Sammy Davis Jr at The Coconut Grove 1962:Live in Concert

Styles: Swing
Year: 1963/2014
Time: 70:41
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 162,4 MB
Art: Front

( 0:44) 1. Introduction
( 2:19) 2. Once In A Lifetime
( 3:48) 3. In The Still Of The Night
( 3:00) 4. What Kind Of Fool Am I
( 1:50) 5. Talk
( 4:11) 6. Falling In Love Again
( 6:38) 7. I've Got You Under My Skin,Big Bad John,Night and Day
( 3:12) 8. Meeting The President
( 4:54) 9. West Side Story Medley
( 3:56) 10. River Stay Away From My Door
( 2:36) 11. Me And My Shadow
( 2:48) 12. Hound Dog ,What'd I Say Medley
(11:20) 13. Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody
( 4:58) 14. Sammy Looks At Old Movies
(14:21) 15. Finale

The Ambassador Hotel was opened in 1921, designed to provide then-booming Los Angeles with a truly world-class hotel, and it remained an LA landmark (even after its closure in 1989) until its demolition in 2005. Soon after opening, its ballroom was converted into an opulent nightclub named the Cocoanut Grove, intended to attract the glitterati of nearby Hollywood. The Grove quickly became the place in LA to see and be seen, and hosted the Academy Awards six times before 1943.

In late 1962, when this album was recorded, the nightclub was still a sight to behold, placing you in the midst of an Arabian oasis with faux palms trees and a roof with twinkling stars. Everyone who was anyone had performed there, and it was a fitting location for Reprise Records to record its first live album, which would become its first double LP set. For Sammy, this was his second live record, following Sammy Davis, Jr. At Town Hall in 1958.

The LP finds Sammy Davis, Jr. at the zenith of his powers as an entertainer – he is in good voice, he is in total command of the audience, and he exhibits his full range of talents: singing, impressions, comedy, dancing, and finishing with a jam session in which he plays both drums and vibraphone. It gives you an excellent sense of what made him such a dynamic live performer – who else could provide this variety to a nightclub audience? For a good sense of Sammy Davis, Jr.’s talents as a singer, however, this wouldn’t be the first place to go looking: of the 70 minutes, Sammy spends only about 30 actually singing.

The rest of the runtime is spent delighting his audience on a range of fronts. He does a virtual stand-up routine on old movies for five minutes, does a Sinatra impression on “River Stay ’Way From My Door”, his full range of impressions on “Rock-a-bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody”, breaks out some soft-shoe as well (although no tapping) and jives to “Hound Dog” and “What’d I Say”.

Over the course of the record, Sammy makes special note to spotlight the supporting musicians who form part of his travelling entourage – in particular he does two medleys, one with the sole accompaniment of Michael Silva on drums, and the other with Johnny Mendoza on bongos. Also featured is Terry Rosen on guitar and Reunald Jones on trumpet; Sammy’s musical director George Rhodes conducts the Cocoanut Grove house band, the Dick Stabile Orchestra, which provides Sammy with excellent support.

The Cocoanut Grove nightclub had an interesting relationship with Sammy Davis, Jr. He performed at it several times throughout his career, and following his close friend Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination there (in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in 1968), Sammy invested heavily in the club and remodelled it, re-opening it in 1970 as the ‘Now Grove’. The relaunch was a commercial failure (hardly the only venture of Sammy’s to end in such a way during the 1970s).

The album Sammy Davis, Jr. At The Cocoanut Grove is anything but a failure, however; it gives you a ringside seat for a performance by the world’s greatest entertainer at the peak of his popularity.

https://sammydavisjr.info/music/releases/original-albums/at-the-cocoanut-grove/

Sammy Davis Jr at The Coconut Grove 1962:Live in Concert(mp3 320)
Sammy Davis Jr at The Coconut Grove 1962:Live in Concert(FLAC)

---

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Compliments of the Mysterious Phantom

Styles: Post Bop
Year: 2016
Time: 51:46
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 125,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:42) 1. Passion Dance
(9:43) 2. My One and Only Love
(1:58) 3. Rahspeak #1
(5:49) 4. Fly Town Nose Blues
(7:16) 5. Volunteered Slavery
(1:30) 6. Rahspeak #2
(7:45) 7. Bright Moments
(3:54) 8. Old Rugged Cross
(4:51) 9. Blacknuss
(3:56) 10. Franks for the Festival
(0:18) 11. Rahspeak #3

If Sun Ra was jazz music's Timothy Leary, then Rahsaan Roland Kirk was its Elijah.

Kirk, jazz music's most iconoclastic character, was also one of its most gifted. Once dismissed as a circus sideshow, he has seen his popularity, as well as his influence, steadily increase over the past twenty years. Kirk has been called many things'shaman, sage, charlatan, sideshow barker. But Rahsaan Roland Kirk represents the free spirit of jazz. He was a fearless improviser who invented his own instruments and played them all at once. He was most effective when playing tenor and flute, but made a good argument for his approach when he worked up a gale force, blowing four reeds at once (I note his last Hyena release, The Man Who Cried Fire and his variations on Paganini's 24th Caprice in Am, "Multi-Horn Variations.")

Compliments includes previously unknown and unreleased Rahsaan Roland Kirk. It is a collection of fragments and complete performances from his November 5, 1974 show at the Backdoor in San Diego, California. This appearance took place about nine months after Kirk recorded his landmark live recording Bright Moments.

In keeping with the artist's prophet status, these recordings, as well as those on The Man Who Cried Fire, can be thought of as the Dead Sea Scrolls of jazz. Kirk and company fade in on a hot "Passion Dance," only to cool down with a beautiful tenor rendition of "My One and Only Love." A superb juxtaposition of style and genre that characterized Kirk shows of the period (or any period). "Fly Town Nose Blues" is a flute blues that is very effective and swinging, albeit weird. Early '70s funk is in attendance with "Volunteer Slavery" and "Blacknuss," peppered with Kirk standards "Old Rugged Cross" and "Bright Moments."

Kirk's support is very good, but as in any Rahsaan Roland Kirk performance, the man himself is the center around which all revolves. He passionately referred to jazz as "black classic music" and never considered it anything less. Like Beethoven, Kirk elbowed his way to the front of the line and never acted as if he did not belong there. Kirk allegedly passed away December 5, 1977. That is certainly not true. https://www.allaboutjazz.com/compliments-of-the-mysterious-phantom-rahsaan-roland-kirk-hyena-records-review-by-c-michael-bailey

Compliments of the Mysterious Phantom (mp3 320)
Compliments of the Mysterious Phantom (FLAC)

---

Ida Sand - The Gospel Truth

Styles: Jazz
Year: 2011
Time: 48:29
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 111,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:33) 1. Eyes On The Prize
(3:45) 2. Ain't No Sunshine
(4:12) 3. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
(4:32) 4. A Change Is Gonna Come
(3:37) 5. Have A Talk With God
(4:50) 6. I Wanna Know What Love Is
(3:15) 7. Until The End
(4:14) 8. I Wish I Would Know How
(4:21) 9. Have A Little Faith In Me
(3:49) 10. It Is to Know
(4:00) 11. Like a Prayer
(4:16) 12. God Only Knows

Whilst Ida Sand's second ACT album True Love was to some extent a family affair - an homage to her husband Ola Gustafsson and new born daughter - her third ACT CD "The Gospel Truth", signals a return to her roots and a unique combination of European and American soul. Released two years after True Love, The Gospel Truth presents the Swedish singer following on musically from her 2007 ACT debut, Meet Me Around Midnight", which captivated listeners with a sound which was "distinctively earthy, soaked with the blood of the blues, saturated by gospel, weathered by jazz and infected by soul" (Jazzthing).

Ida Sand's career began with the church choir. Her father was a well known Swedish opera singer and her mother is still a church organist. As such, Ida learnt to play not only the cello and piano but also sang in several choirs from the age of eight. It was not only Scandinavian choir music that influenced her but also America's gospel choirs. With the world hit "Oh Happy Day" by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, a gospel craze swept across Sweden in the early seventies which in turn led to gospel queen Mahalia Jackson becoming one of Ida's very earliest influences alongside the Swedish gospel pianist Per-Erik Hallin. Captivated by this music, Ida soon discovered the world of soul and fell in love with its masters, such as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.

"I grew up with a clear idea of religion," says Ida Sand. "This has changed a bit now that I'm an adult but I still carry the belief with me, deep in my heart." Her latest album, The Gospel Truth, is the musical expression of this sentiment and many of the songs on it have been with the singer for a long time. "For example, I have never sung Nina Simone's I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free before but it is one of the songs of my childhood." However, the album doesn't only feature the soul heroes of her childhood like Sam Cooke, Donnie Hathaway and Stevie Wonder (with a brilliant version of Have a Talk With God). Genuine surprises are also included, such as Madonna's Like A Prayer, John Hiatt's Have A Little Faith and I Wanna Know What Love Is by the band Foreigner, which were part of her teenage years and twenties. "It was a challenge to transfer also these songs from my wilder teenage years to the soul cosmos," explains Sand. "And, of course, I didn't want it to be solely a gospel album which would have been too one-sided."

Vitality, suspense and considerable musical scope are provided not only by Sand's earthy and variable piano playing but also by select guest stars - in particular Nils Landgren who produced the album together with Siggi Loch, and who plays not only the trombone but also the trumpet. As Landgren has also been a member of the famous US band Jazz Crusaders for some time, he was also able to get Joe Sample to join in with his grooving, murmuring playing of the Fender Rhodes, and the great drummer Steve Gadd on A Change Is Gonna Come. Sand's husband, Ola Gustafsson, is also featured on the lap steel guitar as is her friend of many years, woodwind player Magnus Lindgren.

A very special track is the magnificent vocal duet with blind singer and guitarist Raul Midón, who is extremely prominent back home in the USA. "During the Christmas tour with Nils, I saw a video of one of his performances and was completely spellbound. Nils knew him and so I ventured to ask Raul if he would like to accompany me on Bobby Scott's "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother". I didn't expect anything which was why I was even happier when it worked out," says Sand.

The choir, without which the The Gospel Truth could hardly have been realised, remained as the last building block. "A normal gospel choir seemed too flat," says Sand. "Then Siggi Loch had the idea to simply ask our Swedish colleagues." This was how the ACT Jubilee Singers were born, with Jeanette Köhn, Sharon Dyall, Rigmor Gustafsson and Jessica Pilnäs. This unparalleled combination of voices can be heard on four tracks and goes far beyond the usual description of a just 'backing singers'. Yet despite all the famous music names supporting on this new recording, none of them ever force themselves into the limelight. On The Gospel Truth it is Ida Sand who remains solely and justifiably at the fore - possibly the best European soul voice in recent years.  https://www.actmusic.com/en/Artists/Ida-Sand/The-Gospel-Truth/The-Gospel-Truth-CD/Produktinformation

The Gospel Truth (mp3 320)
The Gospel Truth (FLAC)

---