Horn 1997

Chico Hamilton - The Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings Of The Chico Hamilton Quintet (1954-1959) {6CD Mosaic MD6-175 rel 1997}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.74 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 906 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 152 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1954-59, 1997 Mosaic / Pacific Jazz / Blue Note / EMI-Capitol | MD6-175
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Bop / Drums / Percussion

The original Chico Hamilton Quintet was one of the last significant West Coast jazz bands of the cool era. Consisting of Buddy Collette on reeds (flute, clarinet, alto, and tenor), guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Carson Smith, and the drummer/leader, the most distinctive element in the group's identity was cellist Fred Katz. The band could play quite softly, blending together elements of bop and classical music into their popular sound and occupying their own niche. This six-CD, limited-edition box set from 1997 starts off with a Hamilton drum solo from a 1954 performance with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet; it contains three full albums and many previously unreleased numbers) by the original Chico Hamilton band and also has quite a few titles from the second Hamilton group (which has Paul Horn and John Pisano in the places of Collette and Hall).

Dizzie Gillespie - Perceptions (1961) {Verve Elite Edition 314 537 748-2 rel 1997}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 203 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 80 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 39 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1961, 1997 Verve / PolyGram | Verve Elite Edition | 314 537 748-2
Jazz / Large Jazz Orchestra / Modern Arrangement / Trumpet

This unusual session consists of a complex six-movement suite by J.J. Johnson featuring Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet over a brass choir (six trumpets, two trombones, two bass trombones, four French horns and two tubas), bass, drums, percussion and two harps. Often reminiscent of classical music, Johnson's writing allows plenty of room for Gillespie to improvise. The result is a rather unique set of music that is well worth searching for.

Shirley Horn continues in a formula that has become very popular for her. De-emphasizing her piano, Horn sings one very slow ballad after another. The intimate music, which features her trio members, percussionist Alex Acuna and most prominently the keyboards and orchestrations of George Mesterhazy, has very little variety and should be listened to in small doses.

Emilio Castillo, Francis Rocco Prestia, "Doc" Kupka and the boys are back for another session of family- style funk. As in their formative years, Tower of Power lays it down with the idea that more is better. Perhaps as a result of maintaining the same personnel for so many years, the sound here is tight, clean and hard-hitting. Often utilizing groups of singers, and a full horn section, many of the songs transcend the usual "get down and party" message of most funk bands.

If I could pick a musical premiere out of the past that I could have attended, I would probably choose one of those evenings when Mozart and Haydn took the two viola parts in the first performances of Mozart's string quintets. It's something to wonder at, anyway. The string quintets are not only Mozart's greatest chamber music, they are among the most profoundly inspired pieces of music by anyone for any instruments. Three of them can be found on this budget priced set, superbly performed, along with the Horn Quintet, and the Quintet for Piano and Winds, which inspired Beethoven to compose a not quite as successful sequel. Greatness, folks, pure and simple.

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown's tough-minded approach to the blues, country, Cajun, and jazz insures a minimum of nonsense and a maximum of variety, while his virtuosity on the guitar and fiddle insures the highest standards. Nonetheless, Brown's 1997 album is a landmark for the 73-year-old picker who won a Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Award. All 13 tunes on Gate Swings find Brown working with his regular road quartet plus a 13-piece horn section, enabling him to prove that Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Lionel Hampton have been as important to his music as any bluesman or Creole fiddler. Gate Swings includes tunes by all three of those big-band leaders as well as compositions by Buddy Johnson, Percy Mayfield, Louis Jordan, and Brown himself, and they all swing with the massive force that only a big horn section can muster. Brown has leaned in this direction before, but Gate Swings is special, because it features the horn arrangements of Wardell Quezergue, an alumnus of the Dave Bartholomew band who arranged many of the best New Orleans R&B hits in the '60s and '70s.

Pianist Misha Alperin appears with a quintet on this set of mysterious original compositions. His longtime colleague, Arkady Shilkloper, plays French horn and flugelhorn and is joined by Tore Brunberg on tenor saxophone, Terje Gewelt on double bass, and ECM stalwart Jon Christensen on drums. Combining Russian folk, modern classical, and free jazz influences, Alperin's music ranges from the icy minimalism of "Morning" and "Alone" to the atonal fanfares of "Afternoon," the eerie unison melodies of "Psalm No. 1" and "Psalm No. 2," and the jumpy parallel-fifth motives of "Ironical Evening." Most memorable is the exquisite "North Story," a sparse invention framed by a descending pattern of seven gorgeous chords. In contrast, "Etude," one of the disc's more upbeat and exuberant pieces, is based on darting, tightly executed 16th-note patterns. The program ends with the sole non-original, Harald Saeverud's "Kristi-Blodsdraper (Fucsia)," a beautiful folkish ballad.

The music and performances are plain irresistible. Louis Dauprat and the Detmold Hornists may not be household names, but the Sextet is an outstanding, possibly unique work, and this ensemble, named after their base in Germany, have superb intonation and expressiveness. Neither the date of composition nor of publication of the Sextet are known, but some time between 1810 and 1827 seems likely for both. The work is fairly conservative, with little of the innovation characteristic of Antonín Rejcha's wind quintets, which were composed around this time, and indeed written in part for Dauprat, who studied with Rejcha from 1811 to 1814.