Featured
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Craft Recordings
Chet Baker – It Could Happen to You | 2021 Reissue
$48.00
Visit product page →Chet Baker was 29 years old when he recorded this album of vocals with occasional trumpet back in the summer of 1958 released today, 61 years later for RSD Black Friday.. He sounds like a kid. Actually you could argue he sounds positively girl-ish, which back then must have driven them pretty crazy—even crazier than did his chiseled, pugilistic face.
He's the epitome of cool on this set of standards as is the piano backing provided by the very young Kenny Drew who plays on every track. Philly Joe Jones plays drums on most tracks, with Mingus time keeper Danny Richmond on four tracks. George Morrow and Sam Jones play bass. As soothing and enjoyable are Baker's cool vocals, if you pay attention to Drew's sensitive backing, you're in for an equally enjoyable ride.
The tunes include "I'm Old Fashioned", "You're Driving Me Crazy", "My Heart Stood Still", "Everything Happens to Me" and from "Finian's Rainbow" "That Old Devil Moon".
The sound is mono-sensational with Baker closely miked, dry and unadorned by whatever primitive effects were then available. The richness and roundness heard is strictly a function of Baker's vocal timbre and the microphone's character. The piano and drum sound are equally "just right" and the mix is ideal.
Mastered by Kevin Gray, cut from tape, pressed at RTI and packaged in Stoughton tip-on jacket, Chet Baker Sings.... is everything you want in a reissue, sonically and musically. A late night Cognac delight. – Analog Planet
Label: Riverside Records – CR00357, Craft Recordings – CR00357
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 2021
Genre: Jazz
Style: Cool Jazz
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Verve
Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson – Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson
$48.00
Visit product page →In the mid-1950s, Armstrong signed a non-exclusive contract with Norman Granz; five resulting projects, including this album, were the finest work of his later career. His All-Stars were now a good professional outfit with fairly static repertoire; on Meets Oscar Peterson the trumpeter played many songs he’d never recorded before, ones he wouldn’t record again. – Jazz Journal
Of course, the music here is sublime with the two musicians representing the then “old” and “new” waves of Jazz finding terrific common ground and bringing out the best in each other. Armstrong’s vocals are passionate, impeccably phrased and often touching. But, for me it is those moments when he takes a solo on his Trumpet that the jaw drops.Consider that here you are listening to one of the architects of Jazz, so every note counts and always just feels right.
You can feel the musicians having a great time making these recordings. Now it just sounds natural for us to hear these two together but apparently back in the day it was shocking for fans of the two musicians. Clearly they achieved something special here, bringing together many audiences across the generations. – Audiophile Review
Label: Verve Records – B0031689-01, Verve Records – MG V-8322
Series: Acoustic Sounds Series –
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo, 180g, Gatefold
Country: US
Released: 28 Aug 2020
Genre: Jazz
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Rhino Records
Ray Charles – What'd I Say
$39.00
Visit product page →On this day in 1959, Ray Charles recorded "What'd I Say." Improvised at the end of a concert (it would end up closing most of Charles' shows for the remainder of his career), the song became the performer's mainstream breakthrough and first gold record. The album of the same name features nine more stirring selections including “Jumpin' In The Morning,” “Tell Me How Do You Feel” and “Rockhouse, Parts 1 & 2.” With redoubtable saxophonist David Newman among the backing band, Brother Ray is at the top of his game and clearly reveling in it – WHAT'D I SAY truly is the birth of soul. - Rhino Records
Label: Rhino Records (2) – 0081227944483
Series: Soul Music (7) – 01
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue
Country: Europe
Released: 22 Feb 2019
Genre: Funk / Soul
Style: Rhythm & Blues, Soul
