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Aki Takase & David Murray – Cherry / Sakura (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 50:48 minutes | 492 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Intakt Records
Over the years, pianist Aki Takase and reed player David Murray have amassed respective bodies of soul-stirring compositions, of which several pieces related to the rites of passage of middle age are included on Cherry / Sakura. As a result, this is a markedly different conversation than ever before; one that is more profound as the two musicians engage in an unsparing conversation about the defining issues of later life.
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Blue Note 75th Anniversary 75CD [FLAC 24-192] | 112G
In celebration of Blue Note Records’ 75th Anniversary, Astell&Kern has partnered with the legendary record label to offer an exclusive, limited edition box set. Available now for a limited time, the Astell&Kern Blue Note 75th Anniversary Box Set: Limited Edition features 75 of Blue Note’s most essential albums, newly remastered from analog to the hi-res MQS digital format (24bit/192kHz). Five Blue Note albums make their exclusive hi-res audio debuts with this release: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers’ Mosaic, Tina Brooks’ True Blue, Don Cherry’sComplete Communion, Andrew Hill’s Point Of Departure, and Bobby Hutcherson’s Components.The lavish collection includes the Blue Note branded Astell&Kern AK240 high-resolution portable audio player, a special book filled with original album art (front and back cover) for the 75 titles, as well as Richard Havers’ new book, Blue Note: Uncompromising Expression. For more information about the collection and how to order, visit https://www.astellnkern.com/product/product_detail.jsp?productNo=8
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Hiromi – Spectrum (2019) [Japanese SHM-SACD]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 73:17 minutes | Scans | 2,95 GB
or FLAC (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Scans included | 1,44 GB
Spectrum is the eleventh studio album by Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara. Jon Regen of Keyboard Magazine said “Ten years after the release of her solo piano debut, Place to Be in 2009, Hiromi goes it alone once again on Spectrum. The album celebrates the maturity and depth that have enriched her music in recent years, during her collaborations with artists like Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Michel Camilo”.
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Art Taylor – Taylor’s Wailers (1957) [APO Remaster 2012]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 40:49 minutes | Scans included | 1,65 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 764 MB
Five of the six selections on this reissue feature drummer Art Taylor in an all-star sextet of mostly young players comprised of trumpeter Donald Byrd, altoist Jackie McLean, Charlie Rouse on tenor, pianist Ray Bryant, and bassist Wendell Marshall. Among the highpoints of the 1957 hard bop date are the original version of Bryant’s popular “Cubano Chant” and strong renditions of two Thelonious Monk tunes (“Off Minor” and “Well, You Needn’t”) cut just prior to the pianist/composer’s discovery by the jazz public. Bryant is the most mature of the soloists, but the three horn players were already starting to develop their own highly individual sounds. The remaining track (a version of Jimmy Heath’s “C.T.A.”) is played by the quartet of Taylor, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, and bassist Paul Chambers and is a leftover (although a good one) from another session.
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Ike Quebec – With A Song In My Heart (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:55 minutes | 734 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla
Influenced by Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster but definitely his own person, Ike Quebec was one of the finest swing-oriented tenor saxman of the 1940s and ’50s. Though he was never an innovator, Quebec had a big, breathy sound that was distinctive and easily recognizable, and he was quite consistent when it came to came to down-home blues, sexy ballads, and up-tempo aggression. Originally a pianist, Quebec switched to tenor in the early ’40s and showed that he had made the right decision on excellent 78s for Blue Note and Savoy (including his hit “Blue Harlem”). As a sideman, he worked with Benny Carter, Kenny Clarke, Roy Eldridge, and Cab Calloway. In the late ’40s, the saxman did a bit of freelancing behind the scenes as a Blue Note A&R man and brought Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell to the label. Drug problems kept Quebec from recording for most of the 1950s, but he made a triumphant comeback in the early ’60s and was once again recording for Blue Note and doing freelance A&R for the company. Quebec was playing as authoritatively as ever well into 1962, giving no indication that he was suffering from lung cancer, which claimed his life at the age of 44 in 1963.
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Joseph Spence – Bahaman Folk Guitar: Music of the Bahamas, Vol. 1 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 33:51 minutes | 253 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Recorded in 1958 and released on the Folkways label in 1959, this album introduced American listeners to Joseph Spence’s unique guitar and vocal styles. These field recordings by musicologist Sam Charters capture Spence in a relaxed, expansive mood—only one of the six selections in the set is under five minutes in length. Spence’s guitar style was due in part to the D tuning of his bass string, which produced a lower bass sound. Whereas many critics have called Spence’s vocal style unorthodox, they have found his guitar playing spontaneous and iconic. Some music critics have gone so far as to refer to him as the “Thelonious Monk of folk guitar.”
The vinyl reissue of Music of the Bahamas, Volume 1 includes Sam Charters’ liner notes. This reissue is part of Folkways Records’ 70th anniversary celebration series, revisiting some of the most iconic and influential albums released on the record label.
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Gene Harris Quartet – Live in London (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 1:02:31 minutes | 653 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Artwork: Front cover | © Resonance Records
Live in London is the exhilarating recording of previously unreleased tapes provided by Harris’ widow Janie Harris. The album is the only available album of Harris in action with his British quartet. The musicians rise to the standards set by Harris’ previous works. Many of the tracks have never been recorded by Harris and none have been recorded in a quartet setting.
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Miles Davis – The Musings Of Miles (Rudy Van Gelder Remaster) (1955/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 35:52 minutes | 423 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Artwork: Digital Booklet | © Prestige Records
Recorded: Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, June 7, 1955
Remastered: 2008, Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
This was a forerunner of the Miles Davis Quintet as it was his first session with Red Garland and Philly Joe Jones. Up to then his Prestige dates had been of the “all star” variety. (Oscar Pettiford fills that bill here.) By the fall, John Coltrane and Paul Chambers would come aboard to help form the first of a continuum of great Davis working groups. On “A Night in Tunisia” Philly Joe used special sticks with little cymbals riveted to the shaft.
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Miles Davis – Steamin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet (Rudy Van Gelder Remaster) (1961/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 40:04 minutes | 409 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Artwork: Digital Booklet | © Prestige Records
Recorded: May 11 and October 26 (#5), 1956 at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, NJ
Remastered: 2007, Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Of Miles Davis’s many bands, none was more influential and popular than the quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. Davis’s muted ballads and medium-tempo standards endeared him to the public. The horns’ searing exposition of classics like “Salt Peanuts” and “Well, You Needn’t” captivated musicians. The searching, restless improvisations of Coltrane intrigued listeners who had a taste for adventure. The flawless rhythm section became a model for bands everywhere.
Steamin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet is, in many respects representative of the total work of the quintet, it affords an excellent opportunity to examine just what this remarkable music was and how it was made. Such chemistry is inexplicable, and so, apparently, is the personality of the man who generated it. (more…)
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Miles Davis – Bags’ Groove (Rudy Van Gelder Remaster) (1957/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 46:14 minutes | 525 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Q0buz | Artwork: Digital Booklet | © Prestige Records
Recorded: June 29 & December 24, 1954 at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, HJ
Remastered: 2007, Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Bag’s Groove was recorded in 1954 for Prestige Records but was not released until 1957. Most of the album was recorded on June 29, 1954, but the title track was recorded at one session on December 24 of the same year. Several of the tracks on the album were written by Sonny Rollins and would go on to become jazz standards in their own right. (more…)
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John Coltrane – Traneing In (1958/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 37:52 minutes | 225 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks.com | Digital booklet | © Prestige Records
Recorded: August 23, 1957 at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ
Remastered: 2006, Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Recorded in one day (August 23, 1957) at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Hackensack, NJ. This date of ballads and burners features the young tenor saxophonist John Coltrane leading a quartet comprised of pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Arthur Taylor.
Liner notewriter (original and reissue) Ira Gitler remarks, “In the ‘50s I was called upon to name many of the untitled songs at Prestige. Traneing In came to me because of the way [Coltrane] homed in after Garland’s opening solo [on the song].” This album is significant in that it took place halfway through Coltrane’s break with Miles Davis’ classic quintet of the ‘50s and it was the same year that the tenor saxophonist hooked up with Thelonious Monk to record the recently discovered live Carnegie Hall masterpiece. (more…)
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Miles Davis – Steamin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet (1961/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 40:07 minutes | 1,92 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: PonoMusic | © Concord/Prestige
Although chronologically the last to be issued, this collection includes some of the best performances from the tapes which would produce the albums Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’, and ultimately, Steamin’. A primary consideration of these fruitful sessions is the caliber of musicians — Miles Davis (trumpet), Red Garland (piano), John Coltrane (tenor sax), and Philly Joe Jones (drums) — who were basically doing their stage act in the studio. As actively performing musicians, the material they are most intimate with would be their live repertoire. Likewise, what more obvious place than a studio is there to capture every inescapable audible nuance of the combo’s musical group mind. The end results are consistently astonishing. At the center of Steamin’, as with most outings by this band, are the group improvisations which consist of solo upon solo of arguably the sweetest and otherwise most swinging interactions known to have existed between musicians. “Surrey With the Fringe on Top” is passed between the mates like an old joke. Garland compliments threads started by Davis and Coltrane as their seamless interaction yields a stream of strikingly lyrical passages. There are two well-placed nods to fellow bop pioneers Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie on a revision of their “Salt Peanuts.” Philly Joe Jones’ mimicking cymbal speak — which replicates Gillespie’s original vocals — is nothing short of genius. This rendition is definitely as crazy and unpredictable here as the original. Thelonious Monk also gets kudos on “Well, You Needn’t.” This quintet makes short work of the intricacies of the arrangement, adding the double horn lead on the choruses and ultimately redefining this jazz standard. Although there is no original material on Steamin’, it may best represent the ability of the Miles Davis quintet to take standards and rebuild them to suit their qualifications.
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Sonny Rollins – Volume 2 (1957/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 00:40:48 minutes | 1,34 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: HDTracks | Artwork: Front cover | © Blue Note Records
Recorded: Van Gelder Studios, Hackensack, New Jersey on April 14, 1957.
“In preparing these hi def remasters, we were very conscientious about maintaining the feel of the original releases while adding a previously unattainable transparency and depth. It now sounds like you’ve set up your chaise lounge right in the middle of Rudy Van Gelder’s studio!” – Blue Note President, Don Was.
Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 brought together some of the greatest players of the post-bop era. In addition to Rollins, it featured Art Blakey on drums, Horace Silver and Thelonious Monk on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and J.J. Johnson on trombone. This classic record is a must-have for any jazz lover. (more…)
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Junko Onishi – Tea Times (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 60:52 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: e-Onkyo | Artwork: Front cover | © Blue Note
With the release of her 1993 Blue Note debut Cruisin’, pianist Junko Onishi arrived as one of the most promising of Japan-born jazz musicians. Growing up in Tokyo, Onishi received classical piano lessons but became quite interested in jazz. She studied at Berklee and after three years moved to New York. Already a well-developed player, Onishi worked with Joe Henderson, Betty Carter, Kenny Garrett, and Mingus Dynasty before recording her debut as a leader. She considers her style to be based on Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Ornette Coleman; her other recordings from the ’90s include 1994’s Live at the Village Vanguard, 1995’s Piano Quintet Suite, and 1999’s Fragile. After Fragile, Onishi took a break from releasing albums to focus on developing her music. She returned over ten years later with 2009’s Musical Moments. She followed that up a year later with her 2010 Verve debut, Baroque, which featured several Onishi originals as well as interpretations of some 20th century classical pieces. Tea Times is her new album, recorded and released in 2016 on Japanese Village Records label.
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The Bad Plus – It’s Hard (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:01 minutes | 997 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: AcousticSounds | Artwork: Front cover | © Okeh/Sony Masterworks
The Bad Plus’ new album, It’s Hard, the group’s 12th studio album, and contains only covers. There’s no particular overarching aesthetic to the selection. It encompasses alternative rock from the ’00s (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV On The Radio); hits of the ’80s (Prince, Cyndi Lauper, Peter Gabriel, Crowded House); a piece from free-jazz hero Ornette Coleman and one from a spiritual descendant of saxophone-blowing and melody-shaping, Bill McHenry; and some other unlikely idiosyncrasies (Barry Manilow). Neither is there a formula for approaching these songs. Some seem like acts of reinvention, disassembly and re-engineering (Kraftwerk sans motorik beat); others amplify the existing energy the best a mischievous acoustic piano trio can (Johnny Cash as a shuffle after too many drinks). Somewhat naive, maybe, impishly tweaked, likely. (more…)
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