Artist: Cal Tjader
    Album: Jazz 'Round Midnight
    Label: Polygram
    Year: 1961
    Format, bitrate: Mp3, 192 kb/s
    Time: 55:05
    Size: 76 Mb



   Jazz Round Midnight is a pleasant 16-track sampler of some of the most laid-back and mellow tracks Cal Tjader recorded for Verve. Although there are some wonderful songs on the compilation, it is only useful for beginners, since the cut-and-paste nature of the collection will infuriate purisits and serious jazz listeners. However, for neophytes, it's a nice introduction, even it it is a little bit too low-key.
   ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AMG

   Artist: VA
   Album: The Modern Jazz Piano Album
   Label: Savoy
   Year: 1946 - 1956
   Release: 1986
   Format, bitrate: mp3@320 kb/s
   Time: 70 min
   Size: 160 MB (+ full original art + 14 pages booklet)
   AMG Rating:

    Bought in 1986, this is one of my first CDs - in fact, the second. It's full of tiny gems and well stuffed with generous liner notes.

   "Reviewing these pianists chequered histories we can be sure on at least one point - they all created jazz that reflected their era and themselves. This is one of the most remarkable piano anthologies ever compiled and essential listening for anyone professing an interest in post-war piano developments. Our title is not a whimsical label for this truly is The Modern Jazz piano Album " Mark Gardner
   Liner notes

    Artist: Ran Blake & Jeanne Lee
    Album: The Newest Sound Around
    Label: RCA
    Year: 1961
    Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 kb/s
    Time: 53:20
    Size: 127 Mb (covers)
   
   
"Third stream" may have been the bandied term, but this unjustly ignored 1962 duet set, the debut for pianist Blake and singer Lee, who worked up their act while studying at Bard College, plays blissfully free of the lumbering lugubriousness and Big Mac-thick philosophizing that mar so much of that music. The eeriness, the mystery, and the sweetness lie always in the deceptive simplicity, never more so than on the opener, "Laura," sketched by Johnny Mercer as a hazy image of loveliness, always out of reach and perhaps not even real, and she flickers in and out of existence with the strike and fade of Blake's figures, the attack and decay of Lee's intonation, now husky, now fruity, but as exacting as Miles Davis' muted trumpet. "Church on Russell Street" is Blake's alone, a gospel show for solo piano late at night, or early in the morning, when everyone but the pianist and maybe the Lord has gone home. "Where Flamingos Fly," from which Van Morrison peeled a few leaves years later, finds Lee a mournful anti-siren, losing her lover and a few members of the animal kingdom to an island that may be Aruba, Iceland, or even Alcatraz; Blake tests single notes like water drops, rumbles chords for incoming tide, stabs boldly at the not quite in tune top octave on his keyboard. "Season in the Sun" (nowhere near Terry Jacks) injects levity with bassist George Duvivier sitting in (as he does on "Evil Blues," the second dash of comic relief) and Lee dryly, slyly insinuating the brevity of her bikini. "If there's going to be an enduring 'new wave' in jazz styling...this voice, this piano may well be the beginning," reads an uncredited blurb on the cover. The record started no revolution, probably because no other two performers had such chemistry or such a distinctive reaction. As jazz styling, though, it endures unsurprisingly. You hear the set in less than one hour (four CD-only bonus tracks included). You spend decades wandering inside the sound, as you might inside a sonic Stonehenge, savoring each new vantage point discovered, and the impossibility of discovering them all.
   ~ Andrew Hamlin, AMG

   Artist: Paul Bley
   Album: Open to Love (Solo Piano)
   Label: ECM
   Year: 1972
   Release: 1973
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kbps
   Time: 42:44
   Size: 94 mb
   AMG Rating:

   Despite the fact that pianist and composer Paul Bley had been a renowned and innovative jazzman for nearly 20 years, 1973 saw the release of his most mature and visionary work, and one that to this day remains his opus. This is one of the most influential solo piano recordings in jazz history, and certainly one that defined the sound of the German label ECM. Consisting of seven tracks, five of which were composed by Carla Bley (his ex-wife) and Annette Peacock (soon to be his ex-wife), and two originals, Bley showcased his newfound penchant for the spatial pointillism and use of silence that came to define his mature work. In Carla Bley's "Ida Lupino," the pianist took the song's harmonics and unwound them from their source, deepening the blues elements, brushing the Errol Garnerish ostinato with pastoral shades and textures of timbral elegance, and reaching the tonic chords in the middle register just as he forced the improvisation just barely into the abstract with his right hand, percussively slipping in one or two extra notes to highlight the deep lyricism in the tune's body. On his own "Started," Bley illustrates brazenly the deep influences of the Second Viennese School on his sense of harmony and counterpoint. Recalling Arnold Schцenberg's solo piano pieces in their engagement of dissonance and glissando placement, it's still Bley playing jazz and improvising, vamping on his own theme while turning melody and timbre back on themselves for the purpose of complete tonal engagement in the middle register. And in Annette Peacock's "Nothing Ever Was, Anyway," which closes the album, Bley makes full use of an element he employs throughout the recording: space and its ability to create the notion of consonance or dissonance from the simplest of melodies. Here notes appear, related, but just barely, to one another in a more or less linear sequence, and Bley stretches that connection to the breaking point by using his sense of spatial relationship in harmony to silence. He elongates the tonal sustain and allows it to bleed into his next line just enough, as if it were a ghostlike trace of another melody, a another distant lyric, attempting to impose itself on the present one, though it had just since ceased to exist. Ultimately, what Bley offers is jazz pianism as a new kind of aural poetics, one that treats the extension of the composer's line much as the poet treats the line as the extension of breath. Sheer brilliance.
   ~ Thom Jurek, AMG

   Artist: New York Trio
   Album: Blues In The Night
   Label: Venus
   Year: 2001
   Format: FLAC; mp3@192 kb/s from Mr. secco
   Size: 317MB; 71 MB
   Time: 51:37
   

   In the dawn of the 21st century, pianist Bill Charlap took the jazz world by storm with a series of rewarding albums for labels both in the U.S. and abroad. On Blues in the Night, he leads his New York Trio in a recording made for the Japanese label Venus, with veteran bassist Jay Leonhart and fellow young gun Bill Stewart joining him. Right away Charlap signals that he can take an old chestnut into a new direction. His stretched-out, blues-drenched "Blues in the Night" makes effective use of space and showcases his sidemen as well. Leonhart's buoyant bassline brings to mind the late Milt Hinton in the brisk rendition of "I Could Have Danced All Night." Charlap's intense workout of "Blue Skies" is a virtual jazz history lesson, showing the influence of a number of legendary pianists, while achieving a sound distinctly his own. His loping, jaunty approach to "My Funny Valentine" is another winner; equally playful is the snappy waltz treatment of "Tenderly," accented by Stewart's brushwork. One of the most promising pianists of his generation, this Charlap CD is highly recommended.
   ~ Ken Dryden, AMG

ФИАЛКИ по СРЕДАМ (выпуск двадцать пятый)

   Composer: Camille Saint-Saens
   Artist: Various Artists
   Album: The Carnival of the Animals (2 versions)
   Label: Sony/Decca
   Year: 1991/1986
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kbps
   Time: 1h, 15min, 24 sec/46 min, 43 sec
   Size: 180 mb/112 mb

   Итак, друзья мои, на календаре опять среда, и опять наступила пора слушать классику.
   Сегодня я, пожалуй, выполню одну заявку из приватных сообщений и предложу Вашему вниманию несколько произведений французского композитора Камиля Сен-Санса. Наш друг Виктор из Иерусалима попросил поделиться "Карнавалом животных". Мне в руки попали аж целых две версии этого произведения. Как говорится, жадничать не буду, выложу для ознакомления сразу обе.
   Версия, вышедшая на Sony, наверное, будет интересна ещё тем, что в качестве виолончелиста там "отметился" некий Yo-Yo Ma. Слыхали про такого?

    Artist: Art Of Three
    Album: Live In Japan
    Label: Sound Hills
    Year: 2003
    Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 kb/s
    Time: 1:14:29
    Size: 170 Mb
    AMG Rating:

    The Art of Three consists of a trio of jazz veterans: Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, and Billy Cobham. The first of two live engagements from their tour of Japan in 2003 is an explosive concert, covering a mix of familiar standards and popular jazz compositions that have likely been a part of their respective repertoire for some time. The tempo is constant as they shift from a driving take of Thelonious Monk's "I Mean You" to Bud Powell's "Bouncin' with Bud," with Cobham's powerful drums keeping pace with Barron's forceful piano. Things finally cool off a bit with "Autumn Leaves" before the listener is overwhelmed, followed by a jaunty, lighthearted take of "Out of Nowhere." Barron's flashy runs in "Body and Soul" suggest the influence of Art Tatum, while Cobham switches to brushes for a breezy "Stella by Starlight." Even though "'Round Midnight" is one of the most over-recorded jazz pieces of all time, Barron's introspective approach make it worth hearing. Dizzy Gillespie's "Tour de Force" makes a solid closing number. Intimately recorded with the feeling of having a front-row seat, hard bop fans will enjoy this Japanese release.
    ~ Ken Dryden, AMG

   Artist: Helen Forrest With Artie Shaw & His Orchestra
   Album: Sweet and Simple
   Label: Jasmine
   Year: 1938-1939
   Release: 2000
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kb/s
   Size: 155MB


   One of the more popular big band era singers, a performer that some might not consider a jazz vocalist, but one with exceptional ability to project lyrics and also an excellent interpreter. Forrest used several names early in her career, among them The Blue Lady and Bonnie Blue. She began singing in her brother's band in Washington, D.C., then was featured in Artie Shaw's band after Billie Holiday left in 1938. Forrest joined Benny Goodman when Shaw disbanded in 1939, staying until 1941. She recorded with Nat King Cole's trio and Lionel Hampton in 1940, then began to score hits working with the Harry James orchestra. During the early '40s, she had string of successes. Later she teamed with Dick Haymes on his radio show and on six duets that were big hits. Forrest cut back her activity in the '50s, then sang with Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra led by Sam Donahue in the early '60s. She continued to work on the club circut in the '70s and '80s, making a new album for Stash in 1983. Forrest died July 11, 1999 at age 82.
   

     Artist - Flip Phillips
     Album - Mood indigo
     Label - Gemini Records
     Year - 1987, release - 1988
     Quality - MP3@320 kbps (LP-rip.)
     Size - 120 mb
     Total time - 55:18



Album Mood Indigo is also tradition-bound; it is a product of cooperation between the Norwegian tenor sax player plus his rhythm section and two visiting American musicians, Flip Philips (tenor sax) and Kenny Davern (clarinet). The two Americans are established instrumentalists with a lifetime of experience in swing music. Nerem however, also has a long career behind him: he has done concerts and recordings with countless Scandinavian and American musicians, has led his own groups and has published several records in his own name. In 1980 he was voted Norwegian Jazzman of the Year, and he is regarded as one of the most talented mainstream musicians in Scandinavia. Here he proves a perfect match for his American opposite number Flip Philips and demonstrates his format as a soloist. The two-tenor-and-clarinet front line is an interesting and uncommon result of Nerem's collaboration with his American guests. The competent rhythm section comprises Egil Kapstad (piano), Kеre Garnes (bass) and Ole Jacob Hansen (drums).

     Artist: Ellis Marsalis Trio
     Album: Ellis Marsalis Trio
     Label: Blue Note
     Year: 1990
     Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
     Time: 55:34
     Size: 123 MB


     Pianist Ellis Marsalis is in excellent form for this trio outing with bassist Bob Hurst and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts. The performances fall generally into the medium-tempo range, with Ellis scattering some witty song quotes throughout the lightly swinging renditions. The high points include one of the more delightful versions ever of Johnny Mandel's "Emily," some close interplay during "Little Niles" and a tongue-in-cheek version of "Limehouse Blues" that includes slapped bass, parade rhythms and Marsalis trying in vain to sound Dixielandish. One programming error should be noted: there is no such song as "Just Squeeze Me" and, rather than the one performed being Fats Waller's "Squeeze Me," it is actually Duke Ellington's "Squeeze Me, But Please Don't Tease Me."
   ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

   Artist: Solomon Burke
   Album: Don't Give Up on Me
   Year: 2002
   Label: Fat Possum Records
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
   Size: 68+52,4 MB
   AMG Rating:



   Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member, and the man Jerry Wexler calls "the world's greatest soul singer," SOLOMON BURKE, has recorded a brand new album for Fat Possum Records. Recorded live in the studio in a raw, organic style by Joe Henry, the album features new compositions by writers and artists including Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Nick Lowe, Brian Wilson, Joe Henry and Dan Penn, all of whom credit Solomon with deeply influencing their work. None of these songs have ever been released commercially before now, and Solomon makes each of them his own with his dynamic delivery.