JOE ZAWINUL — Dialects (1986) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

If Joe Zawinul was out to prove that he didn't need Weather Report anymore, he succeeded spectacularly in this virtual one-man show. Zawinul recorded many of the vocals (assisted now and then by Bobby McFerrin and a vocal trio) and all of the synthesizer and rhythm machine tracks himself in his Pasadena home studio, yet the results are anything but mechanical. Zawinul in fact achieves a rare thing: He manages to get his stacks of electronics to swing like mad in these pan-global grooves that pick up where WR was about to leave off. "Waiting for the Rain" generates a ribbon of tension and anticipation, while "Zeebop" is a noisy rush of pure adrenaline. And "Carnivalito" is a total gas, a percolating, outrageously joyous evocation of a carnival that would put the world's best percussion players out of business if Zawinul's swinging talent could be bottled and sold. This is an important, overlooked album because it proves that electronic instruments can reach your emotions and shake your body when played by someone who has bothered to learn how to master them. Richard S. Ginell   Tracklist & Credits :

BOBBY McFERRIN - VOCAbuLarieS (2010) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Bobby McFerrin has always been a wildly restless talent, continually looking to develop fresh ideas for the human voice and place it in -- sometimes wildly -- different contexts from simple folk and pop songs to improvisational settings to strident compositional frameworks. His productions include duet records with instrumentalists Chick Corea and Yo-Yo Ma, as well as the creation of a virtual a cappella choir from his own vocal overdubs. All of this said, there has always been “something missing” from his recorded works that shows itself in concert, outside recording studio confines. On VOCAbuLarieS he seems to have found it. This is the work that anyone remotely interested in McFerrin needs to hear. Collaborating with composer, arranger, and conductor Roger Treece over seven years, McFerrin’s been given a foil who not only understands his previous output, but can focus his ideas and take them to the next developmental peak. The pair employed over 50 vocalists from different genres and nations to create a virtual choir in the studio. According to a press release, they cut over 1,400 vocal tracks. The music here is “fusion” in the most seamless and beautiful sense of the word: classical, pop, soul, Middle Eastern, African, and Eastern European vocal traditions all move together, and encounter one another head-on. They meld into a whole where the seams show, but are elegantly aurally tailored to create something entirely new -- even if the material always isn’t. Three selections here come from the controversially beautiful Medicine Music album, from 1996. But the versions here are radically different than the originals; the voices, rhythms, textures, and even ambiences of these voices have a more muscular quality, much more forceful and complex while simultaneously being more "listenable." The opener, “Baby,” provides proof. In the original it was a simple folk song, a lullaby with African roots; here is it a harmonically challenging, intricate labyrinth where 22 singers accompany McFerrin as well as a rhythm section. ”Wailers” is a pulsing chant with Middle Eastern, African, and Eastern European harmonies woven together by singers who include Sussan Deyhim, Luciana Souza, and Janis Siegel. ”He Ran to the Train” combines -- in a wholly new way -- two tracks from Medicine Music in an explosively knotty, compellingly emotional call-and-response piece that is as rhythmically complex as it is harmonically. The set closes with “Brief Eternity,” a new piece of modern sacred music that evokes everything from Gregorian chant and polyphony to John Tavener and Arvo Pärt. VOCAbuLarieS is easily McFerrin’s finest moment on record as well as his most ambitious, and should win him some new fans even among cynics. by Thom Jurek 
Tracklist:
1 Baby 8:04
Bobby McFerrin / Roger Treece
2 Say Ladeo 8:44
Bobby McFerrin / Don Rosler / Roger Treece
3 Wailers 10:25
Bobby McFerrin / Roger Treece
4 Messages 11:22
Don Rosler / Roger Treece
5 The Garden 8:34
Bobby McFerrin / Roger Treece
6 He Ran to the Train 10:29
Bobby McFerrin / Roger Treece
7 Brief Eternity 06:13
Don Rosler / Roger Treece

BOBBY McFERRIN - VOCAbuLarieS

 (2010) Emarcy / FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 O Púbis da Rosa

BOBBY McFERRIN - The Voice [1984] APE (image+.cue), lossless

The Voice was a milestone in jazz history; it was the first time a jazz singer had recorded an entire album solo, without accompaniment or overdubbing, for a major label. Bobby McFerrin's amazing ability to switch back and forth between bass notes and falsetto, along with his talent for jumping octaves, made this record quite a virtuoso showcase. For those interested in the potential of the human voices and in an important jazz talent, The Voice is recommended without reservations.  by Scott Yanow 
Tracklist 
1 Blackbird 2:49
John Lennon / Paul McCartney 
2 The Jump 4:49
Bobby McFerrin 
3 El Brujo 4:11
Bobby McFerrin 
4 I Feel Good 3:02
James Brown 
5 I'm My Own Walkman 3:58
Bobby McFerrin 
6 Music Box 3:40
Bobby McFerrin 
7 Medley: Donna Lee/Big Top/We're in the Money 7:01
Al Dubin / Bobby McFerrin / Charlie Parker / Harry Warren 
8 I'm Alone 4:37
Bobby McFerrin 
9 T.J. 3:47
Bobby McFerrin 
10 Take the "A" Train 3:40
Billy Strayhorn 
Credits:
Vocals [Live Acapella], Bobby McFerrin

BOBBY McFERRIN - The Voice

 [1984] Elektra / APE (image+.cue), lossless

O Púbis da Rosa

BOBBY McFERRIN & CHICK COREA - The Mozart Sessions [1996] FLAC

The informal title says a great deal about the contents of The Mozart Sessions, which could have been called Concerti for Piano and Orchestra, Nos. 23 and 20, since that is, for the most part, what it is. But of course the conductors, vocalist Bobby McFerrin and jazz keyboard player Chick Corea, are not your average classical musicians. Nor is there any doubt about the non-traditional

nature of the recording, when it starts with McFerrin's patented improvisational vocals followed

by Corea's piano inventions under the title "Prelude." So, for a start, purists should be warned away. On the other hand, the more adventurous may be slightly disappointed, since after they get the preliminaries out of the way, McFerrin and Corea, aided and abetted by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, turn in pleasant but unexceptional readings of the concerti, with Corea especially eschewing any attempt at dazzle in what are usually showcase pieces. The piano work is fluid and the orchestral accompaniment delicate, but the principals seem sufficiently concerned about getting anything wrong not to really take off. At the end, as Corea once again improvises in tandem with McFerrin's voice, one longs for more of their interaction, perhaps in a less restrictive context. by William Ruhlmann 

Tracklist:

1. Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No 23 In A Major K 488-1-Prelude-Allegro

2. Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No 23 In A Major K 488-2-Adagio

3. Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No 23 In A Major K 488-3-Allegro Assai

4. Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No 2 In D Minor K 466-1-Prelude-Allegro

5. Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No 2 In D Minor K 466-2-Romance

6. Concerto For Piano And Orchestra No 2 In D Minor K 466-3-Rondo (Allegro Assai)

7. Song For Amadeus-Improvisation On Sonata No 2 In F Major K 28-189E-2 Adagio

1. Concerto for Piano no 23 in A major, K 488 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 

Performer: Chick Corea (Piano)

Conductor: Bobby McFerrin

Orchestra/Ensemble: St. Paul Chamber Orchestra

Written: 1786 

Date of Recording: 1996

Length: 29 Minutes 36 Secs.

Notes: This selection begins with an improvisation entitled "Prelude" (Bobby McFerrin, vocals; Chick Corea, piano).

2. Concerto for Piano no 20 in D minor, K 466 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 

Performer: Chick Corea (Piano)

Conductor: Bobby McFerrin

Orchestra/Ensemble: St. Paul Chamber Orchestra

Written: 1785 

Date of Recording: 1996

Length: 34 Minutes 0 Secs.

Notes: This selection begins with an improvisation entitled "Prelude" (BobbyMcFerrin, vocals; Chick Corea, piano).

3. Song for Amadeus by Chick Corea 

Performer: Bobby McFerrin (Voice), Chick Corea (Piano)

Period: 20th Century

Written: USA 

Date of Recording: 1996

Length: 2 Minutes 29 Secs.

Notes: This work is an improvisation on the Adagio (2nd) movement of W. A. Mozart's "Sonata for Piano no. 2 in F Major, K. 280 (189e)".

BOBBY McFERRIN & CHICK COREA 

 The Mozart Sessions 

[1996] Sony / FLAC / scans

O Púbis da Rosa