Denon

LA Workshop Norwegain Wood is a project arranged by Joe Pasquale. This album features Lee Ritenour, Ray Parker Jr, Steve Lukather and more great musicians from the sessiondays.

A key figure in the development of jazz's new direction in the late '60s and '70s (thanks in large part to his contributions to Miles Davis' pioneering fusion work), Chick Corea has since become one of the most influential musicians of the genre. The tracks on EARLY DAYS were recorded in 1969. Around the same time, the Davis Quintet was recording the epochal IN A SILENT WAY and BITCHES BREW. The material here, featuring sidemen Woody Shaw, Jack De Johnette, and Bennie Maupin, explores similarly abstract rhythmic excursions that favor texture and atmosphere over conventional song structure.

Dogatana is a 1981 album by Japanese jazz guitarist Kazumi Watanabe. As usual for Watanabe, it features many acclaimed musicians. The album, compared to other Watanabe works, has a very acoustic sound and is characterized by peculiar guitar "duets".

Kazumi Watanabe has for the past 20 years been one of the top guitarists in fusion, a rock-oriented player whose furious power does not mask a creative imagination. Watanabe studied guitar at Tokyo's Yamaha Music School and he was a recording artist while still a teenager. In 1979, he formed the group Kylyn and, in 1983, he put together the Mobo band. Several of his recordings have been made available by Gramavision and they show that he ranks up with Al DiMeola (when he is electrified) and Scott Henderson among the pacesetters in the idiom.

Eddie Gomez is a brilliant bassist whose flexibility and quick reflexes make him an ideal accompanist (although his own albums tend to be a bit erratic jazz-wise). He grew up in New York and was with the Newport Festival Youth Band during 1959-1961. After studying at Juilliard, Gomez played with Rufus Jones' sextet, Marian McPartland (1964), Paul Bley (1964-1965), Giuseppe Logan, Gerry Mulligan, and Gary McFarland, among others. Gomez came to fame during his long period with the Bill Evans Trio (1966-1977).

A totally excellent Buster Williams album from the 70's, and one of the best (and hardest to find). The bassist has always been one of our favorite talents – and this little gem is one of the few albums he's cut on his own, a majestic bit of straight-ahead jazz and bop, recorded with a very hip lineup!

Tenor virtuoso Bob Berg teams up with (a.o) Dennis Chambers and Mike Stern to create an album with a combination of heavy fusion and jazz ballads. The album was a 1991 Grammy Nominee and in this case, that really was for a good reason. Bob Berg shows the duality which modern jazz saxophone players strive to achieve: being able to play funkfusion as well as jazz. Bob Berg does both exceptionally well.

The strong tenor voice of Bob Berg speaks volumes more on CYCLES, than he was ever able to say in the context of the Miles Davis group….Strong blowing, strong compositions, strong band. A welcome alternative to the endless stream of fuzak that seems to be flooding the record bins these days.

Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination specially designed for him. He and his identical twin brother, double bassist Addison Farmer, started playing professionally while in high school. Art gained greater attention after the release of a recording of his composition "Farmer's Market" in 1952. He subsequently moved from Los Angeles to New York, where he performed and recorded with musicians such as Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, and Gigi Gryce and became known principally as a bebop player.

On this CD Bob Berg is in good form and this is how we would like to remember him. Both the writing and the playing are very good. Berg's saxophone playing is robust and sensitive throughout the entire CD and there are strong contributions from both Jim Beard on piano, keyboards, and organ and Jon Herrington on guitars and mandolin. Overall, Berg has created a "Virtual Reality" of interesting impressions played in a variety of styles. The first track "Can't Help Loving that Man" falls right in line with Berg's earlier CDs where the listener is introduced to phenomenal playing and writing that is enhanced by unusual instrumentations. It took me a while to figure it out, but the percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan is singing in rhythm while at the same time blowing through a flute, highly original for a Latin interpretation of this tune.