Scats & Tracks

As the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) had done a year earlier, Super Session (1968) initially ushered in several new phases in rock & roll's concurrent transformation. In the space of months, the soundscape of rock shifted radically from short, danceable pop songs to comparatively longer works with more attention to technical and musical subtleties. Enter the unlikely all-star triumvirate of Al Kooper (piano/organ/ondioline/vocals/guitars), Mike Bloomfield (guitar), and Stephen Stills (guitar) – all of whom were concurrently "on hiatus" from their most recent engagements. Kooper had just split after masterminding the groundbreaking Child Is Father to the Man (1968) version of Blood, Sweat & Tears. Bloomfield was fresh from a stint with the likewise brass-driven Electric Flag, while Stills was late of Buffalo Springfield and still a few weeks away from a full-time commitment to David Crosby and Graham Nash. Although the trio never actually performed together, the long-player was notable for idiosyncratically featuring one side led by the team of Kooper/Bloomfield and the other by Kooper/Stills.

Since his self-titled 1990 smash debut, Dave Koz has been one of smooth jazz's greatest musicians. The saxman scored big on the radio and in retail even when he turned away from his established R&B/pop sound on 1996's Off the Beaten Path, which was done with more acoustic instruments. The Dance brings him back to the hard-hitting R&B funk sounds of that first album and its follow-up, 1993's Lucky Man. Aside from reuniting him with some of the producers who worked on his debut – Jeff Lorber, Carl Sturken, Evan Rogers, and his brother Jeff Koz – The Dance is a true testament to the art of collaboration.

Cab Calloway - Best of the Big Bands (1990) {Columbia CK 45336 rec 1930s-1950s}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 130 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 109 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 10 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1930s-1950s, 1990 CBS Records / Columbia | CK 45336
Jazz / Big Band / Jive / Swing / Vocal Jazz

Cab Calloway's eccentric personality and wild onstage antics often overshadowed his musical contributions, when in fact, as this superb Columbia sampler demonstrates, the two went hand in hand. On all-time classic tracks like "The Jumpin' Jive," "Reefer Man," and the inexhaustible "Minnie the Moocher," the Hi-Di-Ho man's exuberance and vitality as a performer is grounded by his tight bandleading and the outstanding playing of his orchestra (which, over the years, included such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie Barefield and Chu Berry).