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Recording

Stan Getz - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection

Source: Sound Insights by Doug Payne
July 9, 2011

Know what's really cool to a music lover? When record labels that own a big chunk of an important artist's output release it as thoroughly, as nicely and as affordably as Sony is doing in its “The Complete" reissue series available on the newly-launched online retailer Pop Market. Pop Market at popmarket.com is a resource for some of Sony's most commanding releases—mostly box sets and special packages—and offers outstanding music that is not only available exclusively at this location but ...

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Recording

Children of the Blue Supermarket: Dan Raphael's Poetry Melds with Rich Halley's Jazz

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
July 9, 2011

Poetry-Jazz collaborations can vary wildly from the “Why?" to the “Wow!" The poetry of course should be worth hearing. But equally, the recitation should have a dynamism of pitch-speech performance excitement. Then of course the jazz needs to relate to all that and in the end be jazz that's worth hearing alongside the poetic meanings evoked. Children of the Blue Supermarket (Pine Eagle 002) qualifies on each of those levels. The CD was recorded during two live appearances in 2008 ...

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Recording

Harrison Bankhead Sextet - Morning Sun Harvest Moon (Engine Records, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
July 9, 2011

Long a mainstay on the Chicago jazz scene as a sought after sideman, bassist Harrison Bankhead assumes the leadership role on this album which includes Ed Wilkerson on tenor saxophone and clarinets, Mars Williams on saxophones, James Sanders on violin and Avreeayl Ra and Ernie Adams on percussion. The music has a wide ranging experimental flow to it, recalling the likes of Chicago greats such as Fred Anderson and Roscoe Mitchell. The album begins in a slow and specious fashion ...

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Recording

Steve Macfarlane - Happy Daze (2011)

Source: Something Else!
July 9, 2011

With Happy Daze, singer/songwriter Steve Macfarlane whisks us back to the lushly sophisticated melodies of Burt Bacharach and Neil Sedaka, perhaps his clearest inspiration. It's a tricky thing, since both so often risked sounding mushy or maudlin, but Macfarlane is largely successful at recreating their timeless pop sensibility. Macfarlane, co-owner of Liverpool, England's Parr Street Studios (where Coldplay recorded its first trio of albums), begins on an elegiacal note with “Cherry Blossom," alone with Billy Hui at the piano. The ...

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Recording

Duncan Sheik - Daylight (2003)

Source: Something Else!
July 9, 2011

By Tom Johnson I fell hard for Sheik's highly developed melodic sense on Phantom Moon, a moody, dark, mostly acoustic album of songs about the psyche written by a friend and playwright. I stepped back through his small catalog to Humming and found the album almost as beguiling, and only his debut, self-titled album left me wanting. As debuts go, it's strong, but it's obviously aimed at getting his name out there—and it did. It seemed like a logical progression: ...

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Recording

Tab Benoit - Medicine (2011)

Source: Something Else!
July 9, 2011

Since his 1992 debut Nice And Warm, you always know exactly what you'll get from a Tab Benoit record: honest, rough-and-ready electric blues with a dash of Cajun seasoning, soulful bayou ballads and a two-step or two thrown in for good measure, In many ways, that can sum up Benoit's new offering, Medicine, too. I'm still waiting for Benoit to take the easy way out dub over his guitar, or accentuate his songs with anything more than an occasional organ ...

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Recording

Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways (2006)

Source: Something Else!
July 9, 2011

By Derrick Lord Four large letters printed across the top of a black and white photo on a CD cover: CASH. A picture of him sitting quietly, microphone hanging before him, head bowed, eyes closed and listening to the music track over headphones. Waiting for his cue to sing, it is hard to tell if the expression on his face is one of humility, impatience, reverence or disappointment. But was it ever really possible to tell with Johnny Cash? The ...

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Recording

Jazz guitarist 2unes incorporates funk, blues, and soul on sizzing new album

Source: Lauren Rogers
July 9, 2011

There is music in his blood, this nattily attired gentleman from Atlanta, GA. In fact, music is such a significant part of his body chemistry that he has named himself after it: 2unes. And there's no false advertising in that stage handle, either. The latest album from 2unes, Loving 2, is track after track of deliciously melodic song craft. In fact, the hooks are as catchy and memorable as his name. It's not easy producing an album that actually exceeds ...

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