Icas Pass Paper

How to pass Cambridge C1 Advanced
Writing Paper
3 sections • 18 lectures • 2h 8m total length
2023-12 | e-Learning | English | DOC, MP4, PDF | 2.68 GB

If you take this course, you will maximise your score in the Cambridge C1 Advanced Writing Paper.

By the time the 71-year-old Stephane Grappelli made this live trio recording with guitarist Joe Pass and bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, his legacy as the greatest of all jazz violinists was firmly in place. Granted, that made him first in a fairly short line of colleagues - other than Joe Venuti and Stuff Smith, who else was there to consider? (Jean-Luc Ponty doesn't count.) But it's hard to imagine another player, regardless of virtuosity, ever conveying the same sense of swing and simple joie de vivre that Grappelli does with virtually every note. Nor does it hurt that his accompanists on this album are among the finest in their fields; Orsted Pedersen plays with a solidity and rhythmic power that are enough to make you forget the absence of a drummer, while Pass slides effortlessly between unobtrusive chordal backup and bravura soloing…

How to pass Cambridge C1 Advanced
Reading & Use of English
3 sections • 27 lectures • 2h 23m total length
2023-12 | e-Learning | English | HTML, MP4, PDF | 2.69 GB

If you take this course, you will maximise your score in the Cambridge C1 Advanced Reading and Use of English Paper.

Formed in 1969 in the lace city of Nottingham, England - Paper Lace were just one of hundreds of bands looking for the big time. Their big break came in 1974, when after winning the nationwide talent show "Opportunity Knocks", they were spotted by the songwriting team of Mitch Murray & Peter Callander. The first single "Billy - Don't Be A Hero" topped the U.K. charts for 3 weeks in March 1974. The follow up single,"The Night Chicago Died" hit the number one slot on both the U.S.& Canadian charts [#3 in the U.K]. An album - " Paper Lace and Other Bits of Material" followed. The 3rd. single release "The Black Eyed Boys" narrowly missed the U.K. top 10 [#11]. In 1978 Paper Lace had a top 20 version of "We've Got the Whole World in Our Hands" in conjunction with local football team Nottingham Forest F.C.

This edition contains all 1962 collaborations by Joe Pass and pianist Les McCann, who would continue working together the following year. Their 1962 output consists of their participation on Richard “Groove” Holmes LP "Somethin' Special" and on McCann's own album "On Time". Both records appear here in their entirety, as well as two tracks from the second LP that were not included on the original album. As a bonus, the complete LP "Back in Town!". Issued under the name of singer/guitarist Bumble Bee Slim (born Amos Easton), it consisted of two sessions, one featuring Pass, and the other featuring McCann.

This posthumous CD is novel because it features Joe Pass exclusively on acoustic guitar, and it is obvious that he enjoyed every minute of these sessions. "The Shadow of Your Smile" is no longer easy listening fodder, as Pass turns it into a miniature master class in swing. "Star Eyes" is accented by the soft squeaks of Pass' fingers gently weaving their intricate magic. Most of the works of Joe Pass tended to be improvised blues, so the title track is an exception – a simple yet elegant ballad written for his wife. "Blues for Angel" highlights his matchless mastery of slow blues. The boppish blues "Satellite Village" is a perfect closer. The good news is that there are several more unreleased sessions by Joe Pass that will follow this superb collection.

Here is a second brace of solo Pass tracks from the sessions that have already yielded Songs for Ellen. The ambience is ruminative and extremely intimate; the menu consists entirely of much-explored standards at mostly unrelieved slow tempos. Several notes are not cleanly struck, but the musical imagination that previously yielded several solo recordings is still very much in gear, albeit a very subtle gear. A general bit of advice: it is better to listen to this album in small doses (a few tracks at a time), try to mentally filter out the very closely recorded mechanical noises the fingers make on the guitar, and not expect anything startling to leap out at you. Better yet, try some of Pass' earlier solo albums (such as the Virtuoso series, also on Pablo) before embarking upon this.