Artist: Gabor Szabo
     Album: Spellbinder
     Format: APE & MP3@320 Kbps
     Size: 188 & 87 MB (+ scans)
     Label: Impulse
     Total playing: 36:49

     Released just six months after Gypsy '66, Gabor Szabo's second album as a leader (after leaving a sublime Chico Hamilton band that also included Charles Lloyd) remains one of his finest moments in the studio. Szabo utilized the tales of bassist Ron Carter and his old boss Hamilton on drums, as well as a pair of fine Latin percussionists -- Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja. The groove quotient was very high on Spellbinder, maybe even higher than on later albums such as Jazz Raga or Sorcerer. >> more >>

     Artist: Charlie Parker
     Album: The Cole Porter Songbook
     Label: Verve
     Genre: Bop
     Release Date: 1991
     Quality: FLAC(tracks)
     Size: 221 MB
     Time: 54:47

     With the release of this songbook collection, Charlie Parker achieves instrumentally what labelmate Ella Fitzgerald (and, of course, Frank Sinatra) did vocally: join an elite group of first - rate Cole Porter interpreters.
     It helps having fine support (including drummers Buddy Rich, Max Roach, and Art Porter, bassist Teddy Kulick and pianist Oscar Peterson). It also helps to overcome obstacles (some fussy big-band/string arrangements and an dissapointing pop rendition by Gil Evans on the first "In The Still Of The Night.") Highlights include a blues-based "I Love Paris" (featuring bass/drum interplay sounding like a funereal rumba), Parker floating sheets of jazz like a magic carpet above the sweet strings of "Easy to Love," and an unusually somber version of the wistful "Just One Of Those Things." This provides an outstanding first step in appreciating Parker; to know the lyrical master Porter better, check out "Frank Sinatra Sings The Classic Cole Porter" on Capitol, or Ella Fitzgerald's legendary "Cole Porter Songbook" on Verve. (By Anthony G Pizza. Amazon.com)