Pat Martino El Hombre (1967) [rvg Remaster 2006] (2014_hdtracks 24 44,1)

Horace-Scope is an album by jazz pianist Horace Silver released on the Blue Note label in 1960 featuring performances by Silver with Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor, and Roy Brooks. Steve Huey, reviewing for Allmusic, described the album as "full of soulful grooves and well-honed group interplay" and ultimately an "eminently satisfying effort".

After brief sojourns at Argo and Cadet, Lou Donaldson marked his 1967 return by recording Lush Life, the grandest project he ever attempted. With its plush arrangements and unabashedly pretty melodies, Lush Life stands in stark contrast to everything else he cut in the '60s. There are no blues, no stabs at soul-jazz grooves, no hard bop – only sweet, sensitive renditions of romantic standards. ~ AllMusic

Compulsion continues Andrew Hill's progression, finding the pianist writing more complex compositions and delving even further into the avant-garde. Working with a large, percussion-heavy band featuring Freddie Hubbard (trumpet, flugelhorn), John Gilmore (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet), Cecil McBee (bass), Joe Chambers (drums), Renaud Simmons (conga), Nadi Qamar (percussion), and, for one track, Richard Davis (bass), Hill has created one of his most challenging dates. The extra percussion is largely used for texture, as is the dueling bass on "Premonition," and that's one of the reasons why the record is so interesting - it's a provocative, occasionally unsettling set of shifting tonal colors. Hill's compositions often seem more like sketches and blueprints than full-fledged songs…

Throughout the 90 minutes you'll see dozens of exciting demontrations and performances by Pat Martino. This video by a true legend of contemporary guitar is simply a don't miss for any serious guitarist wanting to broaden their musical horizons.

Willie Colon - El Malo (1967) {Fania 773130029-2 rel 2006}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 202 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 72 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 45 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1967, 2006 Fania Records / Emusica Records | SLPCD-347
Jazz / Boogaloo / Salsa / Latin Jazz / Tropical / Trombone / Vocals

Great stuff – and a very sharp album cut by Willie during the Latin soul era, featuring a bunch of tracks that veer more towards the boogaloo side of things than his later albums! The groove is nice and hard – stripped down with the youthful energy that Willie brought to the scene at the time – and the record features great vocals by Hector Lavoe, Yayo El Indo, and Elliot Romero. Features the wonderful piano-bassed groover – "Jazzy" – which spirals out with descarga-like energy! Other great tracks include the boogaloo numbers "Skinny Papa", "Willie Baby", "Willie Whopper", and "El Malo" – but the whole album's a winner!

The Horace Silver Quintet - The Tokyo Blues (1962) [2009 Blue Note Rudy Van Gelder Remaster]
EACRip | MP3 @320 -> 91 MB | FLAC (tracks)+LOG+Cue -> 231 MB | Full Artwork HQ of CD and LP -> 8.5 MB
© 2009 Blue Note | 651462 | Jazz / Hard Bop / Classical Jazz

Following a series of concert dates in Tokyo late in 1961 with his quintet, Horace Silver returned to the U.S. with his head full of the Japanese melodies he had heard during his visit, and using those as a springboard, he wrote four new pieces, which he then recorded at sessions held on July 13 and 14, 1962, along with a version of Ronnell Bright's little known ballad "Cherry Blossom." One would naturally assume the resulting LP would have a Japanese feel, but that really isn't the case. Using Latin rhythms and the blues as a base, Silver's Tokyo-influenced compositions fit right in with the subtle cross-cultural but very American hard bop he'd been doing all along. Using his usual quintet (Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor sax, Gene Taylor on bass) with drummer Joe Harris (he is listed as John Harris, Jr. for this set) filling in for an ailing Roy Brooks), Silver's compositions have a light, airy feel, with plenty of space, and no one used that space better at these sessions than Cook, whose tenor sax lines are simply wonderful, adding a sturdy, reliable brightness. The centerpieces are the two straight blues, "Sayonara Blues" and "The Tokyo Blues," both of which have a delightfully natural flow, and the building, patient take on Bright's "Cherry Blossom," which Silver takes pains to make sure sounds like a ballad and not a barely restrained minor-key romp. The bottom line is that The Tokyo Blues emerges as a fairly typical Silver set from the era and not as a grandiose fusion experiment welding hard bop to Japanese melodies. That might have been interesting, certainly, but Silver obviously assimilated things down to a deeper level before he wrote these pieces, and they feel like a natural extension of his work rather than an experimental detour.