Tag Archive > bossa nova

Karrin Allyson

Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane

More than most tribute albums, singer Karrin Allyson’s remembrance of John Coltrane makes a genuine attempt to relate to its subject–not only in retracing his 1961 offering, Ballads, song by song and luxuriating in the deep, swelling tenor sounds of Bob Berg and James Carter, but also in giving the tunes plenty of room to breathe. Resisting the temptation to dress them up with overt displays of style, she approaches them in a straightforward, emotionally understated fashion, capturing their essence with taste and intelligence. ...

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Brazilian Tropical Orchestra

Beatles In Bossa Nova

This 2005 Brazilian collection contains bossa nova versions of classic Beatles hits. Among the 20 Tracks are such favorites as “Something”, “Yesterday” and “Hey Jude”.
The music of The Beatles meets the Brasil ’66 (or ’77….depending on your age…) beat. All out for the Bossa Nova! A different dimension to the some of the greatest music written in the 20th century....

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Olivia

A Girl Meets Bossa Nova 2

livia is a Singaporean singer who made her debut with songs in the English vernacular. She subsequently progressed to singing in Japanese upon the progression of her career in Japan.
Likened to Keiko Matsuda, she won a singing contest and was signed to a Japanese recording company at the age of 15....

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Nicola Conte

Rituals

Italian producer Nicola Conte moves away from his trademark brand of cocktail-hour acid jazz on RITUALS in favor of a more organic, acoustic jazz sound. Featuring live instrumentation and vocalists, RITUALS oozes sophistication and class, with traces of Conte’s fascination with bossa nova and neo-soul woven carefully into the mix. With a clear debt to the blues-based jazz released on Blue Note in the 1960s, these tracks are both highbrow and cool-toned, proving Conte capable of taking his electronica influences down to the root in order to grow something new....

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John Pizzarelli

Rockin’ In Rhythm: A Duke Ellington Tribute

Singer/guitarist John Pizzarelli, a master in the art of reinventing jazz classics, celebrates the music of Duke Ellington, undeniably one of the most prominent musical icons of the 20th century. Rockin’ In Rhythm: A Tribute to Duke Ellington is Pizzarelli’s first ever Ellington recording.
Pizzarelli was still a very young musician when Ellington died in May 1974, but thanks to his father – veteran guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli – he would eventually learn much about jazz’s most important composer. “Duke’s music was an integral part of any set my father played,” says Pizzarelli. “I heard a tremendous amount of his music listening to my Dad and then through performing with him. There are some many beautiful melodies and so many discoveries to be made on any given night.”...

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Olivia Ong

Olivia

Olivia is a Singaporean singer who made her debut with songs in the English vernacular. She subsequently progressed to singing in Japanese upon the progression of her career in Japan.
Likened to Keiko Matsuda, she won a singing contest and was signed to a Japanese recording company at the age of 15....

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Quincy Jones

Swinging The Big Band

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American music impresario, musical arranger, record producer, and film composer.
During 50 years in the entertainment industry Jones’ work has earned him more than 70 Grammy Award nominations, more than 25 Grammy Awards, and a Grammy Legends Award in 1991. He is best known as the producer of two of the top-selling records of all time: the album Thriller, by pop icon Michael Jackson, and the charity song “We Are the World”. Also known for work with Frank Sinatra....

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Quincy Jones

Back On The Block

Back On The Block

Having let eight years pass since his last A&M album, Quincy Jones made his debut on his own label with his most extravagant, most star-studded, most brilliantly sequenced pop album to date — which could have only been assembled by the man who put together “We Are the World.” Jones was one of the first establishment musicians to embrace rap, and one of the first to link rap with his jazz heritage; it’s hard not to be moved by the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Zawinul, Sarah Vaughan, and George Benson electronically appearing on “Birdland” and trading brief licks with the likes of Kool Moe Dee and Big Daddy Kane on “Jazz Corner of the World.” Later, jazz buffs would vilify Jones for not taking fuller advantage of this one-time constellation of jazz stars, but at the time, it seemed like a marvelous dialogue between the old and the new. Of course, as he well knew, celebrating jazz history is not the surest route to a blockbuster hit record, so there are plenty of radio-friendly urban pop productions here, with Herbie Hancock and George Duke on keyboards, and Siedah Garrett and 12-year-old Tevin Campbell on vocals. Despite the presence of an enthused Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, and the Brothers Johnson, the overly busy techno remake of “I’ll Be Good to You” doesn’t cut the Johnsons’ original — nor does “Tomorrow.” Ultimately the most popular track would be the most tedious for the jazz listener, “The Secret Garden,” with a parade of smooth soul balladeers producing make-out music at length. Yet Back on the Block remains a strikingly durable piece of entertainment, and in hindsight, a poignant signpost of the changing of the guard....

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