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Showing posts from August, 2015

Stan Getz - Bossas And Ballads, Jazz As Good It "Getz"

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Gems From The Record Room : If you'd like to fall in love with jazz, this is the album for you. Late in his amazing career, Stan Getz recorded this little platter of perfection, Bossas and Ballads. Getz was a tenor sax player and band leader whose career spanned the 1940's through the 1980's and Getz played with nearly all the greats. He was most well known for his huge bossa nova hit "The Girl from Ipanema" with Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrud Gilberto. Produced by Herb Alpert, Bossas and Ballads is not only a great sax album; it's also a great piano record, by virtue of the majority of the tracks being composed by piano player Kenny Barron. This quartet also featured the brilliant rhythm section of George Mraz on bass and Victor Lewis on drums. They were not flashy, but played the most solid rhythm you could want to hear. "Sunshower" shows all the attributes of this fine album right there in the lead track. It begins with the main line

Laura Marling, Union Transfer, Philadelphia, 8/01/2015, An Extraordinary Night of Music Included Johnny Flynn & Marika Hackman, Watch Videos

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Take The Night Off>I Was An Eagle>You Know>Breathe "Hello. Hello, Philadelphia. You've got bigger. That's nice. You've been telling your friends. Good, good, good, good. My name's Laura". - Laura Marling, to her adoring audience, Union Transfer, Saturday 8/01/2015. Marling set the bar quite high when she opened with the first four songs from Once I Was An Eagle, performed as a suite (above). The beautiful intensity continued as she then gave us three from Short Movie, her latest. Marling's 21 song set surveyed all of her albums, including two rare tracks from Short Movie ("David" and "Daisy" which came on a bonus 7 inch single with the vinyl LP). There were two from her debut, Alas I Cannot Swim, and three from I Speak Because I Can. Six songs were drawn from Once I Was An Eagle, and a total of six from Short Movie. There was but one song from A Creature I Don't Know, and it was a good one. During the op

Bluebirds Of Paradise, Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3, 6/25/2015, In a Night EP Release Show

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"Singer/songwriters Ari Hest and Chrissi Poland create this scintillating duo, an infusion of jazz, indie-folk, and pop steeped in Brazilian rhythms and overtones. With enchanting vocals and romantic yet often comedic lyrical sentiments, this powerful pair draws you in and leaves you wanting more!" -Buddy, Chrissi's supportive cat Brilliant, brilliant show by Bluebirds of Paradise at Rockwood Music Hall stage 3. The official EP release show brought together most of the musicians who played on the record, which was produced by Will Lee. All songs were written by Chrissi Poland and Ari Hest. Chrissi and Ari shared all vocals, Chrissi played piano and percussion, Ari played all guitars, Will Lee played bass, Doug Yowell played drums, and Gary Schreiner played harmonica and accordion. The band played all six songs on the EP in sequence. Then they treated the sell out crowd to four additional songs to round out the set quite beautifully. The Bluebirds of Parad