Last Year's Waltz

5CD Box Set The Anniversary Edition by James Last was released in 2009 by Universal Music GmbH. James Last was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra. Initially a jazz bassist, his trademark "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom, with 65 of his albums reaching the charts in the UK alone. Last is reported to have sold an estimated 200 million albums worldwide in his lifetime, of which 80 million were sold by 1973 - and won numerous awards including 200 gold and 14 platinum discs in Germany, the International MIDEM Prize at MIDEM in 1969, and West Germany's highest civilian award, the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 1978. Last's trademark sound employed big band arrangements of well-known tunes with a jaunty dance beat, often heavy on bass and brass.

5CD Box Set The Anniversary Edition by James Last was released in 2009 by Universal Music GmbH. James Last was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra. Initially a jazz bassist, his trademark "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom, with 65 of his albums reaching the charts in the UK alone. Last is reported to have sold an estimated 200 million albums worldwide in his lifetime, of which 80 million were sold by 1973 - and won numerous awards including 200 gold and 14 platinum discs in Germany, the International MIDEM Prize at MIDEM in 1969, and West Germany's highest civilian award, the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 1978. Last's trademark sound employed big band arrangements of well-known tunes with a jaunty dance beat, often heavy on bass and brass.

"The road was our school. It gave us a sense of survival; it taught us everything we know and out of respect, we don't want to drive it into the ground…or maybe it's just superstition but the road has taken a lot of the great ones. It's a goddam impossible way of life" - Robbie Robertson, from the movie The Last Waltz, quoted in the box set…

Frank Rosolino - The Last Recording (1978) {See Breeze Jazz SBJ-3080 rel 2006}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 353 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 126 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 10 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1978, 2006 See Breeze Jazz | SBJ-3080
Jazz / Cool / Bop / Mainstream Jazz / Trombone

It took Frank Rosolino's widow Diane many years to find a label willing to release this music, and that is understandable. Frank Rosolino, one of jazz's greatest trombonists, went crazy on November 26, 1978, shooting two of his sons and killing himself. The completely unexpected turn of events from a trombonist who was witty and always seemed in good spirits was a shock to the jazz world, but he had apparently suffered from depression for years. In addition, the music on The Last Recording, recorded less than four months before the horrible ending, features Rosolino using a Multivider on his horn, an electronic device that gave him a sound in three octaves at once.

A 3 CD boxed set which includes 73 songs - all the original recordings, and a booklet from Mercury with a 5,700 word essay by Colin Escott, 84 rare photographs, brief biographies on all 73 Artists. The 3 CDs provide over 3 hours of total playing time.

Liszt, according to the great British pianist John Ogdon, was responsible for ‘breaking the Germanic stranglehold on nineteenth-century composers, and scattering the seeds of modern music almost literally to the four winds. His music shows an avant-garde attitude to the problems of composing which was without parallel in the nineteenth century.’

A 3 CD boxed set which includes 73 songs - all the original recordings, and a booklet from Mercury with a 5,700 word essay by Colin Escott, 84 rare photographs, brief biographies on all 73 Artists. The 3 CDs provide over 3 hours of total playing time.

The trio led by pianist Wynton Kelly, which also included bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb, first functioned as the rhythm section of Miles Davis' Quintet in 1958. In 1963, they left Davis' band and spent time as Wes Montgomery's backup group; the unit stayed together until Chambers' death on Jan. 4, 1969, a run of over ten years (Kelly would pass away two years later). Their final studio session, released for the first time domestically by Delmark in 1988, is unfortunately partly hindered by the inclusion of some unsuitable pop songs (including "Say a Little Prayer for Me," "Watch What Happens," "Light My Fire" and "Yesterday"), but typically, the musicians do their best to swing the tunes. Best are "Kelly's Blues" and "Castilian Waltz."