Artist: Lenny Breau
     Album: Live at Bourbon St. 2CD
     Recording Date: Jun 14, 1983
     Label: Guitarchives Music Inc.
     Genre,Styles: Jazz, Post-Bop, Guitar Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Standards, Mainstream Jazz
     Quality: mp3/320 kbps
     Size: 287 MB
     Time: 124:02
     AMG Rating:

The late Lenny Breau, an underground hero, is considered such a masterful guitarist by his admirers that it somehow does not seem surprising that the Guitarchives label was started specifically to release his music. This two-CD set (which was put out in 1995) contains a previously unreleased duet concert from 1983 featuring Breau and bassist Dave Young. The music (full of close musical communication) is subtle and quiet yet consistently inventive. It is obvious after a few minutes of listening that Breau had complete control of his guitar and an original voice of his own. Although most of the repertoire is standards (with just two fairly basic originals), there is little predictable about the playing. Highlights include Breau's interpretations of "There Is No Greater Love," "All Blues," McCoy Tyner's "Vision," "Beautiful Love," and a cooking "There Will Never Be Another You," but all 17 performances have their rewarding moments. Overall this two-fer gives one a definitive portrait of the nearly forgotten legend. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

     Artists: VA
     Album: Jazz After Midnight
     Label: HighNote Records, Inc.
     Year: 2007
     Quality: VBRkbps / 44,1kHz / Joint-Stereo
     Size:150 Mb
     Time: 62:04




Jazz After Midnight contains ten romantic standards performed by artists on the Highnote label. While short on improvising or energetic interludes, this is a decent budget-line set that features Frank Morgan, David "Fathead" Newman, and Larry Coryell with less than obvious inclusions by Mike LeDonne, Don Sickler and Louis Hayes & the Cannonball Legacy Band. Recommended for those who appreciate jazz as romantic background music.

     Artist: Woody Shaw
     Album:The Moontrane
     Label: 32 Jazz
     Year: 1974, release: 1997
     Format, bitrate:MP3 320 kbps
     Time: 58:19
     Size:132MB
     AMG Rating


Although he never received the notoriety of Freddie Hubbard or (at the time) Chuck Mangione, Woody Shaw was one of the leading trumpeters of the 1970s. The Moontrane is a strong date by one of Shaw's finest units, a band including Azar Lawrence on tenor and soprano, the up-and-coming trombonist Steve Turre, keyboardist Onaje Allen Gumbs, either Buster Williams or Cecil McBee on bass, drummer Victor Lewis, Tony Waters on congas and percussionist Guilherme Franco. Although none of the group originals (best known is the leader's "Moontrane") caught on, the adventurous music still sounds stimulating more than two decades later. Recommended. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

     Artist: Annie Ross
     Album: Sings a Handful of Songs
     Label: Everest
     Year: 1963; release: 1964
     Format, bitrate: 320 kbp/s
     Time: 37:05
     Size: 74 MB
     AMG rating



By 1963, Annie Ross had permanently moved back to England and had started working more as an actress than as a singer. This interesting set features Ross backed by an orchestra arranged and conducted by Johnnie Spence. The obvious high point is one of the darkest and scariest versions of "Love For Sale" ever recorded; Ross' desperate-sounding rendition is haunting. Otherwise, she performs a variety of standards in lightly swinging fashion, not scatting or using vocalese but instead working on interpreting the lyrics. Other highlights include "All of You," "Nature Boy," "Like Someone in Love" and "Limehouse Blues." ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

   Artist - Paul Quinichette
   Album - The Vice-Pres
   Label - EmArCy
   Years: 1951-1954, release - 1995
   Quality - FLAC
   Size - 240 mb
   Total time - 75:54


   Paul Quinichette was known as "the Vice Pres" because he sounded so similar to Lester Young ("Pres") during the 1950s. Despite that fault (his lack of originality), Quinichette was quite creative and swinging within Young's style and his recordings were consistently rewarding during the era. On this Verve CD reissue, the music of two full Lps (The Vice Pres and Sequel) are reissued plus six previously unheard alternate takes. Quinichette is heard in a a sextet with both pianist Kenny Drew and organist Bill Doggett, jamming in a nonet arranged by Ernie Wilkins, playing with Count Basie, trumpeter Buck Clayton and trombonist Dicky Wells in a septet, heading a sextet with organist Marlowe Morris and playing "Sunday" with a quintet. Most of Quinichette's sidemen are drawn from the Basie bands, both from the 1950s and the '40s. Surprisingly there are only two standards on these dates (the other one is "People Will Say We're In Love"), with most of the jump tunes penned by the Vice Pres himself. A perfectly-done reissue.

     Artist:Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
     Album:Ella And Louis Again (MFSL) 2CD
     Label:Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
     Year:rec.Jul 23, 1957-Aug 13, 1957 / rel.1995
     Format: Flac + cue + scan
     Time:44:31, 46:25
     Size: 274 Mb
     AMG rating:

    Artist: Weather Report
    Album: Mr. Gone
    Label: Columbia
    Genre: JazzRock/Fusion
    Format mp3, bitrate: 320 kb/s
    Time: 37:27
    Size: 95,7 Mb (covers)

Mr. Gone was recorded before the great MIDI breakthrough of the early '80s. In retrospect, the tools that Zawinul had to work with on this project would be considered primitive by today's high-tech standards, yet the sounds he realized on them are quite remarkable. With just a Prophet 5, an Oberheim Polyphonic and an ARP 2600 with a mess of patch cords, Zawinul was able to simulate horn sections and create haunting soundscapes, things that are done much more easily and quickly today via MIDI and sampling.
"What I was trying to do was so difficult in those days," says Zawinul, "because the quality of the instruments was still, more or less, cheesy." At that point, technology had not yet caught up with Zawinul's mind. More recently with his band, the Zawinul Syndicate, the pioneering synthesis! was able to access a brave new world of real and imagined sounds by utilizing his custom -made Pepe, a kind of high-tech melodica that can MIDI to any sampler or bank of synthesizers. He was even having fairly convincing Wayne Shorter tenor samples that he pulled out and played from time to time. With his arsenal of MIDI compatible gear, Zawinul could instantly realize any sound that poped into his mind.