Artist: Tsuyoshi Yamamoto
     Album: What A Wonderful Trio
     Label: First Impression Music
     Year: 2009
     Release: DXD 079
     Quality: Flac+cue
     Time: 1 hour
     Size:328.54 Mb



The Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio, whose well known previous releases include several albums on the well-respected Japanese jazz label Three Blind Mice and on the previous album Autumn in Seattle (FIM 43), are back again on this new release from First Impression Music. What A Wonderful Trio includes a nice variety of jazz music in nine tracks and also some virtuoso piano from Yamamoto. Released on the new audiophile CD format known as DXD Digital eXtreme Definition (an audio encoding technology that was developed for editing high-resolution recordings which is playable on all CD Players) this is the ultimate version of this amazing jazz session!

     Artist: Tania Maria
     Album: Ohla Quem Chega
     Label: EMI
     Year: 1971, release: 2003
     Genre: Brazilian Jazz / Bossa Nova
     Format, bitrate: MP3, 320 kbs
     Time: 27:45
     Size: 58,53 Mb

Kalamu’s recent Elizeth Cardoso post got me thinking about some of my favorite early bossa nova songs. I’m going to post five such tunes and you’ll notice, in addition to their obvious stylistic similarities, all five share a compactness and an elegance such that, when they end, they leave you wanting more.

The first three tunes are peas in a pod. Rosa Maria’s “Capoeira De Oxalá,” Luiza’s “Abandono” and Astrud Gilberto’s “Berimbau” all mine familiar but fertile ground. Anyone familiar with bossa nova will recognize the fleet jazziness of the melodies, the ease and smoothness of the vocals, the skipping feel of the slowed-down samba rhythms. These songs began quickly, affect the listener deeply and end the same way they began. They’re almost shocking in their brevity: the running times are 2:27, 2:22 and 2:22, respectively. Also, all three date back to the mid-Sixties, the heyday of bossa nova as an international phenomenon. For me, listening to these songs is something like catching sight of an old flame, except from the wrong side of the subway tracks and just as her train is pulling out. They’re like glimpses into a past that can never be fully experienced again, only hinted at, longed for and dreamed about.
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Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Favela” substitutes flute and piano for the female voice, but the effect is the same. Jobim’s melody is spare and lucid, expressing the same sense of saudade that Rosa, Luiza and Astrud create with their voices. The track is taken from Jobim’s 1963 LP The Composer Of Desafinado Plays…, an instrumental collection of now-classic bossa compositions.

Last is “Olha Quem Chega,” a tune by the legendary Tania Maria from her 1971 debut album of the same name. Technically, this track doesn’t qualify as ‘early’ bossa. Getz/Gilberto, considered by many to be the quintessential bossa nova LP, had been released in 1963, some eight years previous. But “Olha” must have been a throwback of sorts; it has the same overall feel has the other tunes here.

It is the various tensions of bossa nova—the playful, uptempo poppiness of the accompaniment versus the aching melancholy of the melody; the lightness of the lead voice versus the detachment of the singing (or playing) style; the forcefulness of the samba-derived groove versus the invariably mellow way in which the groove is played—that make bossa nova such a beguiling style of music. The songs may each last for a couple of minute and change, but today, some forty years after they were first recorded, I find that I still have a hard time letting them go. ~ Mtume ya Salaam, kalamu.com

     Artist:Champion Jack Dupree
     Album: Joe Davis Sessions 1945-1946
     Label: Flyright Records
     Years: 1945-1946, release: 1995
     Format, bitrate: mp3; 320 Kbps
     Time: 52:30
     Size: 130.0 MB


Journeyman blues pianist Champion Jack Dupree took his New Orleans-born, boogie-woogie style north to Chicago and Indianapolis and gave it some blues backbone via meetings with Leroy Carr and Tampa Red. The first fruits of that education were his early '40s sides for Okeh, which are available on Columbia's New Orleans Barrelhouse Boogie. While his Okeh sides paired Dupree with a rhythm section, Flyright's reissue of his later recordings for the Joe Davis label, 1944-'45, feature him alone at the piano. The tracks wear a bit thin at times as Dupree recycles many of the same boogie-woogie patterns, but the intimacy of the solo setting and the energy of his swaggering vocal delivery keep these sides engaging. Dupree supplies variety by way of subject matter that takes in domestic strife ("Outside Man"), politics ("F.D.R. Blues"), and drinking ("Rum Cola Blues"). For fans of both Champion Jack Dupree and the blues, 1944-'45 is worth getting; you'll not only get some fine boogie-woogie blues, but also hear how Dupree influenced blues and rock & roll greats like Memphis Slim and Fats Domino. ~ Stephen Cook, All Music Guide

     Artist: Johnny Hodges
     Album: Buenos Aires Blues
     Label: LONE HILL JAZZ
     Year: rec. 1962-63/rel.2009
     Format: MP 3@320 Kb/s
     Time: 67:17
     Size: 147 Mb

     Artist - Eugen Cicero
     Album - Klavierspielereien
     Label - MPS
     Year - 1965
     Quality - MP3@320 kbps (LP-rip)
     Size - 90,9 mb
     Total time - 42:42


Юджин Чичеро (правильнее Ойген Цицеро, Eugen Cicero), (17.06.1940 - 05.12.1997) - румынский джазовый пианист.
С четырех лет брал уроки у лучших педагогов Венгрии и Румынии, позднее учился в Будапештской консерватории. В его произведениях гармонично сочетаются классика и джаз. .
В 1976 получил немецкую премию Schallplatten Preis за свои аранжировки произведений Шуберта. Выпустил более 70 записей совместно с Берлинским и Мюнхенским симфоническими оркестрами. Гастролировал по Японии, где приобрел культовый статус.

The world famous classical pianist, well in a league of its own, developed and presented his unique style of playing classical themes with elements of jazz and swing. EUGEN CICERO was born on June, 27th 1940 in Klausenburg, Rumania and died, much too early, on December, 5th 1997 in Zьrich, Switzerland.

     Artist: Anita O'Day
     Album: Ao Vivo No 150 Night Club
     Label: Eldorado
     Year: 1984
     Format, bitrate: 320 Kbp/s (Vinil Rip)
     Time: 40:52
     Size: 84MB

     Artist: Jascha Heifetz
     Album: The Heifetz Collection [Vol 21 - Vol 46]
     Label: RCA Victor Gold Sea
     Release: 1994
     Genre: classical music/violin
     Format, bitrate: MP3. Cbr 320 Kbps
     Time: 28:52:48
     Size: 3,897 Gb


Яша (Иосиф Робертович) Хейфец уже при жизни стал легендой, его называли императором скрипки. Крупнейший немецкий скрипач Карл Флеш писал о Хейфеце: «Он, бесспорно, представляет собой вершину современного развития нашего искусства. Прежде всего достойна удивления его постоянная, ничем не скованная техническая оснащенность. Ему не нужно «разыгрываться». Пальцы и смычок действуют безотказно, словно машина, которая нажатием кнопки сразу же начинает работать во всю мощь. Тон Хейфеца благороден и чарующе красив, техническое мастерство не имеет изъянов... Граммофонные записи Хейфеца принадлежат к самым совершенным, так что слава о нем надолго переживет его...».

      Artist: Wes Montgomery
     Album: Full House
     Year: 1962
     Label:Riverside
     Format, bitrate:MP3@320K & FLAC
     Size: 138.7MB & 380.8MB
     Time: 63:15
     AMG Rating:




An audiophile reissue of an Original Jazz Classics CD also currently available, this live set is notable for teaming guitarist Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio (comprised of pianist Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb) with the fiery tenor of Johnny Griffin. As with the OJC release, six selections (highlighted by "Blue 'n' Boogie" and Montgomery's "S.O.S.") are augmented by "Born to Be Blue" and a pair of alternate takes. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

    Artist: Keith Jarrett & Michala Petri
    Album: Handel: Recorder Sonatas
    Label: BMG Classics/RCA
    Year: 1990; Release: 1991
    Style: Chamber Music
    Format mp3, bitrate: 256 kb/s vbr
    Time: 56:00
    Size: 83,3 Mb
    Bubu's Rating:

This record is absolutely delightful, and it ought to appeal to a wider musical audience than just enthusiasts for Handel or for the 18th century style. It would make very good background music for one thing, but it deserves - more than deserves -- to be listened to with full and proper attention. Handel's recorder sonatas, the liner-note seems to say, were the product of his association with first the Earl of Burlington, whose interest in the arts was genuine, and later with the Duke of Chandos who was a bit of a poseur and opportunist. It would have been helpful to have had some comment on the pieces themselves, Handel's instrumental music being as problematical as it is. Is the attribution to Handel completely certain in all cases, for instance? Were all these sonatas originally meant for the recorder, for another instance? Is the D minor sonata, in no fewer than 7 movements, really one sonata or some kind of combination of two? All the music is good, and it all sounds like feasible Handel to me. It was a pleasure to hear the marvellous tune of the final allegro of the B flat sonata, which I also know from a violin sonata in A major, in this alternative setting, but such practice was commonplace with Handel and Bach and their contemporaries, and it proves nothing regarding the origin of the sonata....

    Artist: Keith Jarrett
    Album: The Impulse Story (compilation)
    Label: Impulse!
    Year: 1973 - 1976
    Release: 2006
    Style: Avant-Garde Jazz
    Format mp3, bitrate: 320 kb/s
    Time: 1:05:24
    Size: 149 Mb

Keith Jarrett's volume in the Impulse Story series makes for wonderful listening since the period he spent at the label — from 1973 to 1976 — yielded eight albums, most of them with a working band that included bassist Charlie Haden, saxophonist Dewey Redman, and drummer Paul Motian — named informally as "the American Quartet." This set contains 11 cuts. The problematic end is that they come from six of the eight recordings, and the lion's share come from just two: Treasure Island and Bop-Be. The cuts were selected by author Ashley Kahn, who wrote the liner notes to each of the CDs in the series. He is the author of The House That Trane Built; The Impulse Story (in addition to the individual artist titles there is a semi-comprehensive four-disc box set, and a single-disc sampler). Kahn's choosing of these tracks with so much emphasis placed on two albums does cheat the listener of the sheer range expressed on Jarrett's other Impulse recordings. The real bonus here is a solo cut ("Victoria") taken from Jarrett's CD The Impulse Years, now out of print. - Thom Jurek at AMG

    Artist: Keith Jarrett
    Album: Rarum : Selected Recordings (2cd compilation)
    Label: ECM
    Year: 1974 - 1994
    Release: 2002
    Style: Classical/Fusion/Modern Creative/Post-Bop
    Format mp3, bitrate: 320 kb/s vbr
    Time: 2:33
    Size: 265 Mb
    AMG Rating:

The object of ECM's handsomely Digipak-aged Rarum series is to have its roster of artists -- past and present -- select their favorite performances on the label. Which leads to the next question: Is the artist always the best judge of his or her own material? With that in mind, Keith Jarrett's choices for his two-CD set, the first volume of this series, are sure to be some of the most interesting, wide-ranging, surprising, and controversial of the whole lot. Listeners have had fair warning -- ECM's previous Jarrett sampler, ECM Works, was also gleefully unpredictable -- but Rarum, Vol. 1: Selected Recordings gives you a much better idea of the staggering variety of Jarrett's interests over a 21-year span than the earlier disc...