Better Yet

The brass work of Wayne Henderson and Wilton Felder is simply remarkable. Joe Sample keyboards and Stix Hooper's percussion weave simple yet complex rythmns on every cut, especially on "Cold Duck Eddie" & "Way Back Home". This is one of those monumental efforts that after hearing it, your only response can be ~ "Where have these guys been my whole life?" or better yet "Where have I been their whole life?" This is a must have album for any jazz, rock, soul afficiando ~ It is smooth, elegant, and beyond exceptional.

Since their formation in 1994, Toronto's Sadies have developed, even perfected,a style of music that is uniquely their own. Possessing a deep fondness and reverence for the best of country, bluegrass and blues (CBGB!), they are equally informed and influenced by everything from 60s garage and psychedelic rock (Pebbles, Nuggets, et al) to surf instrumentals and punk rock. The quartet's newest album, Colder Streams, is their best album yet. Produced by Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry, the 11-song platter exhibits again why The Sadies are in a league of their own

Bennie Maupin - The Jewel In The Lotus (1974) {ECM 1043}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 222 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 106 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 14 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1974, 2007 ECM Records | ECM 1043 / 172 3520
Jazz / Post Bop / Jazz Funk / Modal Music / Reeds

Jazz -funk fans must have been taken aback when multi-instrumentalist and composer Bennie Maupin's Jewel in the Lotus was released by Manfred Eicher's ECM imprint in 1974. For starters, it sounded nothing like Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters recording, which had been released the year before to massive sales and of which Maupin had been such an integral part. Head Hunters has remained one of the most reliable sales entries in Columbia's jazz catalog into the 21st century. By contrast, Jewel in the Lotus sounded like an avant-garde jazz record, but it stood outside that hard-line camp, too, because of its open and purposeful melodies that favored composition and structured improvising over free blowing.

Strong but delicate, deliberate but subtle, driven but supple, Masaaki Suzuki's 2005 recording of Bach's Italian Concerto and French Overture for harpsichord are quite convincing in their own distinctive way. In Suzuki's hands, the opening crash of the Italian Concerto is as instantly arresting as the powerful opening prelude and fugue from the French Overture is immediately appealing.

Lean and austere, yet deeply felt and profoundly spiritual, the first volume in Chandos' series of recordings of Bach's early Cantatas is a complete success. With one player and one singer per part, these are chamber music-scaled performances: it is quite lean and very austere. But that's fine: the musicians are all superb and the music benefits from their individual attention. Indeed, it gains immensely in intensity when a single musician is responsible for each part. Better yet, the music gains enormously in lyricism when those musicians are of the caliber performing here. The Purcell Quartet is arguably the best Baroque chamber ensemble in England and it is augmented here with equally fine additional players.