Azur

This is an eight-CD set more for Duke Ellington fanatics than for general listeners. Originally, some of the music came out as a two-LP set (Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur) and a single album (Ellington's Soul Call), but the great majority of the material was previously unreleased when this box came out in 1998.

The Rippingtons’ Russ Freeman has always led a peripatetic existence, growing up in Nashville and living in L.A., Colorado and Florida, among other locales. His wanderlust is reflected in much of his group’s music (Life in the Tropics, Morocco, etc.). On Cote D’Azur, French, Latin, Gypsy and Euro rhythms mix and mesh to make what will surely stand as one of the freshest contemporary-jazz CDs of the year. In the group’s 25th year, the Rippingtons continue to be at the top of their game.

Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington - Ella & Duke at The Cote D'Azur (1966) {2CD Set Verve 314-539-030-2 rel 1997}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 585 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 214 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 201 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1966, 1997 Verve / PolyGram | 314-539-030-2
Jazz / Classical Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Standards / Swing / Big Band

Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington did not team up in concert until relatively late in their careers (although she did record her Ellington Songbook with him in the '50s). This live double-LP actually finds Fitzgerald singing six numbers with the Jimmy Jones Trio and only "Mack the Knife" and a scat-filled "It Don't Mean a Thing" with the orchestra. Ellington has eight numbers for his band, mostly remakes of older tunes (including a guest appearance by former associate Ben Webster on "All Too Soon," a remarkable Buster Cooper trombone feature, and a rowdy version of "The Old Circus Train Turn-Around Blues"). This is a spirited set of music that with better planning could have been great.

Florent Nagel - Livre pour Piano (2018) {Azur Classical AZC 158}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 185 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 132 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 5 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2018 Azur Classical | AZC 158
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Piano Solo

This isn't my first encounter with the music of Florent Nagal. Last year I reviewed his Alice in Wonderland for two pianos and narrator, a highly original piece transporting the listener on an imaginary journey. Nagal was born in 1979 and studied at the Conservatory in Lille, France. Later he took tuition from Vladimir Soultanov at the Moscow Conservatory and Christine Sieffert-Marchais at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, picking up prizes along the way. He works as a composer, pianist and teacher.