Artist: Various Artists
     Album: JAZZ GUITAR from Russia & Ukraine
     Year: 2009
     Genre: Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 1:33:33
     Size: 210.5 Mb



     Перед Вами компиляция гитарных джазовых композиций. Исполнители из России и Украины в представлении не нуждаются. Их имена хорошо известны, поэтому ограничусь их перечислением: Алексей Кузнецов, Ильдар Казаханов, Алексей Дегусаров, Гасан Багиров, Владимир Лихошва, Сергей Овсяников, Энвер Измайлов.

Приятного прослушивания!

     Artist: Mimi Fox & Marian McPartland
     Album: Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz: Mimi Fox
     Label: Manhattan Beach Studios
     Year: 2008 [Broadcast date: 2008-11-21]
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 54:55
     Size: 123.7 Mb

     Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, November 21, 2008 - San Francisco-based guitarist Mimi Fox was born in 1956 in New York City. Growing up, Fox recalls an eclectic mix of music in her home: Her father, an amateur drummer, enjoyed early jazz and had a collection of Dixieland albums. Her mother was a professional singer until Fox was 12, so the music of the American songbook was also present. Meanwhile, her older brother and sister were taken with the rock and pop sounds of the late '60s and early '70s.
     Fox began playing the drums in the school band at age 9. A year later, she picked up the guitar and began picking out Beatles and Monkees tunes. She would continue playing guitar throughout her teenage years, but with a focus on funk, R&B and Top 40 music. As a drummer, though, Fox remained connected to jazz, playing in several groups through junior high and high school. At age 14, Fox was encouraged by her friends and bandmates to check out John Coltrane, which she recalls as a seminal moment in her musical development.
     In 1979, Fox moved out to San Francisco, where she became an in-demand musician playing in diverse groups in and around the Bay Area. There, she also met guitarist Bruce Forman, who encouraged her to focus on jazz guitar full-time. Fox has since been recording and touring fiendishly, playing jazz clubs and festivals around the world and garnering accolades from fans and critics along the way. She has performed and/or recorded with such artists as Branford Marsalis, Abbey Lincoln, Diana Krall and Dr. Lonnie Smith, as well as fellow guitarists Charlie Hunter and Stanley Jordan.
     Fox continues a grueling touring schedule, and also finds time for jazz education. She serves as an advisor to the guitar department at the Jazz School in Berkeley, Calif., and has served as an adjunct professor at New York University. In addition, she has written a book about guitar methods for Mel Bay publishing, and has also created a CD-ROM-based jazz course called Jazz Anatomy.
     Her latest CD, 2006's Perpetually Hip, is her seventh release as a bandleader. The two-disc set features a guitar quartet on one disc and her solo work on the other.

     Artist: Airto Moreira and the Gods of Jazz
     Album: Killer Bees
     Label: B&W
     Year: 1993 [Recording Date: 1989]
     Genre: Jazz, Fusion, Latin Jazz, Crossover Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 50:07
     Size: 112.4 Mb

     In November of 1989, after ten years of California living, Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira felt the need to get back in touch with the free-music roots he established two decades earlier in New York City. A spate of slumberous L.A. studio sessions, in combination with a tired scene in his adoptive hometown of Santa Barbara, was beginning to take its toll on the creative percussionist. New York of the late 1960s bustled with musical vibrancy for Moreira. All night jam sessions with the likes of Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jan Hammer, Stanley Clarke, Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, and Walker Booker were the rule for the artist. On occasion, even such heavyweight legends as Lee Morgan, Cannonball Adderley, Buster Williams, and Thelonious Monk would sit in. In an effort to shake off L.A. studio stupor and re-create the wonder days of impromptu dream team sessions, he invited long time jazz comrades Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Mark Egan, and Stanley Clarke to record improvised music with him in a local Santa Barbara studio. Jumping at the opportunity to play with their friends for the sake of playing, these musicians ended up producing the Killer Bees CD. Peppered with subtle overdubs by vocalist Flora Purim, saxophonist Gary Meek, and guitarist Hiram Bullock, Killer Bees is a set of nine tracks characterized by the sense of spontaneity and adventurousness that Airto intended to revisit. From the opening "Banana Jam," a track in which Moreira, Corea, and Egan experiment with sounds in an improvised section that eventually crescendos into a powerful bass and piano ostinato, to the concluding "Chicken on the Mind," a whimsical track that builds on the sounds of a barking dog and the cackles of Corea, this CD captures superb studio musicians playing out on a limb. If you are looking for the precise articulation of rigid song structures, then this CD may leave you feeling a bit unsatisfied. On the other hand, if you enjoy listening to evolving and amorphous forms full of mercurially virtuosic content, then Killer Bees will make you yearn for more projects that recreate Moreira's free-jazz jams of yore. ~ by John Vallier

     Artist: Bill Carrothers
     Album: After Hours, Vol. 4
     Label: Go Jazz
     Year: 1998
     Genre: Jazz, Post Bop
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 62:02
     Size: 140.3 Mb

     This piano trio recording by Bill Carrothers (William Gaylord Carrothers III) was released on the tiny Go Jazz label in 1998, but it was unknown to me until I recently visited Carrothers' website. Thinking this collection of ballad standards would be ideal for my weekly radio program "NightTown," I immediately ordered it.
     I have been fascinated by Carrothers' playing since the Berman Music Foundation brought him to Lincoln in April 1998 as part of A Band in All Hope, a trio also featuring Anton Denner on saxophone and Bill Stewart on drums. That performance at Westbrook Auditorium was a revelation, largely because of Carrothers' unusual technique and utterly unique sense of melody and time. I also share his love of Civil War-era folk music and frequently listen to his solo piano recording "The Blues and the Grays."
     "After Hours" is similar to that release in the pianist's use of shifting, otherworldly harmonies and a free rhythmic sense. With sympathetic partners Billy Peterson on bass and Kenny Horst on drums, Carrothers paints these well-known tunes in broad impressionist sweeps, hinting at the true melody, then delving into the darker recesses of harmony and meter. The tempos are sometimes painfully slow. On sad songs of lost love, like "In the Wee Small Hours," "It's So Easy to Remember" and "Young and Foolish," the dirge-like tempos and wistful meandering of the melody seem intensely melancholic, even suicidal. Indeed, the overwhelming despair of "Chelsea Bridge" is enough to precipitate a leap into the nearest river. Perhaps that's what makes Carrothers' playing so enthralling is his interpretations reveal the immense sadness at life's core.
     Even the somewhat more "upbeat" tunes here, such as "On Green Dolphin Street" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," can transport the listener to an uneasy state of mind. By their quirky moods and dark harmonies, we know for certain that we are not in the safe, predictable hands of a George Shearing or a Diana Krall. As much as I love this stuff, I'm afraid that if I play it on NightTown "that nocturnal refuge for the romantic heart" - I may have to open a counseling hotline to handle all the calls from depressed listeners.~ By Tom Ineck

     Artist: Freddie King
     Album: Live In Nancy, 1975
     Label: Esoldun INA
     Year: 1989 [ Orig. recording 1975]
     Genre: Blues, Chicago Blues
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 129:03
     Size: 187.1 Mb

     "Of all the people I've played with, the most stimulating in an onstage situation was Freddie King. He could be pretty mean but subtle with it. He'd make you feel at home and then tear you to pieces... He taught me just about everything I needed to know... when and when not to make a stand... when and when not to show your hand. . . and most important of all... how to make love to a guitar." ERIC CLAPTON

     FREDDIE KING: Live In Nancy, 1975 - fantastic 1989 French only 12-track set of volumes 1 & 2 of the series recorded live just a year before his untimely death. His performances were powerful and filled with emotional singing coupled with burning soulful licks played on his Gibson 355.

     Artist: Various Artists
     Album: JFC Jazz Club 10 лет
     Label: JFC Jazz Club
     Year: 2004
     Genre: Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 70:09
     Size: 156 Mb

     Просматривая книгу Владимира Фейертага "Джаз в Петербурге Who is Who" обратил внимание, что в биографиях музыкантов часто встречается название одного альбома - JFC 10 лет. Этот live альбом, выпущен по случаю десятилетия культового джаз клуба Питера. Надо послушать и книжку просматривать интересней! Тем болеe, что в этом году клубу будет 15 лет и надеюсь, Андрей Кондаков (арт-директор клуба) и компания нас порадуют новым альбомом. Ждем! Будет, что сравнивать.

     Artist: Sam Reider & Marian McPartland
     Album: Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz: Sam Reider
     Label: Manhattan Beach Studios
     Year: 2008 [Broadcast date: 2008-12-12]
     Genre: Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 57:08
     Size: 125.6 Mb

     Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, December 12, 2008 - Pianist Sam Reider was born in New York, but raised in San Francisco since he was a year old. He began studying classical piano at age 5 and became interested in jazz several years later. By age 11, he'd begun studying and playing jazz primarily, preferring the freedom of improvisation to the constraints of classical study.
     In high school, Reider studied piano vigorously. By his senior year, he'd racked up several impressive awards, including Outstanding Soloist at the North Texas Jazz Festival. He'd also been made a member of the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. Along with the members of his Uptown Trio - with bassist Jeff Picker and drummer Jake Goldbas - Reider was selected in 2007 by the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts to be the rhythm section of the Clifford Brown/Stan Getz All-Stars.
     Reider is currently attending Columbia University, where he majors in English. He's just released an album with his Uptown Trio titled Without Strings. The group spent the summer of 2008 on a West Coast tour in support of the album, which took it to Yoshi's and Catalina's, among other venues from Washington to L.A.

     Performer: Timothy Berens, Stewart Goodyear, William Tritt
     Orchestra: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
     Conductor: Erich Kunzel
     Composer: George Gershwin
     Album: George Gershwin: The Complete Orchestra Collection
     Label: Telarc
     Year: 1998 [Original Year recordings: 1981-1997]
     Genre: Classical / 20th Century Period
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 78:03 74:11
     Size: 173.4 + 163.3 Mb



     There is no denying Maestro Kunzle's devotion and dedication to the cause of Gershwin. He has researched deeply into the music and has rediscovered some gems over the years. This is an excellent collection of recordings made between 1981 and 1997.
     The first CD concentrates on the works for piano and orchestra beginning with a cheeky, gutsy reading of the famous Rhapsody in Blue (the original Paul Whiteman version for "jazz band") with William Tritt as soloist. Much of the phrasing is attractively cheeky and will raise a smile but I felt that the big tune was a trifle restrained. The Second Rhapsody is more convincing in its structure, the texture is richer and the development stronger particularly of the central theme which in my opinion is every bit as attractive and memorable as the big tune of Rhapsody in Blue. This splendid, vibrant performance uses Gershwin's original manuscript authentically and idiomatically. The Piano Concerto in F is full of character and colour with some fine melodies in all three movements; the central bitter sweet Adagio has some of Gershwin's best writing - bitter sweet and almost Delius-like in parts. I have no reservations about the Tritt and Kunzel combination here. The delightful Variations on I Got Rhythm was written in 1934, is also played with perzzaz. This late work is lots of fun but assured with, for example, one variation in waltz time and another imitating Chinese flutes played out of tune. The short Rialto Ripples is an early composition (from 1916). It is a catchy rag written in the traditional Scott Joplin form.
     But it is the second CD that has the pearls of this collection. Beginning with an exuberant An American in Paris, we pass on to the Cuban Overture coloured vividly with Cuban Sticks, Bongos, Gourd and Maracas but with a quieter sultry slower siesta-invoking middle section featuring the sensuous voice of the clarinet. After the excitement of the Cuban Rumba (the original title of the work) we pass onto the serenity of Lullaby (c.1919) originally written for piano and later transcribed by Gershwin, for string quartet. Edward Jablonski's otherwise outstanding notes do not say if Gershwin wrote this beautiful gently-rocking transcription for string orchestra which has some lovely multi-part writing and at times reminds one of the early twentieth century English composers writing for strings such as Elgar and Vaughan Williams. The theme for Lullaby is Gershwin's song "Has One of You Seen Joe, My Joe" from his early one-act opera, Blue Monday. There follows what I think is the best performance I have heard of the perky little piece Walking the Dog from the film Shall We Dance - Kunzel and his players have got the happy snappy rhythms of the man's, woman's and dog's footsteps just right. Now comes a real oddity and a world premiere performance of Mexican Dance, written in 1921and based on the song "Tomale (I' m Hot for You) which sounds more like Ketelbey than Gershwin. But the highlight is a ravishing performance of Catfish Row, Gershwin's orchestral suite developed from his opera Porgy and Bess. This is, to a degree, Gershwin's last composition for the full orchestra. The suite was first performed in 1936 in the same year as the opera opened but lay forgotten until Ira Gershwin was prompted by his secretary's discovery of it and renewed interest in the opera to have it performed and recorded under its present title (It should not be confused with Richard Rodney Bennett's suite (or medley) arranged in the late 1940s) This performance is distinguished by some wonderfully irreverent trumpet playing using various mutes and "in the hat" and some abandoned piano playing by William Tritt in the first Catfish Row movement, a frighteningly realistic evocation of the "Hurricane" and lovely sultry renditions of "Porgy Sings" ("I Got Plenty of Nuttin'" and "Bess, You is My Woman Now") featuring the banjo playing of Timothy Berens in the former song. The whole concert ends with another curiosity, another world premiere recording of, dare I say it, Gershwin's uninspired patriotic piece from 1919, O Land of Mine, America. But the rest of this disc more than makes up for it. A top drawer collection. ~ Ian Lace

     Artist: David Goloschokin
     Album: Selected
     Label: St Petersburg Jazz Philharmonia
     Year: 2004
     Genre: Jazz, Mainstream
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 70:33
     Size: 159.7 Mb



     “Particularly important “dates for the diary” are the sixtieth birthday celebration for People’s Artist of Russia David Goloschokin…
     At the very start of this summer the head of the St Petersburg Jazz Philharmonia gave the sophisticated public two gifts at once: he released a new album — David Goloschokin. Selected Works, featuring twelve compositions, and presented a concert programme of the best numbers performed at the Philharmonia in its fifteen years of existence. The album contains both unarguable jazz classics by such composers as Juan Tizol and Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Green and Victor Young, and also five of Goloschokin’s own compositions, including Lilac Hour, On the Sunny Side of Nevsky and Things are still the same with me that have become “standards” in this country. At the concert David played the violin, the flugelhorn and the vibraphone. He accompanied the vocalist Ella Trafova on percussion, but the culminating moment of the programme was his piano solo in the highly popular standard When the Gypsy Violin Cries that marries an American jazz motif with the jumbled St Petersburg wanderings of Alexander Blok.”
~ Georgy Vasiutochkin

     Исполнитель: Аркадий Шилклопер
     Альбом: Портрет
     Год выпуска диска: 2008
     Жанр: Jazz [ Jass ]
     Битрейт аудио: MP3@320 kbps
     Продолжительность: 49:57
     Размер файла: 112.8 Mb


     Аркадий - явление уникальное, валторнист "тысячи лиц", "перевоплощений". Он не только полижанровый чудодей, но и совместитель-многостаночник; в его арсенале и альпийский рог, и флюгельгорн, и охотничьи рожки, и другое из медного арсенала.
Слушайте новый альбом Аркадия и будет полный jass (Если Вы знаете, то слово "jass" в негритянском фольклоре означает восклицание при достижении оргазма).

     Artist: Mariаn McPartland
     Album: Mariаn McPartland Plays the Music of Billy Strayhorn
     Label: Concord Records
     Year: 1990
     Genre: Jazz, Bop, Mainstream Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 44:46
     Size: 102.7 Mb

     Pianist Marian McPartland has always had an affinity for the compositions of Billy Strayhorn, giving his songs the right amount of sensitivity and swing. For this quartet session with altoist Jerry Dodgion, bassist Steve LaSpina, and drummer Joey Baron, McPartland explores ten of Strayhorn's best-known originals, including "Isfahan," "Lotus Blossom," "Lush Life," "Take the 'A' Train," and "Raincheck." No revelations or innovations occur, but Billy Strayhorn's music is well served by McPartland's interpretations. ~ by Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

     Artist: Rebecca Parris & Marian McPartland
     Album: Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz: Rebecca Parris
     Label: Manhattan Beach Studios/
     Year: 2008 [Broadcast date: 2008-12-19]
     Genre: Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 52:01
     Size: 115.8 Mb

     Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, December 19, 2008 - Singer Rebecca Parris hails from Newton, Mass. Both of her parents were music teachers and several of her extended family members were also involved in music. She began singing at an early age and was actively involved in musical theater throughout her youth.
     Parris studied with her uncle, vocal coach Blair MacClosky, before attending the Boston Conservatory where she studied opera and theater. After college, Parris made a name for herself as a pop singer, fronting a number of Tp 40 cover bands in the Northeast. In the 1980s, after much encouragement from friends and colleagues, Parris shifted her focus to jazz.
     Since then, Parris has performed around the world and in festivals from Oslo to Monterey. She's appeared with such musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Gary Burton, Buddy Rich, David "Fathead" Newman and Red Mitchell. She can count the late great singers Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan as friends and mentors. Known by many as Boston's First Lady of Jazz, Parris remains based outside of Boston in Duxbury, Mass.
     Like her parents before her, Parris is also active as a music educator. She has her own private studio of vocal students and she's also given workshops and clinics on vocal technique, scat, and even music business.

     Artist: Elvin Jones
     Album: Complete Blue Note Elvin Jones Sessions
     Type: Compilation, Box Set
     Number of Discs: 8.0
     Label: Mosaic Records
     Year: 2000 [Recording Date: Apr 1968-Jul 26, 1973]
     Genre: Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz, Modal Music, Hard Bop, Post-Bop
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 58:39 62:58 57:54 63:59 58:34 60:06 74:51 75:07
     Size: 131.4+141.2+129.9+143.8+131.2+135.3+168.4+168.6 Mb

     This limited-edition eight-disc set combines all of Elvin Jones' Blue Note recordings from April 1968 through July 1973. This 65-track set contains the LPs Puttin It Together, Ultimate Elvin Jones, Poly-Currents, Coalition, Genesis, Merry Go Round, Live at the Lighthouse, Mr. Jones, and The Prime Element. Jones makes his presence as a band leader undeniable on these sessions allowing the musicians to stretch out while directing the evolution of the pieces. The closest comparison would be to Art Blakey; Jones was a band leader, drum master, and someone who knew instinctively who would fit in his bands, whether it was a wide range of established jazz veterans or some that would go on to achieve that status. Some of this is quite adventurous and, while certainly not taking the extreme direction of John Coltrane's group after Jones and McCoy Tyner left it, moments of this modal hard bop music approach that level of intensity. ~ Al Campbell, All Music Guide

     Artist: Cannonball Adderley
     Album: Cannonball Adderley Quintet with John Coltrane In Chicago
     Type: Live Album
     Label: Mercury
     Year: 2007 [ Original Year: 1959]
     Genre: Jazz, Hard Bop, Soul-Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 33:59
     Size: 75.8 Mb

     In February 1959, Miles Davis' late-'50s sextet visited Chicago for an engagement at a club called the Sutherland Lounge. While they were in the Windy City, Davis sidemen Cannonball Adderley (alto sax), John Coltrane (tenor sax), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Jimmy Cobb (drums) recorded this excellent session without the innovative trumpeter. It would be a mistake to think of The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago as a Miles Davis session without Miles Davis -- nothing from Davis' repertoire is performed, and Adderley is in the driver's seat. However, you could say that Coltrane proves to be a most valuable co-pilot. In 1960, modal post-bop became Coltrane's primary direction, but in 1959 he was still playing hard bop -- and the chordal approach serves the quintet well on a sweaty version of "Limehouse Blues" as well as pieces by Coltrane ("The Sleeper," "Grand Central") and Adderley ("Wabash"). Coltrane lays out on the ballad "Stars Fell on Alabama," while "You're a Weaver of Dreams" finds Adderley taking a break and letting Coltrane be the only horn player. Originally a vinyl LP, The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago was reissued on CD in 1999 with informative new liner notes by writer Carl Woideck. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide

     Artist: Romano Mussolini & His Friends
     Album: Soft & Swing
     Label: Right Tempo
     Year: 1995
     Genre: Jazz, Modern Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 34:01
     Size: 80 Mb

     This rare and elusive funky jazz set features some amazing trax on a funky Mayafra Combo tip! The session men include 2 drummers and a percussionist so you know what to expect! Serious collectors and discerning DJs seek this wonderful record for the stunning club trax BRASILIANA and OMAGGIO A OSCAR PETERSON. Both contain funky fender rhodes, funky basslines, beautiful rhythms throughout and ultra-deep percussion sounds and breaks! The hypnotic, exotic percussion breaks are amazing. Just wait for the superb, rolling samba breakdown on BRASILIANA and even more funky congas, bells, shakers 'n' things on OMAGGIO A OSCAR PETERSON! This top DJ spin keeps in with the Brazilian vibe with beautiful samba whistles for extra groove too! In fact, colourful sounds with jazzy instrumentation are omnipresent throughout this wonderful set. Great sounding fender rhodes jazz on DUKE with popping congas, jazzy trumpet solos from Cicci Santucci and even some funky drum breaks! AUTUMN LEAVES is relaxed and chilled-out but features superb kick drums like a slow motion bossa beat and shimmering bells that come in over the last 30 seconds or so. More latin-ized jazz on the Gigy Grice penned track, MINORITY. Mussolini and Co give the arrangement a kind of latin bop treatment with more upfront congas creating a fresh sounding interpretation of the jazz standard. With at least 6 of the tracks written by Mussolini himself, this is one of the 'cream' Italian Lps for this kind of sound!

     Artist: Clark Terry
     Album: Wham! Clark Terry Live at The Jazzhouse
     Label: BASF [LP Catalog # 22676]
     Year: 1976 [Digital Remastered]
     Genre: Jazz, Bop
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 52:01
     Size: 107.3 Mb

     В клубе уже много прекрасной музыки в исполнении великого трубача Кларка Тэрри. Удивительно, что этот пожилой музыкант, играя музыку которой 30-40 лет заставляет любителей джаза, и сегодня принимать ее как абсолютно свежую и новую. Этим постом вношу свой скромный вклад в копилку клуба и предлагаю еще раз послушать Кларка Тэрри.
     Clark Terry's mid-'70s concert at the Jazzhouse in Hamburg, Germany, finds the trumpeter and fluegelhornist in top form. Most of the material had been a part of Terry's repertoire for years at the time of the concert. He alternates back and forth between fluegelhorn and muted trumpet (with one in each hand) in a brisk arrangement of "Perdido." He sticks to fluegelhorn for most the remaining tracks: His playing is full of humor during "On the Trail" (from Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite") and a long excursion into "Wham! (Re-Bop-Boom-Bam)" (inexplicably credited to Dizzy Gillespie instead of Eddie Durham and Taps Miller). Terry also adds a good-natured vocal, as well as his matchless scat singing, to a spirited "Take the 'A' Train." Scott Bradford makes a game effort playing a rather out-of-tune piano, while bassist Larry Gales (misspelled "Gailes") and drummer Hartwig Bartz provide adequate support. The cover photo of Terry playing his fluegelhorn flipped 180 degrees is also priceless. This long out of print LP, with its generous amount of music, is well worth acquiring. ~ Ken Dryden, AMG

     Artist: Kenny Garrett
     Album: Simply Said
     Label: Warner Brothers
     Year: 1999
     Genre: Jazz, Post-Bop, Contemporary Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 61:09
     Size: 137.6 Mb

     Один из уважаемых и известных альт саксофонистов в современном джазе, "путевку в жизнь" которому выписал великий Майлз Дэвис (Miles Davis). Начинал играть в Детройте в конце 70х годов. В 1980 переехал в Нью-Йорк, где стал играть и записываться с известными музыкантами. С середины 80х в течении нескольких лет работал с Дэвисом, после смерти которого в 1991 году создал собственную группу с которой записывается и по сей день.
     There's no denying that Kenny Garrett is a tremendous saxophonist, whether on alto or the much less manageable sopranino and soprano. But Garrett established this fact long before this odd mix of tunes. His Triology was a sophisticated, intricate pianoless trio date, and Pursuance was a moving, apt tribute to John Coltrane. So Simply Said isn't about Garrett's talent, and that's too bad. The music's consistently mired in what seems confusion. Does the saxophonist want to be considered an ace smooth-jazzer? Too often, there's only the acoustic band setting--with pianists Shedrick Mitchell or Mulgrew Miller, drummers Chris Dave or Jeff Watts, and even Pat Metheny--to set this apart from synth-enhanced pop jazz. If Garrett envisions this as his smooth jazz record, it's entirely stronger than most music in that genre. But if it's to be considered in light of Garrett's other work, it's a distinct disappointment. The melodies are too simply stated to be memorable, the saxophones too thin and their phrases not even dented with the convolutions Garrett's earlier work hints at. If it's the burning, creative Garrett you're after, this recording is probably going to be a bummer for you. But if you're wondering what this Kenny "G" can add to the smooth mix, then the good truth is Simply Said here. --Andrew Bartlett

     Artist: Marian McPartland
     Album: Piano Jazz Radio Broadcast [With Special Guest Dave Brubeck]
     Label: UMG
     Year: 2006
     Genre: Jazz, Modern Jazz
     Format, bitrate: MP3@320 kbps
     Time: 63:58
     Size: 145.4 Mb

     Dave Brubeck and Marian McPartland became good friends back in the 1950s, so it was no surprise that he was one of her guests in the early years of her long running radio program. Unlike many of her guests, Brubeck doesn't keep the solo spotlight on himself in the early part of the show, preferring to have his hostess join him for delightful duets of standards like "St. Louis Blues" (a long time favorite concert opener for Brubeck) and often recorded Brubeck masterpieces such as "The Duke" and "In Your Own Sweet Way"; Brubeck's Chopin-influenced "Thank You (Dziekuje)" deserves to be as well known. Marian solos on another lovely Brubeck ballad, "Summer Song." Brubeck was joking about a lack of confidence in playing alone when the tapes weren't rolling, so it is hilarious to hear McPartland comment to Brubeck at the end of their rousing finale of "Take Five," "What do you mean no chops?" to her guest's laughter. Needless to say, they complement one another's playing very well on all of their duets, including the adventurous improvised "Free Piece." Although a total of 32 editions of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz were issued on compact disc between 1993 and 1996, this is the only release that features a track not included in the original broadcast on National Public Radio. At Brubeck's insistence, the original session tapes were located and a brief version of his "Polytonal Blues," which was originally recorded for a Concord LP as "Polly," was added; this wild performance is typical Brubeck, who picked up the pace of recording solo tracks in the years following this taping. This is one of the most enjoyable editions of Piano Jazz made commercially available so far, and unless Concord is willing to resume releasing additional great programs from this series (which began airing in 1979), collectors will have to make due taping and trading copies of the broadcasts. ~ Ken Dryden, All Music Guide