Artist: Joe Sample
     Album: Soul Shadows
     Label: PRA Records Inc. / Verve
     Year: 2004
     Genre: Jazz, Piano
     Format, bitrate: mp3@320Kbps
     Time: 49:39min
     Size: 109 Mb

Скажу лишь во что. Этот диск, по своему звучанию, напомнил мне активно пропагандируемое некоторыми членами клуба, звучание джаза первых трех десятков лет после его рождения. Звучание, которое мы слышим на записях двадцатых, тридцатых и сороковых годов. Похожей по звучанию музыкой озвучивали немые фильмы тех лет. Так как у меня самого записей тех лет нет и наверное не будет, хочу внести посильный вклад в пропаганду «классики джаза» таким вот необычным способом. Таким мне показался этот диск Джо Сэмпла, одного из лидеров, вдохновителей и авторов группы Crusaders. Кстати сказать, композиция, давшая название этому альбому, когда-то была написана Сэмплом именно для Crusaders. Теперь мы можем послушать ее в джазовом изложении. И не только ее.

If anyone out in CD land ever wondered what a Joe Sample solo piano album would sound like, here it is — and it's a good bet that this is not what a Sample fan would expect. Rather than conform to the cerebral solo piano mainstream as exhaustively set forth in the "Maybeck" series, Sample's inspiration goes way, way back — back to the teens and 1920s, to the formative, nearly-forgotten example of James Reese Europe, to the heydays of ragtime and stride. On this CD, the key for Sample is to make sure no one misses the missing bass and drums, to keep the pulse of jazz present as much as possible, with lots of thumping stride as a default mode. He does not disguise his heavyweight, full-fisted approach to the keyboard, and there are some occasionally clumsy moments when the line of thought strays. The repertoire is old, perhaps even ancient, at times a bit naive; When was the last time you heard "How You Gonna Keep `Em Down on the Farm?" on any new recording, let alone a jazz record? Gershwin gets his due ( a brittle "I Got Rhythm" and a sometimes whimsical ballad treatment of "Embraceable You"), so does Fats Waller ("Ain't Misbehavin," a staccato "Jitterbug Waltz"), Scott Joplin (a somewhat hesitant "The Entertainer"), and Jelly Roll Morton (a jaunty "Shreveport Stomp"). There are also a pair of Sample originals in a contemplative manner ("Soul Shadows" and "Spellbound"). Although smooth jazz outlets probably won't touch this sampling of Sample, antiquarians will be intrigued. ~ Richard S. Ginell, AMG

     Artist: Ana Caram
     Abum: Hollywood Rio
     Quality: mp3 @320
     Label: Chesky
     Size: 98 mb
     Year: 2005

Vocalist, guitarist and flutist Ana Caram can be seen as the personification of a musical link between Brazil and the USA. Born in Sгo Paulo (1958), she graduated in composition and conducting at the University of Sгo Paulo. A modest career in Brazil came to a change when Ana met Paquito D'Rivera at a festival in Finland. He invited the singer to perform with him at New York's Carnegie Hall. And there Ana was spotted by a talent hunter for Chesky Records. For that label some well received albums were recorded, among which the album Rio After Dark (1989) with AC Jobim as a special guest. Jobim was charmed by the singer's talent when they met in Rio and happily accepted the invitation to participate on that album.

A superior Brazilian jazz singer, Ana Caram takes a slight detour on this CD, stretching her repertoire while mostly still performing in a style influenced by bossa nova. One does not get to hear such songs as "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," "Smile," and "As Time Goes By" in a bossa nova setting that often. Also unusual is that Michel Freidenson plays all of the instruments other than the reeds (which are performed by Lawrence Feldman), and most of his electronic instruments sound real enough not to be an issue. The focus throughout is on Caram's lovely voice and she excels on this material, showing that it really is not what you sing but how you sing it. Recommended. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

     Artist: Ana Caram
     Album: Bossa Nova
     Year: 1995
     Quality: mp3 @320 + covers
     Size: 110 mb

Ана Карам - обладательница прозрачного, чувственного вокала и виртуозная исполнительница на гитаре, бразильянка по происхождению, приобрела популярность в Нью-Йорке, где в 1989 году был издан ее дебютный альбом "Rio After Dark". Сотрудничество с легендарным бразильским певцом и композитором Antonio Carlos Jobim, которого называют "бразильским Джорджем Гершвином", помогло певице найти и развить неповторимый музыкальный жанр. Песенные традиции бразильского джаза и босановы, изящно совмещенные с классическими американскими джазовыми ритмами - основная характеристика любимого миллионами меломанов жанра, в котором работает певица.

After saluting Antonio Carlos Jobim's lesser-known songs on The Other Side of Jobim, Ana Caram turned to his more famous work with equally splendid results on Bossa Nova. Jobim had recently died when she recorded the CD in January 1995, and the singer/guitarist felt that another tribute was in order. While Other Side purposely avoided standards, Bossa Nova is full of them. Anyone with even a casual knowledge of Brazilian pop-jazz and the bossa nova will be familiar with such standards as "The Girl From Ipanema," "Agua de Beber" and "Chega de Saudade." But while Caram's choices may be obvious,more… her treatment of them isn't. From "O Pato" to "Double Rainbow," everything on Bossa Nova sounds personal and individualistic rather than cliched.

     Artist: Nina Simone
     Title: Legends CD3
     Year: 2005
     Label: Sony BMG
     Format: MP3+CUE+LOG+Covers
     Size: ~ 90 MB

     Artist: Nina Simone
     Title: Legends CD2
     Year: 2005
     Label: Sony BMG
     Format: MP3+CUE+LOG+Covers
     Size: ~ 90 MB

     Artist: Nina Simone
     Title: Legends CD1
     Year: 2005
     Label: Sony BMG
     Format: MP3+CUE+LOG+Covers
     Size: ~ 90 MB

Three CD set comprising of 49 of Nina Simone's greatest hits including 'I Wish I knew How It Would Feel To Be Free' & 'My Baby Just Cares For Me' (Live) plus her versions of 'My Sweet Lord', 'Mr Bojangles' and 'My Way'. Sony. 2005.

     Artist: Glen Velez and Handance Frame
Drum Ensemble
     Album: Rhythmcolor Exotica
     Format: Ape & mp3@320Kbps
     Size: 263 & 132 MB (scans)
     Label: Ellipsis Arts
     Total playing: 58:33

Glen Velez' experimental percussion exotica and Ellipsis' book packaging makes for a singular and peerless release. This drummer pays homage to the ancient frame drum. Accompanying his sonic visions is a 20-page museum depicting the instrument through history. Here he has a quintet, the Handance Ensemble. The group is mostly percussionists, however one member is on violin. Examples of the frame drum are employed from South India, the Middle East, Central Asia, Brazil, Italy and more. Not simply guiding us through time with the history and sounds of the frame drum, Velez gives us ample experimentation to ponder with exotic, odd-numbered timings. I give this five banners, with shades of every "rhythmcolor." ~ Thomas Schulte, AMG

     Artist: Kunihiko Sugano
     Album: Love Is a Many Splendored Thing
     Label: Three Blind Mice
     Quality: FLAC & MP3@320
     Size: 248 MB & 91 MB
     Time: 40:31

     Artist:Randy Greer
     Album: Randy Greer the Voice -
     The Romance of Jazz
     Label : Arion
     Years: 1994 -1995
     Style: Swing vocal & Jazz manouche
     Format MP3 320 kbps / Flac
     Size MP3 148mb /Flac 363mb

Randy Greer is an American expatriate who moved to Barcelona, Spain in the early 1990s after a sold-out season in Las Vegas performing the music of Nat King Cole. Randy's musical education is steeped in the best jazz tradition; he gets it from the source -- his great uncle, Sunny Greer, played drums for the Duke Ellington Orchestra. In the 1960's, Randy's father owned and ran a jazz club in San Francisco called Soulville, named after a blues number written by Ben Webster. Randy spent his early childhood in this environment surrounded by musicians. Some of the great jazz artists of the day including Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus were friends of his father. The story is told that Charles Mingus gave 3-month-old Randy a jazz baptism by pouring red wine over his forehead at Soulville one night. At age 18, Randy won a scholarship to attend America's principle jazz institution, the Berkeley School of Music in Boston, and spent two years studying and playing with fellow student and guitar virtuoso Stanley Jordan. Recognized by the American National Association of Jazz Educators as one of the finest jazz singers in the world today, Randy is the real thing.

     Artist: Ana Caram
     Album: Rio After Dark
     Year: 1989
     Label: Chesky
     Size: 71 + 65 mb
     Quality: mp3 @320 + covers

In stylistic terms, large portions of Ana Caram's first U.S. album could easily have been recorded in 1962; it's as if time had stood perfectly still since "Desafinado" became a hit. Yet this is all to the good for this Antonio Carlos Jobim protegй, who can comfortably give material by the more contemporary writer Djavan, and even Carole King's "You've Got a Friend," the bossa nova treatment. Like most seductive Brazilian female singers, Caram is just a bit off-pitch and gets away with it. She also plays guitar skillfully in the Joao Gilberto rhythmic manner, and occasionally writes her own tunes ("Renovacao," "Rainbow") in an attractive classic bossa nova idiom. The revered Jobim sits in on piano and contributes a few vocal harmonies on two of his songs ("Meditation," "Anos Dourados"); the Chesky recording also diligently picks up his groaning. Paquito D'Rivera chirps on clarinet in the tongue-twisting "O Que Vier Eu Traco" and turns up on alto sax on Paulo Jobim's first-rate "La Cumbia," phrasing in the lilting Getz manner though he can't help but slip in a bop run or two. Steve Sacks plays low-key, moaning alto flute on several tracks, and Carlos Alberto de Oliveira and Cafй handle the delicate percussion. The production is typical low-key, spare-textured, painstakingly recorded Chesky fare -- and unreconstructed bossa nova fans need not hesitate. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide

     Artists - VA
     Album - "В рабочий полночь" -
     Ретро концерт по заявкам - 1
     Genre - retro, pop
     Label - Murzik Records
     Years - VA, release - 1995
     Quality - MP3@320kbs/s
     Size - 148 mb
     Total time - 67:31