Experiencing Jazz

Dizzy Gillespie - Live At Ronnie Scott's, Volume Four (1973) {Consolidated Artists CAP1044 rel 2014}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks) +CUE+LOG -> 463 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 164 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 27 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1973, 2014 Consolidated Artists Productions | CAP 1044
Jazz / Post Bop / Afro-Cuban Jazz / Trumpet

Over the last few years, just as jazz fans had thought that CD collections of their favorite iconic jazz musicians were “complete” (since the legendary artists had been deceased for decades), we have been treated to welcome releases from European sources of previously unreleased material. The latest bonanza comes from CAP (Consolidated Artists Productions), of never before heard recordings of Dizzy Gillespie’s Quintet from a two week engagement in August, 1973, at Ronnie Scott’s club in London. (CAP is owned by the quintet’s pianist, Mike Longo.)

LIVE was mostly recorded on November 1st, 2019, at Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin, Germany, during the 2019 edition of JazzFest Berlin. For Angel Bat Dawid and her band Tha Brothahood – which includes Deacon Otis Cooke, Viktor Le Givens, Xristian Espinoza, Norman W. Long, Dr. Adam Zanolini, and Asher Simiso Gamedze – it was the first stop of their first European tour.

Diffracting through a greenwood canopy, the poetic words and music of vocalist/violinist/pianist Alice Zawadzki illuminate her unique artistry and the concept behind new album Within You is a World of Spring – the follow-up to acclaimed Whirlwind debut release China Lane. Zawadzki leads an inspiring band of musicians and improvisers in realising her extraordinary, often moving, occasionally droll, original songs: Fred Thomas (piano, drums, percussion, banjo, organ), Rob Luft (guitar), Misha Mullov-Abbado (double bass) and Hyelim Kim (taegum). Integral to the impressive, layered detailing is the Amika String Quartet of Simmy Singh, Laura Senior, Lucy Nolan and Peggy Nolan, and engineer Alex Killpartrick.

There's something incredibly tragic and ironic in the strange reality that finds a beloved jazz singer taking her own life just after compiling a collection of her best loved interpretations. So loved by so many, but perhaps – as she wrote in her liner notes for her wistful reading of "If I Only Had a Heart" – she was one of those people who "have trouble experiencing their own emotions and yearn to feel something, anything." Also in this spirited mix of classics is "Look For the Silver Lining," and her version is, of course, cheery.

Miles Davis - Miles Smiles (1967) {2018 Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs UDSACD 2201}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 272 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 102 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 34 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1967, 2018 Columbia / Sony Music / Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs | UDSACD 2201
Jazz / Hard Bop / Modal Music / Trumpet

The clarity afforded by history proves Miles Davis' second great quintet vying for the unofficial honor of being the finest small jazz combo to ever record to tape. Originally released in 1966, Miles Smiles is largely responsible for the feat, as it commences a series of five groundbreaking albums – chronologically rounded out by Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky, and Filles de Kilimanjaro – guided not by chordal patterns but open responses to melodies. Music would never again be the same. Neither will experiencing Miles Smiles once you hear this definitive-sounding hybrid SACD reissue.