Zoot Woman

The band's fifth album features 11 tracks. Kicking off with the infectious single 'Solid Gold', followed by the introspective 'Ordinary Face', regret fuelled 'I Said It Again' and 60's soul inspired 'Haunt Me'. Adding to the arsenal of synth-pop, a contribution from Kylie Minogue who features on the epic ballad 'Still Feels Like The First Time'. The resulting sound contains some of the most uplifting pop melodies they've ever delivered, proving them to be genre-defying artists for the 21st century.

Like fellow Aussies the Sherbs, Zoot never escaped teen-star status. But as Zoot Locker proves, they were certainly adapt at churning out clever pop tracks. Because of their time period, Zoot used every trick in the psychedelic book; but most songs maintain the three-minute mark, resulting in shrewd and skewered singles much like the Move delivered. Innocent innocuousness such as "Monty & Me" about walking the dog or "One Times Two Times Three Times Four" seems unfairly buried in the past. Of course, Beatles nods abound, such as the Lennon-isms of "Hey Pinky." With this smoking version of "Eleanor Rigby" the quartet attempted to jettison their early "pink" image, jumping aboard the bizarre "heavy covers" bandwagon with Vanilla Fudge and Rare Earth. The Hollies are another pervasive influence ("Flying" shares rhyme schemes with "Dear Eloise" over a "Helter Skelter" riff) while "Mr Songwriter" echoes the Byrds by way of Dylan. "Freak" foreshadows "Highway Star" and many Sweet moments.

Zoot Sims - Live At Falcon Lair (1956) {Pablo 2310977 rel 2004}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 368 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 144 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 12 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1956, 2004 Pablo / Fantasy | 2310977
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Saxophone

Live at Falcon Lair has a more interesting back story than many older recordings that have been rescued for posterity, but even the story takes a backseat to the excellent music. Falcon Lair wasn't a club, but the home of Doris Duke (and once the home of Rudolph Valentino), whom pianist Joe Castro married in 1956. Castro developed his musical rep playing around L.A., sometimes in the company of bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Ron Jefferson.

Zoot Sims Quintet - Zoot! (1956) {Riverside OJCCD-228-2 rel 1992}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 182 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 96 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 19 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1956, 1992 Riverside / Fantasy | OJCCD-228-2
Jazz / Bop / Cool / Saxophone

Simple and elegant genius from Zoot Sims – an overlooked quartet session recorded with George Handy on piano, Wilbur Ware on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums. Handy was the famous arranger for the Boyd Rayburn group in the 40s, and here he arranges the whole set – and also contributes a number of original tunes – making for a very fresh session that gets Zoot far past the usual bag of well-worn standards. And with Ware on bass, there's an extra depth to the set in the rhythm department that opens things up nicely – not dramatically, but enough to allow for some more emphatic playing on the part of Sims!

Zoot Sims - Waiting Game (1966) {2015 Japan Impulse! Classics 50 Series UCCI-9272}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 265 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 104 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 297 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 1966, 2015 Impulse! / Verve / Universal Music Japan | UCCI-9272 | LP AS-9131
Jazz / Bop / Cool / Bebop / Saxophone

A rare gem from Zoot Sims – very different than any of his other albums! The session features Zoot blowing over large backings arranged and conducted by Gary McFarland, a bit in the older Verve "with strings" mode, but also sparkling with a lot of the newer elements that McFarland was bringing to his work at the time. The approach is both light and lush at the same time – and Zoot's got a tone and approach that we've never heard on any other record, making the whole album an incredible treat that we'd rank up there with Stan Getz's experiments of the same type from the 60s. Titles include "I Wish I Knew", "Does The Sun Really Shine On The Moon", "Once We Loved", "Old Folks", "September Song", "Stella By Starlight", and "Once I Could Have Loved".

Frank Zappa - Zoot Alors! (2017) {4CD Set Coda Publishing CPLCD248 rec 1975-1981}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.76 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 668 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 19 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1975-81, 2017 Coda Publishing / Stormbird | CPLCD248
Rock / Experimental Rock / Avant-Garde / Art Rock / Jazz Rock

This powerful four disc anthology is a wonderful illustration of the genius that was the late, great Frank Zappa in performance and broadcasting live to air. Zappa always defies categorisation. He blended humor, satire, virtuoso guitar, challenging lyrics, bawdy tales, brilliant compositions, and inspired improvisation and somehow managed to make those diverse elements work together in a unique, musical form which defies categorisation, and is known to posterity by the term "Zappa".