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Undeniably Zachary Breaux's best album, Groovin' finds the guitarist performing live at Ronnie Scott's Club – a London venue that many British jazz fans consider England's equivalent of New York's Village Vanguard. Some of Breaux's studio material was smothered by excessive production and didn't fully demonstrate what a talented soloist he was, but on these soul-jazz, post-bop, and pop-jazz performances, he isn't worried about fitting into oppressive commercial radio formats. So the improviser is free to stretch out and say what he needs to on material that ranges from John Coltrane's "Impressions" (which gets a funky, hip-hop-ish makeover) and Ben Tucker's "Coming Home Baby" to originals like the mellow "Lagos" and the blues number "Alice."

New York, March 1960. At 22, Monica Zetterlund is a starry eyed Swedish vocalist with Ella, Sarah and Billie on her mind. On her first New York visit, famous critic and sometime record producer Leonard Feather rents Bell Sound Studios on West 54th Street. An all-star cast including Thad Jones, Zoot Sims and Jimmy Jones is hired to accompany Monica's first attempt to conquer the US jazz world. And then the tapes are lost. 36 years later, they surface. 12 unreleased songs, heard only by a handful of people. 4 outtakes not familiar even to Monica. A not to be missed portrait of a masterful young performer.

Ellister makes you forget her instrument. She doesn’t play the trumpet, she plays music. There’s no struggle in her playing; the notes come out effortlessly, as if inventing them and executing them perfectly on the horn is no big deal at all.

La Monte Young - The Well-Tuned Piano 81 X 25 (6:17.50 - 11:18:59 PM NYC) (1987) {5CD Gramavision 18-8701-2 rec 1981}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.03 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 708 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 221 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 1981, 1987 La Monte Young / Gramavision | 18-8701-2
Classical / Modern Classical / Modern Composition / Microtonal / Piano

The Well-Tuned Piano is La Monte Young's magnum opus, the work in which many of his theories are crystallized and laid out for the listener. It's a massive solo piano performance, lasting a little over five hours, during which Young displays virtually every combination of chords that he deems special, seguing one into another. At the end of the day, the question is: Given the formal system and obviously huge amount of time devoted to its investigation, is the resultant music beautiful enough to justify the large amount of hype accompanying the project? The first thing that strikes the listener is the sound of the piano itself, a Bosendorfer that has been tuned in just intonation.

Twelve Pieces is mostly gentle and lyrical jazz, something to enjoy with wine and a cozy fire. But it’s not sleepy; because of its stylistic diversity it stays interesting without the need to be bold or aggressive. Mainieri and Busstra meld nicely, Eric van der Westen provides excellent support on the double bass, and drummer Pieter Bast provides a lesson on rhythmic adaptation across jazz styles; his work on brushes is noteworthy throughout.

Unlike almost any other modern musician, Pat Metheny remains uniquely unpredictable. A new Metheny record could be almost anything as the only musician to have won twelve of his twenty Grammy awards in twelve different categories. His recent recording Road To The Sun caused a sensation in the classical music world for its intricate and emotionally satisfying chamber music compositions. At the same time, its immediate predecessor From This Place was Downbeat magazine’s Jazz Record of the Year as an expansive and timeless large-scale work.

This show from New York's Madison Square Garden in January 2003 was one of 117 shows on the band's 40th anniversary tour, which played in stadiums, arenas and theaters around the world between 2002 and 2003…