Peter Green

Ghana has been considered a land of storytellers for many centuries. But this great tradition does not necessarily have to be continued with words or the voice. Peter Somuah spins storytelling with his instrument: as a young trumpet player, he embarks on a fascinating search for identity between the highlife of his homeland, his idol Miles Davis and the cosmopolitan musical language of his new home Holland. This journey is his "Letter To The Universe".

Peter Zak - Down East (2011) {SteepleChase SCCD-31715 rec 2010}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 370 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 141 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 16 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2011 SteepleChase Productions ApS | SCCD 31715
Jazz / Post Bop / Straight-Ahead Jazz / Jazz Piano Trio

Peter Zak has greatly increased his exposure with a series of outstanding CDs for Steeplechase. This trio date with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Rodney Green covers a lot of ground: popular standards, jazz favorites, and infrequently played jazz works. Zak's lyricism is displayed in his treatment of Duke Ellington's 1940s ballad "I Didn't Know About You." The pianist dives full-force into Duke Pearson's "Is That So?" with his lively improvising in a brisk arrangement. Thelonious Monk's "Gallop's Gallop" isn't recorded much at all, but it is one of his most challenging tunes, with multiple twists that the trio negotiate with ease as they deliver a stimulating performance.

This Peter Green-led edition of the Mac isn't just an important transition between their initial blues-based incarnation and the mega-pop band they became, it's also their most vital, exciting version. The addition of Danny Kirwan as second guitarist and songwriter foreshadows not only the soft-rock terrain of "Bare Trees" and "Kiln House" with Christine Perfect-McVie, but also predicts Rumours. That only pertains to roughly half of the also excellent material here, though; the rest is quintessential Green.

A live DVD featuring the Godfather of Blues, John Mayall, here backed by fine musicians like Coco Montoya and the extraordinary Walter Trout.
As the elder statesman of British blues, it is John Mayall's lot to be more renowned as a bandleader and mentor than as a performer in his own right. Throughout the '60s, his band, the Bluesbreakers, acted as a finishing school for the leading British blues-rock musicians of the era. Guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor joined his band in a remarkable succession in the mid-'60s, honing their chops with Mayall before going on to join Cream, Fleetwood Mac, and the Rolling Stones, respectively.

The Astronauts - Peter Pan Hits The Suburbs
Flac + Log (separate tracks) - no Cue | Full Scans 300dpi | 272 MB
Rock/Punk | Lazy Dog Records | Catalog#: LZDCD 801 | 1994 (original release 1981)

'Peter Pan Hits The Suburbs' was released in 1981 to widespread acclaim. Incredibly it received great reviews in virtually all the UK music press. The typical Astronauts audience at the time was largely hardcore punks attracted by the energetic gigs and a handful of hippies so the album was something of a surprise. Full of heartfelt folk ballads and featuring legendary jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill the album was not what fans had expected but appealed to a different audience. The contradiction of heavy chaotic punk performances and structured melodic alternative pop/folk/ambient songs continues to this day.

Über-lunged German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann teamed up with American vanguard legend Joe McPhee (who plays alto, tenor, trumpet, and pocket cornet here), bassist Kent Kessler, and drummer Michael Zerang (four-tenths of the Tentet Brötzmann toured and recorded with in the late '90s) for a single day of exchanging tunes and improvising in June 2002. McPhee and Brötzmann are perfect foils for one another on the front line. They both have requisite force, but McPhee is also a chameleon's player; he understands what lies in the spaces and knows how to make the most of it. His own compositions here, which account for over half the album, stress the kind of joint front-line melodies and close harmonics that create inner space in a tune – just check his two-part "Stone Poem" and his "Anticipation of the Next," dedicated to departed bassists Peter Kowald and Wilbur Morris, for evidence. Brötzmann offers some surprises here in his pieces as well, not the least of which is his reformulation of a hymn Thelonious Monk recorded shortly before his death, originally entitled "This Is My Story, This Is My Song." Titled "Blessed Assurance" here, it takes the hymn, moves through its changes twice, and extrapolates them through his solo and the band's collective improvisation. McPhee's trumpet is the perfect complement and the pair sound like Albert and Don Ayler swinging their chariots toward the heavenly gates. Likewise, the beautiful art-damaged composition "Pieces of Red, Green, and Blue" (supposedly written about a museum experience he and Brötzmann shared) offers killer honking saxophone phrases that are repeated, striated, warped, turned inside out and back on themselves, and finally exploded into intense and inspired group interplay. This is a fiery and yet accessible date that showcases many aspects of the two men not only as players, but as composers as well.