Le bassiste électrique Daniel Romeo distille depuis plusieurs années le meilleur du funk, d'irrésistibles grooves et sait, comme personne, comment construire une méga fête funky tout en jouant une musique audacieuse et surprenante. Il sait aussi mettre le feu avec un swing imparable et, communiquer avec son public grâce au son élégant qu'il donne à sa basse.

With his sixth album, Gregory Porter delivers once more a perfect dose of jazz, soul, rhythm’n’blues, pop and gospel. In addition to being gifted with a voice of pure velvet (it’s clichéd, but it’s true), the Californian who knows Great Black Music like the back of his band is also a veritable writer. And in these present (troubled) times, his pen, often synonymous with hope and light, generates healing sounds akin to rejuvenating baths such as on Revival Song, a soft of neo-gospel hymn the embraces the soul and frees the body. A similar sense of wellbeing is also present when Porter dons his crooner lover suit such as on If Love Is Overrated or when he channels Marvin Gaye and George Benson on Faith In Love. Produced with class by Troy Miller (Laura Mvula, Jamie Cullum, Emili Sande), All Rise propels the American toward an increased world recognition and, on this album, Porter reaches audiences well outside the jazz sphere.

Chopin Year 2010 coincides with the 60th anniversary of Daniel Barenboims stage début, and as a pianist he has decided to devote this year to the great Romantic master of the keyboard. Fryderyc Chopin was born on 1 March 1810 in a small village near Warsaw, and on the eve of the 200th anniversary of this date Barenboim gave this wildly acclaimed Warsaw recital as part of an extensive European tour. Recorded live at the National Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw, the programme presents some of the composers best-known works, including the great B flat minor Sonata with its famous Funeral March, which sounded to many as the composer may well have imagined it.

Five-time Grammy-nominee and Blues Hall of Fame inductee Bettye LaVette releases a new album, Blackbirds, produced by Steve Jordan, on Verve Records. It features songs primarily popularized by women who were the “bridge she came across on.” These women helped to set the stage for Bettye and her contemporaries.The album finds LaVette in top form with powerful renditions of songs that touched her personally. From Dinah Washington’s Drinking Again, Nina Simone’s I Hold No Grudge, Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, Nancy Wilson’s Save Your Love For Me and more, they are all delivered in LaVette’s rich and raspy tone and a touch of the blues. Blackbirds takes Bettye back to her roots, honoring her heritage as an R&B singer and the women who came before her. LaVette A&R’d and sequenced the record herself – her first true curation.

Grant-Lee Phillips' latest album, Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff, is a turbulent and highly musical rumination that finds the veteran singer-songwriter at his most inspired. His tenth solo release bears the markings of his prolific output, a melodic prowess and an ear for lyric in everyday conversation. The album is grown from the same rich soil that Phillip's long career, from Grant Lee Buffalo to his solo work has sprang from. The result is a beautifully human musical tapestry. The warm, live on the floor, instrumental bed is the perfect support for Phillips' inimitable voice. This spontaneous approach has become a tradition among his solo works. This record is supported by peerless drummer, Jay Bellerose (whose many credits include Raising Sand by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant) and bassist Jennifer Condos (heard on Bruce Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad and other classics).

Some albums have the subtlest way about drawing listeners in. There’s no showy solos, the melodies are solid and unfussy, volume is measured out in even quantities, and no one particular track really stands out from the pack, and yet, with no defining hook or catch phrase to reel the ear in, the sound of the album’s last note immediately spurs the decision to start the album over again right from the start. Saxophonist Olivier Boge has created one of those albums.

Roughly 18 albums into his career, jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut delivers his HighNote record label debut with 2015's A Million Colors in Your Mind. With a title that borrows inspiration from a short story by Mexican author Maria Cristina Mena, the album finds Chestnut once again delving deep into his own colorfully chorded and swinging set of well-chosen cover songs.

Bernard Herrmann is one of the best composers in the last century. He was capable of conveying emotions with incredible music. His scores always evoked responses from audiences that helped movie directors make their point…

By the time 1983's In the Heart hit the streets, Kool & the Gang had left the fast lanes of funk for the smoother ride of the adult-oriented R&B expressway. Nevertheless, their grasp of 1980s soul sonics ensured that the band continued to top the charts with a verve and style that left their early influences firmly behind. With Ronald Bell temporarily stepping off the stage to shoulder the production, the band entered yet another fruitful era. With the monster hit "Joanna" setting the pace, Kool & the Gang powered their way through a set that seemed light to some, but still had enough force to push In the Heart into gold disc territory.

If - If (1970) {Island–Repertoire REPUK1037, Cardsleeve rel 2006}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 286 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 108 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 26 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1970, 2006 Island Records / Repertoire Records | REPUK 1037
Rock / Jazz Rock / Progressive Rock

If's first album came out in the summer of 1970, while most horn-driven jazz-rock bands were still mimicking the successful formula employed by Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears. If was different, with more of a jazz feel on both the instrumental and the vocal ends. The material on If provides plenty of room for reedmen Dave Quincy and Dick Morrissey, plus guitarist Terry Smith, to stretch out. Though not particularly deep or profound, the lyrics nonetheless express the positive, optimistic sentiments prevalent at the time. J.W. Hodgkinson's unusual tenor vocal timbre fits like a lead instrument in the mix, soaring above and within the arrangements.