It really doesn’t get much better than this… Richard Penniman, aka “Little Richard,” through a heat seeking missile at the pop world with his introductory album, reissued here in 2 discs with a collection of outtakes and extra takes. At…
Category: Ringer of the Week
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Jimmy Greene: Flowers-Beautiful Life Volume 2
A few years ago, saxist Jimmy Greene released Beautiful Life, a heartfelt album dedicated to her 6 year old daughter who was murdered in the tragic Sandy Hook attack. Volume 2 picks up with Greene, a devout Christian, still coming…
WHAT A FIND! Thelonious Monk: Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960
This never-before-released collection of music makes up 2 discs worth of some of the most fascinating sounds by Thelonious Monk you’ll ever come across. It was initially recorded in 1959 as part of the soundtrack for Roger Vadim’s iconic movie.…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Christian Sands: Reach
Mentored by Billy Taylor, pianist Christian Sands brings a classic approach to his music as he mixes and matches his originals with a team of Marcus Baylor/dr, Gilad Hekselman/g, Christian McBride/b, Yasushi Nakamura/b, Cristian Rivera/perc and Marcus Strickland/ts-bcl. In the…
THE MERCEDES 80s…Cedar Walton/Pat Senatore/Billy Higgins: The V.I.P. Trio-Standards Volume 2
“Once upon a time there was a tavern…” Mary Hopkins If you were a jazz fan, life was good in the 1980s. For just $5-10, you could go to one of a plethora of clubs and see artists ranging from…
Quercus: Nightfall
The trio of vocalist June Tabor, pianist Huw Warren and saxist Iain Ballamy get together to create a dreamy mix of folk, moody late night jazz and rich melodic tales. Tabor’s voice is a jewel, and she can make it…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****JUMPIN’ THE BLUES!!! Chuck Willis: The Complete Singles As & Bs 1951-59
One of the truest and purest joys of music has to be the jumping blues, and few guys this side of Joe Turner did it better than Chuck Willis, who unfortunately left us at age 30 back in 1958, way…
Kevin Eubanks: East West Time Line
Guitarist Kevin Eubanks is gifted with sublime talents on both electric and nylon acoustic guitar. He splits the album up divided between two bands, the first half with Orrin Evans/p-key, Dave Holland/b, Nicholas Payton/tp and Jeff “Tain” Watts/dr and the…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****The Ed Palermo Big Band: The Great Un-American Songbook
You’ve got to give kudos to leader/conductor/arranger and alto sax player Ed Palermo just for the moxie of putting together a big band for such an audacious project. The 17 piece jazz orchestra plus two vocalists takes rock songs of…
THIS IS A JAZZ BASS****HISTORICAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR?****…Jaco Pastorius: Truth, Liberty & Soul
Resonance Records seems to annually be in competition with itself for the Best Historical Album of the Year Award. Last year, they were 1, 2, 3 and 4 with their Getz, Young, Evans and Montgomery sets, and already this year…