LOUISE ROGERS — Come Ready and See Me (2007) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Louise Rogers proves absolutely infectious with her delightful vocals. Her expressive voice, playful scatting, and crystal-clear intonation strike the listener right off the bat. Her core group includes Rick Strong (her husband) on bass and Mathias Kunzli on drums, with pianist Matthew Fries, guitarist Paul Meyers, and saxophonist Gottfired Stoger added on a few tracks. Rogers and Strong wrote a hip tune to accompany poet Nikki Giovanni's "Be My Baby," with Kunzli's hand percussion initially serving as her sole accompaniment, adding the bass after the first chorus and scatting up a storm with it in octave unison. Jerry Bergonzi's melancholy "Conjunction" benefits from her hopeful lyrics. Rogers wrote both the words and music to the soft bossa nova "Shadows of Yesterday." Stoger's tense "Poetic Song" features demanding unison lines by the singer and saxophonist. Rogers also finds a fresh approach to the standard "The Song Is You" (adding Stoger on soprano sax) and a playful duet with Strong of the forgotten chestnut "Louise." But the biggest surprise is her setting of a traditional Celtic song, "Lass from the Low Countree," a haunting duet with Strong on electric bass. Highly recommended. Ken Dryden
Tracklist :
1.    Be My Baby 4:52
 Poem by Nikki Giovanni, arr. by Louise Rogers
2.    Islands 8:54
 Mike Mainieri / Louise Rogers 
3.    Conjunction 5:43
 Jerry Bergonzi / Louise Rogers 
4.    Come Ready And See Me 3:11
Music by Ricgard Hundley, arr. by Louise Rogers
5.    Shadows Of Yesterday 5:13
 Louise Rogers 
6.    The Song Is You 5:41
 Oscar Hammerstein II / Jerome Kern 
7.    Poetic Song 5:35
 Gottfried Stoger
8.    Louise 3:30
 Leo Robin / Richard A. Whiting 
9.    Lass FromThe Low Countree 6:04
 Traditional 
Credits :  
Louise Rogers - Arranger, Bass Arrangement, Composer, Primary Artist, Producer, Vocal Arrangement, Vocals
Mathias Kunzli - Drums, Percussion
Matthew Fries - Piano
Paul Meyers - Guitar
Rick Strong - Arranger, Bass Arrangement, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Vocal Arrangement
 Gottfried Stoger - Saxophone (3, 6, 7)

CORINNE BAILEY RAE — Black Rainbows (2023) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Her curiosity piqued by a photo of Theaster Gates taken in his workspace, Corinne Bailey Rae met the artist and activist the next time she played Chicago, where he welcomed her to the Stony Island Arts Bank, a gallery, archive, library, and community center. Bailey Rae felt profoundly affected inside the South Side monument to Black culture, and returned for an artist residency at the invitation of founder Gates. She wrote songs informed by her surroundings and experience -- everything from works of art to pages of Ebony and Jet to a dance party soundtracked by the preserved record collection of house pioneer Frankie Knuckles. Approaching the material as a side project had a liberating effect that allowed her to create without thinking about how the results would be received. Although Black Rainbows is a uniquely conceptual work and sticks all the way out from Corinne Bailey Rae, The Sea, and The Heart Speaks in Whispers, it's at least as personal as any of the singer's first three albums. Contrary to her reputation for making pillowy adult contemporary R&B, Bailey Rae started in a punk band that was hard enough to be courted by Roadrunner Records. Black Rainbows taps into that spirit more than once. "New York Transit Queen" is a thrashing celebration inspired by a mid-'50s image of future fashion legend Audrey Smaltz. "Erasure," seething and thunderous, was written in response to examining graphically anti-Black postcards. On these songs, Bailey Rae's buzzing guitar is as much a lead as her full-tilt vocals. Other moments -- the bristly, knocking, and wailing "Black Rainbows," the unfurling incantation "Before the Throne of the Invisible God" -- sound unselfconsciously sculpted, teeming with unbound imagination. The solitary piano ballad, "Peach Velvet Sky," is also a progression; written from the confined and anguished perspective of abolitionist and author Harriet Jacobs, it features Bailey's most powerful lyrics and vocal performance. The house diversions are suitably carefree, delightfully weird, and just as meaningful. A futuristic paradise is imagined in "Earthlings" through a slow, off-center groove slathered in guitar and concluded by birdsong. In the eight-minute "Put It Down," Bailey Rae achieves hard-fought release, distressed over turbulent strings and synthesizers, then seemingly indestructible as her voice slides atop a stout four-four rhythm. "I put it down -- I feel so free" could be the album's subtitle. Andy Kellman
Tracklist :
1.    A Spell, A Prayer    5:27
Written-By – Corinne Bailey Rae
2.    Black Rainbows 1:58
Written-By – Myke Wilson, S. J. Brown
3.    Erasure    2:46
Written-By – Corinne Bailey Rae
4.    Earthlings 3:38
Written-By – S. J. Brown
5.    Red Horse 5:43
Written-By – Amber Strother, Paris Strother, S. J. Brown
6.    New York Transit Queen    1:49
Written-By – Corinne Bailey Rae
7.    He Will Follow You With His Eyes    3:45
Written-By – Corinne Bailey Rae
8.    Put It Down 8:29
Written-By – S. J. Brown
9.    Peach Velvet Sky 5:51
Written-By – S. J. Brown
10.    Before The Throne Of The Invisible God    5:14
Written-By – Corinne Bailey Rae
Credits :
Aaron Burnett - Engineer, Sax (Tenor)
Amber Strother - Composer, Spoken Word, Vocals (Background)
Corinne Bailey Rae - Analogue Synthesizer, Bass, Composer, Drums, Fender Rhodes, Flute (Wood), Fuzz Guitar, Glockenspiel, Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Handclapping, Marxophone, Mini Moog, Percussion, Prayer Bowl, Primary Artist, Producer, Toms, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Delphine Bailey Brown - Flute (Wood)
James Knight -Engineer, Sax (Alto)
Kyle Bolden - Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric)
Marvin Tate - Vocals
Myke Wilson - Bell, Composer, Congas, Djembe, Drums, Drums (Snare), Percussion, Surdo, Tympanon
Paris Strother - Composer, Engineer, Producer, Synthesizer, Vocals (Background), Wurlitzer Piano
Sam Bell - Bongos, Congas, Hand Percussion, Percussion
The Spitfire - Ensembles Horn, Strings, Woodwind
Yaw Agyeman - Vocals

HILDE MARIE KJERSEM — A Killer for that Ache (2008) FLAC (tracks+.cue) lossless

happy to introduce the excellent young singer and songwriter Hilde Marie Kjersem with her first solo album. Neither a jazz album nor your typical melancholy Nordic singer songwriter album, let´s say it´s pop music with a twist, quite a few twists come to think of it, inviting the listener to a dramatic, beautiful, mysterious, seductive, dark, intricate and quite simply different sounding and fascinating musical ride. runegrammofon.com
Tracklist :
1.    Sleeepyhead    1:38
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
2.    Mary Full Of Grace    4:31
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
3.    Fantasy 3:40
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
Electric Piano [Rhodes] – Torbjørn Folke Zetterberg
4.    Marie Antoinette 5:01
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
Drums [Additional Snaredrum] – Martin Revheim
5.    A Killer For That Ache    4:09
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
6.    Midwest Country 4:14
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
Organ – Mark Kramer
Piano – Peder Kjellsby
7.    Save Up    1:18
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
8.    London Bridge 5:19
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
Guitar – Jørgen Munkeby
Huqin [Erhu] – Torbjørn Folke Zetterberg
9.    It Is Easy    5:29
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
10.    Catching A Star 5:39
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
Tenor Saxophone – Jørgen Munkeby
11.    Working Girl    1:53
 Hilde Marie Kjersem
Credits :
Bass, Synthesizer [Moog], Guitar, Banjo, Vocals – Torbjørn Folke Zetterberg
Drums, Percussion, Computer [Sid], Vocals – Peder Kjellsby
Keyboards – Hilde Marie Kjersem (tracks: 2, 4, 8, 11)
Saxophone [Synth], Bass Clarinet, Clarinet, Flute, Vocals – Jørgen Munkeby
Trumpet, Brass [Miscellaneous], Vocals – Sjur Miljeteig
Vocals, Autoharp – Hilde Marie Kjersem
Words By, Music By – Hilde Marie Kjersem

JOHN ZORN · BILL LASWELL — Memoria (2023) Tzadik Spectrum Series – 42 | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Towering figures of New York’s Downtown scene, Zorn and Laswell have been working together since the late 1970s. Following up on their acclaimed 2022 duo project “The Cleansing”, this new volume presents musical memorials to three artistic visionaries whose powerful legacies remain touchstones of creativity and artistic integrity. Here the music takes on more of an ambient edge, and is distinguished by telepathic improvisational 
interplay and a unique virtuosity. Three heartfelt tributes from one generation of mavericks to another, “Memoria” is 
a beautiful collection of modern improvisation at its best. Tzadik

Tracklist :
1.        Pharoah Sanders    14:36
2.        Milford Graves    13:08
3.        Wayne Shorter    9:40
Credits :  
Alto Saxophone – John Zorn
Bass – Bill Laswell

AL ANDALUZ PROJECT — Salam (2013) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Salam is the title of the third studio album by the Al Andaluz Project. The 8 musicians from Germany, Spain and Morocco have already recorded the results of their search, research and interpretation of the music of the three religions on their previous albums. Here you will find the three religions in their full splendor as well as connections to other styles that have been influenced and enriched by them. An extraordinary project which, with musical brilliance at the highest technical level, makes the vision of the peaceful coexistence of the three dominant cultures of our time a reality. Al Andaluz Project
Tracklist :
1.    Esterika Sefardi 4:16
Music By – Traditional Sephardic
2.    Nawba Raml, Maya, Ritmo Btayhi 2:19
Music By – Traditional Arabo-Andalusian
3.        La Mar 4:48
Music By – Raimbaut De Vaqueiras
4.        Kantiga Del Fuego 4:07
Music By – Traditional Sephardic
5.        Afdahil Dabian Ibtassam 4:17
Music By – Traditional Arabo-Andalusian
6.        Amors Mard / Arafto Lhawa Mod Arafto Hawak 6:01
Music By – Anonymous Trubadour, Rabiaa Al Adawia
7.        Petenera 5:43
Music By – Traditional Valencian
8.        Amoulati 3:58
Music By – Traditional Tetuanean
9.        Chansonet 4:58
Music By – Guiraut de Bornelh
10.        El Rey De Fransia 4:33
Music By – Traditional Sephardic
11.        Intro Instrumental Samai Higaz    2:55 
12        Madre De Deus (Cantiga De Santa Maria, 13. Jhdt.)    2:33
13        Yo Me Levanti Un Leunes 2:54
Music By – Traditional Sephardic
14.        Mina Nawa (Maalouf Tunecino)    3:26
15        Un Castel / Improvisation Iman 6:10
Music By – Traditional Occitan
Credits :  
Baglama [Saz], Dilruba, Lute [Tar], Santoor, Harp, Sitar, Strings [Iklig], Art Direction, Producer, Recorded By, Mixed By – Michael Popp
Calligraphy – Hassan Massoudy
Flute, Voice – Sigrid Hausen
Hurdy Gurdy, Cittern [Citola], Lute [Lavta], Percussion – Jota Martinez
Hurdy Gurdy, Harmonium – Ernst Schwindl
Kanun, Oud, Baglama [Cura], Percussion – Aziz Samsaoui
Kaval – Milos Jakovljevic
Oboe [Gralla], Flute, Bagpipes, Crumhorn – Eduard Navarro
Percussion – Sascha Gotowtschikow
Percussion, Recorded By – Johann Bengen
Trombone – Cas Gevers
Voice – Iman Kandoussi, Mara Aranda