The Place of Quarantine

Fred Ho & The Green Monster Big Band - Year of the Tiger (2011) {Innova 789}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 453 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 165 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 32 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2011 Innova / Big Red Media | 789
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Experimental / Modern Big Band / Creative Orchestra

To approximate the first half of Fred Ho's album Year of the Tiger, it's necessary to imagine the sound that might be created if the members of Duke Ellington & His Orchestra were mixed with the players from Parliament/Funkadelic and set loose on the Michael Jackson and Jimi Hendrix catalogs. That's right, songs like "Thriller" and "Purple Haze" get severely retrofitted into an aggressive, irreverent jazz-funk style, with harsh, massed horn parts. Sometimes, the sound resembles a couple of high-school marching bands fighting it out on the same football field.

The title of What Comes Next, the latest album by guitarist Peter Bernstein, certainly echoes a question that we’ve all been asking ourselves in recent months. Locked away, wary of leaving the house during a global pandemic, divided by politics and protests, all during the most vital Presidential election in living memory – any one of those issues would spell an uncertain future.

Yusef Lateef - The Three Faces of Yusef Lateef (1960) {Riverside OJCCD-759-2 rel 2006}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 262 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 101 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 11 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1960, 2006 Riverside / Fantasy / Universal | OJCCD-759-2 / 00025218675925
Jazz / Hard Bop / Saxophone / Oboe / Flute

On The Three Faces of Yusef Lateef, Riverside seems eager to present Yusef Lateef, technical virtuoso, on a series of songs that step closer to jazz tradition than any of his work in the recent past. Largely absent are Lateef's experiments with Eastern modes, rhythms, and instrumentation, and in their place is a collection of largely upbeat, accessible songs, with a balanced mix of standards and originals. Much of the introspective, personal quality of his previous albums seems lost in the effort, but Lateef's playing still remains stellar, especially on oboe.