Billy Eckstine – I Ain't Like That {Quadromania} [4 CD, 2005/FLAC]
Andrew Hill - Solo : Mosaic Select 23 (3 CD, 2006/FLAC)
Mosaic Select presents a limited edition containing all of the solo piano recordings made by Andrew Hill at the Fantasy studios in Berkeley, CA during August and October 1978. Only a fraction of this material -- the first two titles on the third disc -- had ever seen the light of day prior to this collection's release in the spring of 2007. Having operated throughout the '60s as an innovative composer, pianist and bandleader, Hill spent the first half of the following decade exercising his creativity by composing and instructing at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, performing internationally, and making records for Freedom, East Wind and Steeplechase. In 1976 he moved to San Francisco with his wife, composer and organist Laverne Hill. The move was motivated by the fact that Laverne had recently learned that she was afflicted with an incurable ailment that would eventually deprive her of her life. Needing more peace and quiet than San Francisco offered, the Hills settled in Pittsburg, a small town east of Oakland. The music on this compilation is very personal, peaceful, ruminative and intimate. It was recorded during a time when Andrew Hill was performing regularly not too far from home, usually as a soloist in spaces better suited for the presentation of chamber music rather than in night clubs. "From California with Love" and "Reverend Du Bop" appeared on Artists House LP AH9, "From California with Love" was released in 1979. All of the rest of this music -- more than two hours of additional solo piano improvisations -- languished in Hawaii until the people behind Mosaic unearthed it and Michael Cuscuna produced this beautiful three-disc set. Readied for release during the summer of 2006, it was made available to the public in a limited edition only weeks after the passing of Andrew Hill in April 2007.
Disc I
01. Moonlit Monterey (16:03)
02. 17 Mile Drive (12:22)
03. Gone With The Wind (6:07)
04. I Remember Clifford (4:30)
05. Moonlit Monterey (alt take) (9:01)
Disc II
01. California Tinge (11:46)
02. Napa Valley Twilight (10:13)
03. Above Big Sur (15:59)
04. An Afternoon In Berkeley (12:15)
05. California Tinge (first version) (24:38)
Disc III
01. From California With Love (20:03)
02. Reverend Du Bop (18:43)
03. Pastoral Pittsburg (11:01)
04. Pittsburg Impasse (5:55)
VA - The Savory Collection 1935-1940 (6 CD, 2018/FLAC)
Certain collections of music are so rich and deep that it feels like a listener could almost swim in them. This six-disc, 108-track set feels bottomless. It also represents one of the greatest provenance accounts in all of jazz. Someone ought to write a short story about it.
Bill Savory was a reticent New York recording engineer in the 1930s and 1940s who had a cool nocturnal habit: While transcribing radio broadcasts for foreign distribution, he liked to multitask, flipping on his recorders and capturing what was going out over the airwaves from live jazz-club performances that were only meant to be heard once. That is, if there had been no Bill Savory.
We could order a lot of beers and have a lot of passionate talks about what’s best and most valuable here. Here’s a whistle-wetter: a version of Coleman Hawkins’ “Body and Soul” cut seven months after its jazz epoch-shaping studio counterpart, and frankly better. At the earlier date, Hawkins had hit upon something, but now what was hit upon has been refined, sacrificing none of its immediacy as it extends its domain, roots plunging deeper into soil.
Given where jazz was played and where Savory was at, most of the recordings come from NYC, but there are others from the nightclub temples of Boston and Chicago. Fats Waller blazes at the charmingly billed The Yacht Club, as if a regatta were simultaneously unwinding outside. He had no idea this was being recorded, he’s playing only for the patrons of the evening, but his set selections underscore an epiphany central to the artistry of these men and women: The workaday gig is also the all-timer gig, the next entry in a progression of them. Nothing is throwaway, all can last. That is some doozy art.
Speaking of which: A WNEW jam session features Basie tenor sax stud Herschel Evans a mere month before his death, and when you hear the power coming through his horn, you wonder how the Reaper got up the balls to approach him. Rival/partner Lester Young, meanwhile, blows a blues so pure on “Lady Be Good” with the Basie band that you just about giggle that these two cats were somehow in the same unit. These players always belong to their moment entirely even as they transcend it, with Savory acting as recording scribe for a kind of jazz Bible.
Swing is the ostensible core of the collection, but what we’re hearing is jazz morphing, nightly. Drummer Chick Webb’s case as a sticksman and prime mover par excellence is furthered, Ella Fitzgerald is moving swing singing into an era of vocal Modernism, and if you don’t think the John Kirby sextet could hold its own in a battle of the bands versus Coltrane’s quartet or either Miles quintet, well, let’s line up these recordings with theirs and have everyone throw down. Thank you, Mr. Savory, for your hobby. You have provided a plunge into a lost sea of history. And you have done every corner of our human condition a massive solid.
Jack Teagarden - The Complete Roulette Sessions (4 CD, 2003/FLAC)
Jack Teagarden's output for Roulette between 1959-1961 had been out of print for decades until reissued in a lavishly packaged comprehensive box set by Mosaic in early 2003, half of which comes from a single night at the Roundtable. With trumpeter Don Goldie, pianist Don Ewell, clarinetist Henry Cuesta, bassist Stan Puls, and Ronnie Greb or Barrett Deems on drums, the trombonist leads his working sextet, with the added bonus of 25 previously unreleased tracks. Teagarden is in top form throughout every session. His matchless trombone seems effortless in chestnuts such as "That's a Plenty," "Basin Street Blues," and "St. James Infirmary"; he also plays euphonium on a record for the only time in his career during "Ol' Man River." His lyrical solos are matched by his vocals, especially the warm "One Hundred Years from Today" and the spirited "St. Louis Blues." Ewell, who plays consistently at the leader's level and also wrote the arrangements, is featured without the front line in swinging treatments of "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Atlanta Blues." Goldie is frequently an excellent soloist and ensemble player, though he falters by adding distracting codas to his ballad features. Puls and Greb are showcased in an unusual take of "Big Noise from Winnetka," where both musicians whistle in unison, as well as play their instruments, in this mostly visual crowd-pleasing favorite. Only two selections are duds; both the re-creation of Teagarden's classic duet with Louis Armstrong of "Rockin' Chair" and an overdone take of "When the Saints Go Marching In" are marred by Goldie's mimicry of Satchmo's gravelly vocals, which quickly gets tedious. But the beautifully remastered sound of these mostly exceptional performances, the detailed liner notes, and the rare photos make this limited-edition set an essential purchase.
McKinney's Cotton Pickers - Chronogical Classics 1928-1931 (3 CD)
William McKinney was a drummer who by 1923 had retired from playing in favor of conducting and managing a big band. In 1926 his outfit became known as McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and the following year they scored a major coup by hiring arranger/altoist/vocalist Don Redman away from Fletcher Henderson. As the band's musical director, Redman put together an outfit that competed successfully with Henderson and the up-and-coming Duke Ellington. The lineup of musicians by the time they started recording in 1928 included Langston Curl, Claude Jones, George Thomas, and Dave Wilborn, but it was the advanced arrangements, the tight ensembles, and the high musicianship of the orchestra on the whole that was most impressive. There were a few special all-star sessions with such players as Joe Smith, Sidney DeParis, Coleman Hawkins, Fats Waller, and Lonnie Johnson making appearances, and James P. Johnson sat in on one date. Among the more rewarding recordings overall were "Four or Five Times," "It's Tight like That," "It's a Precious Little Thing Called Love," and four future standards that Redman introduced: "Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You," "Baby Won't You Please Come Home," "I Want a Little Girl," and "Cherry."
It was a major blow in 1931 when Don Redman departed to form his own band. Benny Carter took over as musical director, but despite the presence of such fine players as Doc Cheatham, Hilton Jefferson, and holdovers Quentin Jackson, Rex Stewart, and Prince Robinson, there would only be one final recording session. The Depression eventually did the band in and after much turnover in 1934, the classic group broke up. McKinney organized later versions of the Cotton Pickers but without making an impression.
Bill Evans (sax) collection [1983-2016]
William D. "Bill" Evans (born February 8, 1958 in Clarendon
Hills, Illinois) is an American jazz saxophonist who was a member of the
Miles Davis group in the 1980s and the fusion band Elements. Evans
plays tenor and soprano saxophones. He has recorded over 17 solo albums
and received two Grammy Award nominations. He recorded an award-winning
album called Bill Evans – Vans Joint with the WDR Big Band in 2009.
He has played a variety of music with his solo projects, including bluegrass, jazz, and funk. His style is influenced by Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Steve Grossman, and Dave Liebman.
He has played a variety of music with his solo projects, including bluegrass, jazz, and funk. His style is influenced by Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Steve Grossman, and Dave Liebman.
Bill Evans & WDR Big Band Cologne-(2010)- Vans Joint
Bill Evans, Randy Brecker-(2004)- Soul Bop Band Live (2 CD)
Bill Evans-(1983)- Living in the Crest of a Wave
Bill Evans-(1986)- The Alternative Man
Bill Evans-(1989)- Summertime
Bill Evans-(1994)- Push
Bill Evans-(1996)- Escape
Bill Evans-(1999)- Touch
Bill Evans-(2000)- Soul Insider
Bill Evans-(2007)- The Other Side Of Something
Bill Evans-(2012)- Dragonfly
Bill Evans-(2016)-Rise Above
Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers - Border-Free (2013/FLAC)
Border-Free is a companion piece and a doubling-down on Chucho Valdés’ magnificent Chucho’s Steps album from 2010. Valdés has retained most of his Afro-Cuban Messengers (although the drummer and bassist are new, the percussionist, vocalist/bata player and trumpeter return), pays tribute once again to family members and key historical musicians and cultures, and reprises the previous album’s virtuosic hopping and condensing of genres.
But where Chucho’s Steps included a dedication to Chucho’s son, Julian, Border-Free includes tributes to his grandmother (“Caridad Amaro,” which concludes with an excerpt from a Rachmaninoff concerto she liked); his mother (“Pilar,” which interpolates compositions from Bach and Miles Davis that she favored); and his famous, recently departed father, Bebo Valdés (“Bebo,” which, despite the small ensemble, evokes Bebo’s Sabor de Cuba Orchestra from the ’50s).
While Chucho’s Steps featured an overt tribute to the Marsalis family, Border-Free actually brings saxophonist Branford Marsalis onboard for three songs, an inspired addition that bears fruit within the ’50s Cuban ambiance of the Bebo homage and the Afro-Arabic gnawa music of “Abdel.” As its title implies, Border-Free also ups the ante in terms of genre hopping and swapping. Along with the aforementioned forays into Euro-classical, Arab, old-style Cuban and postbop stylings, the centerpiece of the record is the 12-minute “Afro-Comanche,” featuring percussion and chants and dedicated to the mixed heritage Cuban offspring of the Comanches who were deported to the island in the 19th century.
But above all, Border-Free, like Chucho’s Steps, is carried forth on the crests of Valdes’ piano. The notes pour out like a force of nature, conjuring the nightclub and the conservatory, bop and clave, concerto and danzón via heart, hands and soul. The opening number, “Congadanza,” is the musical equivalent of a waterfall kicking up a rainbow in its mist. At 71, he’s found another gear these past two records. --Britt Robson, JazzTimes
- Chucho Valdés – piano
- Reinaldo Melián Alvarez - trumpet
- Dreiser Durruthy Bombalé - batás, lead vocals
- Rodney Barreto Illarza - drums, vocals
- Ángel Gastón Joya Perellada - double bass, vocals
- Yaroldy Abreu Robles - percussion, vocals
- Branford Marsalis - tenor sax on Tabú & Bebo - soprano sax on Abdel
Recorded: Abdala Studio, Havana, Cuba and in Comanche Recording Studio, Málaga, Spain, in December 2012
01. Congadanza (9:09)
02. Caridad Amaro (6:27)
03. Tabú (9:47)
04. Bebo (7:47)
05. Afro-Comanche (11:55)
06. Pilar (10:03)
07. Santa Cruz (6:23)
08. Abdel (9:06)
Randy Weston - Mosaic Select 4 (3 CD, 2003/FLAC)
The three CDs that make up the Randy Weston Mosaic Select package comprise the complete sessions from six different albums, one of which was previously unreleased. Weston has had a long and varied career, and one that has established him in the consummate realm of piano soloists with his idiosyncratic, inclusive style. His deep jazz roots were accompanied, almost from the beginning, by the influences of Afro-Caribbean folk and the music of Asia, which he encountered during his tenure with the U.S. armed forces.
As represented by this set, the only consistent thing in Weston's output from the years 1957-1963 is the high quality. Piano à la Mode was released on Jubilee with a trio that included Connie Kay and Peck Morrison; two big band albums, Uhuru Afrika and Highlife, were issued in 1960 and 1963, respectively; and there were three recordings in between: an unreleased date for Roulette, Little Niles, and Live at the Five Spot, the latter two for United Artists. Their personnel, producers, and material varied so widely that, if it weren't for Weston's telltale style in the middle register, we'd never know that the albums had the same bandleader. Little Niles, and Five Spot reflect the Weston we've come to know since 1989, creating a new pan-African classical music, structured outside of the Western cultural paradigm. How they came into being after the Five Spot date (the first of his recordings arranged by Melba Liston) -- which featured a band with Kenny Dorham, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, and Wilbur Little -- is a mystery. The late hard bop and bluesy swing from that date is nowhere in evidence on Uhuru or Highlife. But this set offers clues in the form of compositional development and the gradient incorporation of new ideas, rhythmic concepts, and contrapuntal strategies. As a bandleader, the gradual expansion from a trio to quintet to big band is also fascinating because Weston sounds more at home with each phase of his band. But at the time Highlife was issued, according to the music here, Weston sounded as if he had liked a big band playing trans-African music his entire life. These three CDs are nothing less than monumental in the revelation of Weston's musical thought and application. His interaction with small rhythm sections and various groups of soloists reveal his consummate status as one of the most generous bandleaders in history. This highly recommended package is indispensable not only because it fills the cracks in Weston's legacy, but for the merits of the music in it, as well.
John Coltrane & Friends - Sideman: Trane’s Blue Note Sessions (3 CD, 2014/FLAC-HD)
A collection of the legendary saxophonist’s sideman sessions for Blue Note Records from 1956-1957, when Coltrane was a regular member of the Miles Davis Quintet and played with pianist Thelonious Monk. This set, conceived by former Blue Note Records president Bruce Lundvall, marks the first time Coltrane’s sideman sessions for Blue Note have been collected in one place; albums include recordings led by Paul Chambers (Chambers’ Music, a.k.a. High Step, and Whims of Chambers), Johnny Griffin (A Blowing Session) and Sonny Clark (Sonny’s Crib).
- John Coltrane - saxophone
- Paul Chambers - double bass
- Sonny Clark - piano
- Johnny Griffin - saxophone
Enrico Pieranunzi — The Complete Remastered Recordings On Black Saint & Soul Note (6 CD, 2010/FLAC)
Born in Rome in 1949, Pieranunzi grew up to become one of Europe's established masters of mainstream modern jazz. His six-CD set opens with the album Isis, which was recorded in February 1980. Pieranunzi shared the date with trumpeter Art Farmer (heard on flügelhorn) and alto saxophonist Massimo Urbani. A handful of compositions by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie bring extra warmth to an already substantial itinerary. Pieranunzi's next Soul Note album, Deep Down, was recorded in February 1986 with drummer Joey Baron and Marc Johnson, whose presence was significant as he was the last bassist to work with Pieranunzi's idol, Bill Evans. Those expecting to encounter the 1987 album Silence will not find it in this set, but rather in the Charlie Haden edition from the same series. Chronologically speaking, the next album in this box is No Man's Land, recorded in May 1989 with Johnson and drummer Steve Houghton. Flux & Change, which came together in August of 1992, is a suite of 23 studies (some of them quite brief) created in duet with percussionist Paul Motian. Seaward was recorded in March of 1994 with bassist Hein van de Geyn and drummer André Ceccarelli. Both players hailed from Dee Dee Bridgewater's backing band. This bundle of dependably enjoyable modern jazz closes with the album Ma l'Amore No. Recorded in February 1997, it features alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, trumpeter Enrico Rava, and vocalist Ada Montellanico.
In later years Pieranunzi recorded a lot for the CAM Jazz label, variously collaborating with Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, and Kenny Wheeler; reuniting with Johnson and Baron; or devoting entire albums to reinterpretations of music by Domenico Scarlatti, George Frederick Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach. Among denizens of North America, Pieranunzi's portion of the Soul Note reissue series may serve to increase awareness of his contributions to the inextinguishable, ever-changing braid of musical traditions called jazz.
CD 1 • Enrico Pieranunzi Quartet & Quintet featuring Art Farmer – Isis (1980)
CD 2 • Enrico Pieranunzi, Marc Johnson, Joey Baron – Deep Down (1987)
CD 3 • Enrico Pieranunzi Trio With Marc Johnson And Steve Houghton – No Man's Land (1989)
CD 4 • Enrico Pieranunzi, Paul Motian – Flux And Change (1995)
CD 5 • Enrico Pieranunzi Trio With Hein Van de Geyn & André Ceccarelli – Seaward (1996)
CD 6 • Enrico Pieranunzi Trio & Ada Montellanico with Lee Konitz & Enrico Rava – Ma L'amore No (1997)
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