Jazz Cafee

John Di Martino's Romantic Jazz Trio - The Beatles In Jazz 2 (2017/FLAC)

John Di Martino - piano
Boris Kozlov - bass
Alvin Atkinson - drums

01. For No One

02. Mother Nature’s Son

03. Something

04. You Never Give Me Your Money

05. If I Fell

06. She’s Leaving Home

07. Till There Was You

08. Hey Jude

09. I’ll Follow The Sun

10. Girl

11. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away

12. Oh! Darling

13. Why Don’t We Do It In The Road

14. Imagine

Johnny Dodds - Chronogical Classics 1926-1940 (4 CD/FLAC)

Johnny Dodds (April 12, 1892 – August 8, 1940) was an American New Orleans based jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist, best known for his recordings under his own name and with bands such as those of Joe "King" Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Lovie Austin and Louis Armstrong. Dodds (pronounced "dots") was also the older brother of drummer Warren "Baby" Dodds. The pair worked together in the New Orleans Bootblacks in 1926.

Born in Waveland, Mississippi, United States, he moved to New Orleans in his youth, and studied clarinet with Lorenzo Tio. He played with the bands of Frankie Duson, Kid Ory, and Joe "King" Oliver. Dodds went to Chicago and played with Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, with which he first recorded in 1923. Dodds also worked frequently with his good friend Natty Dominique during this period, a professional relationship that would last a lifetime. After the breakup of Oliver's band in 1924, Dodds replaced Alcide Nunez as the house clarinetist and bandleader of Kelly's Stables. He recorded with numerous small groups in Chicago, most notably Louis Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7, and Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers.

Noted for his professionalism and virtuosity as a musician, and his heartfelt, heavily blues-laden style, Dodds was an important influence on later clarinetists, notably Benny Goodman.

Dodds did not record for most of the 1930s, affected by ill health. He died of a heart attack in Chicago, in August 1940.

In 1987, Dodds was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.

John Paul Pizzarelli Jr. (born April 6, 1960, in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American jazz guitarist and vocalist. He has recorded over twenty solo albums and has appeared on more than forty albums by other recording artists, including Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Rosemary Clooney; his father, jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli; and his wife, singer Jessica Molaskey.

1985 Hit That Jive, Jack!

1990 My Blue Heaven

1991 All of Me

1993 Naturally

1994 Dear Mr. Cole

1994 New Standards

1994 The Best of John Pizzarelli - I Like Jersey Best

1996 After Hours

1996 Let's Share Christmas

1996 One Night With You - The John Pizzarelli Collection

1997 Our Love is Here to Stay

1998 Meets The Beatles

1999 P.S. Mr. Cole

2000 Kisses in The Rain

2000 Let There Be Love

2002 The Rare Delight of You

2003 Live at Birdland 2CD

2004 Bossa Nova

2005 Knowing You

2006 Dear Mr. Sinatra

2007 Blue Too (& Aaron Weinstein)

2008 With a Song in My Heart

2010 Rockin' in Rhythm - A Duke Ellington Tribute

2012 Double Exposure

2015 Midnight McCartney

2017 Sinatra & Jobim @ 50 (& Daniel Jobim)

2019 For Centennial Reasons- 100 Year Salute to Nat King Cole

2021 Better Days Ahead

VA - Boogie Woogie And Blues Piano (1935-41) [Mosaic Select 30] (3 CD, 2008/FLAC)

While most Mosaic limited-edition boxed sets concentrate on recordings by an individual bandleader or a single record label, Boogie Woogie and Blues Piano features sessions by a number of different artists from several labels active in the 1930s and early '40s, when boogie-woogie was very popular. Fifteen different pianists are featured (if one counts Lionel Hampton playing two fingered-duo piano in a band setting), though it is the giants of the genre, Meade "Lux" Lewis, Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, and Jimmy Yancey who are given the most exposure. The first three are individually paired (Johnson and Ammons) and play together as a trio, occasionally accompanying blues vocalist Joe Turner or adding a superfluous rhythm section. Lewis is clearly the most inventive of them all, especially when performing his hit "Honky Tonk Train Blues" (revived in a big-band setting by rocker Keith Emerson during the '70s) or his lesser-known "Whistlin' Blues." Ammons has the strongest rhythmic sense, as displayed in the two takes of "Shout for Joy." Johnson is heard in several small group sessions as well, featuring Turner along with alto saxophonist Buster Smith and trumpeter Hot Lips Page. Yancey, who was recorded more sporadically than Lewis, Johnson, and Ammons, is extensively featured, playing solo, accompanying singer Faber Smith and occasionally singing himself. Yancey's slower, blues-drenched style is unmistakable for anyone else, highlighted by his own "Yancey Stomp" and the two takes of "Yancey's Bugle Call." There is a sampling of other pianists, including Joe Sullivan, Mary Lou Williams (who played nearly every style that appeared during her lifetime with authority), Teddy Wilson (who never considered himself a talented boogie-woogie player), Nat King Cole, and Sir Charles Thompson (each of whom duets with Hampton and the more commercial Freddie Slack. The blues piano sessions of Cripple Clarence Lofton wrap this enjoyable collection with a flourish. The sound restoration and Dan Morgenstern's excellent liner notes add to the value of this limited-edition compilation.

Jimmy Raney was the definitive cool jazz guitarist, a fluid bop soloist with a quiet sound who had a great deal of inner fire. He worked with local groups in Chicago before spending nine months with Woody Herman in 1948. From then on he was in the major leagues, having associations with Al Haig, Buddy DeFranco, Artie Shaw, and Terry Gibbs. His work with Stan Getz (1951-1952) was historic, as the pair made for a classic musical partnership. Raney was also very much at home in the Red Norvo Trio (1953-1954) before spending six years primarily working in a supper club with pianist Jimmy Lyon (1954-1960). After playing with Getz during 1962-1963, he returned to Louisville and was outside of music until resurfacing in the early '70s.

Blue Note Works 4000-4100 series [4126-4140]

...The Modern Jazz Series continued into the 1970s with the LPs listed below. Many were issued in both monaural versions (BLP series) and stereo versions (BST 84000 series). Most of the 4000 series have been reissued by Toshiba-EMI in Japan ("Blue Note Works 4000" series); the catalog numbers are TOCJ-4###

BN.4126- Herbie Hancock- 1963- My Point Of View {RVG Remaster}
BN.4127- Kenny Dorham- 1963- Una Mas {RVG Remaster}
BN.4129- Stanley Turrentine- 1963- Never Let Me Go {RVG Remaster}
BN.4130- John Patton- 1963- Along Came John
BN.4131- Horace Silver- 1963- Silver's Serenade {RVG Remaster}
BN.4132- Grant Green- 1962- Feelin' The Spirit {RVG Remaster}
BN.4133- Dexter Gordon- 1962- A Swingin' Affair {RVG Remaster}
BN.4134- Horace Parlan- 1963- Happy Frame of Mind
BN.4135- Freddie Hubbard- 1962- Here To Stay {RVG Remaster}
BN.4136- Solomon Ilori- 1963- African High Life
BN.4137- Jackie McLean- 1963- One Step Beyond {RVG Remaster}
BN.4139- Grant Green- 1963- Am I Blue {RVG Remaster}
BN.4140- Joe Henderson- 1963- Page One {RVG Remaster}

Sphere discography [1982-1997/FLAC]

Sphere was an American jazz band which began as a tribute to pianist Thelonious Monk, whose middle name was "Sphere".

The band consisted of pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Buster Williams, and two members who had been Monk's bandmates, drummer Ben Riley and saxophonist Charlie Rouse. After Rouse died in 1988, Sphere disbanded but reunited ten years later with Gary Bartz taking Rouse's place.

Sphere recorded its first album on the day that Monk died, February 17, 1982. This was a tribute album of tunes by Monk. The band recorded several more albums which included jazz standards and original compositions.

1982 - Four In One

1983 - Flight Path

1985 - On Tour (Live)

1986 - Pumpkins Delight (Live At Umbria Jazz)

1987 - Four For All

1988 - Bird Songs

1997 - Sphere

Frank Rosolino & Conte Candoli - Just Friends (Live) [1977/2016 remaster/FLAC]

This album continues the quintet’s exciting impromptu dialogue at Munich’s Domicile jazz club, as the band plays classic jazz standards with a drive and exuberance indicative of the onstage comradery. Stella By Starlight is taken at a bright tempo with stellar solos by Candoli and Rosolino. Isla Eckinger’s masterful solo demonstrates why he is one of Europe’s outstanding bassists, and Frank and Conte trade dazzling eight and four bar passages before playing the theme out. The quintet maintains a scintillating tempo on Just Friends, and keeps the heat up on There Is No Greater Love. Thelonious Monk’s classic Well You Needn’t is played up-tempo. Rosolino and Candoli fluently maneuver their way through the changes, while pianist Rob Pronk tips his hat to Monk’s pianistic magic. There’s some incendiary four bar exchanges between the horns and drummer Todd Conedy on the 16 bars before the last theme. Jobim’s bossa Quiet Nights morphs into incandescent swing, while the band transforms the ballad My Funny Valentine into an infectious hard-swinging letter of love to the art of improvisation.

Recorded May 1975 at Domicile Jazz Club in Munich, Germany

Frank Rosolino, trombone

Conte Candoli, trumpet

Rob Pronk, piano

Isla Eckinger, bass

Todd Canedy, drums

01 - Stella by Starlight 07:46

02 - Just Friends 07:22

03 - There Is No Greater Love 09:57

04 - Well You Neednt 08:10

05 - Quiet Nights 08:53

06 - My Funny Valentine 07:53

Cab Calloway - Chronogical Classics 1940-1949 (5 CD/FLAC)

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer, dancer, bandleader and actor. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years.

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the most popular dance bands in the United States from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. His band included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, guitarist Danny Barker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Cozy Cole.

Calloway had several hit records in the 1930s and 1940s, becoming known as the "Hi-de-ho" man of jazz for his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher", originally recorded in 1931. He reached the Billboard charts in five consecutive decades (1930s–1970s). Calloway also made several stage, film, and television appearances until his death in 1994 at the age of 86. He had roles in Stormy Weather (1943), Porgy and Bess (1953), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and Hello Dolly! (1967). His career saw renewed interest when he appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.

Calloway was the first African American musician to sell a million records from a single and to have a nationally syndicated radio show. In 1993, Calloway received the National Medal of Arts from the United States Congress. He posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. His song "Minnie the Moocher" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2019. He is also inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame and the International Jazz Hall of Fame.

The 18 CDs in this exhaustive set provide a comprehensive picture of Bill Evans from 1962 to 1969, a period when the pianist was both consolidating his fame and sometimes taking his music into untested waters, from unaccompanied piano to symphony orchestra. His work with multitracked solo piano, originally released as Conversations with Myself and the later Further Conversations with Myself, was the most remarkable new format for his introspective music. It gave Evans a way to be all the pianists he could be at once--combining densely chordal, harmonically oblique parts with surprising, rhythmic punctuation and darting, exploratory runs. Two dates with drummer Shelly Manne, in 1962 and 1966, reveal the stimulus Evans could find in a new playing relationship, as does the final disc with flutist Jeremy Steig. Evans also revisited significant earlier musical relationships. The Village Vanguard recordings from 1967 reunite him with the great drummer Philly Joe Jones, whose extroverted, polyrhythmic approach always worked wonderfully with the pianist's more introverted style. Along with the virtuosic young bassist Eddie Gomez, they make up one of the most stimulating of the many trios that Evans led throughout his career. There's also a superb set of duets with guitarist Jim Hall, another of Evans's most closely attuned musical partners. Evans's recordings with a symphony orchestra are marred by conductor Claus Ogermann's ponderous arrangements, and some false starts and multiple takes will appeal only to completists, but there are tremendous musical riches here. The set is packaged in an unfinished metal box designed to rust into an original object, but Evans's own originality is apparent everywhere.