Vehicle 19 (2013)

For this 2013 release from Ondine, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, conductor Daniel Harding, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra present three exciting works by Jörg Widmann, a German composer who possesses an impressive talent for orchestration. The Violin Concerto is the most imposing piece on the program, at nearly a half hour in duration and of an exceptionally wide range of techniques and sonorities, and it serves as a powerfully expressive vehicle for Tetzlaff. Long lines predominate, and the tonal inflections of the chromatic writing make it quite accessible to listeners who don't normally listen to contemporary works.

US project TELERGY is the creative vehicle for composer and musician Robert McClung. His aim is to create and release conceptual productions under this name, utilizing guest performers for various instrument and vocal roles, in some ways comparable to the Dutch project Ayreon…

Cannonball Adderley - Sophisticated Swing (1957) {2013 Japan Jazz The Best Series 24-bit Remaster UCCU-9960}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 187 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 86 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 119 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster | Mono
© 1957, 2013 EmArcy / Mercury / Verve / Universal Japan | UCCU-9960
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Swing / Saxophone

Sophisticated Swing is the fifth album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, and his fourth released on the EmArcy label, featuring performances with Nat Adderley, Junior Mance, Sam Jones, and Jimmy Cobb. A couple of decades ago Sophisicated Swing was the title of an instrumental tune - by Will Hudson, if our memory holds up - and the music that corresponded with it had a certain sleekness that probably justified the title by the standards of that era. But today sophistication in jazz has a somewhat deeper meaning. The true jazz sophisticate has absorbed the lessons of a new musical generation, one that brought with it great advances in harmonic, melodic and rhythmic subtlety. The word "swing", too, has acquired a significance mare far-reaching than any of us could have imagined in the days of monotonous four-to-the-bar rhythm sections and comparatively limited and unimaginative syncopation.

Red Rodney & Ira Sullivan - Spirit Within (1981) {2013 Japan Jazz Best Collection 1000 Series 24bit Remaster WPCR-27367}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 258 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 90 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 160 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 1981, 2013 Electra Musician / Asylum / Warner Japan / WEA / Rhino | WPCR-27367 | Jazz Best Collection 1000 Series
Jazz / Post Bop / Trumpet / Flugelhorn

Features 24 bit remastering and comes with a mini-description. Really beautiful work from the team of Red Rodney and Ira Sullivan – hardly the sort of stuff we might have heard from the players a decade or two before – and a sophisticated batch of tunes that has them stretching out in rich musical directions! There's little of the boppish roots of either player here – and instead, the album mostly features inspiring jazz compositions from Garry Dial – the pianist in the group, and a real genius with color, tone, and timing. Dial's tunes dominate most of the record, and they really set the group on a great footing – horn trading between Rodney's trumpet and Sullivan's soprano, flute, and flugelhorn – supported with complicated changes from the core rhythm trio.

On The Blue Room, her second Decca recording, Madeleine Peyroux and producer Larry Klein re-examine the influence of Ray Charles' revolutionary 1962 date, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. They don't try to re-create the album, but remake some of its songs and include others by composers whose work would benefit from the genre-blurring treatment Charles pioneered. Bassist David Pilch, drummer Jay Bellerose, guitarist Dean Parks, and pianist/organist Larry Goldings are the perfect collaborators. Most these ten tracks feature string arrangements by Vince Mendoza. Five tunes here are reinterpretations of Charles' from MSICAWM. "Take These Chains" commences as a sultry jazz tune, and in Peyroux's vocal, there is no supplication – only a demand. Parks' pedal steel moves between sounding like itself and a clarinet. Goldings' alternating B-3 and Rhodes piano offer wonderful color contrast and make it swing. Her take on "Bye Bye Love" feels as if it's being narrated to a confidante, and juxtaposes early Western swing with a bluesy stroll. A rock guitar introduces "I Can't Stop Loving You," but Peyroux's phrasing has more country-blues in it than we've heard from her before. The use of a trumpet in "Born to Lose" and "You Don't Know Me," with Mendoza's dreamy strings, allow for Peyroux to deliver her most stylized jazz performances on the set.

Formed in 2009 as a solo vehicle for Sydney-based singer/songwriter Dave Hosking, Boy & Bear specializes in evocative and heartfelt indie folk-rock in the vein of contemporaries like Fleet Foxes, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Mumford & Sons. Rounded out by guitarist Killian Gavin, bass player Dave Symes, and brothers Tim (drums) and Jon Hart (mandolin, keyboards), the Aussie quintet inked a record deal with Island Records on the strength of its independently released first single, "Mexican Mavis." The group's debut EP, With Emperor Antarctica, dropped in early 2010, followed in 2011 by Boy & Bear's debut long-player, Moonfire, which went platinum in their native Australia. The band's sophomore outing, 2013's Harlequin Dream, would go gold.

Having reunited with her longtime mentor, former Wombles singer/songwriter Mike Batt, for her 2012 symphonic album, Secret Symphony, vocalist Katie Melua continues in an orchestral vein with her sixth studio album, 2013's Ketevan. Much like its predecessor, Ketevan is a languid, often cinematic-sounding album that builds upon Melua's talents as an interpreter of other people's material as well as her own songs. Having taken a creative detour to work with electronic producer William Orbit for 2010's The House, Melua once again returns to her roots as Batt's protégée. Raised in the Eastern European state of Georgia, Melua moved with her family to England when she was eight.

Swedish act Violent Silence was formed as the creative vehicle of composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Johan Hedman.
Listening to Violent Silence's third album "A Broken Truce" is like a trip down the memory lane of the early Phil Collins Era of Genesis… without Phil. It is like hearing those wonderful keyboards from Trick of the Tail, Duke, and Wind and Wuthering, set to different melodies. Hannes Ljunghall and Björn Westén's keyboards and piano will take you back to the glory days of Tony Banks from the opener "Prism Path" through to the title track, "A Broken Truce". Each track is over 10 minutes long, so do not feel cheated that there are only four tracks. Every minute of the tracks are full of excellent melody and dynamic keys.

The UK band Regal Worm is, first and foremost, the creative vehicle of composer and musician Jarrod Gosling, otherwise known as a member of the bands Skywatchers, I Monster and Henry Fool. Regal Worm sees Jarrod striking out on his own and is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream ever since he listened to his dad's cassettes of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Mike Oldfield and Rick Wakeman. The debut 'Use and Ornament' was recorded in Jarrod's 'Pig View' studio utilising dangerous vintage machinery (including his prized Mellotron M400).
First thing to strike is Golsling's endless instrumental flexibility, handling guitars, modern and analog synths, piano, bass, percussion, wind instruments, effects and samplers and the list goes on…