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My Way

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Jazz
by: Willard White

July 04, 2005
Some lovely songs on this cd and Sir Willard shows his true versatility --- the light calypso style of 'Jamaica Farewell' and 'Solas Market' --- the tear-jerking Chaplin classic, 'Smile' ----- the joyful belting out of 'Blow Gabriel Blow', and the pure operatic tone of the three songs from 'Porgy and Bess', and much, much more!
I could listen to this over and over again.

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La Revancha Del Tango

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Jazz
by: Gotan Project

October 29, 2001
This always reminds me of (very) expensive bars, clubs and restaurants in Istanbul and Ankara where well heeled Turks would go and, well, pose I suppose (although that's never been a problem for Turkish women). So, you get the idea - this is an album 'designed' (or even destined) to be played in plush, soulless bars and clubs. It has a trippy-tango-lounge vibe going on and I do like the use of the accordion and violins and the subtle beats and electronic under current. The first three tracks are excellent, with the highlight being the opener "Queremos Paz". It's an interesting, worthwhile and inoffensive concept and should appeal to fans of the band 'Pink Martini' who, I would suggest, are non too distant cousins of Gotan Project. I'd recommend ... Read More:

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Portraits in Blue [Us Import]

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Jazz
by: Marcus Roberts

December 23, 1999
This always reminds me of (very) expensive bars, clubs and restaurants in Istanbul and Ankara where well heeled Turks would go and, well, pose I suppose (although that's never been a problem for Turkish women). So, you get the idea - this is an album 'designed' (or even destined) to be played in plush, soulless bars and clubs. It has a trippy-tango-lounge vibe going on and I do like the use of the accordion and violins and the subtle beats and electronic under current. The first three tracks are excellent, with the highlight being the opener "Queremos Paz". It's an interesting, worthwhile and inoffensive concept and should appeal to fans of the band 'Pink Martini' who, I would suggest, are non too distant cousins of Gotan Project. I'd recommend ... Read More:

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The Standard

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Jazz
by: Take 6

October 27, 2008
This always reminds me of (very) expensive bars, clubs and restaurants in Istanbul and Ankara where well heeled Turks would go and, well, pose I suppose (although that's never been a problem for Turkish women). So, you get the idea - this is an album 'designed' (or even destined) to be played in plush, soulless bars and clubs. It has a trippy-tango-lounge vibe going on and I do like the use of the accordion and violins and the subtle beats and electronic under current. The first three tracks are excellent, with the highlight being the opener "Queremos Paz". It's an interesting, worthwhile and inoffensive concept and should appeal to fans of the band 'Pink Martini' who, I would suggest, are non too distant cousins of Gotan Project. I'd recommend ... Read More:

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Loud Louder Stop

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Jazz
by: Neil Cowley Trio

March 31, 2008
This is an unusual album... it's jazz, but not as you know it. I can even hear hints of Tori Amos on 'Well' and Radiohead on 'Dinosaur Die'. The musicianship of these three is just stunning and what really strikes me so much about the album is the production, it's so beautifully engineered, so flawless, it's a treat every time it's played. All the tracks are good, some more beautiful than others, with great, soaring musical landscapes that Cowley manages to conjure up on the piano. Really great drumming and double bass too. Highly recommended.

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Milestones

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Jazz
by: Miles Davis

April 16, 2001
Perhaps the jazz conservatives (e.g. Stanley Crouch) would burn me at the stake for the title of this review and yes, the soul-stirring Kind of Blue is certainly the best modal record I've heard, but I much prefer this, since Coltrane and Adderley really leap out and play from the get-go.
Dr. Jackle is absolutely manic to play, a Jackie McLean tune that this quintet seem to delight in playing rather fast. It's excellent hard-bop, and Miles plays an excellent solo which sticks to the middle register, a range which trumpeteers do not explore enough, though this can be only down to the influence of intervallic trumpeters like Dizzy. Listen out for the early duel between Adderley, and Coltrane. Listening to 'Two Bass Hit', it is an interesting contrast ... Read More:

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To Be Free: the Nina Simone Story/+DVD

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Jazz
by: Nina Simone

October 27, 2008
This set is fantastic, in that it covers Nina`s career from her very first recordings for Bethlehem (including of course My Baby Just Cares For Me)right up to the title track from her last album Single Woman(which has just been reissued with some great bonus tracks). Along the way there are numerous brilliant previously unreleased tracks and live recordings, including several from the terrific A Very Rare Evening set. Needless to say with Nina the performances are committed, sometimes quirky and often electrifying. And the dvd performances are long overdue for issue. What`s not so good is the omission of anything from Nina`s Back, Live at Ronnie Scott`s or Fodder In Her Wings, and it would have been wonderful to have the complete Very Rare Evening; tapes of it exist-the Japanese ... Read More:

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The Best of Jools Holland

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Jazz
by: Jools Holland

October 12, 1998
The Best of Jools Holland was conceived as a collection of the work he had issued under various independent record labels on signing a deal with major label WEA. It is quite a bizarre collection in that it contains `Heartbreaking World' from the Squeeze reformation album `Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti' without mentioning the word Squeeze at all. To include a Squeeze track at all seems quite strange and if the A&M catalogue was available then either `Hop, Skip and Jump' or `Wrong Side of the Moon' from Jools' first stint in Squeeze would have fitted better with the Boogie Woogie flavour of this album. Also if the A&M catalogue was available it is strange that none of Jools' first solo work with the Millionaires should be included, particularly considering all of the artwork from this period ... Read More:

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Tuesday Wonderland

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Jazz
by: Esbjorn Svensson Trio (E.S.T.)

May 01, 2007
fading made preludium
30 seconds of blissfully quiet piano before grinding, crashing
godspeed-esque noise and chaos, electric bass flanged and feeding back
like a guitar for the next three minutes

tuesday wonderland
repetitive, kraut-ey piano riff, almost like life's what you make it
by talk talk, bass drops in, other piano layers and twirls dance
around skittish drums simple acoustic bass patterns at deceptive
speed. glacial concentric circles and swirls

the goldhearted miner
twanging acoustic strings give way to piano and slow, sweeping drum
brushes, occasionally the twanging strings re-emerge as a motif.
autumnal, balladic, falling leaves, frosty paygrounds

brewery of beggars
strange, ... Read More:

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Ray Quinn

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Jazz
by: Ray Quinn

March 12, 2007
What a fantatic voice and album. Favourite tracks are Smile and What A Wonderful World.

I brought tickets for my Mum and I to go and see him at the Brighton Centre on 21st October just after she was diagnosed with cancer in May and this was one of her aims to get to see him, but sadly she died on the 16th July. I wasn't going to go but did so for Mum and I am so glad I did, he was very funny and talked alot to us all and as well as doing songs from the Ray Quinn album he did a fantastic Elvis Presley medley and what got me is Mum's favourite song is Michael Buble's Home which is going to be Westlife's new single and Ray sang a fantastic version of it. He said it was going to be on his album but was not so hopefully on his next album he will have this version on there.

I ... Read More: