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Kazuo Yashiro – Side By Side 2 (1976) [Japan 2001]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 43:52 minutes | Scans included | 1,36 GB
or DSD64 Stereo (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 1,29 GB
or FLAC (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 897 MB
Born in Tokyo, Yashiro Kazuo was an acclaimed jazz pianist. He first came to prominence in the late 1950s when he joined vocalist Kiyoko Maruyama’s band, touring and making his first recorded appearance. In 1960, he was a member of Far East Coast Jazz, a band selected by the Swing Journal readers. In this group, he played alongside Akira Fukuhara, Akira Miyazawa, Hideto Kanai and Hideo Shiraki. Yashiro Kazuo then went on to play alongside Sadao Watanabe and Toshiyuki Miyama. He’s released a series of albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including Side By Side 2 (1976), recorded as Piano Quartet.
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Kazuo Yashiro – Side By Side (1974) [Japan 2012]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 42:29 minutes | Scans included | 1,35 GB
or DSD64 Stereo (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 1,29 GB
or FLAC (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 909 MB
Born in Tokyo, Yashiro Kazuo was an acclaimed jazz pianist. He first came to prominence in the late 1950s when he joined vocalist Kiyoko Maruyama’s band, touring and making his first recorded appearance. In 1960, he was a member of Far East Coast Jazz, a band selected by the Swing Journal readers. In this group, he played alongside Akira Fukuhara, Akira Miyazawa, Hideto Kanai and Hideo Shiraki. Yashiro Kazuo then went on to play alongside Sadao Watanabe and Toshiyuki Miyama. He’s released a series of albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including Side By Side (1974).
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John Di Martino Romantic Jazz Trio – Forbidden Love (2012) [Japan 2018]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 59:25 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 1,8 GB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Front/Rear Covers | 1,62 GB
or FLAC 2.0 (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/48 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 709 MB
John di Martino is a jazz pianist, arranger and producer, based in New York City. He has been described as a “shape-shifter” for his creativity across musical genres. For this tribute to the one and only Madonna, John and his Romantic Jazz Trio perform some of The Queen of Pop’s best-loved songs, including “La Isla Bonita”, “Frozen”, “Take A Bow”, “Like A Virgin”, “Borderline” and a di Martino original titled “Madonna’s Prayer”.
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David Honeyboy Edwards – Shake ‘Em On Down (1999) [APO Reissue 2000]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 61:51 minutes | Front/Rear Covers +PDF | 1,73 GB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Front/Rear Covers+PDF booklet | 1,73 GB
or FLAC (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Front/Rear Covers+PDF booklet | 1,33 GB
This 1999 session finds Honeyboy working his acoustic magic in the company of Madison Slim on harmonica and Jimmy D. Lane, son of the late Jimmy Rogers, on second guitar. Recorded at the Blue Heaven Studios (a converted church) in Salina, Kansas, this is a pretty inspired session with Edwards running through old classics like Charlie Patton’s “High Water Everywhere” and “Pony Blues”, “Drop Down Mama”, “Shake ‘Em on Down”, “Anna Lee”, “Bullfrog Blues”, and “Monkey Face Woman”. As an added bonus, there’s also an interview with this fascinating bluesman, making this session a real keeper. One of his best.
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Sublime With Rome – Sirens (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 33:57 minutes | 424 MB | Genre: Rock, Reggae, Ska
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Vagrant Records
Originally formed by Sublime members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh, along with singer/songwriter Rome Ramirez, Sublime with Rome have lost Gaugh, who has been replaced by Vandals, Devo, and even Guns N’ Roses drummer Josh Freese. So why not Sublime with Rome & Josh? Actually, reviving the Long Beach All-Stars name from Wilson’s post-Sublime career would be a better idea, as the free-flowing membership is more like a “project” than a band. All that said, there’s certainly a band “feel” on this second Sublime with Rome effort. Sirens is a step up from their debut, surprising returning fans by opening with a heavily produced, Dirty Heads feature that’s quite good before sliding into the young and organic California rock-reggae that defined their mothership act. “Wherever You Go” skillfully flirts with pop-punk, “House Party” is smooth, jam-band chillin’ with no worries, and then a ripping version of Fishbone’s classic “Skankin'” brings it all home with a song from one of the original act’s influences. Freese is an excellent edition, a musician’s musician who pushes Wilson back into deep bass grooves, while Ramirez’s voice is still big, powerful, and persuasive. Problem is, that band name is more arguable than ever, and yet Sirens proves that some kind of Wilson and Ramirez project would benefit the stoned-and-sandals set, so recommend this one to every Rebelution, Pepper, or Slightly Stoopid fan you see. ~ David Jeffries
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Tasmin Little, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner – Szymanowski, Karłowicz: Violin Concertos (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:13 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Chandos
It follows performances that The Guardian described as ‘a thrilling show of ferocity and feistiness’, given by the same forces in January at the Barbican. After widely acclaimed recordings of Walton’s and Lutosławski’s violin concertos, Tasmin Little again joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner, in intensely expressive interpretations of the concertos by the Polish composers Karłowicz and Szymanowski.
All were written within the space of a generation (1902, 1916, and 1933), and yet they belong to quite different worlds. One was composed at a time of national occupation, another in the throes of wartime, and yet another at a time of national renewal. The first inhabits the lyrical tradition developed by Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, the second escapes towards Debussy and the exoticism of Mediterranean influences, while the third is imbued with the folk culture of the Tatra Mountains.
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Synergy Vocals – John Luther Adams: Arctic Dreams (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 43:47 minutes | 468 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cold Blue Music
Composer John Luther Adams created and honed a distinctively American, rather Ivesian brand of minimalism, with a strong environmentalist bent. Arctic Dreams offers an ideal introduction to his work. It’s in seven movements, all but the last for voices and an ensemble of four string players, retuned and manipulated by electronic delay effects that make them sound like a much larger ensemble. The seven movements depict places and sensations experienced in the Arctic, where Adams spent some years as an environmental researcher, and they’ll be strikingly evocative even for listeners who don’t normally cotton to these kinds of textures. The most minimalist music is reserved for the haunting third movement, “The Circle of Suns and Moons,” which cannot help but bring a picture of the solstices of the far north to the listener’s mind but works equally well as an abstract composition. The four voices intone only intermittently intelligible names of places, plants, birds, weather, and seasons, in Alaskan Native languages, and they have to master non-sung effects that bring quite a bit of difficulty. Synergy Vocals, which has previously specialized in vocal music of Steve Reich, is ideal for this task, and the various engineering layers are cleanly fused by the Cold Blue Music label’s Nathaniel Reichman. Those already attuned to Adams’ unique world will have been awaiting this release; those new to him are recommended to check it out.
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Stuff Smith – Violin Summit (1966/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 40:53 minutes | 791 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS
Stuff Smith, born as Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith in 1909 passed away in 1967, one year after this unique recording session. “Violin Summit” featured Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelli, Svend Asmussen and Jean Luc-Ponty (with pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, drummer Alex Riel) in concert on September 30, 1966. It was an unique opportunity to have four of the best violin players together in one concert. The music came off quite well, in large part probably because the four violinists were paired in different sets with all four actually featured together on only one take, “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”.
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Anna Netrebko, Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim – Strauss: Four Last Songs (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:22 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Saving the best for last in the Richard Strauss anniversary 2014. The world’s most luxurious soprano, Anna Netrebko, sings Richard Strauss’ sumptuous Four Last Songs, accompanied by the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim. An irresistible, all-star combination.
Netrebko is a phenomenon. The world’s best-selling active soprano and quite simply, the undisputed superstar – “la prima donna assoluta” (New York Post) – of opera today. Known equally for her poise, her sensuality and her voice’s unmistakable color, Strauss’s elegiac Four Last Songs are an exquisite vehicle for her expressive gifts: Netrebko’s first recording of these gorgeous, iconic songs.
Barenboim: conductor, pianist, humanitarian – perhaps the world’s most complete living musician. A venerated interpreter of Wagner, Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner, in many ways the music of Richard Strauss represents the apotheosis of Barenboim’s musical ethos. In 1954, the then 11 year-old Barenboim was introduced to his idol, conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. It was Furtwängler who conducted the world premiere of Strauss’ Four Last Songs in 1949
The Staatskapelle Berlin, one of Germany’s oldest and most prestigious orchestras boasts a proud Strauss tradition including great performances and recording under the composer himself, as well as under great Straussians Felix Weingartner, Leo Blech, Erich Kleiber, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer, Clemens Krauss, Hans Knappertsbusch, Joseph Keilberth, Ottmar Suitner and Daniel Barenboim.
The Staatskapelle and Barenboim then interpret Ein Heldenleben, one of the most vivid and popular tone poems by Strauss, who himself was Generalmusikdirektor of the Staatskapelle a century ago.
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Zubin Mehta – Beethoven: Complete Symphonies (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 06:09:23 minutes | 3,44 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Dynamic
Beethoven’s symphonic cycle is one of the most quintessential in the Western classical canon. They chart a course from the influence of Haydn and Classical models in the early symphonies, through works of startling innovation and the birth of Romanticism, to his monumental Ninth Symphony for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Zubin Mehta conducts the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in these live recordings from 2021/22.
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Yekwon Sunwoo – Rachmaninoff, A Reflection (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:08:57 minutes | 2,44 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Ltd.
Pianist Sunwoo Yekwon is returning to the music that he knows best. The 34-year-old piano maestro’s second album “Rachmaninoff, A Reflection” is freshly out as of noon on Tuesday. It comes three years after his last album, “Mozart” (2020). “I don’t want the album to cheer people up, per se, but I’d like for it to be there for them, whatever he or she may be going through. I hope it can reach people’s hearts,” Sunwoo told local press on Tuesday at Kumho Art Hall in Seodaemun District, western Seoul.
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Woody Shaw – Blackstone Legacy (1971/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:20:50 minutes | 3,15 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Craft Recordings
The post-bop opus Blackstone Legacy is the seminal debut album by trumpeter Woody Shaw. Originally released in 1971 on Contemporary Records, the groundbreaking album was inspired by the sociopolitical ills of the ’60s. In their review, Allmusic called the album, “…a landmark recording, and a pivot point in the history of post-modern music”.
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Willie Nelson – Bluegrass (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:34 minutes | 883 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Legacy Recordings
‘Bluegrass’ captures a dozen classic Willie Nelson compositions, including ‘On the Road Again’, ‘Yesterday’s Wine’, ‘Still is Still Moving to Me’, ‘Good Hearted Woman’ and more, freshly interpreted by Willie and an ensemble of crack players. In a seven decade career that has seen him explore genres from one end of the musical spectrum to the other, this is his first full album dedicated to genre. Willie and longtime producer Buddy Cannon, picked personal and fan favourite compositions from across his career to perform anew for this salute to the Appalachian old-time string band music which profoundly influenced Willie’s songwriting sensibilities and the direction of American country music in general. Using his own catalogue as source material, Willie chose songs combining the kind of strong melodies, memorable storylines and tight ensemble-interplay found in traditional bluegrass interpretations of the roots of American folk songs. With ‘Bluegrass’, Willie uncovers new truths in his own songs.
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Will Ready – Black Coffee (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 36:00 minutes | 394 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ready Music Group
On Friday (4 Aug) Atlanta’s Will Ready released the third single, “One Night Stand”, from his forthcoming album “Black Coffee” which is due on 8 Sep but available to listen to on Bandcamp, so we’ve posted the full album.
The other two singles are “It’s On Tonight” (2 Jun) and “Nicky” (7 Jul).
Will Ready goes back to 1997 with his debut album release “Private Party”. We believe that the new album will be his third after “Touch” in 2022.
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Voces8 – Eventide (10th Anniversary Edition) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:45 minutes | 1,15 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.
The artistic focus of Eventide is one of subtlety and contemplation. Adopting a plainchant thread throughout, Eventide unites original compositions and sublime new arrangements of celebrated repertoire to create a compelling album.
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