Steps discography (1980-1982) [FLAC]

 

Steps Ahead is an American jazz fusion group.

The group arose out of spontaneous sessions at Seventh Avenue South, a jazz club in New York City owned by saxophonist Michael Brecker and trumpeter brother Randy Brecker. The first three albums were released under the name Steps, later changed to Steps Ahead, on Nippon Columbia in Japan, starting with the debut live album Smokin' in the Pit (1980), followed by Step By Step (1981) and Paradox (1982). 

Sam Manning - Volume 1 + 2 (1924-1930) [2 CD, 2002/FLAC]

 Samuel L. Manning (c. 1898–1960) was a Trinidadian performer and songwriter who was one of the earliest calypsonians to achieve international acclaim.

Manning was born in about 1898 in Couva, Trinidad. He worked as a chauffeur and jockey in Trinidad and British Guiana before travelling to London and enlisting in the Middlesex Regiment during World War I. He then served in the British West Indies Regiment in France and the Middle East. After demobilisation he began organising concerts and toured the Caribbean as a vaudeville entertainer, singing calypso songs and performing comedy sketches.

In the early 1920s, he moved to Harlem, New York, where he performed and recorded music that combined jazz and calypso rhythms. In 1924 he recorded for the OKeh and Paramount record labels, and his music became popular with black American audiences as well as expatriate West Indians. He made his first Broadway appearance in 1925 in John Howard Lawson's play, Processional. His song "Lieutenant Julian" commemorated the 1929 transatlantic flight by Trinidadian Hubert Fauntleroy Julian. Manning became increasingly associated with radical political causes. His companion was Amy Ashwood Garvey, who had been Marcus Garvey's first wife. She produced Brown Sugar, a jazz musical production at the Lafayette Theatre that featured Manning and Fats Waller and his band.

In 1934, he moved to England, where he gave performances in London. Manning was a member of the executive of the International African Friends of Ethiopia in 1935. He and Garvey opened the Florence Mills Social Club in London's Carnaby Street, which quickly became a gathering spot for the city's black intellectuals.

Manning returned to New York City in 1941. That same year, he produced the only known calypso "soundies". film clips made for film jukeboxes located in restaurants and bars. They featured Manning and his ensemble, and Trinidadian dance legend Beryl McBurnie. In 1947, Manning wrote and directed Caribbean Carnival, a Broadway show produced by Adolph Thenstead, which was billed as the "First Calypso Musical Ever Presented". It was a lavish production, featuring 50 singers and dancers, among them New York-based calypsonian the Duke of Iron, Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus and Manning himself. Manning and Thenstead also founded a record company, Cyclone.

Manning died in 1960 in Kumasi, Ghana, while travelling in Africa.

VA - Oldies in Jazz Vol. 1 - 9 (2020-2021/FLAC)

 

Spyro Gyra discography (1978-2009) [FLAC]

  

Spyro Gyra  is an American jazz fusion band, that was originally formed in the mid-1970s in Buffalo, New York, United States. With over 30 albums released and 10 million copies sold, they are among the most prolific as well as commercially successful groups of the genre. Their singles include "Shaker Song" and "Morning Dance" (1979).

Their music, which has been influential in the development of smooth jazz and is s staple on the numerous smooth jazz radio stations nationwide, combines jazz with elements of R&B, funk and pop music. Generally considered to be more "jazz" than "smooth", Spyro Gyra has been praised for their skilled instrumentalists and for their live performances, which average about 100 per year.

With the exception of alto saxophonist, songwriter and founding bandleader Jay Beckenstein and keyboardist Tom Schuman, the personnel has changed over time, as well as between the studio and the live stage. Today, guitarist Julio Fernandez is also in his third decade with the band.

1978 Spyro Gyra

1979 Morning Dance

1980 Carnaval

1980 Catching The Sun

1981 Freetime

1982 Incognito

1983 City Kids

1984 Access All Areas

1985 Alternating Currents

1986 Breakout

1987 Stories Without Words

1988 Rites of summer

1989 Point of View

1990 Fast Forward

1991 Collection

1992 Three Wishes

1993 Dreams Beyond Control

1995 Love & Other Obsessions

1996 Heart Of The Night

1997 20-20

1998 Road Scholars

1999 Got the Magic

2001 In Modern Times

2003 Original Cinema

2004 The Deep End

2006 Wrapped In A Dream

2007 Good To Go-Go

2008 A Night Before Christmas

2009 Down The Wire

Jim Hall – Live Vol. 2-4 ( Toronto 1975) (3 CD, 2012/FLAC))

Features previously unreleased recordings from trio performances at Bourbon Street in Toronto, Canada on June 11-13, 1975.

The recordings provide an additional 3 hours of music from the original 1975 album Live!

 

• Jim Hall - g
• Don Thompson - b
• Terry Clarke - d

Rec.: live at Bourbon Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 11 (CD 2 - Volume Three), 12 (CD 1 - Volume Two) and 13 (CD 3 - Volume 4), 1975.

CD 1 - Volume Two

01. How Deep Is The Ocean (11:10)

02. Emily (6:24)

03. Valse Hot (7:11)

04. Love Letters (9:28)

05. Chelsea Bridge (10:06)

06. Something Tells Me (7:22)

07. Fly Me To The Moon (10:32)

CD 2 - Volume Three

01. Secret Love (14:56)

02. Baubles, Bangles And Beads (6:24)

03. In A Sentimental Mood (5:42)

04. Star Eyes (10:41)

05. Where Would I Be? (7:51)

06. Body And Soul (10:36)

07. Careful (7:45)

CD 3 - Volume 4

01. Someday My Prince Will Come (9:35)

02. Come Rain Or Come Shine (12:46)

03. Prelude To A Kiss (6:33)

04. Everything I Love (9:37)

05. Blue Dove (9:18)

06. Embraceable You (8:09)

07. The Theme (5:33)

Buddy DeFranco & the All Stars - Wholly Cats : Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw Sessions" Vol.1 & 2 (3 CD, 2007/FLAC)

 5 complete LPs presented on 2 companion volumes! Featuring Carl Perkins, Jimmy Rowles, Barney Kessel and Don Fagerquist! Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw were among the most famous and beloved figures in swing music both as clarinet soloists and orchestra conductors. They were still very active musically in 1957, when Buddy De Franco decided to record a series of sessions paying homage to them. Thirty-five performances were recorded (including four medleys containing three songs each) in four extended sessions made on four consecutive days and with two different groups (guitarist Barney Kessel, however, is present on most of the tracks). The fi rst two sessions included trumpeter Don Fagerquist, tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld and pianist Carl Perkins. The second group includes trumpeter Ray Linn and another modern jazz pianist: Jimmy Rowles.

These two companion volumes include the complete LPs FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ON CD!: "I Hear Benny Goodman & Artie Shaw", "Buddy De Franco plays Benny Goodman", "Buddy De Franco plays Artie Shaw", "Wholly Cats" and "Closed Session".

John Coltrane collection [1957-2019] (FLAC)

 

John William Coltrane, also known as "Trane"; (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He organized at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk.

As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane and their son Ravi Coltrane is a saxophonist. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant saxophonists in jazz history. He received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane. In 2007, Coltrane was awarded the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz."

1957 - John Coltrane - Blue Train

1958 - John Coltrane With The Red Garland Trio

1958 - Wilbur Harden & John Coltrane - Tanganyika Strut

1958 - Wilbur Harden - Jazz Way Out

1958 - Wilbur Harden, John Coltrane, Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins, Louis Hayes - Mainstream 

1959 - Tommy Flanagan, John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, Idress Sulieman - The Cats

1960 - John Coltrane - Coltrane Plays The Blues

1960 - John Coltrane - Giant Steps

1961 - John Coltrane - Africa-Brass

1961 - John Coltrane - Lush Life

1961 - John Coltrane - My Favorite Things

1961 - John Coltrane - Ole Coltrane

1962 - John Coltrane - Standard Coltrane

1962 - The John Coltrane Quartette - Coltrane [Hi-Res]

1963 - John Coltrane - Ballads

1963 - John Coltrane - Stardust [Hi-Res]

1964 - John Coltrane - Black Pearls [Hi-Res]

1964 - John Coltrane - Live At Birdland

1965 - John Coltrane - A Love Supreme. In Concert

1965 - John Coltrane - Bahia [Hi-Res]

1966 - John Coltrane & Don Cherry - The Avant-Garde [Hi-Res]

1966 - John Coltrane - Kulu Se Mama

1966 - John Coltrane - Meditations

1967 - John Coltrane - Expression

1970 - John Coltrane - Transition

2018 - John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once - The Lost Album

2019 - John Coltrane - Blue World

Verve Jazz Masters series Vol. 41-50

 Jazz Masters is a series of mainly single artist compilations released by Polygram/Verve between 1994 and 1996. The compilations collect material that was originally released on Verve or on one of the labels that became part of the Polygram group. The 20th and 60th releases in the series were various artist collections.

VJM 41 - Tal Farlow

VJM 42 - Sarah Vaughan - The Jazz Sides

VJM 43 - Ben Webster

VJM 44 - Clifford Brown And Max Roach

VJM 45 - Kenny Burrell

VJM 46 - Ella Fitzgerald - The Jazz Sides

VJM 47 - Billie Holiday Sings Standards

VJM 48 - Oliver Nelson

VJM 49 - Anita O'Day

VJM 50 - Sonny Stitt

 

Stan Getz - East of the Sun: The West Coast Sessions (3 CD, 1996/FLAC)

 

The mainstream came to know this remarkable tenor sax player via bossa nova -- his unforgettable, breathy solo on "The Girl from Ipanema" propelled the song to number five in 1964 and to continued popularity to this very day, every bit as much as Astrud Gilberto's equally stunning, spare voice. But Stan Getz's involvement in this populist '60s craze actually displeased many a serious jazz enthusiast who'd admired his work in that field for more than two decades. After all, this 17-time winner of the Down Beat poll for top tenor saxophonist had already staked out a remarkable reputation, playing in the bands of such vaunted names as Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman from 1944-1949, and then leading his own bands thereafter. 

This three-CD box, then, finds Getz in top form as a jazz soloist and bandleader. Recorded, as so much jazz was, in various off-the-cuff sessions from 1955-1957 -- although this box culls from different LPs such as West Coast Jazz, Stan Getz and the Cool Sounds, and The Steamer -- it still all fits together as one long, languid, bop-to-bluesy session. Fusion beckoned to many a talent of the time, but Getz nicely held his ground, insisting that long, wide-stretching solos always serve a well-grounded song, be it a composition by George and Ira Gershwin, Miles Davis, Jimmy Van Heusen, or himself. With an almost unparalleled sense of time and space, Getz fills it in no particular hurry, and his piano, trumpet, bass, and drums likewise seem inclined to be tasteful rather than showoff-ish virtuosity. The slow, quiet-afternoon melancholic stuff, such as "A Handful of Stars," are the real favorites. Like "Girl from Ipanema," these allow Getz to blow like the gentle lull before a storm or, as original pianist Lou Levy writes in the notes here 40 years later, like "a sound of an angel." But the man is a master of all the styles presented, and an overriding cool, calm, pleasant air nicely defines these spontaneous yet well-organized sessions. This box is a fitting legacy and a thorough overview of an inspired period in his prolific career.

Bass - Leroy Vinnegar

Drums - Shelly Manne (tracks: CD1, CD2-01 to 04) , Stan Levey (tracks: CD2-05 to 12, CD3)

Piano - Lou Levy

Saxophone  - Stan Getz

Trumpet - Conte Candoli (tracks: CD1-01 to 07)

Recorded August 9, 15, and 19, 1955; November 24, 1956; and August 2, 1957.

Andy Kirk - Chronogical Classics 1929-1948 (7 CD/FLAC)

 

Andrew Dewey Kirk (May 28, 1898 – December 11, 1992) was an American jazz saxophonist and tubist who led the Twelve Clouds of Joy, a band popular during the swing era.

He was born in Newport, Kentucky, United States. Kirk grew up in Denver, Colorado, where he was tutored by Wilberforce Whiteman, Paul Whiteman's father. Kirk started his musical career playing with George Morrison's band, but then went on to join Terrence Holder's Dark Clouds of Joy. In 1929, he was elected leader after Holder departed. Renaming the band Clouds of Joy, Kirk also relocated the band from Dallas, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri. Although named the Clouds of Joy, the band has also been known as the Twelve Clouds of Joy due to the number of musicians in the band. They set up in the Pla-Mor Ballroom on the junction of 32nd and Main in Kansas City and made their first recording for Brunswick Records that same year. Mary Lou Williams came in as pianist at the last moment, but she impressed Brunswick's Dave Kapp, so she became a member of the band.