Never one to take lyricism for granted, trumpeter and composer Freddie Hubbard entered Creed Taylor's studio for the third time in 1971 with the express purpose of making a record radically different from anything he'd cut before; he was looking for it to use electricity and to be out of the soul-jazz mold, but was also more ambitious and wanted to push that envelope and himself. Taylor and Hubbard assembled a band that included Herbie Hancock on Rhodes, guitarists Eric Gale and George Benson, bassist Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette on drums, Airto Moreira on percussion, and Richard Wyands on acoustic piano to back him.
Fourth album, same as the first. Ever since he successfully reinvented himself as a lazy lounge singer in 2002 with It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook, Rod Stewart has been reliable as clockwork, releasing a collection of classic pop standards – predictable choices performed predictably – every second or third week of October…
Leonard Bernstein was a musical titan of the 20th Century as a composer, a conductor and a communicator. This Limited Numbered Edition boxed set is the largest of DG’s suite of beautifully-conceived albums and sets marking the 2018 centenary of a remarkable human being and musical legends.
“The greatest pianist among the conductors, the greatest conductor among composers, the greatest composer among pianists … He is a universal genius” - Arthur Rubenstein.
Few jazz pianists could honestly claim to be more eclectic than the late Jaki Byard. Depending on the mood he was in, the Bostonian could acknowledge anyone from Dave Brubeck to James P. Johnson to Cecil Taylor. Byard wasn't afraid to take chances, and his open-mindedness served him well. The pianist's eclectic nature is impossible to miss on Solo/Strings, which is the 2000 reissue of his Prestige dates Jaki Byard with Strings (1968) and Solo Piano (1969) on a single 78-minute CD (minus, unfortunately, "Hello, Young Lovers" from Solo Piano). While Solo Piano is exactly that – an album of unaccompanied solo piano – Jaki Byard With Strings is somewhat misleading.