VA - The Smithsonian Collection Of Classic Jazz [5 CD, 1997/FLAC]

 

The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz is a five-disc box set released in 1997 by the Smithsonian Institution. Compiled by jazz essayist and historian Martin T. Williams, the album featured tracks from over a dozen record labels spanning several decades and genres of American jazz, from ragtime and big band to post-bop and free jazz. The compilation has been recognized as an invaluable document of jazz history and maintains a legacy as introductory listening for new jazz fans as well as scholarship.

 

 

Andy Summers discography [1982-2017] (FLAC)

  

Andrew James "Andy" Summers (born 31 December 1942) is an English multi-instrumentalist, born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England.

While Andy is best known as the guitarist of the Police, he has since forged a successful and acclaimed solo career with new age-influenced contemporary instrumental music that, like his work with Sting and company, draws on his love for jazz and his fascination with creating instrumental textures.

1982 - Andy Summers & Robert Fripp - I Advance Masked

1984 - Andy Summers & Robert Fripp - Bewitched

1987 - Andy Summers - XYZ

1988 - Andy Summers - Mysterious Barricades

1989 - Andy Summers - The Golden Wire

1990 - Andy Summers - Charming Snakes

1991 - Andy Summers - World Gone Strange

1995 - Andy Summers - Synaesthesia

1997 - Andy Summers - The Last Dance of Mr. X

1998 - Andy Summers - A Windham Hill Retrospective

1999 - Andy Summers - Green Chimneys- The Music of Thelonious Monk

2000 - Andy Summers - Peggy's Blue Skylight

2004 - Andy Summers - Earth + Sky

2005 - Andy Summers & Victor Biglione - Splendid Brazil

2017 - Andy Summers - Triboluminescence

Henry “Red” Allen And His Orchestra - The Chronogical Classics 1929-1947 (FLAC)

 

Jazz history is full of innovators, interpreters, and individualists. The innovators change the way that the music is played and influence both their contemporaries and future generations while the interpreters perform the mainstream of the day or earlier styles, contributing fresh ideas to the music. The individualists are unique players who have their own sound and/or style. While they may not be major influences on others, they add to the legacy of jazz through their colorful musical personalities. Henry “Red” Allen was an individualist.

The last great trumpeter to emerge from New Orleans in the 1920s and arguably the most advanced of all of them. Allen’s playing remained unpredictable throughout his career. He was mostly heard in Dixieland, trad jazz and swing settings but the trumpeter tended to be more modern than his repertoire and his bands. His playing was quite speechlike and conversational, his phrasing sometimes almost ignored the beat, and he had a wide array of sounds, smears, and growls that sounded unlike anyone else. Allen was also an underrated vocalist who sang a bit like his trumpet playing and was a natural and masterful showman.

Sidney Bechet - Mosaic Select 22 (3 CD, 2006/FLAC)

 

Fela Kuti - Live In Detroit 1986 (3 CD, 2012/FLAC)

 

In its own way, this is a kind of grail; a live recording by the great Fela Kuti captured live mere months after his release from prison in 1986. After serving two years on a trumped-up charge of "currency trafficking," he was reluctantly released by the Nigerian government in April due to considerable pressure by Amnesty International. This show took place at Detroit's historic Fox Theater in November. The recording is the first release of "new" Fela material in nearly 20 years. 

CD1
01 - Just Like That

CD2
01 - Confusion Break Bone
02 - Teacher Don't Teach No Nonsense

CD3
01 - Beast Of No Nation 

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)