Live at Jazz Standard

This DVD highlights the advantages perfectly: there are loads of camera angles, and the cutting between long views and close ups of Jamal's facial expressions and hand gestures to the others, Heard's fingering and Israel's cymbals really adds to the live jazz experience.
A sorely underexposed figure and a major influence on Miles Davis, pianist Ahmad Jamal isn't generally ranked among the all-time giants of jazz, but he impressed fellow musicians and record buyers alike with his innovative, minimalist approach.

Here we have Beat Baumli on guitar, Lorenz Beyeler on bass and Alexia Gardner on vocals. The album consits of excerpts of 3 nights at the Birds Eye Jazz Club in Basel, Switzerland. Read on for the Linear notes on this sophisticated Live Trio recording. Liner Notes provided by Phil Morrison from Brunswick, Georgia in the US. (Bassist/Composer/Songwriter)All too often we use the phrase "jazz singer" when referring to vocalists who sing standard tunes from the jazz repertoire. Many are very good singers who sing in tune and in time with the music…

Paco de Lucia & John McLaughlin - Paco And John Live At Montreux 1987 (2016) {2CD+Bonus DVD9}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 524 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 197 Mb
DVD9 -> 6.21 Gb | All Regions | NTSC 4:3 | Dolby AC3, 2 ch / Dolby AC3, 6 ch / DTS, 6 ch | ~ 91 min | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 117 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1987, 2016 Eagle Vision / Universal | EAGDV059
Jazz / World Music / Flamenco / Guitar

John McLaughlin & Paco de Lucia: Paco and John - Live at Montreux 1987 it's truly a shame that, all too often, artists with diverse careers become pigeon-holed, defined by the primary genre in which they first achieved notoriety. Take guitarist John McLaughlin, for instance. Ask most jazz fans about him and what will first come out of most of their mouths will include either the words "fusion," "jazz-rock" and/or Miles Davis, in any permutation/combination (not that there's anything wrong with that). Those a little further in the know might also be aware of his longstanding investigation into the nexus of eastern and western music with his Indo-collaboration, Shakti.

The name Lennie Tristano was conspicuously absent from Ken Burns' monolithic jazz documentary. That's no small omission; Tristano's group, which included the saxophonists Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz (also ignored by Burns) was the first to record what later came to be known as free jazz - music improvised without pre-ordained melodies, harmonies, or meter. Needless to say, that wasn't mentioned by Burns, either. Tristano did it in 1949, the year this record was recorded, with what is essentially the same band (Konitz is absent here, though he was a regular member of Tristano's group at the time). This record gives no direct evidence of the band's free jazz experiments - although Tristano is given composer's credit on all cuts, the disc is comprised mostly of standard harmonic frameworks played without reference to theme…

It is fulfilling to attend a Carmen Souza concert just to listen to her breathtaking version of “Donna Lee” alone. However, there is much more to fall in love with than Miles Davis’ chart that Charlie Parker made famous by the singer on Live at Lagny Jazz Festival. Whether it is being mesmerised by her version of the standard “My Favourite Things,” or falling prey to the charms of the magnificent chart of that other famous son of Cape Verde, Horace Silver’s “Son of My Father,” or by Ms. Souza’s and Theo Pascal’s own “Afri Ka,” the effect is the same: breathless. For Carmen Souza is one of a kind - an original as rare as a throat singer and as exquisite as a vocalist who combines the best of Billie Holiday and Elis Regina - whose time has certainly come. Carmen Souza’s star is certainly on the rise…

Jimmy Ponder - Live at The Other End (1982) {Explore Records EXP0026 rel 2007}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 216 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 131 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 5 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1982, 2007 Explore Records / Cheetah Company | EXP0026
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Bop / Guitar

Let's face it, solo jazz guitar records – by most guitar masters anyway – would become rather ho hum unless of course you are a student of the instrument or a die-hard fanatic. There are exceptions: Jim Hall, Bola Sete, Tal Farlow, as well as others purposely omitted for brevity here. Live at the Other End by Jimmy Ponder is not only engaging for its entire 55 minutes' running time, it's downright dazzling, and not only in technical acumen – which it certainly is – but in its pure singing musicality. Given that the Other End – formerly the legendary Bitter End – was, in 1982, a pop-oriented room, a solo gig by a jazz guitarist was risky for the club to be sure, but more so for the guitarist.

In May 1990 Roy Ayers made his firsl appearance al Ronnie Scott's club in London's Frith Street, and a very sucessful debut it was. The sound of his band on that two week stay can be heard on JHCD 013 "Searchin", which was one of the first releases on the Ronnie Scott's Jazz House label in May 1991. At the beginning of the 90's Roy was, and indeed still is, a heavily featured artist in London's jazz dance clubs, where his own 'classics' from the 70's and 80's are constantly on the turntables as well as his earlier recordings being sampled on releases by a number of other artists.