     Years: 1952-1965, releaqse: 1996
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps
     Size: 119 mb
     Total time: 56:33

Songs with a Parisian motif were a natural for bachelor pad music, the whole genre putting a premium on the sort of suave grace for which French culture is noted. Bien sur, when it's refracted through Hollywood easy listening musicians, you're getting a sound which is about as authentically French as french fries. But no matter -- bachelor pad music isn't about authenticity, and this compilation presents some enjoyably cheesy attempts at evoking the city of lights, recorded for Capitol in the '50s and '60s. Whether instrumental or vocal, English or French, giants of the idiom like Les Baxter, Nelson Riddle, and the immortal Dicky Doo & the Don'ts offer their homages, filled with B-movie soundtrack orchestration and blindingly White vocal choruses. There are some surprisingly hot, uptempo jazzy lounge takes on the theme, though, by Sam Butera, Elmer Bernstein, Jack Costanzo, and the Double Six of Paris, featuring a faster-than-light French scat vocal from Mimi Perrin. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide