ALLAN HOLDSWORTH — Hard Hat Area (1994) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Allan Holdsworth is arguably one of the most important post-Hendrix electric guitarists to grace either the fusion or rock scenes, while Hard Hat Area, signifies one of the artist's better solo excursions. With this 1994 effort, the guitarist receives excellent support from Icelandic electric bass phenom Skuli Sverrissson, whereas keyboardist Steve Hunt renders melodically tinged synth lines and ethereal backwashes throughout. Essentially, the group produces a series of climactic overtures, accelerated by a distinct sense of uninhibited force. On pieces such as "Ruhkukah" and "Low Levels, High Stakes," the musicians surge forward with a deterministic flair via a few tricky time signatures and lyrically charged themes atop Holdsworth's climactically driven solos. Consequently, the group conveys an underlying sense of tension and release, as Holdsworth's scathing legato-based lines might spur notions of a hawk zooming in on its prey. Thus, a must-have for the ardent Holdsworth aficionado. Glenn Astarita  
Tracklist :
1.    Prelude 1:35
Guitar – Allan Holdsworth
Keyboards – Steve Hunt
Written-By – A. Holdsworth, S. Hunt
2.    Ruhkukah 5:34
Soloist [Solos Guitar] – Allan Holdsworth
Soloist [Solos Keyboards] – Steve Hunt
Written-By – A. Holdsworth
3.    Low Levels, High Stakes 9:05
Soloist [Solos Bass] – Skúli Sverrisson
Soloist [Solos Guitar] – Allan Holdsworth
Soloist [Solos Piano] – Steve Hunt
Written-By – A. Holdsworth
4.    Hard Hat Area 6:06
Bass – Skúli Sverrisson
Guitar, SynthAxe – Allan Holdsworth
Written-By – A. Holdsworth
5.    Tullio 6:06
Soloist [Solos Guitar] – Allan Holdsworth
Soloist [Solos Keyboards] – Steve Hunt
Written-By – A. Holdsworth
6.    House Of Mirrors 7:47
Soloist [Solos Guitar] – Allan Holdsworth
Soloist [Solos Keyboards] – Steve Hunt
Written-By – A. Holdsworth
7.    Postlude 5:29
Keyboards [Chords] – Steve Hunt
Soloist [Solos Bass] – Skúli Sverrisson
Soloist [Solos Keyboards] – Steve Hunt
Soloist [Solos SynthAxe] – Allan Holdsworth
SynthAxe [Melody] – Allan Holdsworth
Written-By – A. Holdsworth, G. Husband, S. Sverrisson, S. Hunt 

AVISHAI COHEN — After the Big Rain (2007) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Avishai Cohen's After the Big Rain is an ambitious, earthy and endlessly surprising work that finds the trumpeter/composer melding post-bop, avant-garde jazz, African folk music and electric soundscapes. Having been a force on the downtown NYC jazz scene since the '90s, Cohen has made a name for himself as an adventurous, forward-thinking musician performing in various ensembles that mixed everything from klezmer and free jazz to swinging hard bop and post-rock. Here, Cohen takes his world music inclinations one step further partnering with West African vocalist/guitarist Lionel Loueke on a series of loosely connected pieces that strongly feature Loueke's moody singing and percussive guitar. Interestingly, the album often sounds more like African folk music than jazz with Loueke setting a song up and then Cohen with his muted/electronically enhanced trumpet and keyboardist Jason Lindner's wave-like Fender Rhoades joining in organically after a few bars. Cohen himself is a fire brand of an improviser who evinces both a Miles Davis-like sense of harmonic color and a knack for muscular, knotty Woody Shaw-inspired improvisational lines. Here, he mixes both styles liberally, often bumping against Yosvany Terry's rhythmic "jack-in-the-box" sounding chereke playing. In many ways, After the Big Rain harkens back to trumpeter Don Cherry's stellar 1975 jazz/world fusion album Brown Rice and in a similar sense is a moving and enveloping early masterwork. Matt Collar
Tracklist :
1.    After The Big Rain    6:13
 Avishai Cohen 
2.    Parto Forte    11:45
 Avishai Cohen 
3.    Gbede Temin    4:36
 Lionel Loueke 
4.    Meditation On Two Chords    8:14
 Jason Lindner 
5.    Afterthoughts (Mozartine)    7:17
 Avishai Cohen 
6.    Miryama    3:44
 Avishai Cohen / Lionel Loueke 
7.     African Daisy (La Suite African)    11:02
 Avishai Cohen 
8.    After The Big Rain - Epilogue    5:59
 Avishai Cohen 
Credits :
Acoustic Bass – Omer Avital
Drums, Percussion – Daniel Freedman
Guitar, Vocals – Lionel Loueke
Keyboards, Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Jason Lindner
Lyrics By – Lionel Loueke (tracks: 6)
Lyrics By [Translated To Fon by] – Lionel Loueke (tracks: 8)
Producer, Trumpet, Effects, Arranged By, Composed By, Lyrics By – Avishai Cohen
Shaker [Chekere] – Yosvany Terry (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 8)

STEFANO BATTAGLIA — Things Ain't What They Used To Be (1987-2016) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1.    All In Love Is Fair  9:21
Written-By – Stevie Wonder
2.    Our Love Is Here To Stay  6:01
Written-By – George Gershwin - Ira Gershwin
3.    When I Fall In Love  7:40
Written-By – Edward Heyman, Victor Young
4.    I've Grown Accustomed To Your Face  6:00
Written-By – Alan Jay Lerner - Frederick Loewe
5.    Moon River  8:55
Written-By – Henry Mancini
6.    Things Ain't What They Used To Be  6:57
Written-By – Mercer Ellington, Ted Persons
Credits :
Bass – Piero Leveratto
Drums – Gianni Cazzola
Piano – Stefano Battaglia

STEFANO BATTAGLIA — Auryn (1989) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Pianist Stefano Battaglia is one of the most prolific musicians in Italy. He has played on dozens of dates either in the classical or jazz field, but nowhere does one get a true sense of his contribution as on his solo recordings in the jazz idiom. Here, like his influences Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Evans before him, Battaglia focuses intently on the spaces between melody and harmony, and how mode and interval influence them both in composition. Also, unlike his predecessors who seem to have come by their voices naturally, Battaglia is forever honing that sound that he has come to believe is singular to him. This date with longtime collaborator bassist Paolino Dalla Porta and drummer Manhu Roche is one of trio exploration into the realms of subtle, though precise, melodic invention, and how it turns the modal nature of jazz into something more open, more elongated, and even free, because its concerns are with nuance rather than with the norms of composition. On the title track, a shimmering eighth note melody emerges from the ether and is transformed into an elegant, almost classically integrated, theme that is pushed to its limit by the rhythm section. On "The Real Meaning of the Blues," Battaglia's arpeggio study is intervallically challenged by Dalla Porta's own pizzicato machinations that serve to unify to very separate ideas. Also, on "Toy Roads," Cuban jazz figures are undercut with late bop chromatics in a whirlwind of syncopated rhythm and angular scalar studies without ever sacrificing the melody. This is one of Battaglia's earlier recordings, but it is also one of his very finest. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1.    Auryn    6:00
2.    Toy Roads    8:45
3.    Emilie Marie    7:37
4.    The Real Meaning (Of The Blues)    7:12
5.    Some Little Notes For You    5:32
6.    Gleam    8:39
Credits :
Bass – Paolino Dalla Porta
Piano, Composed, Arranged By – Stefano Battaglia
Drums – Manhu Roche

STEFANO BATTAGLIA TRIO — The Book Of Jazz Volume One (2000) Symphonia Odyssey Series | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This Book of Jazz opens with Egberto Gismonti's Café, a piece recorded by the great pianist-guitarist in 1977 (it's on G C Meio Dia, an album released by the Brazilian with stellar support from Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, Collin Walcott, and Nana Vasconcelos). This choice immediately makes things clear: don't expect a dusty and conventional anthology of sacred classics. But we wouldn't have expected anything like this anyway, from Stefano Battaglia (piano), Paolino Dalla Porta (double bass), and Fabrizio Sferra (drums), three of the most intelligent and open-minded musicians on the contemporary music scene. Indeed, while they stray less far into the repertoire, the band still makes "unconventional" choices, placing, for example, Shorter's "Nefertiti" between Monk's "Ask Me Now" and Ornette's "Congeniality," not to mention the inclusion of pieces by Charlie Haden and Steve Swallow, top-notch musicians, but certainly not as frequently compared to Duke Ellington, Eric Dolphy, and Horace Silver as they are here. The trio moves with an austere and elegant manner, counting on superior interplay, and churns out over 76 minutes of intense music. We look forward to the next volumes. suono.it
Tracklist :
1.    Café  8:10
Composed By – Egberto Gismonti
2.    Ask Me Now  9:18
Composed By – Thelonious Monk
3.    Nefertitti  8:28
Composed By – Wayne Shorter
4.    Congeniality
Composed By – Ornette Coleman
5.    The Golden Number  8:40
Composed By – Charlie Haden
6.    Prelude To A Kiss  10:12
Composed By – Duke Ellington
7.    Something Sweet, Something Tender
Composed By – Eric Dolphy
8.    Wrong Together  7:05
Composed By – Steve Swallow
9.    Peace  10:48
Composed By – Horace Silver
Credits :
Bass – Paolino Dalla Porta
Drums – Fabrizio Sferra
Piano – Stefano Battaglia