Love Letter

David Benoit had a slight departure with this 1992 release, performing two previously unheard Bill Evans compositions ("Letter to Evan" and "Knit for Mary F."), Dave Brubeck's "Kathy's Waltz" and a mixture of standards and originals. Most of the tunes are played with small groups (duets to quartets) and such fine players as bassist John Patitucci, drummer Peter Erskine and guitarists Larry Carlton and Peter Sprague make strong contributions. The melodic and mostly straight-ahead music is pleasing, pretty and sometimes swinging, if not all particularly innovative. Worth checking out by jazz listeners.

This is the way a Joan Armatrading best-of collection should be assembled in the first place. The numerous single-disc compilations never came close to being representative of her achievement as a recording artist. Culling 43 tracks over eight years and 11 albums is even better in many ways than issuing an Armatrading box set. All of the expected material from the early years is included on disc one, such as "Cool Blue Stole My Heart," "Travel So Far," "Dry Land," "Down to Zero," "Love and Affection," "Help Yourself," "Woncha Come on Home," "Show Some Emotion," "Willow," "Barefoot and Pregnant," "Bottom to the Top," "You Rope You Tie Me," "Your Letter," and many more, including "The Flight of the Wild Geese" from the soundtrack to the film. It covers Armatrading's prolific period from 1975-1979, where a lot of old hippies, now upwardly mobile professionals seeking mellow escapes from their relentless and often ruthless pursuit of "the good life," got off the bus and remained stuck, listening only to her early records along with those of the Jacksons, Eagles, and James Taylor.

Sun Lu (孙露) - Collection (2006-2024)
MP3 320 kbps | 76 albums | 99:56:41 min | Covers included | 13,6 Gb
Genre: Chinese Pop/Mandopop

Sun Lu [孙露] is Chinese pop singer …with amazing and unique voice, melodious and deep, hot and strong, pure and elegant.

Italian singer Joe Barbieri's 7th studio album is a tribute to Billie Holiday that starts off and unfolds like a letter, an imperative confession. "Two pillars of jazz have forged me more than any other - Chet Baker and Billie Holiday," explains Barbieri. "To the first I dedicated an album a few years ago entitled 'Chet Lives!'. I still owed a debt of gratitude to Lady Day, which, with this project, I hope not so much to extinguish (that is impossible) but at the very least to sublimate. As a kid, listening to Billie's songs allowed me to enter into a 'different' emotional dimension, it gave me access to a range of sensations that were already mine even though I wasn't yet aware of it. And thanks to her, thanks to her way of singing to the world, I felt understood, watched over, forgiven"….