Artist: Tom Waits
     Album: Swordfishtrombones
     Label: Island Records (USA)
     Original Release: 1983
     Release Date: 06/15/1990
     Genre: Blues, Rock
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
     Size: 60+44 MB

     Between the release of Heartattack and Vine in 1980 and Swordfishtrombones in 1983, Tom Waits got rid of his manager, his producer, and his record company. And he drastically altered a musical approach that had become as dependable as it was unexciting. Swordfishtrombones has none of the strings and much less of the piano work that Waits' previous albums had employed; instead, the dominant sounds on the record were low-pitched horns, bass instruments, and percussion, set in spare, close-miked arrangements (most of them by Waits) that sometimes were better described as "soundscapes." Lyrically, Waits' tales of the drunken and the lovelorn have been replaced by surreal accounts of people who burned down their homes and of Australian towns bypassed by the railroad -- a world (not just a neighborhood) of misfits now have his attention. The music can be primitive, moving to odd time signatures, while Waits alternately howls and wheezes in his gravelly bass voice. He seems to have moved on from Hoagy Carmichael and Louis Armstrong to Kurt Weill and Howlin' Wolf (as impersonated by Captain Beefheart). Waits seems to have had trouble interesting a record label in the album, which was cut 13 months before it was released, but when it appeared, rock critics predictably raved: after all, it sounded weird and it didn't have a chance of selling. Actually, it did make the bottom of the best-seller charts, like most of Waits' albums, and now that he was with a label based in Europe, even charted there. Artistically, Swordfishtrombones marked an evolution of which Waits had not seemed capable (though there were hints of this sound on his last two Asylum albums), and in career terms it reinvented him. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

     Artist: The Rolling Stones
     Album: Still Life (American Concert 1981)
     Label: VIRGIN RECORDS US
     Original Release: 1982
     Release Date: 11/17/1998
     Genre: Rock
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
     Size: 45,4+55,3 MB

     By the early '80s, the Rolling Stones were one of the last remaining groups leftover from the original "British Invasion" two decades prior. One of the main reasons for this was the Stones' ability to keep pace with the musical climate of the time, without losing any of their original blues-sleaze. Their 1982 live set (fourth overall) STILL LIFE, was taken from performances from their hugely successful U.S. tour a year before, when Mick, Keith and company headlined the biggest outdoor stadiums and vast arenas.
     Although it lacks the youthful and unpredictable energy of their earlier concert albums (namely 1970's GET YER YA YA'S OUT), STILL LIFE showed that the Stones still had plenty of gas left in their tank 20 years down the road. Highlights include a cover of the Miracles' "Going to a Go Go" (an early MTV favorite), such '60s classics as "Under My Thumb," "Time is on My Side," and "Satisfaction," plus the '70s nugget "Shattered." Surprisingly, no selections from the album they were touring behind at the time, TATTOO YOU, are included.

     Artist:The Modern Jazz Quartet & The Oscar Peterson Trio
     Album:At the Opera House
     Label: Verve (LP)
     Release:1957
     Format/Bitrate:MP3/320
     Size:59.8MB



     Эти редкие записи посвящаю госпоже nomparel (лучше поздно, чем никогда ... )

     Приятного прослушивания...

     Artist: Roland Kirk
     Album: I Talk with the Spirits
     Quality: mp3@320Kbps
     Size:96 MB (scans)
     Year:1964
     Label: verve (1998, 24-bit remastered)
     Total time: 40:55

     Multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk leaves the stritch, manzello and other exotic instruments at home for this all-flute outing from his pre-"Rahsaan" days. Consisting mostly of originals, with a couple of show tunes and a swinging take on John Lewis' "Django" thrown in, I Talk to the Spirits provides the best sampling of Kirk's unique flute style. He hums along with himself as he plays, inserts pieces of lyrics when the mood hits, finds overtones and multi-part harmonies as he blows madly through the upper register and sails sweetly through the lower. Included here is the original version of "Serenade to a Cuckoo," a song later taken to rock audiences with its inclusion on the first Jethro Tull album. (In fact, for the Tull fan who wants to hear where Ian Anderson borrowed his style, I Talk to the Spirits is the place to go.) The playing on this outing is uniformly excellent, with Kirk ranging from his trademark up-tempo overblowing on "A Quote from Clifford Brown" to bluesy growling on "The Business Ain't Nothing But the Blues" to placid beauty on the ballad "Trees." He guides Kurt Weill's "My Ship" on a five-minute voyage through calm seas and turbulent double-timed storms. Kirk's sense of whimsy and musical fun is evident throughout. ~ Jim Newsom, AMG

     Artists - VA
     Album - Jazz At The Philharmonic 1945-1946 Vol.1
     Label - Centurion/Jazz & Blues
     Years: 1945-1946, release - 2005
     Quality - MP3@256 kbps
     Size - 96,9 mb
     Total time - 53:21

     Artist: Ralph Towner, Gary Burton
     Album: Matchbook
     Label: ECM
     Year: 1975
     Genre: Jazz
     Format, bitrate: mp3@320Kbps
     Time: 38:58
     Size: 86 Mb

     Люблю вибрафон. Люблю акустическую гитару в джазе. И то, и другое на диске присутствует. Собственно говоря, только эти два инструмента и присутствуют. Два мастера ведут диалог друг с другом с помощью инструментов, которыми владеют в совершенстве. 1975 год. Золотое время ЕСМ рекордс. Все нынешние престарелые мастера еще молоды, полны идей и способностей к их воплощению. Именно этого периода релизы ЕСМ мне нравится больше всего. Хотя общее отношение этому монстру джазовой звукозаписи у меня неоднозначное. По разным причинам. Как нибудь упомяну и их. А еще я очень люблю малые составы. Именно в них, как мне кажется, музыканты имеют возможность полностью раскрыться, показать на что они способны, сыграть так, после чего мы в них влюбляемся надолго. В некоторых навсегда.

This is considered a classic encounter, a duet set featuring Ralph Towner on acoustic guitars and vibraphonist Gary Burton. The guitar/vibes blend is both unusual and quite logical, for Burton and Towner always had similarly introverted but exploratory styles. Highlights of the date include "Icarus" (one of six Towner originals), "Some Other Time" and "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat." ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

     Artist: John Coltrane
     Album: Dear Old Stockholm
     Label: Impulse!
     Years: 1963 - 1965, release 1993
     Format, bitrate: MP@320 kbit/s
     Time: 0.49:03
     Size: 57 + 56 MB
    

     Dear Old Stockholm is the definitive model of the John Coltrane Quartet with the development of the music being powered by the rhythmic furnace-stoking of Roy Haynes. We are fortunate to hear these alternative views of the historic group, which originally featured Elvin Jones, moving with subtle variations to the beat of a different drummer.(vervemusicgroup.com)

     Мой подарок госпоже aelia...

    Artist: The Manhattan Transfer
    Album: Vibrate
    Year: 2004
    Label: Telarc
    Format, bitrate: MP3, 320 kbps
    Time: 53:05
    Size: 125 MB

   One of the latest The Manhattan Transfer's albums, which includes 11 songs, where singers have been exploring different musical styles, at the same time transfering each of them in jazz with the help of various intricate arrangements. Interestingly, some of these tunes the group had been recording for more then 10 years. What is more, each song in this album is accompanied below by singers' commentraies...
   Один из самых поздних альбомов The Manhattan Transfer, включающий в себя 11 песен, в которых вокалисты исследовали разные музыкальные стили, в то же время трансформируя их в джаз при помощи различных замысловатых аранжировок. Что интересно, некоторые из этих композиций записывались более 10 лет. Более того, каждая песня в представленном альбоме сопровождается ниже комментариями вокалистов.

   Vibrate is The Manhattan Transfer's second album on the Telarc label. Since the early 1970s, The Manhattan Transfer have been pushing and redefining the boundaries of vocal music in the context of jazz, pop and numerous other styles. Along the way, the collective efforts of vocalists Cheryl Bentyne, Tim Hauser, Alan Paul and Janis Siegel have earned The Transfer a healthy collection of Grammy Awards and a loyal fan base that spans the entire globe.

     Artist: Johnny "Hammond" Smith
     Album: Legends Of Acid Jazz
     Label: Prestige
     Year: 1969, release: 1996
     Genre: Soul Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3/320
     Time: 69:44
     Size: 152 Mb
     Total time: 69:14

     Legends of Acid Jazz: Johnny "Hammond" Smith compiles under a single cover two albums Smith recorded in 1969, Soul Talk and Black Feeling! (complete with the liner notes from both original issues).

     On Legends, Smith gets down in the heady company of, among others, tenor saxophonist Rusty Bryant, funky drummer Bernard Purdie and guitarist Wally Richardson; Richardson here pays tribute to his bandmates with his compositions "Purdie Dirty" and "Johnny Hammond Boogaloo." Legends includes the pop covers "When Sunny Gets Blue" and "This Guy's In Love With You," opens with the original version of Smith's hit "Soul Talk," and concludes with the updated version he later recorded for Black Feeling. Not groundbreaking, but solid and a funky good time. ~ Chris Slawecki, All Music Guide