Artist: Jimmy Smith
     Album: The Complete February 1957
                   Jimmy Smith Blue Note Sessions
     Label: Mosaic Records
     Year: 1957
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbit/s
     Time: 3.25:59
     Size: 152 + 156 + 147 MB
     AMG Rating:

     It would not be an overstatement to say that organist Jimmy Smith was busy during February 11-13, 1957, for he recorded enough material for these three CDs, 21 often lengthy performances that originally appeared on five LPs plus three others that had been previously unissued. Smith is not only heard early in his career with his regular trio but in a sextet with trumpeter Donald Byrd, altoist Lou Donaldson, tenor-saxophonist Hank Mobley, and drummer Art Blakey, in duets with Donaldson and with a quartet that also stars guitarist Kenny Burrell. These jam sessions feature plenty of exciting solos over fairly common chord changes, and despite the heavy competition, Jimmy Smith (who is still the king of the jazz organ) is the dominant force. Recommended. -- Review by Scott Yanow, AMG.

     Artist: Giovanni Mirabassi
     Album: Architectures
     Label: Sketch Records, France
     Year: 1999
     Genre: Piano Jazz
     Format: WAVPack (image + .cue)
     Time: 53:07
     Size: 303 MB

     "I've always admired european jazz , specially french jazz for it's emphasize on melody as a base for improvisation....this italian pianist living in france is the best demonstration of this intellectuel non main stream jazz. Each track is a jewel ;the playing is emotional ;sharp and very intriging. I adore each track on the album but ''place de la mairie'' is really breathtaking....i would recommend this album to any serious jazz fan who likes a more '' philosophical jazz'' like Brad Mehldau ; Bill Evans...etc...thanx Giovanni for this beauty you've given us. I think of the ''new wave '' movies when i hear your playing; It's like contemplating a wonderful scenery of meadows and plains in the country side on a beautiful morning in autumn where everything is quiet." ~ Review by Abdel Aziz (Alexandria-Egypt)

     Release: 2004
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbit/s
     Time: 1.05:07
     Size: 75 + 74 Mb

     Старинные вальсы в исполнении духовых оркестров.
     Brass bands play Old waltzes.

     

     Artists: Мужской Хор Института Певческой Культуры "Валаам"
               The Male choir of the "Valaam" Institute for Choral Art
     Album: Слава Матушке-России! (русские солдатские песни)
               Glory-Glory, Mother Russia! (Russian Military Songs)
     Label: Русская Лира
     Year: 2003
     Format, bitrate: MP3@256 kbit/s
     Time: 1.08:47
     Size: 128 MB

     Старинные русские солдатские песни...
     Old Russian army soldiers' songs...

     Artist: Giovanni Mirabassi
     Album: Avanti!
     Label: Sketch Records, France
     Year: 2001
     Genre: Piano Jazz, Solo Piano
     Format: FLAC (image + .cue)
     Time: 01.01:47
     Size: 241 MB

     Первый соло альбом выдающегося джазового пианиста. Все композиции на этом альбоме, так или иначе, посвящены революции.

     «Fascinated by collective imagination and the capacity of certain tunes to inscribe themselves on people’s memory, I have found in revolutionary songs a musical writing which draws its truth, its very strength in a state of urgency where every single note is necessary. » Giovanni Mirabassi

     Artist: Bill Carrothers
     Album: Home Row
     Label: Pirouet Records
     Year: 2008 [Orig. Date: 1992]
     Genre: Jazz, Post-Bop
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 61:05
     Size: 76.3 + 61.9 Mb

     Put this 2008 release on your list of buried treasures: a 1992 recording of a trio with Carrothers, Gary Peacock, and Bill Stewart that was never released. What happened? It is great music. On it Carrothers reflects a pianist modeled on Keith Jarrett, without the singing, but with the resonant sound of bassist Gary Peacock and the strong, rhythmic playing of drummer Stewart accompanying him. Perhaps those images on the cover of a husky rooster are meant to convey the potency of this music? >>

     Artist: Giovanni Mirabassi
     Album: Terra Furiosa
     Label: Discograph, France
     Year: 2007, release:2008
     Genre: Chamber Jazz
     Format: APE (image+.cue)
     Time: 49:03
     Size: 238 MB

     « ...With Terra Furiosa, this disciple of Aldo Ciccolini and Enrico Pieranunzi records a new CD with the type of music formation he prefers, i.e piano-bass-drums, with which he started when he recorded his first CD (Architectures, 1998). The trio plays on quite a novel rhythm, with the Italian bass player Gianluca Renzi and the American drum player Leon Parker. In fact, when the three musicians meet up in the Studio of Meudon, on June 19, 2007, it is with the intention of recording only three titles for the next CD by Giovanni Mirabassi, for which Leon Parker is invited as a guest. After this short session, the musicians are thrilled : the combination of the three musicians’ talents operates very smoothly and the result is great. Listening to the recordings confirms this feeling of perfect harmony. The three musicians feel they want to prolong this moment together and decide to carry on playing.The session will last the night and they record six other tracks together. Giovanni Mirabassi thus produces an unexpected and spontaneous CD, born from shared enthusiasm. And like on his previous Cds, he has favoured the freshness of new compositions (seven out of nine titles). At 37 years old, he seems to have found the perfect partners to further his work on the jazz trio. They will both be performing with the pianist during the whole tour Terra Furiosa. » ~ Axel Matignon - Discograph

     Artist: Various Artists
     Album: Swing! Greatest Hits
     Label: RCA
     Year: 1996
     Genre: Jazz, Big Band, Swing
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 48:49
     Size: 106 Mb

     Culled from the RCA Records vaults, Swing's Greatest Hits is a 15-track, budget-priced collection that contains many of the best-known songs of the big-band and swing era, including cuts by Benny Goodman ("Life Goes to a Party," "Body and Soul," "King Porter Stomp"), Artie Shaw ("Begin the Beguine"), Count Basie ("Moten Swing"), Tommy Dorsey ("Music Goes 'Round and 'Round," "Song of India"), Billie Holiday ("Any Old Time"), Roy Eldridge ("Swing is Here"), Jimmie Lunceford ("Swinging' Uptown") and Glenn Miller ("Sunrise Serenade," "In the Mood"). Although it's far from a definitive collection, it does contain many of the most familiar swing tunes. In many cases, these are the original hit versions of those tunes, so that makes the disc worth its budget price. ~ AMG Stephen Thomas Erlewine

     Artists: John Lee Hooker
     Album: Mr. Lucky
     Genre: Blues
     Quality: MP3 @320kbps
     Size: 111mb (RS.com)
     Includes all covers

Primarily recorded at Russian Hill Recording Studios, San Francisco, California, MR. LUCKY is dedicated to the memory of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

John Lee, he of the mojo hand and wearing voice, says, 'Bad luck can't do me no harm." Certainly not with attendants named Robert Cray, Albert Collins, John Hammond, Van Morrison, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Johnny Winter, and Ry Cooder on hand to make him feel better. The highlight is "I Cover the Waterfront," wherein true believers Hooker and Morrison go deep into the mystic.
-- from Grove Press 'Guide to Blues on CD'.

     Artists: John Lee Hooker
     Album: One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
     Year: 1998
     Format: Compilation (Hallmark)
     Tracks: 20
     Quality: MP3 @ 320kbps
     Size: 155mb (RS.com)
     With Covers

     He was beloved worldwide as the king of the endless boogie, a genuine blues superstar whose droning, hypnotic one-chord grooves were at once both ultra-primitive and timeless. But John Lee Hooker recorded in a great many more styles than that over a career that stretched across more than half a century. This excellent Hallmark compilation samples but a few of those styles.

Artist - Ellis Larkins
Album - A Smooth One
Label - Black & Blue
Year - 1977, release - 1989
Quality - MP3@320 kbps
Size - 118 mb
Total time - 52:02
AMG Rating:

Famed as a subtle accompanist who played harmonically complex chords in a lightly swinging style, pianist Ellis Larkins did not have any opportunities to record a full album as a leader after 1959 until this effort for the French Black & Blue label; it was last available domestically as a Classic Jazz LP. With fine support from bassist George Duvivier and drummer J.C. Heard, Larkins performs five swing-era standards, plus his own "C.E.B." The increasingly rare session gives listeners a good example of Ellis Larkins' tasteful playing. ~ Scott Yanow, AMG

     Artist: Cassandra Wilson
     Album: Dance to the Drums Again
     Year:1993
     Format: FLAC & mp3 (320k/s)
     Size: 335 & 122 MB (scans)
     Labe: Diw
     Total time: 52:17

     On this early-1990s release, guitarist Jean-Paul Bourelly began a string of increasingly sympathetic producers. Production, and judicious instrumentation, are crucial to Cassandra Wilson's deep, arch aesthetic. Here, her smoky voice finds a casual, sensuous, tenor-sax richness amid Bourelly's electric-guitar riffing. Her singing suggests many inspirations. Betty Carter and Nina Simone, certainly, but Ella, Sarah, and Billy echo in her poise, personality, and stylishness. Dinah Washington and Carmen McRae come to mind as well. Also formative were Wilson's 1980s contributions to New York's M-Base collective. They involved exploration of all the African-American musics then afloat. M-Base also was committed to artistic self-definition. Here, 6 of the 10 selections are by Wilson, including "Don't Look Back," one of her several anthems of black resilience. ~ Peter Monaghan, Amazon.com

     Artist: Billie Holiday
     Album: Jazz at the Philharmonic
     Label: Clef Records / Verve
     Years: 1947-1958, release 1994
     Format: MP3@320 kbit/s
     Time: 1.09:40
     Size: 160 MB
     AMG Rating:


     Давайте ещё раз вспомним о величайшей джазовой певице и послушаем её лучшие работы, записанные в рамках проекта Нормана Гранца "Jazz at the Philharmonic"...

     Artist: Grant Green
     Album: Goin' west (RVG-edition)
     Label: Blue Note
     Year: 1962; Release: 2004
     Quality: MP3@320 kbps + all covers
     Size: 85 mb

     A Blue Note album finally reissued on CD in early 2004, Grant Green's Goin' West — like Feelin' the Spirit — includes Herbie Hancock on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. Includes tunes like (can you believe?) "On Top of Old Smokey" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds." Only Green could carry this off, but he is the man when it comes to standards.

     Artist: Luis Salinas
     Album: Ahi Va
     Label: DBN (Argentina)
     Release: 2004
     Format, bitrate: Mp3, 192 kbps
     Size: 90.27 MB

     AHI VA highlights the Latin fusion of guitarist Luis Salinas and includes performances by Daniel Maza, Facundo Guevara, Sebastian Peycere, Jose Reynoso, and Reynald Colom.
     2003 release from the Argentinean guitar virtuoso/vocalist who delivers the concept of jazz with his native folk music, funk, bossa, blues, bolero and candombe in his own style.

     Artist: Chet Baker
     Album: Chet
     Label: OJC / Riverside
     Orig. Year: 1959
     Street Date: July 1, 1991
     Format/Bitrate: MP3@320 kbit/s & FLAC
     Time: 51:14
     Size: 115 & 267 MB

     Романтичные и чуть меланхоличные баллады от Chet Baker.