Miles Davis: Seven Steps to Heaven


Seven Steps to Heaven is an album recorded in 1963 by Miles Davis. On the 16th and 17th of April, a quintet comprising Davis, George Coleman, Victor Feldman, Ron Carter and Frank Butler recorded all six tunes plus "Summer Night", for an album to be titled So Near, So Far. A month later, Davis re-recorded three of the tunes (tracks 2,4 & 6) with a new quintet, replacing Feldman with Herbie Hancock and Butler with Tony Williams. The new rhythm section of Hancock, Carter and Williams would form the nucleus of Davis's working band for the next five years. This is the last of Davis's studio albums which relies substantially on standard tunes - once Wayne Shorter joined the quintet in 1964, tunes on studio recordings were almost always composed by members of the group.

Tracks 1, 3 & 5 are tunes produced from the April session with Feldman, Butler, Carter and feature Davis in a quartet setting without Coleman.

Track list:

1. "Basin Street Blues" (Cootie Williams) April
2. "Seven Steps to Heaven" (Victor Feldman, Miles Davis) May
3. "I Fall in Love Too Easily" (Jules Styne, Sammy Cahn) April
4. "So Near, So Far" (Tony Crombie, Benny Green) May
5. "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home?" (Charles Warfield, Clarence Williams) April
6. "Joshua" (Victor Feldman) May

CD reissue includes an alternate take of "So Near, So Far" (from the April session) and "Summer Night", recorded by the Feldman/Butler quintet during the same sessions, but originally released on Quiet Nights. The alternate take of "So Near, So Far" produces a rare phenomenon - an alternate take with a different rhythm section. This would be no great deal were it not for the fact that Feldman and Butler were of such a startlingly different style from Hancock and Williams, almost of a different age.

Link in comments

Miles Davis: Kind of blue


Do I really need to say something? Well... I guess so for those guys who don't know what is this album about. After you hear and find out what is this album you'll understand why I don't really need to say something.

Kind of Blue is a jazz album by musician Miles Davis, released on August 17, 1959. As of January 16, 2002, it has been certified triple platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America. Though precise figures have been disputed, Kind of Blue has been cited as Davis's best-selling album, and as the best-selling jazz record of all time. It is also counted by many as the greatest jazz album of all time and ranks at or near the top of many "best album" lists in disparate genres.

Conceptions: By late 1958, Davis employed one of the best and most profitable working bands pursuing the hard bop style, his personnel stabilized to alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Wynton Kelly, long-serving bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. His band played a mixture of pop standards and bebop originals by the likes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron; as with all bebop-based jazz, Davis's groups improvised on the chord changes of a given song.

However, Davis was one of many jazz musicians growing dissatisfied with bebop, seeing its increasingly complex chord changes as hindering creativity. In 1953, pianist George Russell published his Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, which offered an alternative to the practice of improvisation based on chords. Abandoning the traditional major and minor key relationships of Western music, Russell invented a new formulation using scales or a series of scales for improvisations; this approach came to be known as modal in jazz.

Influenced by Russell's ideas, Davis implemented his first modal composition with the title track of his 1958 album Milestones. Satisfied with the results, Davis now prepared an entire album based on modality. Pianist Bill Evans, also an enthusiast of Russell, but recently departed from the Davis band to pursue his own career, was successfully drafted in to the new recording project - the sessions that would become Kind of Blue.

Musicians:

* Miles Davis – trumpet, leader
* Julian "Cannonball" Adderley – alto saxophone, except on "Blue in Green"
* John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
* Wynton Kelly – piano, only on "Freddie Freeloader"
* Bill Evans – piano, liner notes
* Paul Chambers – bass
* Jimmy Cobb – drums

Track List:

1. "So What" – 9:22
2. "Freddie Freeloader" – 9:46
3. "Blue in Green" – 5:37
4. "All Blues" – 11:33
5. "Flamenco Sketches" (take 2) – 9:26
6. "Flamenco Sketches" (alternate - take 1, featured on the 1997 reissue as a previously unreleased bonus track) – 9:32

Link in comments

Miles Davis: Love Songs


A compilation of the best love songs recorded by miles davis before Kind of blue's release.

Track List:

1. I Fall In Love Too Easily
2. I Thought About You
3. Summer Night
4. My Ship
5. Someday My Prince Will Come
6. Stella By Starlight
7. My Funny Valentine - (live)
8. I Loves You, Porgy - (from "Porgy & Bess")
9. Old Folks

Link in comments

Miles Davis: Sketches of spain


Sketches of Spain is an album by Miles Davis, recorded between November 1959 and March 1960. The album pairs Davis again with arranger and composer Gil Evans, on a program of compositions largely derived from the Spanish folk tradition. (An extended version of the second movement of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez is also included, as well as a tune called "Will o' the Wisp", from a ballet by Manuel de Falla.)
Sketches of Spain is considered to be one of the most accessible albums of Davis' career: the most recent edition of the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD describes it as "elevated light music". Less improvisational than much other jazz, contemporaries suggested that Sketches of Spain was something other than jazz. Davis replied (according to Rolling Stone magazine) "it's music, and I like it".
In 2003, the album was ranked number 356 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Track list:

1. "Concierto de Aranjuez" (Adagio) (Joaquín Rodrigo) –16:19
2. "Will o' the Wisp" (Manuel de Falla) –03:47
3. "The Pan Piper" (Gil Evans) –03:52
4. "Saeta" (Evans) –05:06
5. "Solea" (Evans) –12:15

Link in comments

Frank Sinatra and Tom Jobim Sessions


The Sinatra-Jobim Sessions is a 1979 double LP compilation album of Frank Sinatra's work with Antonio Carlos Jobim. The album was published only in Brazil by producer Roberto Quartin, and has never been re-released on vinyl or CD.

All but three songs recorded by Sinatra and Jobim in 1967 and 1969 were released on Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967) and Sinatra & Company (1971). The tracks "Bonita", "Sabiá", and "Off Key (Desafinado)", however, were previously only available on the 8-track Sinatra-Jobim (1970), which was quickly pulled from release [1]. The first two of these tracks are included on Sinatra-Jobim Sessions, making it eagerly sought by collectors. "Off Key (Desafinado)" was not included here and remained largely unavailable until Sinatra's The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings was released in 1998.

Sinatra and Jobim worked together for a final time in 1994 on Duets II, recording a cover of "Fly Me to the Moon".

Track list:

1. "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" (Robert C. Wright, George Forrest, Alexandre Borodine) – 2:32
2. "I Concentrate on You" (Cole Porter) – 2:32
3. "Dindi" (Ray Gilbert, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Aloysio de Oliveria) – 3:25
4. "Change Partners" (Irving Berlin) – 2:40
5. "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)" (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gene Lees) – 2:45
6. "If You Never Come To Me (Inútil Paisagen)" (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Ray Gilbert, Aloysio de Oliveira) – 2:10
7. "The Girl from Ipanema" (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Norman Gimbel, Vinícius de Moraes) – 3:00
8. "Meditation (Meditação)" (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Norman Gimbel, Newton Mendonça) – 2:51
9. "Once I Loved (O Amor Em Paz)" (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Ray Gilbert, Vinicius De Moraes) – 2:37
10. "How Insensitive (Insensatez)" (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Norman Gimbel, Vinicius De Moraes) – 3:15
11. "Drinking Again" (Johnny Mercer, Doris Tauber)
12. "One Note Samba (Samba de Uma Nota So)" (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Newton Mendonça) – 2:20
13. "Don't Ever Go Away (Por Causa de Voce)" (Ray Gilbert, Delores Duran, Antonio Carlos Jobim) – 2:28
14. "Wave" (Antonio Carlos Jobim) – 3:25
15. "Bonita" (Antonio Carlos Jobim)
16. "Someone to Light up My Life" (Vinicius de Moraes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gene Lees) – 2:37
17. "Drinking Water (Agua de Beber)" (Vinicius de Moraes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Norman Gimbel) – 2:35
18. "Song of the Sabiá" (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chico Buarque)
19. "This Happy Madness (Estrada Branca)" (Vinicius de Moraes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gene Lees) – 2:57
20. "Triste" (Antonio Carlos Jobim) – 2:40

Link in comments

B. B. King and Eric Clapton: Riding with the king




Riding with the King is a blues album by Eric Clapton and B.B. King released in 2000.

Although Eric Clapton and B.B. King had a 30-plus years friendship originating with a chance meeting and subsequent jam session at New York City's Caf' Au Go Go in 1967, the idea for a collaborative album only crystallized during the sessions for King's 1997 album Deuces Wild. The resulting record, Riding with the King, is a stellar event thanks to a wealth of rich material and a solid supporting cast including Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Sample and Steve Gadd.

B.B. King's extensive catalog provides a wellspring of inspiration, including signature songs such as the smoldering "Three O'Clock Blues", alongside lesser-known numbers like the ribald shuffle "Days Of Old", and the Live at the Regal chestnut "Help The Poor". Elsewhere, King and Clapton look to guitarist Big Bill Broonzy (an acoustic "Key to the Highway") and Chicago pianist Maceo Merriweather (the slow-rolling "Worried Life Blues") for inspiration. Even the non-blues numbers are delivered with a rich subtlety befitting these guitar icons' consummate musicianship. John Hiatt's title track becomes a mid-tempo exchange between old friends, while their honeyed vocals on the standard "Come Rain or Come Shine" are worthy of Ray Charles' 1959 version.

Riding with the King won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

Track list:

1. "Riding with the King" (John Hiatt) – 4:23
2. "Ten Long Years" (B.B. King/Taub) – 4:40
3. "Key to the Highway" (Big Bill Broonzy/Charles Segar) – 3:39
4. "Marry You" (Doyle Bramhall II/Susannah Melvoin/Craig Ross/Charles Segar) – 4:59
5. "Three O'Clock Blues" (King/Taub) – 8:36
6. "Help the Poor" (Charles Singleton) – 5:06
7. "I Wanna Be" (Bramhall, Charlie Sexton) – 4:45
8. "Worried Life Blues" (Big Maceo Merriweather) – 4:25
9. "Days of Old" (Jules Bihari, King) – 3:00
10. "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer" (King/Taub) – 7:09
11. "Hold On! I'm Comin'" (Isaac Hayes/David Porter) – 6:20
12. "Come Rain or Come Shine" (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer) – 4:11

Link in comments

Astor Piazzolla: El tango


This is a nice album of Gidon Kremer playing piazzolla songs. There are many special guests which makes a big amount of musicians. There is a very special track in this album, its name is "El tango". The original song was a piazzolla musicalization of the borges' poem "El tango". In this song played by Gidon Kremer the one that reads the poem is Caetano Veloso. As I said a lot of artists in a very great album. The lyrics of the poem:

Jorge Luis Borges: El tango

¿Dónde estarán?, pregunta la elegía
de quienes ya no son, como si hubiera
una región en que el Ayer pudiera
ser el Hoy, el Aún y el Todavía.

¿Dónde estará (repito) el malevaje
que fundó, en polvorientos callejones
de tierra o en perdidas poblaciones,
la secta del cuchillo y del coraje?

¿Dónde estarán aquellos que pasaron,
dejando a la epopeya un episodio,
una fábula al tiempo, y que sin odio,
lucro o pasión de amor se acuchillaron?

Los busco en su leyenda, en la postrera
brasa que, a modo de una vaga rosa,
guarda algo de esa chusma valerosa
de los Corrales y de Balvanera. .

¿Qué oscuros callejones o qué yermo
del otro mundo habitará la dura
sombra de aquel que era una sombra oscura,
Muraña, ese cuchillo de Palermo?

¿Y ese Iberra fatal (de quien los santos
se apiaden) que en un puente de la vía,
mató a su hermano el Ñato, que debía
más muertes que él, y así igualó los tantos?

Una mitología de puñales
lentamente se anula en el olvido;
una canción de gesta se ha perdido
en sórdidas noticias policiales.

Hay otra brasa, otra candente rosa
de la ceniza que los guarda enteros;
ahí están los soberbios cuchilleros
y el peso de la daga silenciosa.

Aunque la daga hostil o esa otra daga,
el tiempo, los perdieron en el fango,
hoy, más allá del tiempo y de la aciaga
muerte, esos muertos viven en el tango.

En la música están, en el cordaje
de la terca guitarra trabajosa,
que trama en la milonga venturosa
la fiesta y la inocencia del coraje.

Gira en el hueco la amarilla rueda
de caballos y leones, y oigo el eco
de esos tangos de Arolas y de Greco
que yo he visto bailar en la vereda,

en un instante que hoy emerge aislado,
sin antes ni después, contra el olvido,
y que tiene el sabor de lo perdido,
de lo perdido y lo recuperado.

En los acordes hay antiguas cosas:
el otro patio y la entrevista parra.
(Detrás de las paredes recelosas
el Sur guarda un puñal y una guitarra.)

Esa ráfaga, el tango, esa diablura,
los atareados años desafía;
hecho de polvo y tiempo, el hombre dura
menos que la liviana melodía,
que sólo es tiempo. El tango crea un turbio
pasado irreal que de algún modo es cierto,
un recuerdo imposible de haber muerto
peleando, en una esquina del suburbio.

Track List:

1 Revirado 3:14
2 Pachouli 8:13
3 Preludio Para el Ano 3001 (Rinascero) 3:51
4 My Happiness 2:19
5 El Tango 6:50
6 Instead of a Tango 4:15
7 Decarissimo 3:38
8 Los Mareados 5:18
9 Che Tango Che 3:00
10 Milonga Per Tre 6:29
11 Michelangelo '70 3:22

Link in comments