James Brown
     03.05.1933 года [Банрвелл, шт. Южная Калифорния]- 25.12.2006 года [Атланта])
     Джеймса Брауна называют «Крестным отцом соула», «Мистером Please Please Please», а также «Мистером Динамит», и все эти прозвища - вполне заслуженные...

     James Joseph Brown, Jr., commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul", "King of Funk", and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business", was an American entertainer. He is recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music and was renowned for his shouting vocals, feverish dancing and unique rhythmic style.

     Artist: Sonny Clark Trio
     Album: Blues Mambo
     Quality: mp3@320 Kbps
     Size: 95 MB (scans)
     Year: 1960
     Label: West Wind (1999)
     Total time: 41:56

     This lesser-known Sonny Clark session (his only studio album not made for Blue Note) is sometimes issued under drummer Max Roach's name too. They are joined by bassist George Duvivier for a set of generally obscure Clark originals including "Minor Meeting," "Blues Mambo," and "My Conception" (which is taken as an unaccompanied piano solo). Although not obvious while listening to his recording, Clark's life was on the decline and this would be his penultimate date as a leader. ~ Scott Yanow, AMG

     Artist: James Brown
     Album: Live at the Apollo, Vol. II
     Label: Polydor / Umgd
     Year: 1967
     Release Date: 06/26/2001
     Genre: Soul, Funk
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
     Size: cd1: 98,5; cd2: 63,3+56,7 MB

     If the purpose of the "Deluxe Edition" of Live at the Apollo, Vol. II is to make the best even better, the mission is more than accomplished. Not only has the original running time been increased by over half an hour -- re-creating an entire performance, but also the sound, is likewise all encompassing and complete. According to Alan Leeds -- tour director of the James Brown show in the late '60s -- by 1968 Brown was honored with the distinction of selling one million concert tickets during his various appearances at the famed Apollo Theatre. The first volume of Live at the Apollo [1963] captures the R&B fury that would single-handedly define the soul music genre. While this volume reveals Brown's updated stage show, it more importantly offers another prolific observation into the future of R&B -- funk. It would be nearly two years before Brown would discover the likes of Bootsy Collins and ultimately form the JBs. However, as Live at the Apollo, Vol. II testifies, "soul brother number one" is already submerging his band into more extended musical tangents, bobbing and weaving within a tight framework. This yields exciting new readings of familiar classics such as "It's a Man's Man's Man's World." Not only does Brown brilliantly incorporate the track "Lost Someone" -- recalling the extended workout given on Live at the Apollo [1963] -- Brown's percussive, heart-attack inducing call and response will leave even the most unflappable enthusiast slack jawed. This "expanded edition" also incorporates soloists, as well as other featured musicians who were often part of Brown's revue. Included on this release are previously unissued performances by Bobby Byrd ("Sweet Soul Music") and the James Brown Band ("Caravan"). The sonic brilliance on this double-disc set is visually matched in the 28-page liner notes booklet. Replete with newly published photos and memorabilia circa Brown's 1967 spring and summer tours, the booklet also features essays from Allen Leeds and percussionist Ahmir Khalib Thompson, aka ?uestlove. ~Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide

     Artist: Herbie Hancock
     Album: Empyrean Isles
     Label: Blue Note
     Quality: FLAC & MP3@320
     Size: 250 MB & 80 MB
     Time: 35:28

     My Point of View and Inventions and Dimensions found Herbie Hancock exploring the fringes of hard bop, working with a big band and a Latin-flavored percussion section, respectively. On Empyrean Isles, he returns to hard bop, but the results are anything but conventional. Working with cornetist Freddie Hubbard, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams -- a trio just as young and adventurous as he was -- Hancock pushes at the borders of hard bop, finding a brilliantly evocative balance between traditional bop, soul-injected grooves, and experimental, post-modal jazz. Hancock's four original concepts are loosely based on the myths of the Empyrean Isles, and they are designed to push the limits of the band and of hard bop. Even "Cantaloupe Island," well-known for its funky piano riff, takes chances and doesn't just ride the groove. "The Egg," with its minimal melody and extended solo improvisations, is the riskiest number on the record, but it works because each musician spins inventive, challenging solos that defy convention. In comparison, "One Finger Snap" and "Oliloqui Valley" (alternate takes of both tracks are included as bonuses on the CD reissue) adhere to hard bop conventions, but each song finds the quartet vigorously searching for new sonic territory with convincing fire. That passion informs all of Empyrean Isles, a record that officially established Hancock as a major artist in his own right. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

     Artists: Charlie Haden & John Taylor
     Album: Nightfall
     Label: Naim
     Year: 2004
     Quality: mp3@320 Kbps
     Size: 53+78,7 Mb

     The Naim Label has once again achieved the significant coup of recording with one of the world's best known and most respected double bassists in the world, Charlie Haden. Nightfall is an album of musical beauty; an uplifting combination of John's dancing fingers and Charlie's trademark resounding bass and finger slaps. The tracks are all by Charlie or John, with the exception of 'My Love and I' a love song from 'Apache' and a composition from Williams Walton's orchestral suite for Laurence Olivier's Henry V, 'Touch Her Soft Lips'. Nightfall is a celebration of the musical simplicity that comes from recording the double-bass and piano live to a two track stereo tape recorder. Every tone and phrase is there, from John's improvisation through plucking the piano strings on 'Chairman Mao' to Charlie's beautiful yet eerie bowing on 'Song For The Whales'.

     Artists - VA
     Album - Capitol Sings: Jimmy McHugh -
     I Feel a Song Comin' On
     Label - Capitol
     Genre - jazz-vocal, mainstream jazz
     Years: 1945-1962, release - 1995
     Quality - MP3@256 kbps
     Size - 96,0 mb
     Total time - 57:00

     Artists: Modern Jazz Quartet
     Album: Longing for the Continent
     Label: LRC
     Year: 1958, release 1989
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbit/s
     Time: 0.39:08
     Size: 90 MB

     Этот альбом я хочу подарить очаровательной госпоже nomparel.

     С Днём Рождения, милая Еленочка!

     Счастья Вам, удачи и много прекрасной музыки!

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     Artists: B.B. King & Muddy Waters
     Album: Les Legendes du Blues
     Label: ULM/Universal
     Year: 2003
     Genre: Blues/Compilations
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
     Size: cd1: 89,6+90,5 MB
             cd2: 68,1+68,7 MB

     Artist: Johnny Griffin
     Album: The Little Giant
     Label: Riverside
     Quality: FLAC & MP3@320
     Size: 232 MB & 76 MB
     Time: 34:17


This CD reissue is a bit offbeat, for the set by tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin features three originals by then-obscure pianist Norman Simmons, a reworking of the pop tune "Playmates," Babs Gonzalez's "Lonely One" and the tenor's "63rd Street Theme." Simmons' arrangements for the three horns (which include trumpeter Blue Mitchell and trombonist Julian Priester) are colorful; the rhythm section (pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath) is state-of-the-art for the period, and Griffin (who is featured in a trio with Jones and Heath on "The Lonely One") is in fine form. An interesting set of obscure straight-ahead jazz. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

     Artist: Hank Mobley
     Album: The Turnaround!
     Original Release Date: February 4, 1965
     Audio CD: October 10, 2000
     Label: Blue Note Records
     Quality: FLAC (tracks)
     Size: 248 MB
     Time: 40:31

     Отличный альбом и состав исполнителей...



The Hank Mobley of the Turnaround album was a markedly different one from a few years earlier. This session issued in early 1965 was the product of two different sessions. The first was in March of 1963, immediately after Mobley left the Miles Davis band. Those recordings produced "East of the Village," possibly the greatest example of Mobley's "round tone" on record, and the other was "The Good Life," a ballad. The rest was recorded nearly two years later in February of 1965. The title cut was produced here -- an Alfred Lion answer to Lee Morgan's "Sidewinder," which was burning up the charts -- as well as the beautiful "Pat 'n' Chat," with "Straight Ahead" and "My Sin" rounding out the program. On the earlier material, Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, Butch Warren, and Philly Jo Jones helped Mobley out, and on the latter it was Freddie Hubbard, Barry Harris, Paul Chambers, and Billy Higgins. In each case, there were alumnus members of the Miles band Mobley had played in. The main thing about "East of the Village" is the striking difference between the gorgeous melding of Latin and post-bop, straight-ahead rhythms, and the easy, loping blues feel that is cheered on by Jones. This track contains one of Mobley's most memorable solos. On the title track and "Pat 'n' Chat," there are elongated blues structures; in the former -- it is an unusual 18 bar figure -- and in the latter, there is the major 44 bar pattern that sounds like a blues with a bridge when the AABA pattern is invoked. Here is the evolution of Mobley's tone in full flower, all but gone is the rounded, warm sound, and in its place is a shorter, declarative, bluesier tone with real bite that is perfect for pianists like Harris, who were used to the deeper funk of the Detroit sound. In all this is a solid date, despite its time lapse, and one that gives us a solid picture of the two Mobleys. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

     Artist: B.B. King
     Album: Reflections
     Label: MCA
     Year: 2003
     Genre: Blues
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kb/s
     Size: 51,9+55,1 MB

     B.B. King was 77 years old when Reflections was released, which perhaps entitled him to reflect back on the song standards the album contained. Despite advancing age, King had already been unusually busy on the recording front for a septuagenarian, turning out the gold-selling duets album Deuces Wild in 1997, Blues on the Bayou in 1998, Let the Good Times Roll: The Music of Louis Jordan in 1999, the double-platinum Riding With the King with Eric Clapton and Makin' Love Is Good for You in 2000, and the seasonal recording A Christmas Celebration of Hope in 2002. For Reflections, he again worked with Simon Climie, who produced Riding With the King, and collaborated with a session band including such notables as Joe Sample, Nathan East, and Doyle Bramhall II. The songs ranged from pop evergreens like "I'll String Along With You" and "For Sentimental Reasons" to blues favorites such as Lonnie Johnson's "Tomorrow Night," with oddities like "Always on My Mind" thrown in and even a couple of remakes of the earlier King songs "Word of Honor" and "Neighborhood Affair." The arrangements, which included horn and string parts, left room for King's distinctive blues guitar work, but really supported his always expressive voice. The result was a confident, easygoing album that stylistically could have been made in 1953 as easily as 2003. Blues purists and aficionados of blues guitar would find it only partially satisfying, but it reflected the breadth of musical taste of an artist who always played the blues but never restricted himself only to blues music or blues fans. -- William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide.