Urbie Green & His All Stars - A Cool Yuletide (1954)

Quality: Bitrate:
FLAC
Scans - Artwork:
Cover
Total Time:
App. 25 min.
Total Size:
119 MB

Album Info & Personnel:

Originally a 10-inch disc, the album features Joe Wilder (tp), Urbie Green (tb), Al Cohn (ts), Al Epstein (bar) [who's listed as "Al Young"], Buddy Weed (p), Mundell Lowe (g), Milt Hinton (b), Don Lamond (d) or Osie Johnson (d). The arrangements were by Charlie Shirley.

According to the December 4, 1954 issue of Billboard...

"This is jazz set for the Christmas season and one that will please many youngsters on holiday from School. It contains eight well-known Christmas tunes played in rather cool fashion by the Urbie Green ork. And the classic Christmas items sound pretty entrancing on the jazz kick. And happily no vocals are included. There is a lot of fun and a lot of good jazz to this set, and it has a chance for attention during the Christmas season. Cover is cute."

Two outstanding Green solos appear on White Christmas and The Christmas Song, and Cohn has wonderful spots as well. It's nice to know that back in 1954, kids had taste, as did the record companies marketing to them.- Jazzwax (Marc Myers)

Tracklist:

The tracks are Christmas Song, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, White Christmas, Jingle Bells, My Two Front Teeth and Winter Wonderland.

LINKS:

Urbie-A Cool Yuletide

Kai Winding & Curtis Fuller - Giant Bones '80 (1979)

Quality: Bitrate:
mp3 (254 vbr)
Scans - Artwork:
Cover
Total Time:
 
Total Size:
65 MB

Album Info & Personnel:

After a successful partnership with J.J. Johnson during the 1950s (with a few more meetings in the 1960s), it's not surprising that Kai Winding enjoyed hooking up with another trombonist from time to time. This meeting with Curtis Fuller, made for Sonet in 1979, rekindles the magic Winding experienced with Johnson, even with different material and musicians (Horace Parlan, Mads Vinding, and Ed Thigpen). The opener, "Love 4 Rent," is Winding's barely disguised reworking of Cole Porter's "Love for Sale," but the hot blowing by both horn players gets the album off to a fast start. The unison lines by Winding and Fuller in the delicious take of "Scrapple from the Apple" are precise. Fuller's warm arrangement of "Never Never Land" is wistful and mellow.- Ken Dryden (AMG)

• Bass – Mads Vinding
• Drums – Ed Thigpen
• Piano – Horace Parlan
• Trombones – Curtis Fuller, Kai Winding

Tracklist:

A1	Love 4 Rent
A2	Sweetness
A3	I Fall In Love Too Easily
A4	Scrapple From The Apple
B1	Corriente
B2	Nu Groove
B3	Never Never Land
B4	Hola

LINKS:

KW-CF-GB80

Alan Kaplan - Lonely Town (2002)

Quality: Bitrate:
FLAC
Scans - Artwork:
CD Cover 
Total Time:
56:10
Total Size:
283 MB

Album Info & Personnel:

In the tradition of smooth, lyrical ballad players supreme like Tommy Dorsey or Jack Jenny comes Alan Kaplan with a program of 15 songs, 13 of them played with a lush string background provided by a bevy of conductors/arrangers such as Joe Curiale, the inimitable Russ Garcia, Bill Cunliffe, Tom Ranier, and Steven Bernstein. In addition, there are two bonus tracks scored for a variety of trombones and other brass instruments, much as in the trombone octet days of Urbie Green, with Kaplan playing all the trombones. Long a West Coast studio player sitting in orchestras that provided music for The Simpsons and Star Trek and backed up Barbra Streisand, Kaplan puts his trombone virtuosity on the line with this album of favorite standards. Recorded over a period of five years with some of the premier studio players in Los Angeles, Lonely Town brings back the notion of the romantic trombone, complete with swelling strings providing the cushion for Kaplan. Now and then, one hears deep in the background the jingling of the pianos of Ranier or Christian Jacob or the soft pierce of the oboe, the soothing English Horn, the flute, or the clarinet, giving the group body and dynamics. But when matched against a large group of violins, violas, and cellos, clearly their role is secondary. But even against the strings, it is Kaplan's highly stylized and quixotic trombone that takes the day. It's all very pretty, precious, and pleasant, and sometimes reflective. Recommended for when the psyche cries out for an hour of out-and-out lovely music, lovingly played.- Dave Nathan (AMG)

 

Tracklist:

LINKS:

AK-LT-part 1
AK-LT-part 2

Bill Watrous Big Band - Space Available (1997)

Quality: Bitrate:
FLAC
Scans - Artwork:
Full Scans
Total Time:
70:41
Total Size:
439 MB

Album Info & Personnel:

In the mid-1970s, trombonist Bill Watrous led a couple of notable big band albums for Columbia. Since relocating to the Los Angeles area in the '80s, Watrous has put together jazz orchestras on a part-time basis to play at local clubs. Finally, in 1997, a recording was released by the more recent version of the Bill Watrous Big Band. Featuring arrangements by Tom Kubis, Shelly Berg, Gordon Goodwin, Ken Kaplan and Frank Perowsky, the Double-Time set is largely straight-ahead but not exactly predictable. Most of the eight selections have their complex sections, but always swing. The warm-toned trombonist is the main soloist (fully showcased on "My Foolish Heart" and "My Romance"); powerhouse pianist Shelly Berg is the top supporting player, and other key voices include Gene Burkurt and Bill Liston on tenors, trumpeters Bob Summers and Steve Huffsteter, and altoist Sal Lozano. The music is as rewarding as one would expect, considering the caliber of these players, and is easily recommended to modern big-band fans. - Scott Yanow
Leader/Trombone : Bill Watrous
Trumpets : Dennis Farias, Wayne Bergeron, Bob Summers, Darrel Gardiner, Steve Huffstetter
Trombones: Doug Inman, Bob McChesney, Wendell Kelly, Rich Bullock
Saxes : Sal Lozano, Phil Feather, Bill Liston, Gene Burkurt, Bob Carr
Piano : Shelly Berg  Bass : Trey Henry Drums : Randy Drake

Tracklist:

Space Available / 6:44 / Tom Kubis
The Road Goes Ever Onward / 7:44 / Ken Kaplan
It'll Count If It Goes / 9:39 / Gordon Goodwin
My Foolish Heart / 6:15 / arr. Frank Perowsky
Mama Llama Samba / 9:50 / Gordon Goodwin
My Romance / 6:16 / arr. Shelly Berg
I Got D'ZZZs / 10:59 / Gordon Goodwin
Village Dance / 13:05 / Tom Kubis 

LINKS:

BWBB-SA-part 1
BWBB-SA-part 2
BWBB-SA-part 3

J.J. Johnson & His Big Bands - Say When (1987)

Quality: Bitrate:
FLAC
Scans - Artwork:
Full Scans    
Total Size:
383 MB

Album Info & Personnel:

Most of two of trombonist J.J. Johnson's Victor big-band dates (seven of nine numbers from a 1964 album and eight of the nine selections on Johnson's The Total LP from 1966) are included on this Bluebird single CD from 1987. In addition to his typically brilliant trombone playing, Johnson did virtually all of the arranging, except for Oliver Nelson's work on his own "Stolen Moments," and contributed nine of the compositions. The emphasis is on the writing with J.J. Johnson and pianist Hank Jones generally being the main soloists; Johnson's reworkings of George Russell's challenging "Stratusphunk" and Miles Davis's "Swing Spring" are among the highlights. 

Tracklist:

LINKS:

JJBB-Say When-part 1
JJBB-Say When-part 2 
JJBB-Say When-part 3