Let's See War Movies!

Original released on LP Music For Pleasure MFP 5171

(UK, 1971)

IT'S PARTY TIME!

Original released on LP Capitol K60670/685 (GERMANY)

CHET BAKER SINGS

Original released on 10" LP Pacific Jazz PJLP-11 (US, April 1954)

and on 12" LP Pacific Jazz PJ-1222 (US, 1956)

As Gerald Heard's liner notes point out, it's difficult to decide whether Chet Baker was a trumpet player who sang or a singer who played trumpet. When the 24-year-old California-based trumpeter started his vocal career in 1954, his singing was revolutionary; as delicate and clear as his trumpet playing, with a similarly bright and vibrato-free tone, Baker simply didn't sound like any previous jazz singer. His first vocal session, recorded in February 1954 (8 tracks), is so innocent-sounding it's like cub reporter Jimmy Olsen had started a new career as a jazz singer. The album's remainng six tracks, recorded in July 1956, are even more milk and cookies, thanks in no small part to syrupy material like Frank Loesser's "I've Never Been in Love Before" and Donaldson/Kahn's drippy "My Buddy." Choices from the earlier session like "My Funny Valentine" - arguably the definitive version of this oft-recorded song - and "There Will Never Be Another You" work much, much better. The spacious musical setting, a simple trumpet and piano-bass-drums rhythm section, is perfect for Baker's low-key style. Despite the few faults of song selection, "Chet Baker Sings" is a classic of West Coast cool jazz. (Stewart Mason in AllMusic)

LATIN WITH LOVE

Original released on LP Music For Pleasure MFP 50076 (stereo)

(UK 1973)

Geoff Love selected twelve of the perennially favourite melodies from Latin-America or inspired by that colourful sub-continent, and arranged them for an orchestra comprising four trumpets doubling fluegel horns, four trombones, five woodwind, twelve violins, four violas, four cellos, piano, two guitars, bass doubling bass guitar, one drummer, and three Latin-American percussion. The results are ear-catching and immensely enjoyable. “La Bamba”, that lively dance speciality from Vera Cruz in Mexico, provides a suitably bright opener with all sections of the orchestra spotlighted and a growling jungle flute solo. The mellow evocation of that area in New York city known as “Spanish Harlem” begins with marimba and piano setting the easy pace and a cor anglais solo later. “Guantanamera” receives an appropriate Afro-Cuban atmosphere with the brass shining over the cha cha cha beat, and “Sucu Sucu” of Argentine origin gets a sprightly samba treatment here. Another Brazilian tempo in the form of the bossa nova ensues as a second Music for Pleasure Latin music maestro, Duncan Lamont, is featured on tenor-saxophone in “The Girl From Ipanema”, and the bossa mood is maintained for “One Note Samba” with fluegel horns prominent.

The second side begins noticeably “South Of The Border” as Geoff coaxes a Mexican mariachi sound from the trumpets in cha cha cha time, and then we meet the beautiful “Maria Elena” portrayed in bolero style by the guitar against a background of muted trombones, followed later by piano, strings, oboe, and a key change into a full ensemble passage. Marimba and trumpets open “Spanish Eyes” in baion time, with the rest of the orchestra joining in turn, and then comes the famous proto­type bossa nova, “Desafinado”, introduced by woodwind and trombones before the fluegel horns take the theme. The bolero returns with “The Breeze And I”, showcasing strings and low-pitched woodwind, and the rhythm section contribute the right atmosphere for a rousing climax to the LP with an infec­tious Brazilian marcha tempo redolent of street parades at carnival time, and the mariachi trumpets set the “Mexican Hat Dance” in motion. Geoff Love has assembled a dozen proven Latin favourites, and presented them with all the verve, vivacity and melodic richness which their background demands. It is impossible to refrain from the obvious remark-you'll love it!

(Nigel Hunter)

Later, in 1978, nine bonus tracks were added, and the album changed its name to “Going Latin” (with the new cover above): “Temptation”, “La Cumparsita”, “Blue Tango”, “Spider of the Night”, “Serenata”, “La Paloma”, “Jealousy”, “Adios Muchachos” and “Ecstasy”. All of them are presented here as bonus tracks.

O MELHOR DA JOVEM GUARDA - VOLUME 2

KATIE MELUA FIRST ALBUM

Original released on CD Dramatico DRAMCD 0002

(UK, November 2003)

English listeners went mad for Katie Melua with the release of her debut album in late 2003. Issued domestically in June 2004, "Call Off the Search" posits the lovely Melua pristinely in between pop, adult contemporary, and traditional American musical forms, with savvy marketing handling the finishing touches. (Think Norah Jones.) It's a comfortable, lightly melodic affair that drinks red wine safely in the middle of the road. Raised in Soviet Georgia and the United Kingdom, Melua has a beguiling accent that colors the ends of her phrases, adding character to her velvety, if occasionally only satisfactory singing voice. She has a nice time with the understated R&B sashay of John Mayall's "Crawling Up a Hill," as well as Mike Batt's "My Aphrodisiac Is You," which is spiced up with barrelhouse piano, muted trumpet, and sly references to opium and the Kama Sutra. The singer's own "Belfast (Penguins and Cats)" opens nicely with a few measures of solo acoustic guitar before it's joined by the orchestral maneuvers that sweep through the majority of "Call Off the Search"'s after-dark cabaret. (Melua also penned a dedication to Eva Cassidy, who she's been compared to vocally.) While the instrumentation is never overbearing, a stoic version of Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" and a couple of late-album pop vocal entries do dawdle a bit in the soft-focus halo that hovers over "Search"'s more easygoing stretches. These selections are perfectly capable, yet pretty obvious, as if the decision was made to sprinkle Melua's debut equally with safety and variety, in case a particular style didn't stick. Still, despite a few detours down easy street, "Call Off the Search" is a promising debut, and comfortable like the first drink of the evening.(Johnny Loftus in AllMusic)

TOM JONES FIRST ALBUM

Original released on LP Decca LK 4693 (mono)

(UK, May 1965)

"Along Came Jones" is the 1965 debut album recorded by Tom Jones and included his massive hit single "It's Not Unusual". The album reached Nº 11 on the British charts. Some of the songs were covers and some were written especially for Jones like the Gordon Mills-penned "The Rose". In July 1965 Parrot Records (USA, Canada) issued an abridged (12 tracks) version of the album, titled "It's Not Unusual".

«Recording TOM JONES has the same effect as driving a fast sports car on a motorway, exciting and exhilarating. Whether Tom Jones is purring softly and slowly through a romantic ballad or lustily giving out with a fast up-beat number you are guaranteed a performance which will be different. Tom Jones during his short singing career has already been acclaimed by various critics as one of the most exciting visual performers on the recording scene. Off stage, a quitly spoken person, Tom explodes into visual and vocal action when the music begins. He has a unique ability of getting inside a song, interpreting the complete meaning of the lyrics, draining the song of everything it has to offer and yet still managing to squeeze the last vestige of feeling from both melody and lyrics. On this L.P. Tom has ample opportunity to demonstrate his varied and considerable vocal talents. Side 1 is used like a showcase for the treatment which Tom gives to beat numbers such as “I Need Your Loving” and “Married Man”, plus six other titles including his first smash-hit “It’s Not Unusual” and his current hit “Once Upon a Time”. His performance can best be described as “gutsy”. This sums up in one short word the raving dynamic performance Tom manages to whip up.

When Tom Jones was introduced to the world by manager Gordon Mills in 1965, the big-voiced singer with animal magnetism was presented as ‘22, single and a miner’. He was, in fact, a 24-year-old married man with a seven-year-old son.  Eventually, the truth came out, and wife Linda, a slender young woman with pixie-cut blonde hair, gave a solitary Press interview. She explained that, although the adulation of his fans made her uncomfortable, she loved her husband with a consuming passion.

In contrast to this power-house side, Side 2 reveals Tom Jones in another light. His tender romantic treatment of such lovely ballads as “Spanish Harlem” and “The Rose” illustrates fully this other face of his singing ability. He is by turns, sad, wistful, tender and intimate, delivering the words with a deep sincerity. His “soul treatment” of “If You Need Me” must rank as one of his finest performances. One has only to listen to this L.P. to recognize and appreciate the very fine and unique arrangements of all these numbers. The arranger, Les Reed, who also collaborated with Gordon Mills in the writing of Tom Jones first single hit “It’s Not Unusual” must surely be congratulated for his very exciting and lush imaginative arrangements. Les has again got together with Gordon to pen one of the three new titles on the L.P. “I’ve Got a Heart”. The remaining two new titles are the sole work of Gordon Mills. One is a beautiful ballad called “The Rose” and the other a ballad with a beat entitled “Some Other Guy”. Assembled on this L.P. are outstanding songs and arrangements which only need the firing-spark of Tom Jones to enable it to explode into action on your record machine. So, like driving a car, switch on the machine, put the needle into the first track and listen to it go, but don’t exceed 33 r.p.m.» (original liner notes by Peter Sullivan)

KAREN SOUZA - "Essentials I"

Original released on CD Music Brokers 

(MEXICO 2011, March 1)

Karen Souza is a jazz singer born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, though she has lived in a number of places over the course of her life, including stints in Brazil, New York and around Europe. While Karen Souza´s voice may sound like it was made for jazz, she is in fact a relative newcomer to this genre of music. Her career began under various psydeonymns as she provided vocal support to a number of electronic music producers and was part of several International House hits. She can be found singing under these pseudonymns on albums such as Pacha Ibiza, FTV (FashionTV), Paris Dernier, Hotel Costes and Privé. She had just begun to flirt with the idea of singing to jazz when she was contacted and invited to join the production of the first volume of the series, "Jazz and 80s". No one imagined the success that the series would have almost over night. The producer of the series knew a good thing when he saw it and he quickly shared his enthusiasm in the project with Karen and made her and her voice an important part of each album.

Now that Karen had gotten her toes wet in the studio, her label decided it was time to dive in and they sent her and the rest of the Quartet on tour to Brazil in late 2009. The visit was a great success and Karen came into her own onstage, gaining confidence and ever tuning and refining her singing. On the heels of the Brazilian adventure, the label again stepped in and told Karen it was time to focus on her own material. To this effect they sent her to Los Angeles for a few months to work with and learn from some of the best songwriters in the business. It was there that she studied under the guidance of Pam Oland, a multiple Grammy nominated songwriter who has worked with stars like Whitney Houston, Earth, Wind and Fire and Aretha Franklin, to name a few. This period gave new direction to Karen's own composing and songwriting and has helped her develop her signature sound while continuing to please fans with her characteristic lush vocals. After her stint in LA, Karen began to dedicate herself exclusively to rehearsing both new and older material with the rest of the quartet and they have achieved a symbiosis that is a pleasure to watch. The Cooltrane Quartet with Karen in the lead is an act not to be missed, full of excellent jazz versions and brand new soloist material from a truly dynamic young artist.

"Essentials" is a first collection (there's a number II also) of interesting and often surprising jazzy cover versions of carefully chosen great songs, that in original version are not jazzy at all. In my opinion some of them are true masterpieces, Radiohead's "Creep" and The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" should be mentioned here. Versions of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" and Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" are great as well, but my favourite is Ian Dury's "Wake Up And Make Love With Me", because the fascinating chorus with french singer Renaud. In my opinion, no cover versions should be made from already perfect songs, but Karen always manages to add something. This way you never have the feeling that she tried herself at songs too big for her. And in every single song on this album her extraordinarily warm and soft voice fills the room with a most comfortable atmosphere. This album makes a perfect present too. Whether you give it to someone interested in Jazz, to someone who likes the original versions (easy), to someone who likes listening to relaxing music or just because of the special atmosphere the album builds up, I'm pretty sure people will like it. And it still seems to be sort of an inside-tip!

YAMAHA CD S700

Some time ago, a friend of mine asked my opinion about the best cd player on the market. The answer was very simple: the YAMAHA CD S700. I have bought many cd players along the years, and I always thought that they could never be near the sound of a top vinyl turntable. This Yamaha proove me that I was wrong. I'm happy to say that you can obtain an ultra great sound from this deck, when you connect it to a good amplifier and a couple of speakers. And, without the common problems of the vinyl, you can make your ears very, very happy. If you still have some doubts, please read what other people has written here.

THE JAZZ MASTERPIECE

Original released on Double LP ECM 1064/65

(GERMANY, 1975)

Recorded in January 24, 1975 at the Köln Opera House and released the same year, this disc has, along with its revelatory music, some attendant cultural baggage that is unfair in one sense: Every pot-smoking and dazed and confused college kid - and a few of the more sophisticated ones in high school - owned this as one of the truly classic jazz records, along with Bitches Brew, Kind of Blue, Take Five, A Love Supreme, and something by Grover Washington, Jr. Such is cultural miscegenation. It also gets unfairly blamed for creating George Winston, but that's another story. What Keith Jarrett had begun a year before on the Solo Concerts album and brought to such gorgeous flowering here was nothing short of a miracle. With all the tedium surrounding jazz-rock fusion, the complete absence on these shores of neo-trad anything, and the hopelessly angry gyrations of the avant-garde, Jarrett brought quiet and lyricism to revolutionary improvisation. Nothing on this program was considered before he sat down to play. All of the gestures, intricate droning harmonies, skittering and shimmering melodic lines, and whoops and sighs from the man are spontaneous. Although it was one continuous concert, the piece is divided into four sections, largely because it had to be divided for double LP. But from the moment Jarrett blushes his opening chords and begins meditating on harmonic invention, melodic figure construction, glissando combinations, and occasional ostinato phrasing, music changed. For some listeners it changed forever in that moment. For others it was a momentary flush of excitement, but it was change, something so sorely needed and begged for by the record-buying public. Jarrett's intimate meditation on the inner workings of not only his pianism, but also the instrument itself and the nature of sound and how it stacks up against silence, involved listeners in its search for beauty, truth, and meaning. The concert swings with liberation from cynicism or the need to prove anything to anyone ever again. With this album, Jarrett put himself in his own league, and you can feel the inspiration coming off him in waves. This may have been the album every stoner wanted in his collection "because the chicks dug it." Yet it speaks volumes about a musician and a music that opened up the world of jazz to so many who had been excluded, and offered the possibility - if only briefly - of a cultural, aesthetic optimism, no matter how brief that interval actually was. This is a true and lasting masterpiece of melodic, spontaneous composition and improvisation that set the standard. (Thom Jurek in AllMusic)

THE BEAT OF THE POPS - VOLUME 14

LES BAXTER - "Teen Drums"

Original released on LP Capitol T 1355 (mono)

(US, 1960)

A follow-up to the popular "Skins! Bongo Party" with Les Baxter LP of 1957, Les Baxter's "Teen Drums" returns the easy listening maestro to pure beat territory, and the results are as wholesome as the squeaky-clean youngsters grinning on the album cover. Producer/arranger/marimbist Baxter collected a group of session percussionists schooled in various foreign rhythms (Afro-Cuban, Puerto Rican, Brazilian) and steered them through 11 improvised selections. Congas, bongos, tom toms, and timbales are employed, surrounded by the occasional saxophone, piano, or guitar to rein in any stray solo excursions. "Ting Ting Ting" and "Brazil Nuts" start the album off with appropriately busy rhythms, but the furor fades and "Teen Drums" delivers skeletal arrangements and tightly restrained beats without aggression or abstraction, fading easily into the background as Baxter probably intended. The jazzy "I Dig" swings the hardest, "Barbarian" shoots for (and misses) some Link Wray-style guitar rumble, and "Boombada" rewrites the "Peter Gunn Theme" for an imaginary film noir soundtrack. Les Baxter's "Teen Drums" is well-behaved exotica, a pleasant approximation of romantic rhythms for the average space-age bachelor's cocktail party. (Fred Beldin in AllMusic)

Take Her Home Tonight

Original released on LP Verve 0602537905928

(EU 2015, February 2)

Diana Krall paid tribute to her father on "Glad Rag Doll", the 2012 album sourced from his collection of 78-rpm records, and, in a sense, its 2015 successor "Wallflower" is a companion record of sorts, finding the singer revisiting songs from her childhood. Like many kids of the 20th century, she grew up listening to the radio, which meant she was weaned on the soft rock superhits of the '70s - songs that earned sniffy condescension at the time but nevertheless have turned into modern standards due to their continual presence in pop culture (and arguably were treated that way at the time, seeing cover after cover by middlebrow pop singers). Krall does not limit herself to the songbook of Gilbert O'Sullivan, Jim Croce, the Carpenters, Elton John, and the Eagles, choosing to expand her definition of soft rock to include a previously unrecorded Paul McCartney song called "If I Take You Home Tonight" (a leftover from his standards album "Kisses on the Bottom"), Bob Dylan's "Wallflower," Randy Newman's "Feels Like Home," and Neil Finn's "Don't Dream It's Over," a song from 1986 that has been covered frequently in the three decades since. "Don't Dream It's Over" slides into this collection easily, as it's as malleable and timeless as "California Dreamin'," "Superstar," "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word," or "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)," songs that are identified with specific artists but are often covered successfully. 

Krall's renditions rank among those successes because she's understated, never fussing with the melodies but allowing her arrangements to slink by in a deliberate blend of sparseness and sophistication. It's an aesthetic that helps transform the Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why" and 10cc's "I'm Not in Love," singles that are as successful as much for their production as their song, into elegant torch songs, yet it doesn't do much for Newman's pedestrian "Feels Like Home," nor does it lend itself to the loping country of "Wallflower," which may provide the name for this album but feels like an uninvited guest among these majestically melodic middle-of-the-road standards. These stumbles are slight and, tellingly, they put into context Krall's achievement with "Wallflower": by singing these songs as sweet and straight as the dusty old standards on "Glad Rag Doll" or the bossa nova on 2009's "Quiet Nights", she demonstrates how enduring these once-dismissed soft rock tunes really are. (Thomas Erlewine in AllMusic)