Kristie H. Sullivan

This album is more than just a collection of covers of Bjork songs. Different from CDs like the "String Quartet Tributes to" artists like Bjork and Radiohead, this album really stands alone as a funky, brassy, bold, and beautiful big band jazz album. It combines very modern sounds (electric guitar, drums, electric/computerized percussion, etc.) with old-fashioned jazz elements (a killer horn section, great piano solos [particularly on "Cocoon"], the great vocals by Becca Stevens) a quality of Bjork's work that I have always admired, the combination of the modern and the antique.

This 1986 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra and Julian Lloyd Webber as soloist is the best recording of the Sullivan I have ever come across. The three movements, which are played without a break, climb from a brief formal opening, to soar like an operatic aria in the second movement before culminating in a very powerful and melodic finale. The Herbert Cello Concerto n 2 is one of the composer’s most notable instrumental works (although he was a cellist himself, Herbert remains well known primarily for his operettas and musicals). Lloyd Webber’s interpretation of the concerto is flawless.

Avid Jazz here presents four classic Charlie Shavers albums plus including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD. “Tribute To Andy Razaf featuring Maxine Sullivan”; “Horn O’ Plenty; The Most Intimate; Blue Stompin’ Plus Flow Gently Sweet Rhythm Excluding Commentary.
Our first album “Tribute to Andy Razaf” features singer Maxine Sullivan accompanied by amongst others, our featured artist Charlie Shavers on trumpet alongside Jerome Richardson, Dick Hayman and Milt Hinton. Andy Razaf was best known as Fats Waller’s collaborator and appropriately enough this set by Ms.Sullivan is both a tribute to Razaf and Fats! “Flow Gently Sweet Rhythm” again features Maxine Sullivan with Charlie Shavers leading the original John Kirby Band…

This album was released in 1973 following the amazingly original albums 'Back To Front' and 'Himself' released in 1972 and 1971. It seems the 70s are O'Sullivan's vintage era and it is astonishing he could keep writing so many songs of highest quality and originality. Like the previous album, this one includes, not only hit songs like 'Get Down' and 'Ooh Baby', but also heart-warming and memorable songs like 'Where peaceful waters fllow', 'Afriend of mine' and 'They've only themselves to blame'. One of the characteristics of this album is the unabashed sense of humour and striking melodies which go very well with the witty lyrics in the songs like 'I'm a writer not a fighter', 'Who knows perhaps maybe' and 'If you love me like you love me'. This is certainly one of the best albums by O'Sullivan.

In June and September of 1952, Joe Sullivan recorded eight versions of songs composed but never recorded by Thomas "Fats" Waller. Issued on a 10" LP entitled Fats Waller First Editions, this music soon drifted into obscurity. It resurfaced years later on Mosaic's The Columbia Jazz Piano Moods Sessions, a limited-edition box set of seven CDs. In January of 2004, the Classics Chronological series quietly released all eight of these magnificent trio renderings as part of the continuing saga of Joe Sullivan. Hardly anybody seems to have noticed this important historical development. Yet Fats Waller devotees everywhere should be notified, as they now have ready access to Waller melodies with titles like "What's Your Name," "Solid Eclipse," "Never Heard of Such Stuff," and "If You Can't Be Good, Be Careful." Classics 1353 also includes a powerful quartet session from December of 1945 with George Wettling…