Lily Bella

Cuban jazz legend Bebo Valdés is in charge of this wonderful soundtrack for Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal's animated film about the romance between a singer and a pianist, set in La Havana and New York of the '40s and '50s. In addition to Valdés, the main performers include Freddy Cole, Jimmy Heath, Idania Valdés, Germán Velasco, and Amadito Valdés, in a collection of both originals and jazz and bolero standards arranged by Michael Philip Mossman. Estrella Morente sings the main title song, "Lily."

This release offers Jazz that is accessible, touching on it's Blues, Soul and Latin influences while always having a danceable beat. It includes the super-rare, the well known and the previously unreleased.

This release offers Jazz that is accessible, touching on it's Blues, Soul and Latin influences while always having a danceable beat. It includes the super-rare, the well known and the previously unreleased.

Various Artists - The Gee Story (1999) {2CD Set, Westside Records WESD223 rec 1954-1962}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 549 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 364 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 26 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1954-62, 1999 Gee Recordings / Westside Records | WESD 223
Rhythm & Blues / Doo Wop / Oldies / Blues / Rock 'n' Roll

This 2 disc set brings together 63 tracks from this early George Goldner run label. Covering a nice selection of the label's output from 1954 to its demise in 1962, Gee made inroads as a doo-wop specialist, primarily with the recordings of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, the Cleftones, and later with the Regents and the Drapers. Plemty of classics aboard from these artists as well as goodies from the Emanons, the Coins, the Five Crowns, the Valtones, Annie Kaye, and Lorraine Ellis, making this a superlative overview of a label that for almost a decade dealing in nothing but new York rhythm and blues.

References to lilies and roses and many other flowers abound in both secular and sacred texts that were set to music from across European medieval repertoire from the 12th to the early 15th century. These two flowers in particular provided a rich symbolism: lilies represented purity and brightness in a sacred context. Roses are often used to represent love, secular or sacred. Both flowers were strongly associated with the Virgin Mary – the lily particularly is associated with the annunciation, the biblical scene in which the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary to announce that she will give birth. Countless painting and altarpieces show Gabriel presenting a lily to Mary.