Gershwin Blue

This admittedly pricey - but by all means mandatory - Grammy Award-winning box set is the final word on the "songbooks" recorded by Ella Fitzgerald between 1956 and 1964. The audio contents have been completely remastered and each title has been expanded - wherever possible - to include previously unissued material. In terms of packaging, the producers went to extreme lengths to create exact reproductions of all the vintage LP jacket artwork. Even going so far as to precisely miniaturize the entire hardbound text The Gershwins: Words Upon Music that accompanied their 1959 collection as well as the booklet that came with the Ellington anthology…

Singer/actress Lena Horne's primary occupation was nightclub entertaining, a profession she pursued successfully around the world for more than 60 years, from the 1930s to the 1990s. In conjunction with her club work, she also maintained a recording career that stretched from 1936 to 2000 and brought her three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989; she appeared in 16 feature films and several shorts between 1938 and 1978; she performed occasionally on Broadway, including in her own Tony-winning one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, in 1981-1982; and she sang and acted on radio and television.

Denny Zeitlin - Mosaic Select, The Columbia Studio Trio Sessions (2009) {3CD Set, Mosaic MS-034 rec 1964-1967}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.05 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 516 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 67 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1964-67, 2009 Mosaic Records / Sone Music | MS-034
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Piano

Remarkably, whether he's playing an impressionistic ballad, a hard bop classic or a free original, Denny Zeitlin sounds like no other. He has the technique and harmonic knowledge to execute anything his fertile imagination conjures up. His music resonates with joy and honesty. Denny Zeitlin's first album, Cathexis, recorded in 1964 with Cecil McBee and Freddie Waits was an instant critical and commercial success with Zeitlin hailed as a new and original voice of the piano. Later in 1964, Denny assembled another amazing trio with Charlie Haden and Jerry Granelli and released the album Carnival. Zeitgeist was recorded over 1966 and '67 and documented the end of the trio with Haden and Granelli and the beginning of one with Joe Halpin and Oliver Johnson, two brilliant musicians who died young.

SOMM Recordings celebrates the 10th anniversary of the acclaimed piano duo Julian Jacobson and Mariko Brown with Manhattan to Montmartre, dazzling keyboard arrangements of American giants George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.

Lang Lang - New York Rhapsody (2016) {Sony Classical 88985332922}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 385 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 166 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 217 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Sony Classical / Sony Music | 88985332922
Classical / Classical Crossover / Piano

The ineffable magic of New York City fires the imagination of superstar pianist Lang Lang on his new album New York Rhapsody. He is joined by a wide array of special guests including Andra Day, Herbie Hancock, Jason Isbell, Jeffrey Wright, Kandace Springs, Lindsey Stirling, Lisa Fischer, Madeleine Peyroux and Sean Jones. From the haunting reveries of Gershwin and Copland to the in-the-moment intensity of songs made famous by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, Lou Reed and Don Henley, New York Rhapsody rediscovers the dazzle and the soul of America’s most symbolic city.

The Nat King Cole Trio - The MacGregor Years, 1941-1945 (1995) {4CD Set Music and Arts PoA, CD-911}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 611 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 668 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 48 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1941-45, 1995 Music and Arts PoA | CD-911
Jazz / Swing / Vocal Jazz / Jump Blues / Traditional Pop

On this four-CD set are included the bulk of Nat King Cole's radio transcriptions of 1941 and 1944-45. Although the programming could be a little better (the complete sessions are not compiled strictly in chronological order), the music has a strong unity and is consistently enjoyable. Pianist-vocalist Cole and his trio (which also includes important contributions by guitarist Oscar Moore and either Johnny Miller or Wesley Prince on bass) are featured extensively both as a unit and as an accompanying group to singers Anita Boyer, Ida James, Anita O'Day and the Barrie Sisters on 33, 15, five and five songs respectively.