Artist: Jean-Luc Ponty
   Album: Aurora
   Label: Atlantic
   Year: 1975
   Release: 1977
   Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kbps
   Time: 37:28
   Size: 87 Mb (91258 Kb)
   AMG Rating:

   С удивлением не обнаружил в хранилищах Jazz Blues Club одного очень достойного диска Жана-Люка Понти (Jean-Luc Ponty). Альбом ”Aurora” записан знаменитым скрипачом и его новой (на тот момент) командой. Диск определенно вызывет ощущение кайфа. Да что там говорить: Классика джаз-рока!

   This album reissue has state-of-the-art (for 1975) high-powered fusion that differs surprisingly little from the music that Jean-Luc Ponty has mostly played throughout the 1980s and '90s. The violinist's quintet (which includes guitarist Darryl Stuermer, keyboardist Patrice Rushen, bassist Tom Fowler and drummer Norman Fearrington) displays impeccable musicianship and lots of energy. The group was often so tight that the violin, keyboards, guitar and (to a lesser extent) the electric bass had similar tones, sometimes making it difficult to tell who was soloing at a particular moment. Listeners open to the sound of electronics and funky grooves should be very impressed by the spirited music which combines the adventure of jazz with the sound of rock.
   ~ Scott Yanow, AMG

    Artist: Oscar Peterson
    Album: Pianiste magicien du clavier (compilation)
    Label: Pablo Records
    Release: 1996
    Format, bitrate: Mp3, 320 kb/s
    Time: 1:07:08
    Size: 160 Mb (cover)

            EVERY DAY IS AN OSCAR PETERSON DAY

   In 1996 the French division of WEA Warner/Pablo Records released this nice Oscar Peterson compilation containing selections from different albums of his own and collaborations with great jazz artists.

     Artist - Benny Goodman
     Album - Yale Recordings, Vol. 1
     Label - Music Masters
     Years: 1955-1967, release - 1988
     Quality - MP3@320kbps
     Size - 112,0 mb
     Total time - 49:32



     In his will, Benny Goodman gave to Yale not only all of his band arrangements (over 1, 500) but 400 ten-inch master tapes of unreleased studio and concert recordings. Some of the more rewarding sessions have now been issued by Music Masters and this particular box set includes the first five volumes (and a 40-page booklet), six CDs in all (since Volume 5 had two CDs by itself) which are also available separately. The music dates from 1955-84 (the second half of Benny Goodman's career) and is taken from quite a few sessions, including a full CD of material by his excellent septet of 1955 (featuring trumpeter Ruby Braff and Paul Quinichette on tenor), big-band performances from 1958 with several vocals by Jimmy Rushing and many selections from a 1959 engagement with a nonet featuring trumpeter Jack Sheldon, trombonist Bill Harris and tenorman Flip Phillips. Although no longer a pacesetter, Benny Goodman remained one of the jazz world's most brilliant performers, making this set well worth acquiring.

   Artists - VA
   Album - The Best Of Schmaltz Volume 1 2CD
   Label - Membran/Documents
   Years: 1940s - 1950s, release - 2008
   Quality - MP3@320 kbps
   Size - 262 mb
   Total time: 57:42+65:44



   2008 two CD set. Schmaltz... What a lovely word for over-sweet and corny music, for the sentimental, emotional sounds and singing produced by the great Jazz, TV and film stars of the 1940s and 1950s. The Best Of Schmaltz Vol. 1 presents a total of 43 of these schmaltzy, sentimental songs including songs from Bing Crosby, the king of the crooners, and Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee. Schmaltz unites them all: those unforgotten kings and queens of music so smooth it starts to ooze out of your CD player!

   Artists: Charlie Mariano & Enrique Sinesi
   Album: Tango para Charlie
   Year: 2000
   Label: Enja HW
   Format: FLAC & MP3 (320k/s)
   Size: 307 & 135 MB (scans)
   Time: 58:20

   Enrique "Quique" Sinesi, who joins alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano on these recordings, is a strong solo guitarist with a very distinctive musicality... On "Tango para Charlie" this solo wizard encounters the sublime melodic magic of one of the great saxophonist in jazz. The wonder of Mariano has always been his stylistic openness, his ability to go from Kenton to Karnataka, from Pierce to Pork Pie without compromising his personal voice, his "jazz" style. So when Sinesi boards his 7-string Spanish Guitar and sets up a tango groove employing the meanest bass string on any side of the ocean, Mariano counters with cool and jazzy melodic lines the abstarct the groove toward that openness of the "two"...
   ~ Stephan Richter, original liner notes

   Artist - Bill Evans
   Album - Alone (Again)
   Label - OJC/Fantasy
   Year - 1975, release - 1998
   Quality - MP3@320 kbps
   Size - 95,2 mb
   Total time - 42:57





   Bill Evans plays well enough on this set of unaccompanied solos (reissued on CD), but the material is generally not worth the intense explorations that it receives. Other than Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way" and perhaps Ray Noble's "The Touch of Your Lips," the songs are not deserving of this type of treatment: "Make Someone Happy," "What Kind of Fool Am I" and a nearly 13Ѕ-minute version of "People."

   Artist: Enrique "Mono" Villegas
   Album: Encuentro
   Label: Random RR742
   Year: 1968
   Release: 2000
   Format, bitrate: mp3@256 kbps
   Time: 41 m
   Size: 77 MB



   In september '68 Duke Ellington and his band visited Buenos Aires. The local jazz pianist Horacio "Mono" Villegas invited Duke's trumpetist Willie Cook and tenorman Paul Gonsalves to a reunion in a recording studio. They have never met before, there they joined a bassist and a drummer and in a very spontaneous way they produced what later was edited under the name of "Encounter".

   Artist: Teddy Wilson
   Album: Three Little Words
   Year: 1976
   Label: Black & Blue
   Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kb/s
   Time: 52:15
   Size: 116 MB(+5% recovery)
   AMG Rating:


   There is an unusual setting for this Teddy Wilson trio date: an open-air studio in Nice, France. As a result, the ambience is a bit different outdoors, while birds can be heard occasionally in the background. This is hardly a distraction for Wilson and two fellow veterans, bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Oliver Jackson, who make their way through 14 standards that they had likely played hundreds of times during their long careers. Highlights include a lush treatment of "You Go to My Head," a cheerful midtempo romp through "Flying Home" (with a superb solo by Hinton), and a blistering take of "Undecided." While Teddy Wilson didn't modify his style much during his career, this outdoor recording is one of his most interesting studio efforts.
   ~ Ken Dryden, AMG

    Artist: Buddy Guy
    Album: A Man And The Blues
    Label: Vanguard Records
    Year: 1968
    Format, bitrate: Mp3, 192 kb/s
    Time: 38:31
    Size: 54,1 Mb (covers)
    AMG Rating:

   This album does a bunch of things. It is perhaps the seminal work of what musicologists call "second-generation Chicago blues." This is the blues form which remains the template for most popular blues produced today. In these performances, Mr. Guy alloys soul and rock figures with the Chicago blues vernacular. As a result, his album released blues to a truly pan-racial and cross-generational following. Most had never witnessed real blues music before. Mr. Guy's fret-board work illustrates the liquid tone possible from that pre-eminent electric guitar, the Fender Stratocaster. His technique transducts the passions of his elders uncorrupted. We hear them today from the hands of hundreds of young guitarists. This is the record that certified Buddy Guy's career. He is arguably the most original blues performer alive. For some listeners this album has been something of a millstone around Mr. Guy's neck. His successive albums never reached the elegance of this one. Need they? Today, thirty-five years afterwards, blues production values have evolved. Mr. Guy's blues are evolving too. His 2001 release "Sweet Tea" blends the sensibilities of rap and alternative with the newly fashionable product called "electric Delta." "Sweet Tea" hasn't the irreducible beauty of "A Man and the Blues." Yet it does show Buddy Guy's intensity as synthesist and artist little diminished. Some would eject Bach or Mozart into space for other civilizations to evaluate us with. I'd send "A Man and the Blues."
   Roger Alburn (West Chester, PA United States), Amazon.com

    Artist: Michael Jackson
    Album: Thriller (25th Anniversary Edition)
    Label: Sony Music Distribution
    Year: 1982
    Release: 2008
    Format, bitrate: Mp3, 192 kb/s & 320 kbps
    Time: 42:19 + 56:36 & 72:34
    Size: 53,8Mb + 113Mb + 24,5 (covers) & 164 MB
         

REPOST with additional links and info from Mr. ninikoo

            MICHAEL HAS LEFT THE BUILDING ! ! !

   On this very sad occasion we are presenting you the best selling album ever: "Thriller" (over 100 million coppies sold all over the world) on both editions (the original and The 25th Anniversary). This great musical achievement was possible by Michael's talent and inspiration, the contribution of many famous artists and especially under the magic wand of the great Quincy Jones.
   God rest Michael in peace.