Anita O'Day has long been admired as one of the very best jazz singers of the post-war era, with a rhythmic and dynamic style that she could readily deploy in big band, small group and sophisticated orchestral environments. Acrobat has already showcased her work during the early 1940s with the orchestras of Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton ("Anita O'Day - The Early Years 1941-45" ADDCD3098), and in this collection we focus on a similar period of years during the 1950s when she firmly carved for herself a significant place in the jazz pantheon. During the decade from 1952-62, she recorded for the labels established by jazz impresario Norman Granz - Clef, Norgran and, most famously, Verve - and her recordings during that time are recognised as the most significant of her career. This excellent-value 46-track 2-CD set comprises the complete content of her albums during the first five years of that era - "Anita O'Day Collates", "Songs By Anita O'Day", "An Evening With Anita O'Day", "Anita" and "Pick Yourself Up", (some titles appear on more than one LP) plus tracks from singles. On those albums she is accompanied variously by the orchestras of Ralph Burns, Roy Kral, Larry Russell and Buddy Bregman, with musicians on the sessions including Barney Kessel, Roy Eldridge, Stan Getz, Shelly Manne, Budd Johnson, Andy Secrest, Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Smith and many more. It's a snapshot of a key era in her career, and a fine showcase for her unique talent working across a range of musical environments.

Two trombone front line of Andy Martin (slide) & Mike Fahn (valve) are featured along w. guitarist Dan Faehnle on over 65 min. Of music.

Classical Music

2019 release. Rachael & Vilray is the debut album by Lake Street Dive singer-songwriter Rachael Price and composer, singer, and guitarist Vilray. The twelve-song set features 10 originals by Vilray, along with two covers from the era that inspired him: Cuban composer Pedro Junco Jr.'s 1943 "Nosotros" and Milton Drake/Louis Atler's "I Love the Way You're Breaking My Heart," first popularized by Peggy Lee. Price and Vilray, who began performing together in 2015, recorded the album with Lake Street Dive pianist Akie Bermiss, a rhythm section, and a small complement of horns, plus a guest performance from pianist Jon Batiste on "Go On Shining." Dan Knobler, who had worked with Lake Street Dive on the Free Yourself Up album, produced.

There has never been any other partnership in jazz quite like that of tenor saxophonists Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. After their initial meeting in the late 1940s Woody Herman band, the pairing became firm musical friends, forming a union that would last until Sims's death in 1985

Laurie Antonioli is one of the era's definitive jazz vocalists, but she's got a Little Rock 'n' roll in her soul too. Her new album expands her creative purview with an emotionally trenchant program focusing on her collaborations with state-of-the-art jazz composers - including Russell Ferrante and Nguy�n L� - and new arrangements of songs by iconic singer/songwriters Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Sheryl Crow.

This is another re-issue of a title previously released by Acrobat and now deleted, but much in demand, so it has been re-packaged, with eight tracks added, presented in chronological order. It comprises 48 tracks tracing the recordings of the King Of Swing in all configurations of his outfits from his Trio through to his big band, focusing mainly on the era from 1935 to the early '40s, but also including some tracks from the late '40s and early '50s. As a budget-priced 2CD set, it represents fantastic value, and is a fine showcase not only for his renowned clarinet styling but also the fine arrangements and the sound of which he was one of the creators and pioneers.

This comprises two 'live' club performances by the Cal Tjader Quintet, recorded at the Club Macumba in either September or October 1956. It comprises a fascinating line-up of the quintet, including the great Luis Kant on congas, along with an unnamed bongo player.

Yuko Mabuchi moved to the United States from her native Japan only recently, but when she plays American jazz she speaks the language perfectly. We love Yuko’s sense of rhythm and melody, and her improvising feels like she was born in Detroit or New York City. Her technique reminds one of some of Yuko’s music idols like Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock and Monty Alexander. But beyond her talent for traditional jazz, one can also hear flavors of American R&B, Hip-Hop and Blues, which Yuko loved as a teenager. This album’s associate producer and Yarlung special advisor Billy Mitchell describes Yuko’s playing as “funky from the heart,” and he means that as an enormous compliment. Yuko was born in Fukui, on the west coast of Japan, north of Kyoto. She studied classical music and the piano starting at age four, and continued her studies at the AN Music School in Kyoto, where she was a jazz piano student of Kunihiro Kameda. Yarlung first heard the Yuko Mabuchi Trio at Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood and offered to record their debut album the next day. This live concert recording session took place in Cammilleri Hall, the same concert venue designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, where Yarlung recorded Sophisticated Lady jazz quartet in 2014. Jazz pianist and educator Billy Mitchell served as associate producer.

Following a large number of multi-award-winning jazz albums, in solo, trio and quintet, Baptiste Trotignon now turns to songs in two ways: either by taking over some French classic songs, mostly in solo (Brel, Barbara, Gainsbourg...) or by composing and interpreting them with guest artists. Song Song Song is Trotignon's vision of the universal art of song and features guests artists from several universes, influences and cultures: Melody Gardot (performing, in French, Mon fantome), Monica Passos, Jeanne Added, Christophe Miossec...

This compilation of early jazz and ragtime dates from a very early recording (Eli Green’s Cakewalk from 1898) to the 1920s. The sources are from pianola rolls, 78 rpm records and phonograph cylinders. The rolls on this recording were played on an Orchestrelle player attachment 65/88 note made around 1905. The first known player is thought to be the 1863 Furneaux ‘Pianista.’ As with the Orchestrelle this operated by striking the keys of an ordinary piano. The main difference was that it was operated by a handle in the manner of a street piano, while the later instrument is worked pneumatically by foot operated bellows. Early rolls were 58 and later 65 note. 88 notes became standard in the 1900s although the earlier sizes continued to be made. It was some years before manufacturers got together and standardized roll size and fitting so that any player could play any roll.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The first recording in our cpo SYMPHONIC JAZZ SERIES with the WDR Radio Orchestra of Cologne is entitled American Connection. Concertos for jazz clarinet by Jorge Calandrelli, Daniel Freiberg, and Jeff Beal are heard in performances with the world-famous clarinetist Andy Miles. Andy Miles is one of the youngest representatives of a guild whose members received posts as solo clarinetists in German orchestras (in his case with the Hamburg Philharmonic). Later he made his way to Cologne as the principal clarinetist of the WDR Radio Orchestra. Thanks to his "wild past" as a saxophonist in rock bands, a tin whistler in folk bands, and a clarinetist in jazz bands, Miles is able to exercise his activity in many musical fields. He numbers among the few genuine crossover musicians who succeed in mediating between classical and jazz music because they feel at home in both of them. The press has called him »the Marco Polo of the Clarinet.« It should also be mentioned that the famous Alan Silverman was in charge of an additional mastering of our recording in the United States. Alan has worked for artists like Norah Jones, Chaka Khan, The Rings, Dolly Parton, and Keith Richards and received more than fifty Grammy Awards. His Art! Mastering, one of the largest and best-equipped mastering studios in New York City, offers first-class analogue and digital outboard equipment and an excellent monitoring system.

Personnel: Lynn Allison, Gene Steck, Steve Steck, Johnny Desmond, Artie Malvin, Crew Chiefs, The Glee Club (vocals); Carmen Mastren (guitar); Nathan Kaproff, George Ockner, Dave Herman, Milton Edelson, Richard Motylinski, Earl Cornwell, CPL. Gene Bergen, David Sackson, Alfred Aulwurm, Fred Ostrovsky, Ernest Kardos, Joseph Kowalewski, Carl Swanson, Harry Katzman (violin); Dave Schwartz, CPL. Henry Brynan, Manny Wishnow, Stanley Harris (viola); CPL. Morris Bialkin, Bob Ripley (cello); Peanuts Hucko (clarinet, alto saxophone); Manny Thaler (bass clarinet, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone); Freddy Guera, Hank Freeman (alto saxophone); Jack Ferrier, Vince Carbone (tenor saxophone); Chuck Gentry (baritone saxophone); Whitey Thomas, Jack Steele, Zeke Zarchy, Bernie Privin, Bobby Nichols (trumpet); Addison Collins (French horn); Nat Peck, Larry Hall , Johnny Halliburton, Jim Harwood , Jimmy Priddy (trombone); Jack Russin, Mel Powell (piano); Frank Ippolito (drums).

Liner Note Author: Geoffrey Butcher.

Photographer: Edward F. Polic.

Arrangers: Ralph Wilkinson; Glenn Miller; Jerry Gray; Steve Steck; Norman Leyden; Bill Finegan; Mel Powell.

On SEVEN WHITES the three musicians (Peter Ehwald - saxophone, Stefan Schultze - piano and Tom Rainey - drums) sketch out a complex musical structure, whose brilliance and depth lies precisely in the way they elaborate upon shades. Crucial are the shades and intricacies with which the musicians immerse themselves in a rhythm that is sometimes an energetic shared quest, and sometimes a contrapuntal pulsing, which dissolves into a frame of each other. The music on this album has a magnetism far beyond that of a black and white painting.

If there is one figure in jazz who remains similarly inexplicable, it is Charlie Parker. Charlie Parker has contributed so much to the syntax and grammar of jazz that no contemporary jazz musician exists today who is not influenced in some way by Bird’s jargon, either directly, or in echoes. Of course, every language has to be able to change with the times, otherwise it could not describe the atmosphere, the reality of the present. This mutability and the will to change is what makes Charlie Parker's dialect so special.

Common Ground plays music that pushes into new areas, preserving the commitment to expand feel, harmony and pulse. Matthias Akeo Nowak's new album ORIMUSIC features compositions of all four band members, inventing sound narratives with high intensity and a sovereign, calm fire.

In May 2011 these three musicians played in the film theater in Peitz,where the Jazz workshop was launched in the early 1970s.After a break of almost three decades, free Jazz was back here. This CD appears in the year of Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky's ninetieth birthday.

1989: the wall falls – freedom at last! What could be more obvious than a German/ German jazz band. The musicians claim it as the first German/ German jazz band, as contact among them already existed before the wall came down. Not the form, but the musicians and their being are the quintessence - the form adapts. Every note, a statement. It's about creativity and improvisation. 1992 is the time. 30 years after the fall of the wall, much has changed in Germany. The mood is completely different. It is no longer a time of change and exploration, and now uncertainty and radicalization dominate. The music sounds different, but remains just as brilliant. Polyphonic melodies and rhythms characterize the sound. Jazz becomes even more of a home. The metamorphosis succeeds! The music fits into the new era.

SoKo Steidle + Alexander von Schlippenbach was recorded on 6.5.22 and 15.5.22 at the XJazz Festival / Berlin. Oliver Steidle: For me, freedom and spontaneity as well as rival competition until harmonious interaction, is the main core of the Berlin sound of Jazz, rich as a whole wheat bread. It arises a pulsating movement, a organic body, full of energy and virtuosity.

Another magical summer night of 1967 from the Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen finds Dexter Gordon in company of drummer Art Taylor who heats up the evening’s temperature. “Dex's idiosyncratic spoken intros to tunes like "I Should Care" and "Come Rain or Come Shine" are charming, and the gritty soulfulness of his playing reminds us just how much we miss the greats of his generation. They don't make 'em like this anymore.” (JazzTimes’ Chris Kelsey on Loose Walk SCCD 36032) “…a welcome program that finds Gordon in a limber and exploratory mode. Foibles in fidelity aside, Dex aficionados will be sold on the disc's face value. But casual listeners will probably also be pleasingly surprised by the calibre of this classic conclave.” (Derek Taylor of AllAboutJazz on Lady Bird SCCD 36035)

We are memory and repetition. We repeat familiar sounds and communicate in this way, we call them language or music. We vary the repetition and create something new out of the old, shifting behavior and perception. Without a counterpart, our ego would be without borders - but our spirit also perforates the borders. Change occurs. Art, or in another word, communication. Tenor and soprano saxophonist Bruno Angeloni has worked with many fine musicians, including Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille and Michael Zerang. Although primarily regarded as a Free Jazz musician, his playing actually comprises virtually all types of music. The inner and outer struggle to find his way in the '80s music business, as a then young improvising saxophonist, without having to work in a commercial and adapted manner, eventually made him abdicate the market entirely and to earn a living on construction sites. Through perseverance he eventually travelled to Iran, South Africa and Russia, where he could rediscover his own sound, sharpen and strengthen it in such a way as to let music once again govern his life. After a short orientation phase in Rome at the beginning of the noughties, invitations to the Monterrey Jazz Festival took him two years in a row to Mexico, further broadening his musical pallet. Since 2016, back in Leipzig, he has had several rather coincidental meetings at public sessions with the 24 years younger drummer Steffen Roth. Henceforth, together they formed the duo 'Spirale' and have recorded this fascinating album.

The CONTACT 4TETT plays experimental improvised music with elements of Jazz, Art Rock, Modern Chamber Music and Sound Art. The history of CONTACT 4TETT begins in 1970, when bassist Alois Kott, drummer Michael Jüllich and clarinetist Theo Jörgensmann formed the CONTACT TRIO. After initial small successes, the group played as a newcomer at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival and toured several times through southern Germany and Switzerland, but the band broke up after two years. Theo Jörgensmann was replaced by guitarist Evert Brettschneider, with whom the group had already worked in an extended line-up. This occupation was internationally successful.

At the beginning of 1980, Michael Jüllich left the CONTACT TRIO, which was also one of the first progressive, professional jazz groups in the Ruhr area and had released 3 LPs by then. With Peter Eisold on drums, the group played until 1984 and then disbanded. Since 2015 there has been a new edition of the band as CONTACT 4TETT, which includes the former soloists in the band Theo Jörgensmann, who now plays alto clarinet, and Evert Brettschneider. New members are Kai Kanthak, electric bass and Sascha Sauerborn, drums and electronics. The CD WUNDERTÜTE is the first by CONTACT 4TETT for the label jazzwerkstatt.

The trio has released a half dozen albums over the last 20 years, each with the freshness of a first encounter. There’s always a sense of discovery in their playing, as if it were their first time meeting. The trio seems somehow to exist perpetually at dawn. So the encounter in Lucerne in December, 2021, documented on this recording but it was, at any rate, the first time they played this particular concert: there’s wisdom in the conversation. None of the participants rush to dominate the discussion.