Artist: Stacey Kent
     Album: Let Yourself Go - Celebrating Fred Astaire
     Label: Candid Records
     Year: 1999; release: 2000
     Format: lossless: (eac-flac, cue, log)
     Size: 281 MB (with scans)
     Total time: 54:41

     Let Yourself Go is an exceptional collection of 13 tunes written by the cream of popular song writers -- Berlin, Gershwin Brothers, and others -- honoring Fred Astaire's contributions to the vocal art. With his low key, narrow ranged voice, Astaire probably introduced and/or made popular more songs that were destined to become standard entries in the Great American Songbook than any other artist. Kent delivers this selective play list with one of three musical combinations, just piano, with piano plus rhythm, and with a larger aggregation which includes sax and guitar. Irrespective of the instrumental context, all of the tunes are delivered with Stacey's pleasant nasal twang to help her create the impression that the lyrics she's singing are part of an intimate one on one conversation with each listener. There's nothing over dramatic on this album. No gimmicks, just a voice as engaging as any on the scene conveying the meaning of a melody in the tradition of the person she is honoring, the inestimable Astaire.

     Kent's pianist, David Newton, is one of the premiere accompanists in the U.K., having worked with such top flight singers as Tina May. He and Kent display their musical attraction to each other on a relaxed, suave rendition of "Isn't This a Lovely Day" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me," where Kent and Newton gently joust as they deliver an elegant rendition of this tune. "Relaxed" is as good a word as any to describe the atmosphere for this session. There's nothing frenetic here. "S'Wonderful," usually performed at a fast pace, gets a languid, medium tempo treatment with Newton's piano, an effortlessly lilting Colin Oxley guitar and Jim Tomlinson's tenor sharing the mike with Kent. "A Fine Romance" is about as upbeat as it gets, with Oxley's cleaned line guitar setting the pace. Newton engages in a bit of Erroll Garner-like humming during his solo on this tune. Tomlinson's romantic tenor is featured on "Let Yourself Go" and "They All Laughed." On "One for My Baby," he brings out his clarinet, using the middle register to help create the proper melancholy mood for this definitive "drowning my sorrows in booze" tune.

     In addition to providing more than 50 minutes of musical entertainment, the liner notes set out the lyrics for each tune. This is another excellent album by American born, U.K.-based singer Stacey Kent, and is happily recommended. ~ Dave Nathan, All Music Guide

     Artist: Aretha Franklin
     Album: Sparkle
     Label: Rhino
     Year: 1976; release: 1992
     Quality: MP3/ 320 kbps
     Total Time: 00:33:07
     Total Size: 78 mb
     AMG rating

     Aretha Franklin's career was in a down period in the mid-'70s when she collaborated with Curtis Mayfield to sing his compositions for the film Sparkle. The film proved a non-event, but for Franklin it marked a return to glory. Once again she was the Queen of Soul, doing the chilling, spectacular leaps, cries, whoops, and shouts that defined secularized gospel in the late '60s. The title cut was a sizable hit, while "Something He Can Feel" became an anthem. Mayfield's lyrics and production shouldn't be overlooked; he added just the right amount of background trappings, and the Kitty Haywood Singers provided Franklin's best continuing backgrounds since the Sweet Inspirations.

     Artist: Dee Dee Bridgewater
     Album: Midnight Sun
     Year Of Release: 2011
     Label: Emarcy / DDB
     Quality: mp3; VBR
     Total time: 00:56:45
     Total Size: 92 Mb

     Midnight Sun, issued by Decca/Emarcy, is a ballads collection of jazz and pop standards assembled from Dee Dee Bridgewater's recordings for Verve and other UMG-associated labels dating back to 1993's Keeping Tradition, and moving through 2010's Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee. For those who've followed Bridgewater's career by collecting her albums over the last 18 years, there is only one track here you likely don't already own, a gorgeous version of the Edith Piaf standard "L'hymne a L'amour (J'ai Deux Amours)," previously only issued in Japan as a bonus track on the album of the same name. It's a gorgeous duet with guitarist Luis Winsberg sung in both French and English. Other highlights here include the title track from 1997's Dear Ella album (written by Johnny Mercer), her fine version of the Earl Brent and Matt Dennis nugget "Angel Eyes" from Keeping Tradition, "Lonely Woman," from Love & Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver, and Kurt Weill's and Jay Lerner's "Here I'll Stay" from This Is New, released in 2002. As an album, these tracks -- all beautifully remastered -- hold together very well despite the variety of instrumental settings, and Bridgewater imbues them all with her consummate phrasing and intimacy.

     Artist: Pat Metheny
     Album: What's It All About
     Label: Nonesuch
     Year: 2011
     Format, bitrate: mp3; 320 kb/s
     Size: 87.2 Mb

     The jazz tradition has long taken pop songs, reimagined and reinvented them harmonically and rhythmically and re-presented them as vehicles for improvisation. Pat Metheny has done something different on What's It All About, his second Nashville-tuned baritone acoustic guitar record (with a handful of other acoustic instruments and no overdubs, but there are edits). Here he performs ten pop songs that have long been part of his personal arcana and recorded them so that we might hear what's inside these songs -- as songs. Recorded on a single day in February of 2011, Metheny interprets well-known songs by Paul Simon, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Lennon & McCartney, Henry Mancini, the Ventures, Burt Bacharach, Paul Williams, Terry Kirkman, Carly Simon, Thom Bell, and others across the pop spectrum. His approach is deliberate; his interest here is in the subtlety of melody; its nuance, suggestion, and mystery; he finds the places he hears inside the music before these songs even begin, or just after they end, through a unique series of tunings he employs between A-flat and C. "The Sound of Silence" opens the set by suggesting the tones of a Japanese koto in its intro (courtesy of his 42-string Pikasso guitar). When the melody commences, its languorous richness and rhythmic balance are so perfect, we hear it not only as the pop song we remember by Simon & Garfunkel, but as a lyric invention that is almost magical in its possibility. The version of Kirkman's "Cherish" (a big hit by the Association), is equally profound. He finds the space where the human voice inserts itself in the harmonic structure and opens it with his guitar. There is slightly more improvisation in "Alfie," but it's open, spacious, and full of hinted-at dimensions in the crafting of the song's parameters. "Girl from Ipanema," played as discovers suggestions of other -- darker and moodier -- melodies inside it. He pulls out both the implied elegance in "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be," and the quietly majestic variety of it in "Rainy Days and Mondays." "Betcha by Golly, Wow" stands as a revelation: its truly inventive harmonies and jazz syncopations are -- and one suspects they always have been -- inherent in the tune's basic architecture. In closer "And I Love Her" are the direct implications of bossa that Lennon and McCartney had no doubt taken note of at the time. Ultimately, What's It All About is an intimate work revealing Metheny's investigation of composition itself. The notion of song is inherent in everything he does, and he reveals that inspiration in spades here.

      Artist: Diana Krall
      Album: Love's Songs
      Label:
      Year: 2004
      Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 kbps
      Time: 01:19:36
      Size: 191 MB

      Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer. She is known for her contralto vocals.
      But she does assume credit for knowing the songs she would be recording when she, her quartet and the Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra assembled for two weeks in Los Angeles’s famed Capitol Studios this spring. "I didn’t really sit down with anybody prior to recording it and say, ‘I think I want to do this.’ I knew exactly what I wanted from the get go.
      "Every tune has to have some sort of personal connection. But I didn’t want it all to be too upbeat – like ‘Willow Weep For Me’, which for me is more of a social comment, adds a question mark to that positive feeling."
      "I’m not exactly working with people who are going to just say, ‘Oh it’s lovely, Diana.’ We never go an automatic pilot, you know? Sometimes I feel incredibly exposed during the recording process but fortunately I have the safety net of people whom I can listen to, and agree or disagree with. There’s nobody hanging over me and saying you have to do this or that. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t surprises and it can be an extraordinarily intense environment. The emotions can run high since people care so passionately about the music and what we are doing."

      Artist: Laura Fygi
      Album: The Best Is Yet To Come
      Year: 2011
      Label: T2 Entertainment
      Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 kbps
      Time: 51:00
      Size: 114 Mb

      Laura Fygi - 20 years: “You can expect plenty more from me!”
  For the first time in her colourful career, Laura Fygi has recorded an album accompanied by a big band. On the advent of her 20th anniversary as a solo artist, it’s a dream that has turned reality.
Everywhere that Laura Fygi visits, she is a veritable vision of exotica. In her home country of the Netherlands, they know her as the woman who was raised in Uruguay as the daughter of an Egyptian belly dancer; in the Far East she is the emancipated Western lady who many others aspire to be. But wherever she may be, there’s one common factor in all of those locations: that instantly recognisable voice which has won her hearts all over the globe.

      Artist: Eliane Elias
      Album: Light My Fire
      Label: Concord Records
      Year: 2011
      Format, bitrate: Mp3,VBR 291 Kbps
      Time: 54:29
      Size: 102 MB

      Brazilian jazz pianist, vocalist Eliane Elias' 2011 Concord Picante debut Light My Fire is a romantic and sultry affair that showcases her knack for traditional bossa nova tunes as well as few inspired covers. Joining Elias here are a few special guests including Brazil legend Gilberto Gil, who sings on three tracks, as well as singer Amanda Brecker (Elias' daughter with trumpeter Randy Brecker) who appears on "Toda Menina Baiana." Also backing Elias are a bevy of talented individuals, including producer/bassist Marc Johnson, guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, percussionists Rafael Barata and Paulo Braga, and trumpeter Brecker. Along with Elias' slow-burn take on the Doors' title track, she delivers a stylish version of "My Cherie Amour," adds her own lyrics to trumpeter Kenny Dorham's "Stay Cool," and even delves into Paul Desmond's classic "Take Five."

      Artist: Omara Portuondo & Chucho Valdés
      Album: Omara & Chucho
      Label: World Village
      Year: 2011
      Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 kbps
      Time: 55:12 min
      Size: 127 Mb

      The collaboration between Chucho Valdes and Omara Portuondo is something special. Pianist, composer and arranger Valdes is the son of the legendary Bebo Valdes. The almost 70-year-old Cuban has been part of the music scene for over 55 years and formed his first jazz trio when he was just fifteen. Later, he created his famous Combo. Valdes was the first Cuban musician to bring the music of his homeland to European jazz festivals. He later formed the group Irakere with which he entered music history. At the North Sea Jazz Festival, Valdes will be on stage with his legendary countryman Omara Portuondo. The 80-year-old singer only truly became known in the Netherlands through her collaboration with the Buena Vista Social Club, but before that she had already made history with her singing with various well-known Cuban orchestras. After the success of the Buena Vista Social Club, Portuondo released a series of beautiful albums whose songs she has performed many times in the Netherlands. The collaboration between Valdes and Portuondo is pure music history in the making.

      Artist: Rosemary Clooney / Count Basie Orchestra
      Album: At Long Last
      Label: Concord Jazz
      Year: 1998
      Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 Kbps
      Time: 61:30
      Size: 180 Mb


     When Rosemary Clooney recorded for Concord in the '80s and '90s, her voice was noticeably thinner than it had been in the '50s. This isn't to say that she sounded bad -- despite her limitations and the fact that she didn't have the range or chops of her youth, Clooney could still win you over with her sensitive interpretations of lyrics. And Concord deserves credit for generally providing her with talented arrangers and musicians, as well as tasteful material (as opposed to the type of novelty items she was often given at Columbia in the '50s). On At Long Last, the singer is united with the Count Basie ghost orchestra, which is directed by trombonist Grover Mitchell. Although Clooney was a jazzy pop singer rather than a true jazz singer, the Basie band is definitely a jazz band, and it definitely swings hard on familiar standards like "Old Devil Moon," "Willow Weep for Me" and "Just in Time." Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" is especially revealing -- a demo of a young Clooney singing that standard in 1946 serves as an introduction to Clooney's late-'90s version, and one hears the contrasts between how she sounded in the '40s and how she sounded 50 years later. While the young Clooney obviously had stronger chops, Clooney at 69 or 70 wasn't without her charms. At Long Last is a likable project that united Clooney with solid musicians -- even if she was past her prime.

     Artist: Ella Fitzgerald With Chick Webb
     Album: Swingsation
     Label: GRP Records Inc.
     Year: 1934-1939; release 1998
     Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320kbps
     Time: 53:06
     Size: 82 MB
     AMG rating:

     A collection of 18 tracks from Ella Fitzgerald's beginnings as a performer, these songs have her in front of Chick Webb's orchestra. For those discovering the First Lady of Song, this is an excellent place to start. You'll hear the voice of a young Fitzgerald on some of her goofiest jive numbers like "When I Get Low I Get High," "Vote for Mr. Rhythm," "Clap Hands! Here Comes Charlie," her immortal signature tune "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," and "'Tain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)," among others. To find this is to discover a treasure that should lead you to the Classics label recordings of Ella and her early-period fellas.

     Artist: Duke Ellington
     Album: At his Very Best
     Years: 1927-1946, release: 2011
     Label: Jazz & Tzaz
     Quality: mp3; 320kbps
     Total Time: 49:58 min
     Total Size: 103 mb

     One of the most important and influential jazz musicians of the 20th Century, Edward "Duke" Ellington led a band from the early 1920s until his death in 1974. He composed new material relentlessly, specifically writing to get the best out of his band members. In the late 20s his band earned a residency at Harlem's Cotton Club, which brought nationwide fame to Ellington, as their performances were often broadcast on the radio. Their 1931 recording of "Moon Indigo" became a standard and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"(1932) was a big hit that pre-empted the swing era.

     Through the 30s and 40s, the Duke continued to score hit singles and regularly performed on tour, on films, and in stage musicals. His 1956 album, Ellington in Newport, was the most successful of his career, and freed Ellington to focus on less commercial, more ambitious compositions from then on. In 1959 he won three Grammys for his soundtrack to Anatomy of a Murder, and two years later he was nominated for an Oscar for work on Paris Blues. Through the decade he continued to tour, and he won five more Grammys before his death in 1974 from lung cancer.

     Artist: Sarah Vaughan
     Album: The Best of The Roulette Years 1960-1963
     Years: 1960-1963, release: 2006
     Label: EMI
     Quality: Mp3, 320 kbps
     Total Size: 581 Mb


     This three CD contains 73 selections, so one cannot complain about its brevity, but it would have been preferable to have Sarah Vaughan's Roulette albums reissued in full (a few have been) rather than putting out this sampler. For the beginner there are many fine performances on the jazz-oriented set, with Sassy's accompaniment ranging from guitar-bass duets and the Count Basie Big Band to string orchestras. Exact recording dates are not given (which is rather inexcusable), but the music is consistently enjoyable, with some of the high points being "Just in Time," "Have You Met Miss Jones," "Perdido," "'Round Midnight," "I'll Be Seeing You," and "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most."

     Artist: Nat King Cole
     Album: Sings The Blues
     Year: 1963
     Label: Capitol
     Format: Mp3
     Quality: 320kbps
     Total Time: 31 min 46 sec
     Total Size: 72 mb

     For a mild-mannered man whose music was always easy on the ear, Nat King Cole managed to be a figure of considerable controversy during his 30 years as a professional musician. From the late '40s to the mid-'60s, he was a massively successful pop singer who ranked with such contemporaries as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. He shared with those peers a career that encompassed hit records, international touring, radio and television shows, and appearances in films. But unlike them, he had not emerged from a background as a band singer in the swing era. Instead, he had spent a decade as a celebrated jazz pianist, leading his own small group. Oddly, that was one source of controversy. For some reason, there seem to be more jazz critics than fans of traditional pop among music journalists, and Cole's transition from jazz to pop during a period when jazz itself was becoming less popular was seen by them as a betrayal. At the same time, as a prominent African-American entertainer during an era of tumultuous change in social relations among the races in the U.S., he sometimes found himself out of favor with different warring sides. His efforts at integration, which included suing hotels that refused to admit him and moving into a previously all-white neighborhood in Los Angeles, earned the enmity of racists; once, he was even physically attacked on-stage in Alabama. But civil rights activists sometimes criticized him for not doing enough for the cause.

     Artist: Sarah Vaughan
     Album: Sasy 1950-1954
     Years: 1950-1954, release:1999
     Label: Giants of Jazz
     Quality: Mp3, 320 kb/s
     Total Size: 154 Mb



     Compiled here are all New York recordings of early Sarah "Sassy" Vaughan from 1950 to 1954, ably backed by the likes of Clifford Brown, Paul Quinichette, Miles Davis, Roy Haynes, and a host of others. Highlights include extended versions (longer than single length recordings of the time period) of "Lullaby of Birdland," "September Song," "You're Not the Kind," and "April in Paris." Also noteworthy are Sassy's takes of "Prelude to a Kiss," "Embraceable You," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," and her own "Shulie a Bop." Scant liners give only minimal info as to when these tracks were cut and who plays on them, but the quality of the music is nevertheless topnotch throughout. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide

     Artist: Sarah Vaughan
     Album: Ballads
     Year: March 26, 2002
     Label: Blue Note Records
     Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320kbps
     Time: 0:50:44
     Size: 114 Mb
     AMG rating:


     Like other entries in Blue Note's excellent Ballads series, this collection features Sarah Vaughan on a number of mellow standards. The songs originate from a number of sessions Vaughan completed for Roulette between 1960-1963, and they are uniformly lovely. The settings range from the guitar/bass backing on "All or Nothing at All" to the orchestra backing on "Dreamy." Vaughan sings the tastefully arranged "You Go to My Head" with the help of the Count Basie Orchestra and the intimately quiet "In a Sentimental Mood" with guitarist Mundell Lowe and bassist George Duvivier. She slowly caresses each syllable of "'Round Midnight," "Solitude," and "Lover Man," delivering fresh takes on these commonly sung classics. A certain warmth also permeates "In a Sentimental Mood" and "If I Had You," filling each note with an air of regret. The reflective material seems tailor-made for that late hour when one's guests have departed and the cocktail glasses have been cleared. Ballads gathers 13 exquisite recordings in one place and captures Vaughan in exceptional voice. It's also enlightening to listen to how she approaches similar material when the arrangements are so divergent. To those unfamiliar with her Roulette work, Ballads offers a fine introduction.

     Artist: Dee Dee Bridgewater
     Album: Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee
     Year: 2009, release: 2010
     Label: Emarcy / Pgd
     Format: MP3, 320 kbps; FLAC
     Total Size: 119 MB; 338 MB



     Релиз нового альбома Ди Ди Бриджуотер (Dee Dee Bridgewater) «Eleanora Fagan to Billie with Love from Dee Dee Bridgewater» состоялся 3-го марта на лейбле «Emarcy». Новая студийная работа посвящена творчеству великой Билли Холидэй (чье настоящее имя было Элеанора Фэйген). В записи диска приняли участие пианист Едсел Гомес (Edsel Gomez), саксофонист Джеймс Картер (James Carter), контрабасист Крисчен МакБрайд (Christien McBride) и барабанщик Льис Нэш (Lewis Nash).
     Диск «Eleanora Fagan To Billie with Love from Dee Dee Bridgewater» не первый трибьют в дискографии Ди Ди Бриджуотер. В 1995-ом году певица выпустила альбом «Love and Peace: a Tribute To Horace Silver», посвященный музыке пианиста Хораса Силвера (Horace Silver), в 1997-ом году «Dear Ella» - дань уважения великой Элле Фитцжеральд (Ella Fitzgerald) и в 2002-ом году «This Is New» с музыкой театрального композитора Курта Вайля (Kurt Weill) . ~ jazzinkiev.com

     No stranger to musical experimentation, Dee Dee Bridgewater mixed jazz with West African rhythms on her 2007 multicultural expedition "Red Earth: A Malian Journey." She brings the same no-holds-barred approach to her latest project, "Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee," a tribute to jazz pioneer Billie Holiday. But this is more than just a covers album. Bridgewater digs beneath the darkness and pain associated with Holiday's music, delivering a joyful take on-and deeper respect for-her predecessor's strengths as a vocalist and songwriter. The usual and not-so-usual suspects from Holiday's legacy are here (including "Good Morning Heartache" and "God Bless the Child"). However, they're infused with new arrangements (courtesy of Bridgewater's longtime bandmate Edsel Gomez) that shed a modern light on Holiday's work. For example, "Lady Sings the Blues" swings to life through its fusion of African polyrhythms; "Lover Man" shines with a sexy, sassy sheen; and "Miss Brown to You" gets a feisty makeover. Pulling it all together are Bridgewater's expressive, unrestricted vocals-especially riveting on the sparsely arranged, racism-themed "Strange Fruit." ~ Gail Mitchell, billboard.com

     Artists: Anne Sofie von Otter & Brad Mehldau
     Album: Love Songs 2CD
     Year: 2010
     Label: Naive
     Genre: Classical, Jazz, Vocal
     Quality: MP3
     Bitrate: 320kbps
     Total Size: 178 mb

     With a repertoire that includes songs by Elvis Costello and Abba, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter isn’t a stranger to non-operatic fare. Brad Mehldau is a classical pianist turned jazz star who maintains close connections with his roots, as this year’s Highway Rider eloquently confirms. Half of this double album features Mehldau’s own song-cycle of the title, the other is a multilingual anthology of pieces by Jacques Brel, Michel Legrand, Joni Mitchell and Lennon and McCartney. Mehldau’s seven-song sequence may mean more to devotees of classical lieder than to jazz fans, though Von Otter is a natural and unfussy performer and Mehldau’s humming trills, inquiring countermelodies and River Man-like melodic turns will seem very familiar. The second half lets both artists relax. Von Otter is at ease in the idiom, and Mehldau is bluesy on Richard Rodgers’s Something Good, opulent on Legrand’s Chanson de Maxence, and creates a glossy stride-piano warmth on Walking My Baby Back Home, sung in Swedish. It’s further evidence of Mehldau’s determination to treat this between-worlds music as all part of the same show. ~ John Fordham, The Guardian UK

     Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
     Album: 100 Hits Legends
     Label: DMG
     Year: 2009
     Format, bitrate: Mp3 320 Kbps
     Time: 03:57:14
     Size: 632.6MB

...Ella Fitzgerald was a rare individual who was gifted, at birth it seems, with one of the most spectacular singing voices of all time...

     Artist: Dave Brubeck
     Album: Legacy Of A Legend
     Years: 1955 - 1973, release:November 16, 2010
     Label: Sony Legacy
     Quality: mp3, 320 kb/s
     Total Time: 54:01+56:15
     Total Size: 241Mb

     Just in time for Dave Brubeck's 90th birthday celebration, Sony Legacy issues this double-disc compilation of tunes recorded between 1954 and 1970, beginning a year-long birthday campaign at the label and predating the screening of Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way, a documentary film whose executive producer is Clint Eastwood. (Another clebratory release, the Concord Music Group's the Definitive Dave Brubeck--also a double disc--covers the rest of his career before and after what is represented here.) Legacy of a Legend's 21 tunes were handpicked by the pianist. Of course his selections include favorites like "Take Five," "Blue Rondo à la Turk," "Jeepers Creepers," and his familiar takes on tunes from the movies and the theater, including "Gone with the Wind," and "Somewhere." Hardcore Brubeck fans will have almost everything here, but there is one previously unreleased cut, a live take of "Three to Get Ready" from the Dave Brubeck Quartet's final concert in 1967. That said, hearing this music assembled in this way offers startling proof of Brubeck's truly iconic genius for the musical depth and range he displays as a composer, arranger, and pianist, both live and in the studio. He revisits the haunting (and now legendary) "Thank You (Dziekuje)," recorded live in Poland with its gorgeous tribute to Chopin that is still provocative. The harmonic interplay between the pianist and Paul Desmond showcased on "Camptown Ladies" and "Something to Sing About" (to mention just two places) is furthered by the subtly insistent but utterly innovative rhythm section of Eugene Wright and Joe Morello. There are trio cuts here as well, and a couple of memorable vocal performances, too: there's Carmen McCrae fronting on "My One Bad Habit" from 1961's The Real Ambassadors and Louis Armstrong from the same album in an unusual setting with two pianists (Billy Kyle being the other) on "Summer Song." While there can be no arguing this is yet another compilation of Brubeck's material for Columbia, the quirky picks by the pianist provide a solid introduction for new listeners. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

     Artist: Oscar Peterson Trio
     Album: The Complete Cole Porter Songbooks
     Years: 1951-1959; release:2010
     Label: Essential Jazz Classics
     Quality: MP3; 320kbps
     Total Time: 73:50 min
     Total Size: 175 mb

For this extended edition, Essential Jazz Classics have added 13 further Porter compositions recorded by Peterson on various occasions, including all of the songs from a Cole Porter songbook attempt made in 1952 by the Peterson trio with Brown again on bass and Barney Kessel on guitar.

     Digitally remastered and expanded edition containing the complete original album Oscar Peterson Plays The Cole Porter Songbook by the Oscar Peterson Trio with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen. For this extended edition, we have added further Porter compositions recorded by Peterson on various occasions, including all of the songs from a Cole Porter songbook attempt made in 1952 by the Peterson trio with Brown again on bass and Barney Kessel on guitar. 25 tracks.