Ernie Pikea

Ernie Watts has been quietly playing the part of an influential saxman for over 20 years. His expressive solos have graced the recordings of countless greats in nearly every genre of music. "Music is a language," says Watts, "and with language there are all these dialects - Rock, Classical, Jazz, Be-Bop and R&B among others. As for me, I'm interested in speaking all those dialects." On The Long Road Home, Watts returns to his favorite dialect…jazz. The results are simply glorious. Joining Watts on this blues tinged release are Kenny Barron on piano, Reggie Workman on acoustic bass, Mark Whitfield on electric guitar and Carmen Lundy, who performs two vocal numbers.

As both previous volumes in this series have shown, Luxembourg has a wealth of composers writing vibrant new orchestral scores. Featured on this third volume, Luc Grethen's Upswing is a crescendo of energy, while Ernie Hammes' Concertino No. I fuses jazz modes with classical patterns, and his West End Avenue evokes the atmosphere of an afternoon in New York. Catherine Kontz explores feminist ideas in The Waves, while Gast Waltzing allows his music to 'speak for itself'. Volume 1 (8.579059) was acclaimed as 'an outstanding disc by Fanfare, and Volume 2 (8.579116) showcases the music of Marco Pütz.

Ernie Henry - Presenting Ernie Henry (1956) {Riverside OJCCD-1920-2 rel 1999}
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© 1956, 1999 Riverside Records / Fantasy | OJCCD-1920-2
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Saxophone

For those of you who don't know this underrated alto saxophonist, Ernie Henry is most widely known as one of the sidemen on Thelonious Monk's classic Brilliant Corners . Sadly he made only two albums as a leader (and another of posthumously released outtakes and alternates, Last Chorus ) before his untimely death at the age of 31 in 1957. This album, "Presenting Ernie Henry," is his first, cut at two sessions in August of 1956, and featuring a quintet of Henry, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Kenny Drew on piano, Wilbur Ware on bass and Art Taylor on drums. Get a good listen to a player who left this world all too soon, before his CDs disappear too.

Ernie Wilkins - The Everest Years (1959-60) {Re–Everest 545 450 756-2 rel 2005}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 429 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 158 Mb
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© 1959-60, 2005 Re / Everest / Universal | 545 450 756-2
Jazz / Bop / Modern Big Band / Modern Arragement

Arranger Ernie Wilkins' two Everest LPs, Here Comes the Swingin' Mr. Wilkins and The Big New Band of the '60s, are reissued in full on this single CD. Recording during 1959-1960, Wilkins used an overlapping personnel of Count Basie members (both past and of the time), some of the top jazz-oriented studio players, and various miscellaneous jazz musicians. There is no way that this could have been a full-time big band, not with such soloists as Duke Ellington's tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, trumpeters Clark Terry and Thad Jones, and the Basie players, but Wilkins' swinging arrangements gave his short-lived orchestra its own sound.