Michael Formanek: The Rub & Spare Change (2010)

ECM debut for Michael Formanek, whose formidable bass has propelled groups from the Mingus Big Band to Tim Berne’s Bloodcount and has backed artists as diverse as Chet Baker and Elvis Costello. A bandleader and composer in his own right, he is heard here with some highly-talented colleagues in an outgoing programme of his own pieces, whose unorthodox constructions set up strong solos and fiery group interaction.

Personnel:

Tim Berne - alto saxophone

Craig Taborn - piano
Michael Formanek - double-bass
Gerald Cleaver - drums
Tracklist:
1. Twenty Three Neo
2. The Rub And Spare Change
3. Inside The Box
4. Jack’s Last Call
5. Tonal Suite
6. Too Big To Fail
The Rub & Spare Change
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Steve Lukather: All's Well That Ends Well (2010)

Guitarist, vocalist, composer, producer and arranger, Steve Lukather release his new solo album "All's Well That Ends Well" on October 2010 only in Europe. For over 30 years Lukather has been known as one of the founding members of the multi-million selling band TOTO. He has played on hundreds of albums with the biggest stars and music legends including Van Halen, Whitney Houston, Alice Cooper, George Benson, Rod Stewart and even played guitar on Michael Jackson’s multi-million selling milestone album ‘Thriller’.Along with several Grammy Awards over the years, in April 2010 he received the international Eddy Christiani Award for 33 years of guitar mastership. Lukather showcases in this recording his innate feel for rock and guitar music, along with his songwriting talents. The new album is laden with extraordinary guitar playing performed across some of the best and most emotional songs of Steve’s career.

Fee Waybill of THE TUBES is featured on backing vocals and contributes to some of the co-songwriting with CJ Vanston and Lukather. Other friends come up contibuting background vocals, like Joseph Williams (TOTO), Bernard Fowler (ROLLING STONES), Phil Collen (DEF LEPPARD).

“I’m very excited because I have some great new music,” says Lukather. - “I am trying for a personal best and working very hard on all aspects of music. It’s a journey, that’s for sure.”

To coincide with the release of the album, Steve will embark on a European tour in November that will take in concerts in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland and England.

The concerts will showcase classics from his all his solo albums, Toto, plus tracks from his new album.

Tracklist:
1. Darkness In My World
2. On My Way Home
3. Can't Look Back
4. Don't Say It's Over
5. Flash In The Pan
6. Watching The World
7. You'll Remember
8. Brodie's
9. Tumescent
Personnel:
Steve Lukather - all guitars, lead & bg vocals
CJ Vanston - keyboards, atmospheres
Steve Weingart - keyboards and atmospheres
Carlitos Del Puerto - bass
Eric Valentine - drums
Lenny Castro - percussion
Joseph Williams, Phil Collen (3) (4), CJ Vanston (3) - background voacals
Trev Lukather - power guitar (4)
Tina Lukather - background vocals (1)
Fee Waybill - background vocals (5) (7)
Bernard Fowler - background vocals (1)
Jory Steinberg - background vocals (1) (2) (8)
All's Well That Ends Well
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Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez, Airto Moreira: The Boston Three Party (2007)

2007 Japan Release. Part of the Five Trios package, this outstanding recording features Chick Corea unites with very special friends, Eddie Gomez on Bass and Return To Forever bandmate Airto Moreira on Drums and Percussion. Great Trio and kicking music. A Beautiful homage to the genius of Bill Evans. This music was recorded live on April 28, 2006 at Boston's Berkelee Performance Center.

Tracklist:

1. With a Song in My Heart

2. 500 Miles High
3. Waltz for Debby
4. Desafinado (Intro)
5. Desafinado
6. Sweet and Lovely
7. Sometime Ago (Intro)
8. Sometime Ago (Part 1)
9. Sometime Ago (Part 2)
Personnel:
Chick Corea – piano
Eddie Gomez – bass
Airto Moreira – drums
Boston Three Party-to Bill Evans
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Alain Caron: Sep7entrion (2010)

Becoming a professional musician at a very early age, Alain Caron is a considerably accomplished bass player. He attended the Berklee College of Music. One of his first excursions into jazz was playing with the Vic Vogel Big Band during the 1970s. In 1977 he co-founded the group UZEB. Their first album, Live in Bracknell, was released in 1981. The following year saw the group putting out Fast Emotion. The next album was 1984's You Be Easy. 1985 saw them release Between the Lines. Two more live albums, Live a l'Olympia and Absolutely Live came out in 1986. The group released Noisy Nights and Live in Europe in 1988. The following year saw the release of UZEB Club. World Tour '90 was released in 1990. In 1992, Caron formed his own group, le Band and released the first album by that group, Alain Caron — le Band. He also found time to record a bass duet album with Michel Donato and perform at the Montreal Jazz Festival with UZEB. 1993 saw Caron record with Leni Stern, tour with that band, as well as doing a tour of Quebec with le Band and performing with Donato — Caron. The next year saw the first major tour of his group as well as some other performances with other musicians. 1995 saw the release by le Band of Rhythm 'n Jazz and another European tour for the group. For the next couple of years he frantically performed with a number of different artists. The third le Band album, Play, was also released in 1997. Again, he took a couple more years performing with various artists, including le Band and, notably, Gino Vanelli. In 2000 he released the fourth album by le Band, Call Me Al!. ~ Gary Hill

Three years following the release of his album Conversations, an intimate DUOS album with his closest friends and collaborators, Alain Caron renews and returns to his roots with this exciting JAZZ FUSION album Sep7entrion. On this new release, Alain does not disappoint and takes on the genre head-on, giving you a fresh look at FUSION in 2010. The musical nuances of the past decades find there way into this new opus along with a style, virtuosity and vocabulary that is strictly CARON.

The album regroups nine titles that tacitly fuse traditional jazz, rock, funk, touches of African influences and south-American music. To achieve this, Alain Caron surrounded himself with renowned musicians from all over the world yielding a meld of styles that is remarkable and refreshing. Guitarists Pierre Ciґte (Canada), Jean-Marie Ecay (France) and the legendary guitarist Frank Gambale (Australia and U.S.). Pianists John Roney (Canada), Otmaro Ruiz (Venezuela-U.S.) and Tony Raymond (France). Violinist Christophe Raymond (France) and drummer Damien Schmitt (France-U.S.), a young prodigy that will astound you.

The album title Sep7entrion (Septentrion) was chosen to highlight Alain`s Nordic roots and punctuate the fact that this is his seventh studio album to date.

Tracklist

1.1-4-U

2.Enhanced

3.Double Action

4.Fair Play

5.Cross Check

6.Soleir Rouge

7.This Or That

8.De L'aube Au Crepuscule
9.Simple Pleasures
Sep7entrion
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[By-Request] Alain Perez: Apetecible (2010)

Born Alain Pérez Rodríguez in 1977 in Manaca Iznaga, a small town in the province of Santi Spiritus, he recalls as a young child being raised in a family that took extra care to acquaint him with the major customs and traditions of his land. “My musical life began at the hands of my parents,” he recalls, “singing at family parties and fiestas in the town. My father, Gradelio Pérez, discovered my musical instincts when he took me to one of the carnavales in the city of Trinidad, and I instantly started to dance!” Several years later, by the age of seven, he was playing on the guitar punto guajiro and guarachas, two traditional styles from the Cuban hinterland. Within a short while, he was accompanying poets and vocal improvisers at gatherings staged at sugar plantations. “It went on for five days without stop,” he recalls. “It was my first important and most heartfelt influence in music and in life.”

On En El Aire, Pérez returns to the style that captured his soul when he performed with Irakere. “I try to compose for my Muse, but when she doesn't come, I search for colors and images that will suggest a certain path,” he comments.

“Harmony is food for the melody, and as I am a rumbero, the end comes through the clave (the rhythm). Very humbly, I consider myself to be versatile, and life has given me proof that one has to be subservient to their instincts.”

His instincts are keen not only in his role as a composer and arranger but on the electric bass, an instrument infrequently heard as a primary solo voice on Latin jazz recordings. The album's title track is an eye-opener.

“Alain Pérez is a marvelous discovery. He is going to have a huge impact. He is great, superb.” Enrique Morennte.

“Cuban electric bassist and composer Alain Pérez, has generated a trans-Atlantic buzz, being hailed as a hot-waired update of the fabled Cuban band Irakere’s sound” Mark Holston, Jazziz (Nov 06).

Tracklist:

01. Siglo XXI

02. Enseсalo a quererte
03. Rosa de la rosa roja
04. Apetecible
05. Pero no termino
06. Amor de bolero
07. Me duele pero te dejo
08. Juanito el malo
09. Siempre Marнa
10. Beso peligroso
11. Tengo una esperanza
12. No vuelvas a decirlo
Apetecible
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Patti Austin: Live At The Bottom Line (1979)

Patti Austin came closest on this late-'70s live set to transferring onto vinyl the qualities that made her an outstanding vocalist outside of the studio. There's more spontaneity, emotion, and charisma in the vocals on this album than on almost all her other releases combined; perhaps the nightclub setting inspired her, or, more likely, Austin was free to sing without any agendas, marketing strategies, or producers' visions being factored into the process.

Tracklist:
1. Jump for Joy 5:11
2. Let It Ride 4:08
3. One More Night 5:10
4. Wait a Little While 4:27
5. Rider in the Rain 6:09
6. You're the One That I Want 3:27
7. Love Me by Name 5:16
8. You Fooled Me 3:10
9. Spoken Introductions 7:09
10. Let's All Live and Give Together 6:41
Personnel:
Patti Austin — Vocals
Michael Brecker — Sax (Tenor)
David Spinozza — Guitar
Leon Pendarvis — Keyboards, Leader
Pat Rebillot — Keyboards
Will Lee — Bass
Errol Bennett — Percussion
Charles Collins — Drums
Babi Floyd — Vocals
Frank Floyd — Vocals
Ullanda McCullough — Vocals
William McCullough — Vocals
Creed Taylor — Producer
Live at the Bottom Line
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Danilo Perez: Across the Crystal Sea (2008)

Danilo Perez was born in Panama in 1966. He is considered one of the finest contemporary pianists and jazz composers of our era.

Danilo started his musical training at 3 years old with his father Danilo Sr, a professional bandleader and singer, gave Danilo Jr. his first set of bongos. By the time he was 10 years of age he was studying the European Classical Piano repertoire at the National Conservatory in Panama, eventually transferring to the Berklee College of Music to study Jazz composition and then serving as a professor at the New England Conservatory of Music. While growing up in Panama, Perez was notably influenced by the works of Gershwin, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and his mentor in spirit Thelonious Monk.

Tracklist:

1. Across The Crystal Sea

2. Rays And Shadows
3. Lazy Afternoon
4. The Purple Condor
5. If I Forget You
6. (All Of A Sudden) My Heart Sings
7. The Saga Of Rita Joe
8. Another Autumn
Personnel:
Danilo Perez — piano
Claus Ogerman — conducted and arranged
Cassandra Wilson — vocals (on 3 & 6)
Christian McBride — bass
Lewis Nash — drums
Luis Quintero — percussion
Bruce Dukov — concert master
Across The Crystal Sea - Conducted and Arranged by Claus Ogerman
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