In Bloom 2013

Hank Crawford - True Blue (1964) {2013 Japan Jazz Best Collection 1000 Series WPCR-27469}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 229 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 85 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 10 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 1963-64, 2013 Atlantic / Warner Japan / WEA / Rhino | WPCR-27469
Jazz / Hard Bop / Soul Jazz / Saxophone

Features 24 bit remastering and comes with a mini-description. A cool cooker from altoist Hank Crawford – cut in a tightly-grooving ensemble mode that really reflects his roots with Ray Charles! The tunes are mostly short, but have a great sense of personality – a vibrant approach that comes not just from Hank's lead solos, but also from the group backing by players who include James Clay and Wilbur Brown on tenor, Charlie Patterson on trumpet, and Sonny Forriest on guitar. Hank plays a bit of piano at times, and both John Hunt and Phil Guilbeau get in some trumpet solos too.

This 5-CD box set in ECM’s Old & New Masters series, issued in time for Charles Lloyd’s 75th birthday in March 2013, looks back at the beginning of the great saxophonist’s association with ECM. It includes the albums “Fish Out Of Water”, “Notes from Big Sur”, “The Call”, “All My Relations” and “Canto”. All five albums were recorded in Oslo (between 1989 and 1996) with Manfred Eicher producing and they chart a particularly rich and creative period in Lloyd’s musical life. “Fish Out Of Water” marked Lloyd’s comeback, after long years in retreat from the jazz scene. He was partnered by Scandinavian players who had been inspired by his trailblazing music of the 1960s and who were able both to support and challenge him.

Epic. Stunning. Moving. Deep. Spectacular. Brilliant. Magical. Inspirational. Captivating. Masterful. Perfect. Those are just a handful of the words used by the media to describe the music of cinematic post-rock powerhouse Lights & Motion. The band's debut, Reanimation (released in January 2013), has been called "the greatest debut album in post-rock history" and "album of the year" by several critics. And believe you me, they're weren't lying. Now imagine having a sophomore full-length ready for release just several months later? Few artists would yearn to be standing in shoes that big, smothered in pressure, knee deep in expectation…

“Arborescence” is the word for the way something grows, seeking and adaptive, like a tree – its roots and branches moving under and around things wherever they need to go toward water, toward the sun. Prize-winning young pianist Aaron Parks titled his ECM debut “Arborescence” because the album’s music is the fruit of a session of solo studio improvisation in which little was predetermined; the pieces developed in the moment like “living things,” in the artist’s words.

Lumerians - The High Frontier (2013) {Partisan Records PTKF2106-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 293 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 97 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 12 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Partisan Records PTKF2106-2
Rock / Psychedelic Rock / Krautrock / Neo-Psychedelia

Bay Area psych rockers Lumerians sharpen their sound somewhat on second full-length The High Frontier, peeling out of the gate with highly focused production and a palette of styles that turns on a dime from buzzing space rock to icy post-punk influences. Starting off with the fiery, distorted organ of "Dogon Genesis," the band sounds like a considerably more sober and less bleary-eyed Spacemen 3.

Andreas Ottensamer - Portraits - The Clarinet Album (2013) {Mercury-Deutsche Grammophon 00289 481 0131}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 220 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 133 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 38 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Mercury Classics / Decca / Deutsche Grammophon | 00289 481 0131
Classical / Concerto / Chamber Music / Clarinet

Mercury Classics/Deutsche Grammophon has released the debut album of Austrian clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer, the first ever solo clarinettist to sign an exclusive agreement with the Yellow Label. Portraits – The Clarinet Album features concertos by Copland, Spohr and Cimarosa, plus arrangements of short pieces. Andreas Ottensamer is accompanied on the recording by the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin.