Dinah Shore – Lavender Blue (1959)

On March 1, 1917, Dinah Shore was born as Frances Rose Shore in Winchester, Tennessee. While a student at Vanderbilt University, Shore started performing her own short program on a Nashville radio station. After completing her degree in sociology, she moved to New York City in 1938, intending to pursue a career as a singer.

Shore soon landed a job singing on a New York radio station called WNEW. Recording success took a little longer, but in the early 1940s she began to release hits such as “Jim” and “Blues in the Night.” During World War II, Shore often performed for the troops, singing songs like “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” and “I’ll Walk Alone,” which reached No. 1.

Shore also began to appear in films in the 1940s. She worked with Gypsy Rose Lee in Belle of the Yukon (1944) and was seen in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), a biographical musical about Jerome Kern. However, Shore did not take to film work and only appeared in seven movies.

In the late 1940s, Shore continued to enjoy success on the charts. Her hits from this period include such songs as “I Love You for Sentimental Reasons” and “Buttons and Bows.”

In 1951, Shore’s self-titled variety show made its debut; it was the start of what would turn out to be a long-running career on television. The Dinah Shore Chevy Show began in 1956. The program, which featured Shore singing “See the USA in your Chevrolet,” achieved even greater success and stayed on the air until 1963.

Shore’s television career evolved over the years, but her warm personality consistently charmed audiences. In the 1970s, she became a popular talk show host with a series of shows: Dinah’s Place (1970-74), Dinah! (1974-80) and Dinah and Friends (1979-1984).

Shore’s last talk show, A Conversation with Dinah, aired on the Nashville Network from 1989 to 1991. One of television’s most popular personalities, she won 10 Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award and a Golden Globe during her career. (biography.com)

And here´s one of her charming in this Easy Listening style from the late Fifites.

Personnel:
Dinah Shore (vocals)
+
unknown orchestra

Tracklist:
01. Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly) (Morey/Daniel) 3.05
02. Laughing On The Outside (Crying On The Inside) (Raleigh/Wayne) 3.14
03. It’s Easy To Remember (Hart/Rodgers) 3.21
04. Little White Lies (Donaldson) 2.27
05. Come Rain Or Come Shine (Mercer/Arlen) 2.59
06. Anniversary Song (Jolson/Chaplin) 3.07
07. Golden Earrings (Livingston/Evans/Young) 3.04
08. You’ll Always Be The One I Love (Skylar/Freeman) 2.56
09. Forever And Ever (Rosa/Winkler) 2.46
10. The Gypsy (Reid) 3.05

*
**

Viktoria Tolstoy & WDR Big Band – ScanJazz – Live In Düsseldorf (2017)

Louise Viktoria Tolstoy (born Louise Viktoria Kjellberg, 29 July 1974 in Sigtuna Municipality, Sweden) is a Swedish jazz singer of Russian ancestry. She is the daughter of Erik Kjellberg and the great-great-granddaughter of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy was a housemate in season one of the television series Big Brother in 2000.

She was married to designer Per Holknekt from 2001 until they divorced in March 2008. (by wikipedia)

An artistic disposition runs in the family of Swedish singer Viktoria Tolstoy. Her great-great-grandfather was the legendary Russian novelist Leo Tolstoi. No wonder young Viktoria made an impact in Stockholm jazz clubs with leading Swedish musicians like Svante Thuresson and Putte Wickman. She recorded her first album in 1994, aged 20. Two years later, with the album För Älskad, she became an overnight pop sensation in Sweden. This prepared the ground for her collaboration with Esbjörn Svensson, who produced and wrote the songs for White Russian, the first Scandinavian album released by the legendary Blue Note label.

Around that time Tolstoy also worked with Nils Landgren, and in 2003 she followed him and Svensson as an exclusive ACT-artist. Since then, she has established herself as one of the leading voices in jazz today. Crystal clear, dynamic, untamed and vibrating, but also down-to-earth – her voice is probably the most brilliant of all Scandinavian singers. If Viktoria Tolstoy sings a song, it is not simple interpretation; she shapes and marks it in her own way. (by act music)

And hre´a pretty good radho show with many jazz standard and a lot of Swedish traditional tunes, played in a fascinating Big Band sound !

Recorded live  at theRobert-Schumann-Saal, Dusseldorf, Germany; December 6, 2017
Very good satellite broadcast.

Personnel:
Hakan Broström (saxophone)
Viktoria Tolstoy (vocals)
+
WDR Bigband conducted by Hakan Broström

Tracklist:
01. Intro (in German) 1.13
02. All Of Me (Marks/Simons) 5.19
03. Talk 0.32
04. Jag Jet En Dejtig Rosa (Traditional) 6.37
05. Ack V’rmland Du Sk’na (Traditional) 5.07
06. Talk 0.28
07. May Night (Broström) 9.18
08. Sophisticated Lady (Ellington/Mills/Parish) 4.20
09. Talk (in German) 1.22
10. Kling Klang Klockan Slar (Traditional) 6.05
11. The Way You Look Tonight (Traditional) 4.49
12. Talk (in German) 0.58
13. I Can’t Help It (Wonder/Greene) 5.47
14. Den F’rsta Gang Jag Sag Dig (Traditional) 5.16
15. Talk 0.40
16. Polska Fran Horn/Jag Alls Ingen (Traditional) 6.34
17. Talk 0.25
18. Cronelis (Broström) 7.38
19. Memories Of You (Blake/Razaf) 4.20
20. Talk 0.29
21. Vem Kann Segla F’rutan Vind (Traditional) 4.55
22. Band introductions 2.18
23. Caravan (Ellington/Tizol) 4.41
24. Outro (in German) 3.34

*
**

Stanley Clarke – I Wanna Play For You (1979)

Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. He has composed music for films and television and has worked with musicians in many genres. Like Jaco Pastorius, Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. (by wikipedia)

A strange album, this is Clarke’s 6th and it’s half-live album (Calderone Theatre in June 78), but most of the usual suspects are not very present: Duke on 2 tracks, Dee Dee on one and Back & Gadd only on one. Clarke is letting his afro haircut grow in search of obvious pop-star recognition and indeed the music is taking that direction. Curiously recorded in the UK for the studio, while the other half is an LA thing, the album is rather disjointed, often veering to disco with those clapping beats. Notable jazzmen Stan Getz and Freddie Hubbard and guitarist Ritenour make one appearance each, but none leave a lasting impression, except on the guest list.

Opening on the pleasant bluesy-funk vocoder-filled complex funk-jazz title track (it would easily find space on Modern Man as would the short Strange weather), the album’s first side quickly slips into a soul-disco-ish-funk MOR/AOR stuff that can only irritate (Feeling, ), despite the obvious talent of all concerned. Streets is reminiscent of a funkier version that era’s Santana, while Together again is insufferable with those awful fake handclaps.. The Mingus homage is short and uninteresting and way too standard-jazzy for the rest of the album.

The flipside is mainly live and includes Clarke classics School Days and Quiet Afternoon, and we are finding the excellent JR/F that we know Stan The Man can do (so why doesn’t he in the studios?), and obviously these tracks triple the album’s value to most progheads. Indeed Clarke’s nine-man band (including a four-man horn section) is quite gifted and the rawk the heck out of you. Strangely enough, they chose to insert a Beck/Gadd/Cochran track from the previous year, but it goes almost unnoticed in the middle of the Calderone Theatre tracks. If it wasn’t for this live facet, the overall level of the album would probably sink deep because the first side is completely disjointed and wouldn’t be worth the proghead’s attention. (by Sean Trane)

Stanley Clarke stretches his muscles and comes up with a mostly impressive, polystylistic, star-studded double album (now on one CD) that gravitates ever closer to the R&B mainstream. Clarke’s writing remains strong and his tastes remain unpredictable, veering into rock, electronic music, acoustic jazz, even reggae in tandem with British rocker Jeff Beck.

Clarke’s excursion into disco, “Just a Feeling,” is surprisingly and infectiously successful, thanks to a good bridge and George Duke’s galvanizingly funky work on the Yamaha electric grand piano (his finest moment with Clarke by far). The brief “Blues for Mingus,” a wry salute from one master bassist to another (Mingus died about six months before this album’s release), is a cool acoustic breather for piano trio, and the eloquent Stan Getz can be detected, though nearly buried under the garish vocals and rock-style mix, on “The Streets of Philadelphia.” Yet even the talented Clarke in full creative flower couldn’t quite fill a double set with new material, so he has a tendency to reprise some of his old memorable riffs a lot, and there are several energetic snapshots of his live band in action. In its zeal to get this two-LP set onto one disc, Epic deleted three of the original 15 tracks — including at least one gem, the sizzling hard rocker “All About” — and scrambled the order of the remaining tunes. Which is dumb, because the missing tracks only take up a bit less than 12 minutes of playing time, not enough to overload a 65-minute disc. Hunt for the double-LP version if you can still play vinyl. (by Richard S. Ginell)

And yes … here´s the vinyl edition of this album … and enjoy one of the greatest master of the bass guitar (listen his solo on “Jamaican Boy” and “My Greatest Hits” for example).

Personnel:
Stanley Clarke (bass, syntheszier on 06. + 08., organ on 08., talkbox on 01. + 02., vocals)
+
Jeff Beck (guitar on 03.)
Dee Dee Bridgewater (background vocals on 07.)
Darryl Brown (drums on 01., 02., 04., 05.,07., 11., 13., 14., 15.  cymbal on 06.)
Gerry Brown (drums on 10.)
Cathy Carson (vocals on 08., 09.)
Bayeté Todd Cochran (synthesizer on 01., 06., 09.,10., 12., 15. keyboards on 03.)
Juanita Curiel (vocals on 08., 09.)
George Duke (piano on 07., 08.)
Ronnie Foster (piano on 09.)
Steve Gadd (drums on 03.)
Michael Garson (synthesizer on 01., 11., 15.,  piano on 11. 12., 14.)
Stan Getz (saxophone on 09.)
Raymond Gomez (guitar on 01., 10., 11., 15.)
Al Harrison (trumpet on 01., 10., 11., 15.)
Freddie Hubbard (flugelhorn on 12.)
Phil Jost (organ on 01.)
David DeLeon (bass on 11.)
Bob Malach (saxophone on 01., 10., 11., 15.)
Harvey Mason (drums on 07., 08., 09.)
Airto Moreira (percussion on 02.)
Gwen Owens (vocals on 08., 09.)
Lee Ritenour (guitar on 09.)
Peter Robinson (synthesizer on 10.)
Tom Scott (saxophone on 04., lyricon on 07., 08.)
James Tinsley (trumpet on 01., 10., 11., 15.)
Al Williams (saxophone on 01., 10., 11., 15.)

Tracklist:
01. Rock ‘N’ Roll Jelly (Clarke) 2.36
02. All About (Clarke) 5.17
03. Jamaican Boy (Clarke) 3.32
04. Christopher Ivanhoe (Clarke) 3.25
05. My Greatest Hits (Clarke) 6.26
06. Strange Weather (Clarke) 1.45
07. I Wanna Play For You (Clarke) 6.19
08. Just A Feeling (Clarke)
09. The Streets Of Philadelphia (Clarke) 6.03
10. School Days (Clarke) 10.46
11. Quiet Afternoon (Clarke) 8.58
12. Together Again (Garson) 5.45
13. Blues For Mingus (Clarke) 2.19
14. Off The Planet (Clarke) 3.12
15. Hot Fun-Closing (Clarke) 7.49

 

*
**

Muddy Waters – Can’t Get No Grindin (1973)

By the time Muddy Waters reached the 1970s, it seemed as though the fuzzed-out blend of Chicago Blues he pioneered, and the electric British blues he inspired had surpassed him. The 1970s would also see the release of his final albums with Chess Records, and would prove that Waters hadn’t lost step in spite of his age. Fresh off his acclaimed London Sessions, (Which saw the Mississippi native work alongside Steve Winwood of Traffic & Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience) 1973 brought Can’t Get No Grindin’ which was a welcome return to the rugged, slide-guitar blues that originally defined the bluesman, after experimenting with psychedelia, brass blow-outs, and other forays.

Can’t Get No Grindin’ is a classic showcase of Waters’ raw power as a musician, and is every bit as sharp and edgy as the primal blues he became famous for in the 1950s. Whether remakes of classics like “Mother’s Bad Luck Child”, newer compositions such as “Love Weapon” or the often-covered “Garbage Man”, or instrumental jams like “After Hours”, Waters dominates each track without resorting to electronic studio gimmickry or celebrity guest appearances. (by undergroundhiphop.com)

Can’t Get No Grindin’ is, surprisingly, the only Muddy Waters album in the Hall of Fame that was actually recorded as an album, not a compilation of singles and older material. Chess veteran Ralph Bass produced the set in Chicago during the period after the company had been sold to GRT of New York but while the last Chess building and studio still stood at 320 E. 21st Street. Most of Muddy’s working band, joined by alumnus James Cotton on harp, backed him on a quickly recorded session (Bass preferred live spontaneity to perfected multiple takes when producing blues) that found the master and his crew in fine form, delivering the kind of blues that made Muddy famous back in the 1950s. Chess had tried to take him in more contemporary directions on other albums of the ’60s and ’70s but ended up with a classic by just letting Muddy cut a straight-ahead, no-frills, no-rock-stars album. The title track, parenthetically subtitled What’s the Matter With the Meal, is actually a rendition of Memphis Minnie’s What’s the Matter With the Mill. (blues.org)

Muddy’s next-to-last Chess album, Can’t Get No Grindin’ marked a return to working with a band of his own after several experimental line-ups and recordings — Pinetop Perkins took over the piano spot from the late Otis Spann, with Chess veteran harpist James Cotton aboard, and PeeWee Madison, and Sammy Lawhorn handling the guitars (apart from Muddy’s axe, natch). The music is raw, hard-edged, and sharp (the guitars slash and cut), more like a successor to Muddy’s classic 1950’s sides (he rethinks a bunch ’50s numbers here) than to the London Sessions, Super Blues, brass blow-outs, and psychedelic albums that he’d been doing. It’s also easy to hear Muddy’s heart in this release — he fairly oozes soul out of every note he sings. The title track, “Sad Letter,” and “Mother’s Bad Luck Child” are all killer tracks, and most of the rest isn’t far behind, though “Garbage Man” is the best known of the newer tracks, thanks to subsequent covers. (by Bruce Eder)

Personnel:
James Cotton (harmonica)
Calvin Jones (bass)
Sam Lawhorn (guitar)
(Pee Wee Madison (guitar)
Pinetop Perkins (piano, harpsichord)
Willie Smith (drums)
Muddy Waters (vocals, guitar)

Tracklist:
01. Can’t Get No Grindin’ (What’s The Matter With The Meal) (Morganfield) 2.46
02. Mother’s Bad Luck Child (Morganfield) 4.56
03. Funky Butt (McKinley Morganfield) 2.53
04. Sad Letter (Morganfield) 4.15
05. Someday I’m Gonna Ketch You (Morganfield) 3.14
06. Love Weapon (Morganfield) 4.05
07. Garbage Man (Hammond) 2.39
08. After Hours (Parrish/Feyne/Bruce) 3.50
09. Whiskey Ain’t No Good (Morganfield) 4.35
10. Muddy Waters’ Shuffle (Morganfield) 2.20

*
**

Chet Baker & Art Pepper – Playboys (1956)

Playboys is a 1956 jazz album featuring trumpeter Chet Baker and saxophonist Art Pepper. The album was the third collaboration between Pepper and Baker, following the successes of The Route and Chet Baker Big Band. All three albums were recorded in 1956.

Playboys was reissued in 1961 under the name Picture of Heath after the fifth track (itself a reference to Jimmy Heath, composer of all but two of the tracks). The tracks themselves were presented in a slightly different order, starting with the new title track. Hugh Hefner reportedly objected to the original album cover (clearly inspired by Playboy magazine with its near-identical wordmark and pinup photo) and threatened to sue. For Picture of Heath, the original cover was replaced with a photo of the artists in the recording studio. The 1990 Blue Note/Pacific Jazz CD reissue of Playboys used the ‘pin-up’ cover, but the same label’s 1998 CD reissue returned to the Picture of Heath cover.

These 1956 Pacific Jazz sides appeared in 1961 under the title Playboys. Myth and rumor persist that, under legal advice from the publisher of a similarly named magazine, the collection would have to be retitled. It was renamed Picture of Heath, as more than half of the tracks are Jimmy Heath compositions. Regardless, the music is the absolute same. These are the third sessions to feature the dynamic duo of Art Pepper (alto sax) and Chet Baker (trumpet). Their other two meetings had produced unequivocal successes. The first was during a brief July 1956 session at the Forum Theater in L.A. Baker joined forces with Pepper’s sextet, ultimately netting material for the Route LP. Exactly three months to the day later, Pepper and Baker reconvened to record tracks for the Chet Baker Big Band album. The quartet supporting Baker and Pepper on Playboys includes Curtis Counce (bass), Phil Urso (tenor sax), Carl Perkins (piano), and Larance Marable (drums). Baker and Pepper have an instinctual rapport that yields outstanding interplay. The harmony constant throughout the practically inseparable lines that Baker weaves with Pepper drives the bop throughout the slinky “For Minors Only.” The soloists take subtle cues directly from each other, with considerable contributions from Perkins, Counce, and Marable. With the notorious track record both Baker and Pepper had regarding other decidedly less successful duets, it is unfortunate that more recordings do not exist that captured their special bond. These thoroughly enjoyable and often high-energy sides are perfect for bop connoisseurs as well as mainstream jazz listeners. (by Lindsay Planer)

Personnel:
Chet Baker (trumpet)
Curtis Counce (bass)
Larance Marable (drums)
Art Pepper (saxophone)
Carl Perkins (piano)
Phil Urso (saxophone)

Tracklist:
01. For Minors Only (Heath) 4.04
02. Minor-Yours (Pepper) 6.46
03. Resonant Emotions (Heath) 5.44
04. Tynan Tyme (Pepper) 5.35
05. Picture Of Heath 6.47
06. For Miles And Miles (Heath) 6.28
07. C.T.A. (Heath) 5.11

*
**

Alternate frontcovers

Sirinu – The Cradle Of The Renaissance (1995)

I guess, this is a real very special album:

Italian music from the time of Leonardo da Vinci – This recording of music from 15th century Italy features many lighter songs, with a predominance of instrumental work. The connection with Leonardo da Vinci is basically nominal. (medieval.org)

This is a magnificent disc of Renaissance instrumental music, songs and dances. Ensemble Sirinu is pure magic, really my only complaint is that they only have a few releases. (nocturna-artificialia.blogspot.com)

‘An excellent and hugely enjoyable recording’ (Early Music Review)

‘Sarah Stowe … is perfectly suited for this music. She has an astonishing capacity to alter the character of her voice, sounding on occasion sweet and pure, on others sexy and alluring, and sometimes even downright common, which really helps the text come alive. An excellent disc for newcomers to this sort of music, and for aficionados’ (Classic CD)

This music is heart-balm !

Personnel:
Jon Banks (harp, sackbut, organ, viol, recorder, percussion, vocals)
Matthew Spring (lute, vocals, hurdy-gurdy, shawm, lira da braccio, viol, gittern)
Henry Stobart (recorder, bagpipes, vocals, viol, shawm, pipe, tabor)
Sara Stowe (soprano vocals, organ, recorder, percussion)

Tracklist:
01. Uccelino, bel uccelino + Piva (unknown) 3.28
02. Non e tempo d’aspectare (Cara) 4.17
03. Cecus non iudicat de coloribus (Agricola) 4.45
04. Yerra con poco sabe (Cornago) 3.37
05. Scaramella / Io ne tengo (unknown) 2.40
06. O mia cieca e dura sorte (Cara) 9-09
07. Helas madame que feraige (Agricola) 2.06
08. Nam edunt de micis (unknown) 1.48
09. Ben venga maggio (unknown) 3.31
10. Io vegio la mia vita io finire (unknown) 1.27
11. Ricercare XV (Bossinensis) / Scopri, lingua (Tromboncino) 5.38
12. De dos la mer (unknown) 1.24
13. Gridan vostri ochi (Aquila) 3.11
14. Per la mya cara (unknown) 1.23
15. Aime sospiri (Giustinian) 1.41
16. La martinella (Isaac) 3.06
17. J’ay pris amours (unknown) 4.18
18. Canzon de’ pifari dico el Ferrarese (unknown) 1.22
19. Regina del cor mio (unknown) 1.33
20. Dunque piangiamo (Poliziano) 2.39
21. Udite selve / Villana (Poliziano) 4.36

About the composers:
Alexander Agricola (?1446-1506)
Serafino de’ Ciminelli dall’ Aquila (1466-1500)
Franciscus Bossinensis (fl1510-1510)
Marchetto Cara (c. 1470-? 1525)
Johannes Cornago (fl c1455-1485)
Leonardo Giustinian (c1383-1446)
Heinrich Isaac (c1450-1517)
Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494)
Bartolomeo Tromboncino (c1470-1535)

*
**

The Christians – Colour (1990)

The Christians are a musical ensemble from Liverpool, England, who had the highest selling debut album of any artist at Island Records and international chart hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The name of the band refers to the surname of the three brothers that were originally in the line-up, and is also coincidentally guitarist Henry Priestman’s middle name.

Garry Christian (born 27 February 1955, Liverpool) (lead vocals), Roger Christian (born 13 February 1950; died 8 March 1998 from brain tumour) (vocals, instrumentalist), Russell Christian (born 8 July 1956) (keyboards, saxophone, vocals), and Henry Priestman (born Henry Christian Priestman, 21 June 1955, in Kingston upon Hull, brought up in Liverpool) (keyboards, guitars, vocals) formed the band in 1985. Paul Barlow (drums), Mike Bulger (guitar/vocals) and Tony Jones on bass were also early members. Because of a reluctance to tour, Roger left in 1987.

In Rock: The Rough Guide, critic Charles Bottomley, described them as “The Temptations in ripped jeans, producing gritty-centred songs in a sugary vocal shell”.

Colour is the second album by British soul group The Christians. It was released in January 1990 by Island Records and peaked at number one on the UK Albums Chart. It also reached the Top 20 in several European countries due, notably, to the success of its lead single “Words”. (by wikipedia)

Given the obvious talent at the Christians’ disposal, it’s odd how uninspiring their music is. Gary Christian has a remarkable voice, soulful without resorting to the showy mannerisms that derail so many lesser singers. In his previous band, the Yachts, keyboardist Henry Priestman revealed himself to be one of the wittiest and most melodically subtle songwriters of the post-punk age, as well as one of its most immediately distinctive instrumentalists. The subtle melodicism is still there on 1990’s Colour, but the cleverness and distinctive personality are pretty much gone. The lyrics are uniformly po-faced and mushily inspirational, with none of the sparkling wit of the Yachts, and Laurie Latham’s ultra-slick production doesn’t even have the over-the-top sonic gimmickry of his earlier albums for Squeeze and Paul Young, making Colour musically indistinguishable from the likes of Phil Collins and Simple Minds.

Worst of all, the songs are absurdly elongated, stretching three minutes’ worth of musical and lyrical content into tracks that tend to stretch into the five- to seven-minute range. Despite the title, Colour is stultifyingly monochromatic. The closing “In My Hour of Need” is a charming sendoff, though, by far the most memorable track on the album. (by Stewart Mason)

Personnel:
Garry A. Christian (vocals)
Russell Christian (saxophone, vocals)
Henry Priestman (keyboards, guitar, vocals)
+
Steve Ferrone (drums)
Pino Palladino (bass)
+
The London Community Gospel Choir (on 09.)

Tracklist:
01. Man Don’t Cry (Priestman) 4.46
02. I Found Out (Priestman) 4.30
03. Greenbank Drive (Priestman) 4.25
04. All Talk (Priestman) 4.37
05. Words (Traditional/Priestman) 7.04
06. Community Of Spirit (G.Christian) 5.13
07. There You Go Again (Priestman) 6.00
08. One More Baby In Black (Priestman) 5.42
09. In My Hour Of Need (Priestman) 6.24

*
**

The labels of the vinyl edition