Summit

Described as "essential prog" by Guitar World, SCALE THE SUMMIT was formed in 2004 after guitarists Chris and Travis met while attending Hollywood's Musicians Institute. The group self-released their first album, 2007's "Monument," before signing with Prosthetic for the 2009 release of their sophomore effort "Carving Desert Canyons." That album earned acclaim from fans, critics and peers alike – none more high-profile than former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, who asked the band to take part in the group's Progressive Nation tour that year.

Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry - The Trumpet Summit Meets The Oscar Peterson Big 4 (1980) {Pablo OJCCD-603-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 230 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 92 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 13 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1980, 1990 Pablo Today / Fantasy | OJCCD-603-2
Jazz / Bop / Mainstream Jazz

To call this CD (a reissue of a Pablo date) an all-star session would be an understatement. Joining pianist Oscar Peterson, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Bobby Durham are three classic trumpeters: Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, and Freddie Hubbard. They clearly inspire each other (Gillespie flew in from the East Coast specifically for this date) and the music ("Daahoud," "Just Friends," the new blues "Chicken Wings," and a torrid version of "The Champ") has plenty of exciting moments.

This unassuming and delightful little album visits a time when jazz and blues were still directly entwined, drawing on the ghosts of guitarists like Charlie Christian, Eddie Durham, Bill Jennings, Tiny Grimes, Barney Kessel, and Kenny Burrell, guitarists who used the blues to enrich the jazz pieces they played on, a kind of ensemble contribution that is all too frequently missing on the contemporary blues scene. Duke Robillard, Jay Geils, and Gerry Beaudoin are all gifted guitar players, each with his own career, but as a trio working three-part harmony lines around each other, they bring a stately ensemble grace to the tracks on New Guitar Summit (the trio also appears under that name when they do live shows).

“The Endless Jam” by the Schenker-Pattison Summit might be considered its companion album. Schenker is of course Michael Schenker, fabulous guitarist of Scorpions, UFO and MSG. Vocalist Davey Pattison was Ronny Montrose’s sidekick in Gamma, who later joined Robin Trower’s band. Backed by Varney’s regular rhythm section of Aynsley Dunbar and Gunter Nezhoda, they go back in time to the 60’s and 70’s and tackle some of the best and best known tracks of the time. And to come straight to the point: this effort is so much better than Pat Travers’s.

Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington - The Great Summit Complete Sessions (1961) {2CD Ron McMaster 24-bit Deluxe Edition}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 739 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 296 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 46 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1961, 2000 Roulette Jazz / EMI | 7243 5 24546 2 4
Jazz / Mainstream Jazz

Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were (and are) two of the main stems of jazz. Any way you look at it, just about everything that's ever happened in this music leads directly – or indirectly – back to them. Both men were born on the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries, and each became established as a leader during the middle '20s. Although their paths had crossed from time to time over the years, nobody in the entertainment industry had ever managed to get Armstrong and Ellington into a recording studio to make an album together. On April 3, 1961, producer Bob Thiele achieved what should be regarded as one of his greatest accomplishments; he organized and supervised a seven-and-a-half-hour session at RCA Victor's Studio One on East 24th Street in Manhattan, using a sextet combining Duke Ellington with Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars.