Days Of Wine And Roses

This straight-ahead trio date led by drummer Brian Melvin is most notable for being electric bassist Jaco Pastorius' final recording, cut just a year before his premature death. With Melvin and pianist Jon Davis (whose style is most influenced by McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock), Pastorius was free to be very active in accompanying the piano solos, and he gets to stretch out on nearly every tune. Those listeners who stereotype Pastorius as a fusion-rock bassist will be surprised by the song titles, which include "Days of Wine and Roses," "So What," "If You Could See Me Now," "Tokyo Blues," and "Village Blues." The recording is consistently stimulating and serves as a strong final musical chapter for the great Jaco Pastorius.

Ray Brown was in at the beginning of the Concord Jazz record label in the early '70s, and starting with Brown's Bag in 1975, he recorded a dozen albums as a leader for Concord before departing for Telarc Records in the early '90s. This two-disc compilation, with a running time of almost two hours and 20 minutes, presents 24 selections drawn from 19 Concord Jazz albums recorded between 1973 and 1993, including live performances at the Concord Jazz Festivals, recordings by Brown's trio and the L.A. 4, and a Brown duet with Jimmy Rowles, among other configurations. As a bass player, Brown only rarely solos, so one usually notices the horn players (Harry "Sweets" Edison, Red Holloway, Plas Johnson, Richie Kamuca, Blue Mitchell, Ralph Moore, and Bud Shank), the pianists (Monty Alexander, George Duke, Gene Harris, Art Hillery, and Rowles), or other frontline musicians…

Various Artists - The Misty Mood of TBM (1996) {Three Blind Mice Japan 24K Gold GS CD006}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 239 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 124 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 11 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1996 Three Blind Mice / Golden String Japan | 24K Gold Audiophile | GS CD006
Jazz / Cool / Post Bop

Three Blind Mice is a Japanese jazz record label founded in June 1970 as a showcase for Japan's emerging jazz performers. It has produced more than 130 albums have been released since. So far they have won the Jazz Disc Award five times in Japan. Produced by Takeshi Fujii (producer) and often recorded by the Yoshihiko Kannari, TBM created jazz records by Japanese players since the 1970s and became known for its audiophile sound quality. TBM's records captured a very important, vibrant era in the development of Japanese jazz. Stars like Isao Suzuki, Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, George Kawaguchi, Terumasa Hino and Mari Nakamoto recorded their very first albums with the label. Artists also include Shuko Mizuno's "Jazz Orchestra '73", Toshiyuko Miyama and Masaru Imada.

Bill Evans' 1963 album Plays the Theme from The V.I.P.s and Other Great Songs features the legendary pianist eschewing his more introspective sound for a commercial pop approach. Working with an orchestral background courtesy of conductor/arranger Claus Ogerman (uncredited here), Evans delves into songs by such writers as Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer, Elmer Bernstein, Miklós Rózsa, and others. While the album has more to do with light easy listening than deep harmonic jazz exploration, there is much to enjoy here for fans of jazz-inflected '60s pop.

The ladies of Venus have combined their efforts to assemble Venus Sings: The Essential best Of Lady Jazz Vocals. Featured musicians include Nicki Parrott, Anna Kolchina, Simone, Laird Jackson & Tessa Souter.