Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Various Artists (1998) -The Big Lebowski OST



Artist: various
Album: The Big Lebowski [OST]
Released: 1998
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 118 MB

The soundtrack to The Big Lebowski, the Coen brothers' follow-up to their breakthrough film Fargo, is an odd mixture of opera, world music, pop, jazz, exotica, folk and blues. In other words, it's as idiosyncratic as the Coens themselves, and the weird array of styles makes sense in practice, not on paper. Among the highlights are Elvis Costello's "My Mood Swings," Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me," Nina Simone's "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good," Yma Sumac's "Ataypura," Kenny Rogers' "Just Dropped In," Townes Van Zandt's "Dead Flowers" and Henry Mancini's "Lujon." The collection makes more sense if you've seen the film, but there are enough good songs and quirky humor to make it an enjoyable listen on its own terms. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi






Saturday, December 17, 2011

Sister Rosetta Tharpe (2002) -Gospel Train



Artist: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Album: Gospel Train
Released: 2002
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 55 MB

Alongside Willie Mae Ford Smith, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is widely acclaimed among the greatest Sanctified gospel singers of her generation; a flamboyant performer whose music often flirted with the blues and swing, she was also one of the most controversial talents of her day, shocking purists with her leap into the secular market -- by playing nightclubs and theaters, she not only pushed spiritual music into the mainstream, but in the process also helped pioneer the rise of pop-gospel. Tharpe was born March 20, 1915 in Cotton Plant, AR; the daughter of Katie Bell Nubin, a traveling missionary and shouter in the classic gospel tradition known throughout the circuit as "Mother Bell," she was a prodigy, mastering the guitar by the age of six. At the same time, she attended Holiness conventions alongside her mother, performing renditions of songs including "The Day Is Past and Gone" and "I Looked Down the Line."~ read more on allmusic.com





Sunday, December 11, 2011

Aga Zaryan (2011) -A Book Of Luminous Things



Artist: Aga Zaryan
Album: A Book Of Luminous Things
Released: 2011
Quality: CBR 256
Size: 94 MB

”Aga Zaryan born January 17, 1976 - is an internationally recognized jazz vocalist of the new generation. Aga conveys the finest of the history of jazz to today's audiences, continuing the traditions of great artists like Shirley Horn, Carmen McRae and Joni Mitchell. She is known for her distinctive style, class and intimate approach to singing, with a characteristic lightness of phrasing and warm, slightly matte-toned voice. Aga Zaryan has been successful in integrating ambitious artistic goals with popular appeal, recording four albums to date, all of which have earned gold, platinum or multi-platinum status in Poland. In 2008 she was honored with the Polish muisic industry's most prestigious prize - The Fryderyk Chopin Award. She was nominated for the title of Woman of The Year 2008 by Gazeta Wyborcza-Wysokie Obcasy, one of Poland's most influential and widely circulated newspapers. Aga was also named Jazz Vocalist of The Year in the European Jazz Forum Magazine's yearly Jazz Top readers' poll in 2007, 2008 and 2009. more info




Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Seasick Steve (2011) -Walkin' Man (The Best of Seasick Steve)



Artist: Seasick Steve
Album: Walkin’ Man (the Best of Seasick Steve)
Released: 2011
Quality: CBR 320
Size: 194 MB

”Like T-Model Ford, Seasick Steve (aka Steve Wold) began recording his own music much later in life than other musicians. A storytelling singer reviving traditional country blues, Wold spent his childhood in California, but left home at 14. As a hobo, he traveled for several years, jumping trains and working odd jobs. After drifting around the U.S. and Europe, he finally ended up in Norway. Aside from his respectable musical background (which includes recording early Modest Mouse, appearing on BBC television, and playing with John Lee Hooker), Wold is also noted for his unusual custom-made stringed instruments. By the time he was in his sixties, he'd finally released some official material. His first solo album, Doghouse Music, out in late 2006, was performed almost entirely by Wold. Another record, Cheap, was recorded with the Swedish rhythm section the Level Devils. An amorous seven-track Valentine’s Day EP called Songs for Elisabeth (six of the cuts were culled from previous releases) arrived in 2010. With a rustic and at time almost punk blues approach to his material, Wold increasingly merged country blues trance boogie with a street holler voice that makes Tom Waits seem like a mainstream crooner, and the best of his songs carry a hard-earned wisdom that can only come from living on the street one block over from the edge of civility.” ~by Kenyon Hopkin, allmusic.com




Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Shirley Scott (1991) -Great Scott!



Artist: : Shirley Scott
Album: Great Scott!
Released: 1991
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 124 MB

”An admirer of the seminal Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott has been one of the organ's most appealing representatives since the late '50s. Scott, a very melodic and accessible player, started out on piano and played trumpet in high school before taking up the Hammond B-3 and enjoying national recognition in the late '50s with her superb Prestige dates with tenor sax great Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Especially popular was their 1958 hit "In the Kitchen." Her reputation was cemented during the '60s on several superb, soulful organ/soul-jazz dates where she demonstrated an aggressive, highly rhythmic attack blending intricate bebop harmonies with bluesy melodies and a gospel influence, punctuating everything with great use of the bass pedals. Scott married soul-jazz tenor man Stanley Turrentine, with whom she often recorded in the '60s. The Scott/Turrentine union lasted until the early '70s, and their musical collaborations in the '60s were among the finest in the field. Scott wasn't as visible the following decade, when the popularity of organ combos decreased and labels were more interested in fusion and pop-jazz (though she did record some albums for Chess/Cadet and Strata East). But organists regained their popularity in the late '80s, which found her recording for Muse. Though known primarily for her organ playing, Scott is also a superb pianist -- in the 1990s, she played piano exclusively on some trio recordings for Candid, and embraced the instrument consistently in Philly jazz venues in the early part of the decade. At the end of the '90s, Scott's heart was damaged by the diet drug combination, fen-phen, leading to her declining health. In 2000 she was awarded $8 million in a lawsuit against the manufacturers of the drug. On March 10, 2002 she died of heart failure at Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia.”~ by Alex Henderson©




Saturday, December 3, 2011

No Blues - 4 albums



Artist: No Blues
Albums: Farewell Salabiye / Ya Dunya + Black Cadillac EP / Lumen / Hela Hela
Released: 2005 / 2007 / 2009 / 2010
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 77 + 110 + 118 + 117 MB

No blues is a unique project which explores the connection between two musical worlds: americana and Arabic music.
Both folk-blues and the Arabic taqsim (the improvised interplay without a fixed rhythm) are exceptionally suited for storytelling; the former in a somewhat rawer way, the latter mostly lyrical and melodic. In the same way as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie documented their era in the early 20th century with their songs, the instrumentalist is the torchbearer of a centuries-old tradition in the virtually unwritten Arabic music culture. Traditional Arabic music differs from other music cultures in the way in which the music scale is subdivided. Thus the music can adopt forms that are nearly impossible in the western octave system.
In the No blues sessions the musicians soon succeeded in establishing a singular integration of folk-blues and Arabic music. A cross-breeding of Americana and Arabic music, we call Arabicana. Songs about ordinary folks, love and sadness, played and sung in the tradition that is characteristic for folk-blues as well as Arabic traditional music.
©