Bruno Fontaine – Ragtime (Version Deluxe Édition 5.1) (2013/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Bruno Fontaine - Ragtime (Version Deluxe Édition 5.1) (2013/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Bruno Fontaine – Ragtime (Version Deluxe Édition 5.1) (2013/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:48:24 minutes | 4,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Aparté

The eclectic, multi-talented concert pianist, conductor, arranger, and composer, Bruno Fontaine is difficult to pidgeon-hole. Upon graduating from the Paris Conservatoire, covered in prizes, he soon embarked on a rewarding career that merges his talent in all genres from Johnny Hallyday, to Ute Lemper via Barbara Hendricks. This is the marriage of genres that Aparté propose here, in an album dedicated to Ragtime: 20 compositions by major masters of the genre: Scott Joplin, Tom Turpin, James Scott, Joseph Lamb, Joseph Daly, plus a trip to the great Fats Waller. Fontaine added the famous ‘Golliwog’s Cake-Walk’ by Claude Debussy, ‘Ragtime Parade’ by Erik Satie and finally for the contemporary French touch, he composed two ragtime numbers of his own.
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Brenda Navarrete – Mi Mundo (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Brenda Navarrete - Mi Mundo (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download

Brenda Navarrete – Mi Mundo (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:18 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Alma Records HD

“Mi Mundo” introduces a shining new star on the world music firmament. This is the solo debut of Brenda Navarrete, a Cuban-based singer, songwriter, percussionist and bandleader of rare skill and musical originality. The stylistically eclectic album features a variety of group settings, with the primary instruments consisting of drums, piano, electric bass and percussion, including bata and congas played by Navarrete. The Cuban musical cast includes drummers Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, Rodney Barreto, José Carlos, pianists Roberto Carcassés, Rolando Luna and Leonardo Ledesman, bassist Alain Perez, trombonist Eduardo Sandoval, and Adonis Panter on Quinto drums.

Brenda’s warm and fluent voice and songwriting ability that take center stage on Mi Mundo. A genuine highlight on an album devoid of low lights, A Ochun is a dynamic and delightful treat that begins with percussion and call and response vocals, which then fade away in favor of gentle piano and flute stylings. When I was a little girl, my sister and I loved to listen to jazz greats like Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. I also gravitated to artists like Nat King Cole, John Coltrane, Bobby McFerrin, Miles Davis, Yellow Jackets and Cassandra Wilson, but also BoyzII Men and Take 6. My home environment also featured music from great Cuban artists like Cecilia Cruz, Benny More and Celeste Mendoza. All those artists and musical styles have contributed to my musical growth since I was a child. I adore Cuban music, and mixing all of those styles together with traditional Cuban music is powerful and exhilarating. An example of this original and compelling fusion is Caravana, Brenda’s distinctive take on the Duke Ellington classic Caravan. Brenda Navarrete’s focus is now firmly set on Mi Mundo. This beautiful expression of her musical universe is now going out into the world, and it deserves your close attention.
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Branford Marsalis – In My Solitude (Live At Grace Cathedral) (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Branford Marsalis - In My Solitude (Live At Grace Cathedral) (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Branford Marsalis – In My Solitude (Live At Grace Cathedral) (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:38 minutes | 1,20 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Okeh

Solo live performance is probably the ultimate challenge for most jazz musicians–improvisation is a high-wire act where good bandmates function as a net. There are no off nights when you play solo—and if you do run out of ideas, you stop or, worse, coast. The first solo effort in a long and storied career of Branford Marsalis, In My Solitude finds the saxophonist (on tenor, alto, or soprano) up to the challenge; he mixes standards, originals, improvisations, and highbrow classical, closing with the theme song to The Carol Burnett Show. All of it resonates elegantly in this landmark setting.
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Brad Mehldau – Variations on a Melancholy Theme (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Brad Mehldau - Variations on a Melancholy Theme (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Brad Mehldau – Variations on a Melancholy Theme (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 34:07 minutes | 659 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

Brad Mehldau’s Variations on a Melancholy Theme will be released June 11, 2021, on Nonesuch Records. The recording features the pianist/composer and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which commissioned this orchestral version of the work, which comprises a theme and eleven variations plus a cadenza and postlude; the album also includes an encore, “Variations ‘X’ and ‘Y.’” You can watch a video with excerpts from the piece below. (Mehldau originally composed Variations on a Melancholy Theme for pianist Kirill Gerstein.) Mehldau and Orpheus toured Europe, Russia, and the US with the piece, including a 2013 performance at Carnegie Hall. Speaking to the combination of classical form with jazz harmonies in the work’s musical language, Mehldau wrote, “I imagine it as if Brahms woke up one day and had the blues.”

Mehldau continues, “The theme itself has a wistful character, perhaps a feeling of resignation. There is some sense of finality and ending to it when heard for the first time already. So as I composed, a narrative challenge emerged; namely, how to embark on a story that begins with a conclusion. While the theme evokes melancholy, I let it be used as a springboard for other happy, wild, violent, and reckless emotions as the variations progress.”
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Bill Crow Quartet – From Birdland To Broadway (1996) [Japan 2015] SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Bill Crow Quartet – From Birdland To Broadway (1996) [Japan 2015]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 59:53 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 2,42 GB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Front/Rear Covers | 2,38 GB
or FLAC (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 1,36 GB

In the course of his long career as a bassist, Bill Crow has rubbed elbows with such luminaries as Gerry Mulligan, Marian McPartland, Stan Getz, and Duke Ellington. On this release for Japanese Venus Records, Bill Crow, who is an accomplished soloist when he chooses to take a chorus or two, is joined by veteran tenor saxophonist Carmen Leggio, guitarist Joe Cohn (son of tenor sax legend Al Cohn), and drummer David Jones.

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Blue Moods – Myth & Wisdom (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Blue Moods - Myth & Wisdom (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download

Blue Moods – Myth & Wisdom (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:00:34 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Posi-Tone Records

The moods here are anything but blue – as the group’s got an upbeat, positive way of laying into a tune right from the start – as they take on a range of compositions by Charles Mingus, but all served up in a lean quartet formation that really helps transform the songs! Diego Rivera is often in the lead on tenor, and the rest of the group features Boris Kozlov on bass, Joe Strasser on drums, and Art Hirihara on piano – save for a few tracks where David Kikoski comes in on the keys! If you dig Mingus as much as us, you’ll recognize most of the melodies – but the treatment is nicely fresh, and also not nearly as slavish as some other Mingus-related projects – really breathing new life into songs that include “Reincarnation Of A Lovebird”, “Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress”, “Nostalgia In Times Square”, “Tonight At Noon”, “Better Get It In Your Soul”, and “Pithecathropus Erectus”.
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Harry Woods – Simply … Lady Day! (2019 Remaster) (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Harry Woods - Simply ... Lady Day! (2019 Remaster) (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download

Harry Woods – Simply … Lady Day! (2019 Remaster) (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 03:50:48 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jube Legends

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Billie Holiday – All Or Nothing At All (1958/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Billie Holiday - All Or Nothing At All (1958/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download

Billie Holiday – All Or Nothing At All (1958/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 51:16 minutes | 2,04 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve

Recorded in 1956 and 1957, All Or Nothing At All was one of Billie Holiday’s last releases before her death in 1959. A collection of jazz and pop standards by the Gershwins, Irving Berlin and Duke Ellington, among others, the album was produced by legendary producer Norman Granz. Holiday runs the emotional gamut from summery optimism (Love Is Here To Stay) to pathos-rich musings (Ill Wind) backed by a strong studio lineup of veterans including Red Mitchell on bass and Ben Webster on tenor saxophone.
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Bill Evans – New Conversations (1978/2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Bill Evans - New Conversations (1978/2011) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download

Bill Evans – New Conversations (1978/2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 46:12 minutes | 1,46 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records

This amazing showcase of jazz piano is generally regarded as the best of Evans’series. “Reflections in D” will leave you spellbound. Thankfully this album was masterfully mixed and recorded, enabling a beautiful, pristine-quality experience as an HD remaster.
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Betty Roché – Take The “A” Train (1956) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Betty Roché - Take The “A” Train (1956) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Betty Roché – Take The “A” Train (1956)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:59 minutes | 516 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bethlehem Records

Betty Roché performs a remake of her signature song Take The “A” Train on this 1956 release chock full of standards, backed up by Eddie Costa on vibes, trumpeter Conte Candoli, pianist Donn Trenner, bassist Whitey Mitchell and Davey Williams on drums. Despite the fame and success this album and its title song brought Roché, she only released a couple of albums following this one and slipped into obscurity.
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Ben Webster Quintet – Soulville (1957/2013) DSF DSD64

Ben Webster Quintet – Soulville (1957/2013)
DSF 2.0 Mono DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 00:40:58 minutes | 1,62 GB | Genre: Jazz
Source: ISO SACD | © Verve Records, Analogue Productions
Recorded: October 15, 1957

Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound from the original master tapes to vinyl and PCM. The DSD was sourced from the PCM. George listened to all of the different A/D converters he had before he chose which to use, and he felt the George Massenburg GML 20 bit A/D produced the best and most synergistic sound for the project.

Soulville is quintessential Ben Webster: intimate, tender, endlessly expressive. Webster was internationally recognized as one of jazz’s elder statesman when he recorded this album in 1957, but the youthful fire that had marked his playing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra two decades earlier was undiminished. Leading a stellar combo through a program consisting mostly of vintage pop tunes, the great tenor saxophonist is at his peak. And this reissue includes three rare recordings of Webster on piano, the first instrument he played as a young professional musician.

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Ben Webster – Come Sunday (2017) DSF DSD128 + Hi-Res FLAC

Ben Webster – Come Sunday (2017)
DSD128 (.dsf) 1 bit/5,6 MHz MHz | Time – 40:24 minutes | 3,18 GB
or FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 40:24 minutes | 658 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: AcousticSounds | Booklet, Front Cover | 2xHD – Storyville Records

Ben Webster was not exactly under-recorded during his forty-year playing career but he is among that exclusive hierarchy of jazz artists to whose consistent excellence there can never be an over-abundance of recorded testimony. This album has the merit of offering a nicely balanced and thoughtfully chosen selection of tracks. Four of the tunes are associated with Duke Ellington in whose saxophone section Ben was featured for more than ten years. Our Blues is a choice example of Ben’s evocative after-hours style of blues playing. An additional bonus is the superior quality of the musicians behind Webster on all these tracks, recorded in Copenhagen between 1968 and 1970.

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Benny Bailey Sextett – Soul Eyes (Jazz Live at Domicile Munich) (1968/2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Benny Bailey Sextett - Soul Eyes (Jazz Live at Domicile Munich) (1968/2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download

Benny Bailey Sextett – Soul Eyes (Jazz Live at Domicile Munich) (1968/2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 45:33 minutes | 879 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS

One of the series of highly successful live albums MPS produced at Munich’s famous Domicile jazz club, Soul Eyes unites four of Europe’s best known expatriate American jazz musicians. Quincey Jones marveled that trumpeter Benny Bailey “has so personal a sound and so completely avoids clichés. Benny is thrillingly himself.” Since his move to Europe in the 50’s, Bailey worked with a variety of top big bands as well as such legendary players as Dexter Gordon and Eddie Harris. Before saxophonist Nathan Davis made Paris his home he had worked with the likes of Ray Charles and Art Blakey. His Paris Reunion Band featured such greats as Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson and Nat Adderley. Pianist Mal Waldron was a unique stylist whose work with Billie Holiday and Eric Dolphy has earned him a special corner in the music’s history. Best known for his work with Duke Ellington, bassist Jimmy Woody worked with the who’s who of the American and European scene throughout is life. Add the rhythmic pulse of South African drummer Makaya Ntzhoko, conga player Charly Campbell, as well as compositions from each of the four front men and you have a lively mix of superlative jazz. Bailey’s Hard Bop masterpiece, Prompt jumps off with Benny taking the first solo flight followed by Davis’ hard-edged tenor, a mesmerizing Waldron, and Woode’s clean-edged lines. Long a jazz standard, Waldron’s Soul Eyes normally plays as a ballad, but here it’s given a relaxed bossa feel with Davis on flute and an extended coda. With its modal riff and African feel, Woode’s Roots, Grooves, Graves And Dimensions is an improviser’s paradise, allowing the soloists to stretch and explore, as Woode prods the percussionists on with shouts and chants. Beginning with Woode’s bass solo, Davis’ Mid-Evil Dance has a suspended minor feel, and a foreboding darkness to it. Check out Mal’s devilish comping in back of the hard-swinging, passionate solos! An album of personal compositions and exquisite solos by some of the top American jazz musicians in Europe.
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Ben Webster, Oscar Peterson – Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (1959/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Ben Webster, Oscar Peterson - Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (1959/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download

Ben Webster, Oscar Peterson – Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (1959/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 36:54 minutes | 1,64 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve Reissues

Saxophonist Ben Webster is joined by legendary jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. Webster, known for his association with Duke Ellington’s Jazz Orchestra playing lead tenor, frequently played with Peterson in the 1950s and are joined here by some of the best jazz musicians of the time. Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson was originally released in 1959, and this studio album is a compilation of seven great jazz tracks, including “How Deep is the Ocean,” “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” and “Bye, Bye, Blackbird.”
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Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (1959) [APO Remaster 2011] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (1959) [APO Remaster 2011]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 36:35 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 1,48 GB
or DSD64 2.0 Stereo (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Front/Rear Covers | 1,46 GB
or FLAC Stereo (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/48 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 424 MB

Saxophonist Ben Webster is joined by legendary jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. Webster, known for his association with Duke Ellington’s Jazz Orchestra playing lead tenor, frequently played with Peterson in the 1950s and are joined here by some of the best jazz musicians of the time. Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson was originally released in 1959, and this studio album is a compilation of seven great jazz tracks, including “How Deep is the Ocean”, “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning”, and “Bye, Bye, Blackbird”.

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