Artist - Anita O'Day
     Album - Anita O'Day Swings Cole Porter With Billy May
     Genre - Jzz, swing, vocal
     Label - Verve
     Years - 1952-55,1959-60, release - 1991
     Quality - MP3@320kb/s
     Size - 95,5mb
     Total time - 43:57



Most of this CD reissue is taken from sessions in April 1959 on which Anita O'Day interprets Cole Porter songs while accompanied by some rather rambunctious big-band arrangements from Billy May. While her emotional range is wider than Ella Fitzgerald's (who had previously recorded her much better-known Cole Porter Songbook), O'Day's voice strangely does not sound as strong on the Billy May set as it does on the six "bonus" cuts which are Cole Porter songs she recorded on other occasions (from 1952-1960). Still, this CD does have its moments, with highlights including "I Get a Kick out of You," "All of You," "It's Delovely," "You're the Top" and two versions of "Love for Sale." ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

Artist - Anita O'Day
Album - Anita O'Day And Billy May
Swings Rodgers And Hart
Label - Verve
Year - 1960, release - 2004
Quality - MP3@320 kbps
Size - 65,31 mb
Total time - 29:38

This particular Anita O'Day LP matches the jazz singer with a studio orchestra arranged by Billy May. O'Day pays tribute to the songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Larry Hart with a dozen performances, but unfortunately, there is not much magic to the recording. O'Day sounds restrained by the arrangements, rarely ever getting away from the melodies and lyrics, and her interpretations of such songs as "Johnny One Note," "I Could Write a Book," "Ten Cents a Dance" and "Spring Is Here"

Artist: Steve Khan
Album: Modern Times
Label: Polydor
Year: 1982
Note: Live in Tokyo at Pit Inn May 3-4 1982
Genre: Fusion
Format: FLAC
Total time: 45:40
Size: 146 & 139 MB

What band is crazy enough to make a 'live' recording the first time they perform in front of people? Well, this band was crazy enough to do it. There was a great reaction to the release of "EYEWITNESS" in Japan and the group was immediately booked for some gigs at the famous PIT INN in Tokyo. We were advised by George Braun that fans would not really believe that we were, in fact, a 'group' until we had released three recordings. So, we thought we could immediately make record #2 while we were there in Japan. When we arrived in Japan, the 'group' had no name and "EYEWITNESS" had been released under my name because none of the other guys wanted to sign the contract. So, as we walked into the PIT INN for the first show, the poster outside read: STEVE KHAN & EYEWITNESS, and from that day forward, everyone has just referred to us as: Eyewitness.

     Artists: Keith Jarrett · Gary Peacock · Jack DeJohnette
     Album: My Foolish Heart: Live at Montreux
     Year: 2007
     Label: ECM
     Genre: Post-Bop
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kb/s
     AMG Rating: 4,5
     Time: 50:31 + 58:05
     Size: 119.8 + 137.4 MB(+5% recovery)

     Добавлю ещё один альбом трио Keith Jarrett · Gary Peacock · Jack DeJohnette в коллекцию Клуба. Альбом очень неплохой, так что советую послушать.

     Artist: Johnny Griffin & Eddie `Lockjaw` Davis
     Album: Lookin' at Monk!
     Label: OJC
     Year: 1998 [Original Release Date:1961]
     Genre: Jazz, bop, hard bop
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 38:30
     Size: 88.4 Mb

     Originally recorded in 1961, this tribute program features two of the best tenor saxophonists of the period along with pianist Junior Mance and a rhythm section composed of bassist Larry Gales and drummer Ben Riley (both of whom would later work as Thelonious Monk sidemen). If the program seems a bit obvious ("'Round Midnight," "Epistrophy," "Well, You Needn't," etc.), bear in mind that this was only the second all-Monk program anyone had recorded and several of these numbers had yet to attain standard status. The playing is uniformly inventive and witty (both required attributes when approaching this repertoire), and Mance is particularly to be commended for maintaining a graceful and elegant attack and not trying to praise Monk by imitation. If there's a complaint to be made here, it's with the tempos, which sometimes verge on the headlong. The arrangement of "Well, You Needn't" suffers from too much forward momentum, as does "I Mean You." On the other hand, the group's vigorous approach to "Rhythm-A-Ning" (and the honking two-note tag they append to the head) is perfect. ~ by Rick Anderson

     Artist: Mark-Almond
     Album: To the Heart
     Label: One Way
     Year: 1976
     Genre: jazz-rock, fusion
     Format: FLAC & mp3 (320 kb/s)
     Total time: 40:09
     Size: 195 & 93 MB (scans)

     Great drummer, great Jon Mark vocals, any fan of this greatly under-rated band should like this 1976 effort. Mark-Almond is usually pegged as a jazz-rock fusion band, but this is vastly missing the lyrical song-writing talents of Jon Mark, the band leader. A 70's band that is unfortunately greatly forgotten!!! - a customer from Amazon

     Artists: Michael Marcus meets Jaki Byard
     Album: This Happening
     Label: Justin Time
     Year: June 10, 1997
     Format: mp3@256 kbps - frontcover
     Size: ~ 90 MB


     Welcome to the continuing journey of Michael Marcus, a skilled multi-reed player / composer who is assembling an impressive body of recorded work. For this, his second Justin Time album, Mr. Marcus has selected a performance companion who has worked and recorded with everyone from Earl Hines to Earl Bostic to - well, you fill in the name - Eric Dolphy, Ray Nance, Lennie Tristano, Bill Evans, Mingus, Maynard, Duke, etc. "Jaki is the history of the music, man" Marcus says. Indeed, if jazz had an official laureate, it should be given to Jaki Byard. Together Marcus and Byard have given us an album filled with beauty, vitality and good old-fashioned heart.

     Artist: The Shadows
     Album: It Ain't Easy Being Sleazy
     Label: Ichiban
     Year: 1993
     Genre: Blues
     Tracks: 15
     Format: mp3, Bitrate: @ VBR 320
     File Size: 62 MB + 62 MB

     Known best for their longtime residence at Blind Willie's, a popular blues club in Atlanta, the Shadows released several albums during the '90s before the untimely death of singer/guitarist Mike Lorenz. Shadows bassist Roger Gregory opened Blind Willie's in 1986 with Eric King. The club, which is located in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta, hosted many local blues artists such as Billy Wright, Grady "Fats" Jackson, Sandra Hall, and Chicago Bob. In 1988, Chicago Bob, who was also a Blind Willie's resident, recorded an album called Just Your Fool that featured the Shadows as his backing band. A few years later, in 1992, the Shadows -- comprised of Gregory, Lorenz, harp/saxman Albey Scholl, and drummer Tom Chavers -- released an album of their own, Party Tuff or Stay Home!, that Ichiban released. Several successive albums followed: It Ain't Easy Bein' Sleazy (1993), Steppin' to the Shadows (1994), Dreamtime (1994), Dark Side of the Shadows (1995), Pale Interpretators (1997), and One Night of Sin (2000). Unfortunately, Lorenz died an accidental death on July 3, 2001, when his car caught on fire behind his home after he'd fallen asleep with the car running. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide

     Artist: Benjamin Herman
     Album: Plays Jaki Byard
     Quality: mp3@320 kbps
     Label: Challenge
     Year: 2003

     Although the late Jaki Byard recorded extensively as a leader and soloist, as well as composing a fair body of original music, he is remembered most for his work as a sideman with the likes of Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy. Alto saxophonist Benjamin Herman sought to correct this oversight by dedicating most of a CD to Byard's songs, accompanied by pianist Pierre Christophe (who studied with Byard for four years in New York), bassist Jos Machtel, and drummer Joost van Schalk.
     "Tribute to Jimmy Slide" makes for an impressive opener. Byard's tribute to the well-known tap dancer was first conceived as a piano solo, but Christophe adapted it for the quartet, with the pianist incorporating some of Byard's keyboard techniques without sounding like a clone. "D.D.L.J." was written for Byard's two daughters and wife (he is the "J"); Herman's alto sax easily negotiates the demanding changes in this uptempo piece. "Aluminum Baby" is a jaunty but easygoing ballad, complete with an amusing reference to "Satin Doll," while "Two-Five-One" is a hard bop masterpiece devoured whole by the quartet. Herman soars in the deceptively funky blues "Out Front," while Christophe detours into a hilarious Erroll Garner-tinged solo for a time. Byard, who was occasionally known to pick up and play an alto sax during a recording session or concert, would have been pleased with Herman's interpretation. "Sagapo" is the least eclectic of the Byard compositions heard on this disc, though that hardly means it is easy to play. The relaxed groove within "Strolling Along" (aka "Just Rollin' Along") is the perfect choice for wrapping the date, with outstanding solos by both Herman and Christophe. He composed the lovely, relaxed ballad "Never Again," though all he admitted to the leader of the date was that he had a major hangover when he wrote it!
     The sound on this CD is amazing, but better still is that it features musicians who not only had the foresight to explore the music of the late Jaki Byard, but are also able to meet it head on. ~ Ken Dryden, AMG