Charlie Sepulveda Watermelon Man

Collectables combines two very different back-to-back recordings made by guitarist Charlie Byrd for Columbia in the mid-'60s. Travellin' Man (issued in 1965) is a live gig at the Showboat in Washington D.C., a club he was playing in - and owned - 36 weeks out of the year. He is featured with his bass playing brother Joe, and the rather astonishing drummer Bill Reichenbach. The program consists of everything from originals like the title cut and the country and bluegrass tinged opener "Mama I'll Be Home Someday" to Michel Legrand's "I Will Wait for You." With tunes like the Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim standard "Do I Hear a Waltz," Billy Strayhorn's "U.M.M.G.," and Django Reinhardt's "Nuages" sandwiched in between…

Charlie Sepúlveda is trumpeter of power and nuance. On this recording, Sepúlveda takes on the challenge of preserving culture without being trapped by it.
He can take a tried-and-true classic like "Besamé Mucho," and instead of falling into the routine he completely modernizes it, stripping the tune of his sometime over-emphasized bolero rhythm and makes something completely new and communicative.

Mongo Santamaria - Mr. Watermelon Man - La Bamba (1965) {2014 Japan Jazz Collection 1000 Columbia-RCA Series SICP 4053}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 281 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 95 Mb
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© 1965, 2014 Columbia / Sony Music Japan | SICP 4053
Jazz / Latin Jazz / Afro-Cuban Jazz / Bongo Drums

Reissue with the latest 2014 DSD remastering. Comes with liner notes. Mongo Santamaria at the height of his Latin Soul years – working on a cool Columbia session titled after an earlier hit, but served up with his new lean sound of the late 60s! The album's got that perfect Santamaria combo from the time – a group that features trumpet and these wonderfully sharp arrangements from the great Marty Sheller – plus very smoking reed work from a young Hubert Laws, wailing away on flute and tenor, and Bobby Capers on alto and baritone – both players who mix jazz and soul instrumental modes, to bring a hell of a lot of feeling to the overall sound of the band – in ways that really get past more familiar use of trumpet or trombone in other Latin combos. The band grooves nicely on original material like "Streak O Lean", "Ricky Tick", "Do It To It", "Fatback", "Coconut Milk", and "Jose Outside" – and they also reprise Mongo's big hit "Watermelon Man".

Originally titled HONEY IN THE ROCK and later renamed for its hit song (Daniels's first chart entry), UNEASY RIDER is the third Charlie Daniels album, but the first to put his name on the map. In addition to his previous southern-rock-meets-Western-swing sound, the album includes a significant R&B influence, making for an intriguing country-funk style. The title track's talking blues is particularly significant for espousing a hippie/counterculture perspective on the part of a man who'd later become known for championing more conservative values.

Single-disc, 77-minute compilation of two long-unavailable classical LPs that Byrd recorded in 1958-60 for the Washington label, An Anthology of Music for the Guitar - The Sixteenth Century and Lodovico Roncalli Suites. (Unfortunately, one of the tracks from An Anthology of Music for the Guitar - The Sixteenth Century, "Tres Fantasies (Three Fantasies)," was deleted for space reasons). Byrd interprets courtly dances and folk songs of Spanish composers of the 16th century on Anthology, and presents four longer (average track length: ten minutes) suites from the 17th century by the little-known Italian composer Lodovico Roncalli on Lodovico Roncalli Suites. It's a fine compendium of Byrd's talents as a virtuoso classical interpreter, and one would guess that works such as this were an influence on guitarist Sandy Bull in the 1960s.

Although Charlie Byrd recorded dozens of quality albums, the 1960s weren't one of his best decades. Although his guitar work was excellent, as always, it tended to get buried in awkward arrangements of the latest Beatles' songs. As a result, his music often sounded cheesy. It's a rare pleasure, then, to listen to Solo Flight, which was recorded for Riverside in 1965. With no distracting accompaniment, Byrd cuts to the musical chase and delivers 11 lovely, succinct guitar suites. He combines a smooth blend of chords and solo runs, much as Joe Pass would later do, on favorites like "Satin Doll" and "Easy Living," along with fun oddities like "House of the Rising Sun." Unlike Pass, Byrd approaches a song like "Am I Blue" in a fairly simple, straightforward manner, more interested in the melody than virtuosity…

The packaging is impeccable, this seven-CD box set has a definitive 48-page booklet, and the recording quality is as good as possible, so why the "poor" rating? Dean Benedetti, a fanatical Charlie Parker disciple, recorded Bird extensively during three periods in 1947-1948 but did his best to turn off his wire recorder whenever anyone but Parker was soloing. He became legendary, as did his long lost acetates, and Mosaic has done what it could to make the excerpts coherent but the results are still quite unlistenable. None of the performances on this large set are complete; guests such as Thelonious Monk and Carmen McRae are introduced, play, or sing two notes and then are cut off. And, although Parker seems to play well, these performances reveal no new secrets and add nothing to his legacy.