Thelonious Monk - The Unique
Artist: Thelonious Monk
Album: The Unique
Label: Riverside Records
Year: 1956
Release: 1987
Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kb/s
Time: 38:12
Size: 80MB
The seven-song Unique Thelonious Monk (1956) platter was the pianist's second during his remarkable five-year tenure on Riverside. His debut for the label was the aptly titled Plays Duke Ellington (1955) and once again, on this disc, Monk's song selection did not feature any original compositions. Rather, the well-chosen standards included exemplify and help further establish the pianist and bandleader within the context of familiar melodies at the head of a trio -- consisting of Oscar Pettiford (bass) and Art Blakey (drums). Regarding the personnel, while Pettiford had also accompanied Monk on the Ellington sides, Blakey replaces Kenny Clarke. The pairing of Monk and Blakey cannot be overstated. Immediately, evidence of their uncanny instrumental interaction is the rhythmic focal point of "Liza, All the Clouds'll Roll Away" as the two play musical cat-and-mouse. They cajole and wheedle atop Pettiford's undulating undercurrent as it sonically corals their skilled syncopation and otherwise inspired mile-a-minute interjections. This is starkly contrast to the haunting, lyrical piano solo on "Memories of You." Monk infuses the piece with such profound ingenuity and integrity that his re-evаluation and innovative arrangement are singularly and undeniably his own. Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose" reels with a frolicking and ever-so-slightly inebriated gate. It is likewise highlighted by Monk's dreamlike single-note runs up and down the keyboard and the stride piano-style chord progressions that preserves a fluidity within the tune. The advanced score maintains a guise of almost goofy abandon within Monk's highly logical and well-sculpted musical structure. The juxtaposition of "Darn That Dream" is another study in the vacillating moods of The Unique Thelonious Monk. The sophisticated performance is understated, yet remains loose and limber and perfectly in keeping with the album's leitmotif of exploring Monk's skills as an arranger and musician. As if he were testing his audience, the manic and atonal opening to "Tea for Two" -- briefly featuring Pettiford on bowed upright bass -- rollicks with a youthful visage, rather than being a simple reworking of this well-established classic. This LP concludes with one of Monk's most memorable pieces on the fun and freewheeling "Just You, Just Me." The trio struts and glides as Monk's intricate fingering simultaneously displays his physical dexterity as well as his ability to play so deftly in the moment. Both attributes would resurface ten-fold once Monk began to animate his own compositions on the genre-defining Brilliant Corners (1956).
~ Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide
The Unique
1.Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away) George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Gus Kahn (3:13)
2.Memories of You Eubie Blake, Andy Razaf (4:17)
3.Honeysuckle Rose Fats Waller, Andy Razaf (5:34)
4.Darn That Dream Eddie DeLange, James Van Heusen (6:30)
5.Tea for Two Vincent Youmans, Irving Caesar (5:55)
6.You Are Too Beautiful Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart (4:56)
7.Just You, Just Me Jesse Greer, Raymond Klages (7:57)
Bass - Oscar Pettiford
Drums - Art Blakey
Piano - Thelonious Monk
Recorded In Hackensack, N.J.; March 17 and April 3, 1956
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XLFOP07S * * *
Billie Holiday - Body And Soul
Artist: Billie Holiday
Album: Body And Soul
Label: Verve
Year: 1957
Release: 2002
Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kb/s
Size: 95 MB
This session comes from close to the end of the line (1959) in the erstwhile swinging company of Barney Kessel on guitar, Ben Webster on tenor, and naysayers will be quick to point out that Lady Day wasn't in peak form here. But Billie Holiday with some of the platinum chipped off the pipes is still way better than a buncha finger-snappin' wannabes anyday. Her interpretations of the title cut, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," and "Darn That Dream" hold you in the palm of her hand with their gentle swing and the band support here is never less than stellar. This Mobile Fidelity reissue (also available as an audiophile vinyl pressing) features in-the-control-room sound that makes this session sound even cozier. The Lady sings and swings.
~ Cub Koda, AMG
1. Body and Soul
2. They Can't Take That Away From Me
3. Darn That Dream
4. Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
5. Comes Love
6. Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You?
7. Embraceable You
8. Moonlight in Vermont
9. Comes Love - (false start)
10. Comes Love - (false start)
11. Comes Love - (alternate take)
Billie Holiday (vocals); Ben Webster (tenor saxophone); Harry "Sweets" Edison (trumpet); Jimmy Rowles (piano); Barney Kessel (guitar); Red Mitchell (bass); Alvin Stoller, Larry Bunker (drums).
Recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California in 1957.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
This is part of Verve's "Clef" series.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YA64UZGR * * *
Nina Simone - Nina Simone Sings The Blues
Artist: Nina Simone
Album: Nina Simone Sings The Blues
Label: RCA VICTOR EUROPE
Year: 1967
Release: 2004
Format, bitrate: mp3, 320 kb/s
Size: 75 MB
Nina Simone Sings the Blues, issued in 1967, was her RCA label debut, and was a brave departure from the material she had been recording for Phillips. Indeed, her final album for that label, High Priestess of Soul, featured the singer, pianist, and songwriter fronting a virtual orchestra. Here, Simone is backed by a pair of guitarists (Eric Gale and Rudy Stevenson), bassist (Bob Bushnell), drummer (Bernard "Pretty" Purdie), organist (Ernie Hayes), and harmonica player who doubled on saxophone (Buddy Lucas). Simone handled the piano chores. The song selection is key here. Because for all intents and purposes this is perhaps the rawest record Simone ever cut. It opens with the sultry, nocturnal, slow-burning original "Do I Move You," which doesn't beg the question but demands an answer: "Do I move you?/Are you willin'?/Do I groove you?/Is it thrillin'?/Do I soothe you?/Tell the truth now?/Do I move you?/Are you loose now?/The answer better be yeah...It pleases me...." As the guitarists slip and slide around her husky vocal, a harmonica wails in the space between, and Simone's piano is the authority, hard and purposely slow. The other tune in that vein, "In the Dark," is equally tense and unnerving; the band sounds as if it's literally sitting around as she plays and sings. There are a number of Simone signature tunes on this set, including "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl," "Backlash Blues," and her singular, hallmark, definitive reading of "My Man's Gone Now" from Porgy and Bess. Other notable tracks are the raucous, sexual roadhouse blues of "Buck," written by Simone's then husband Andy Stroud, and the woolly gospel blues of "Real Real," with the Hammond B-3 soaring around her vocal. The cover of Buddy Johnson's "Since I Fell for You" literally drips with ache and want. Simone also reprised her earlier performance of "House of the Rising Sun" (released on a 1962 Colpix live platter called At the Village Gate). It has more authority in this setting as a barrelhouse blues; it's fast, loud, proud, and wailing with harmonica and B-3 leading the charge. The original set closes with the slow yet sassy "Blues for Mama," ending with the same sexy strut the album began with, giving it the feel of a Mubius strip. Nina Simone Sings the Blues is a hallmark recording that endures; it deserves to be called a classic.
~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
Nina Simone Sings the Blues [Remastered]
1 Do I Move You? 2:48
2 Day and Night 2:36
3 In the Dark 2:58
4 Real Real 2:22
5 My Man's Gone Now 4:17
6 Backlash Blues 2:31
7 I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl 2:33
8 Buck 1:53
9 Since I Fell for You 2:53
10 The House of the Rising Sun 3:53
11 Blues for Mama 3:58
Nina Simone - primary artist
Eric Gale - guitar
Bernard Purdie - drums
Buddy Lucas - harmonica, tenor saxophone,alto saxophone
Bob Bushnell - 6-string bass
Rudy Stevenson - guitar
Ernie Hayes - organ
http://depositfiles.com/ru/files/v168zdtjf * * *
Coleman Hawkins - The Hawk in Hi Fi (1956)
Artist: Coleman Hawkins With Billy Byers & His Orchestra
Album: The Hawk in Hi Fi
Label: RCA
Year: 1956 Release: 1998
Genre: Jazz
Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kb/s
Size: 89 mb
In January 1956, veteran tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins recorded a dozen songs, eight with a string orchestra and four accompanied by a big band, all arranged by Billy Byers. Hawkins is the main soloist throughout the CD reissue, and he was still very much in his prime 33 years after he first joined Fletcher Henderson's orchestra; in fact, the upcoming 1957 would be one of his finest years. However, Byers' arrangements are more functional than inspired, and some of these selections are more easy listening than they are swinging. Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
The Hawk in Hi Fi
1. Body and Soul
2. Little Girl Blue
3. I Never Knew
4. Dinner For One, Please James
5. Bean Stalks Again, The
6. His Very Own Blues
7. Day You Came Along, The
8. Have You Met Miss Jones
9. Essence of You, The
10. There'll Never Be Another You
11. I'm Shooting High
12. 39-25-39 (Bean & The Boys)
Phil Bodner (Oboe), Urbie Green (Trombone), Hank Jones (Piano), Hank Jones (Celeste), Charlie Shavers (Trumpet), Hal McKusick (Sax (Alto)), Ernie Royal (Trumpet), Nick Travis (Trumpet), Coleman Hawkins (Sax (Tenor)), Coleman Hawkins (Main Performer), Al Cohn (Sax (Tenor)), Julius Baker (Flute), Billy Byers (Arranger), James Buffington (French Horn), Don Butterfield (Tuba), Max Cahn (Violin), Arnold Eidus (Violin), Barry Feldman (Reissue Producer), Burt Fisch (Viola), Barry Galbraith (Guitar), Paul Gershman (Violin), Bernie Glow (Trumpet), Ray Hall (Engineer), Harry Lookofsky (Violin), Milt Hinton (Bass), Max Hollander (Violin), Isadore Zir (Viola), Osie Johnson (Drums), Phil Kraus (Bells), Leo Kruczek (Violin), Jack Lesberg (Bass), Jack Lewis (Producer), Sam Marowitz (Sax (Alto)), Jimmy Nottingham (Trumpet), Fred Ohms (Trombone), Gene Orloff (Violin), George Ricci (Cello), Tosha Samaroff (Violin), Sol Schlinger (Sax (Baritone)), Zoot Sims (Sax (Tenor)), Chauncey Welsch (Trombone), Marty Wilson (Glockenspiel), Marty Wilson (Xylophone), Marty Wilson (Vibraphone), David L. Newman (Violin), Bernard Greenhouse (Cello), Jack Satterfield (Trombone), Sid Jekowsky (Clarinet), Sid Jekowsky (Flute), Stan Kraft (Violin), Lou Oles (Trumpet), Tommy Mitchell (Trombone), John S. Wilson (Liner Notes), Paul J. Hoeffler (Photography), Ben Young (Reissue Producer), Cy Miroff (Violin), Dave Sarser (Violin), Ted Williams (Photography), Joshua Sherman (Series Producer), Alan Schulman (Cello), Cynthia Sesso (Photo Research), Janet DeMatteis (Creative Director), Michael O. Drexler (Mastering)
Recorded at Webster Hall, New York, New York on January 17-18 & 20, 1956.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=56AFXD5A * * *
Archie Shepp - Black Ballads
Artist: Archie Shepp
Album: Black Ballads
Label: Timeless
Year: 1992
Release: 2000
Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kbs
Size: 146MB
Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp, who was one of the enfant terribles of the free jazz generation in the 1960s, once said, seemingly uncharacteristically, "You can hear every minute of every hour of every day of every year a player puts into practicing his horn when he plays a ballad." He was being prophetic, of course, as this date from 1992 suggests. Teamed with pianist Horace Parlan -- with whom he recorded the magnificent duet of spirituals Goin' Home -- bassist Wayne Dockery, and drummer Steve McCraven, Shepp leads the quartet through an astonishing series of ballads that are as revelatory for their understatement as they are for their musical aplomb. Shepp takes the Ben Webster approach on these 11 sides and comes off as a singer of songs (he is not singing) rather than as a saxophone player. His readings of "Angel Eyes," "All Too Soon," and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," and his souled-out cover of "Georgia on My Mind," are stunning for the restraint and nuance they contain. Parlan's comping slips toward fills of uncommon texture and dimensionality in the bridges of these tunes, and on Shepp's own "I Know About the Life," he reinvents the tune itself. The high point of this glorious record is Shepp's own "Dйjа Vu," as it comes out of an uncommonly long "Lush Life," where the lyric of both compositions becomes a kind of recitation on the blues in stretched time. Issued on the Timeless label, this is a must-have for all Shepp fans, but more importantly, it is for all followers of the development in harmonic thinking about the ballad form in jazz.
~ Thom Jurek, AMG
Black Ballads
1. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? (7.11)
2. I Know About The Life (5.20)
3. Georgia On My Mind (4.58)
4. Embraceable You (4.41)
5. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (5.18)
6. How Deep Is The Ocean (5.25)
7. Lush Life (8.33)
8. Deja Vu (5.08)
9. Angel Eyes (7.56)
10. All To Soon (5.55)
11. Ain't Misbehavin' (5.16)
Archie Shepp - tenor and alto saxophone
Horace Parlan - piano
Wayne Dockery - bass
Steve McRaven - drums
Recorded at: Studio 44, Monster, Holland. 13 January 1992
http://depositfiles.com/en/files/5ua95w6a8 * * *
Hank Crawford - Wildflower
Artist: Hank Crawford
Album: Wildflower
Label: Epic
Year: 1973
Release: 2001
Format, bitrate: mp3, 320kb/s
Size: 72MB
Hank Crawford's '60s sides for Atlantic rightfully established him among the preeminent soul-jazz saxophonists. For pure phrasing and feel, Crawford was in a class by himself. When Creed Taylor kicked off CTI in 1970, he brought Crawford on board immediately. This date from 1973 -- one of eight cut between 1971 and 1978 -- is Crawford's strongest for the label and one of the better records of his career, though jazz purists would never agree. Produced and arranged by Bob James with a smoking cast that includes Joe Beck, Idris Muhammad, Richard Tee, and Bob Cranshaw, as well as a brass section of crack New York studio cats, Wildflower is the album Crawford had been trying to make since 1971. Recorded in two days, the band provides a slick, right, colorful platform for Crawford's melodic improvisation that is rooted in the art of the phrase. One long note held on "Mr. Blues" or a series of carefully articulated verbal feelings, such as on "Corazon," may not step out of the groove, but make it both a deeper blue and as wide as the human heart's complexity. On the title cut, with a vocal chorus in the background, Crawford turns a pop melody into a torrent of raw emotionalism and savvy groove-conscious glory. James' charts are big but never obtrusive; they point in one direction only, to bring that huge soul sound out of Crawford's alto -- check out the way the melody line breaks down into the solo in Stevie Wonder's "You've Got It Bad Girl," or the backbeat arpeggio exercises in "Good Morning Heartache." This record is so hot the only soul-jazz it can be compared to in both its contemporary form and funky feel are Grover Washington's Feels So Good and Mister Magic issues. In other words, Crawford's Wildflower is indispensable as a shining example of '70s groove jazz at its best.
Thom Jurek, AMG
1. Corazon (6:02)
2. Wildflower (3:54)
3. Mr. Blues (6:05)
4. You've Got It Bad Girl (9:34)
5. Good Morning Heartache (6:08)
Arranged By, Conducted By - Bob James
Backing Vocals - Hilda Harris , Maeretha Stewart , Randy Peyton , Bill Eaton*
Bass - Bob Cranshaw
Drums - Idris Muhammad
Engineer - Rudy Van Gelder
French Horn - Brooks Tillotson , Jim Buffington
Guitar - Joe Beck
Percussion - Arthur Jenkins , David Friedman , George Devans , Phil Kraus , Ralph MacDonald , Rubens Bassini
Piano, Organ - Richard Tee
Producer - Creed Taylor
Saxophone [alto] - Hank Crawford
Trombone - Paul Faulise , Wayne Andre
Trombone [bass] - Tony Studd
Trumpet - Alan Rubin , Bernie Glow , Marvin Stamm
Originally released in 1973 on Kudu
Recorded at Van Gelder Studios
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AT57TS8J 
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JAZZ DOWNLOAD VOL. XVI, Jazzicted
