GABOR SZABO - Spellbinder (1966-1998) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Released just six months after Gypsy '66, Gabor Szabo's second album as a leader (after leaving a sublime Chico Hamilton band that also included Charles Lloyd) remains one of his finest moments in the studio. Szabo utilized the tales of bassist Ron Carter and his old boss Hamilton on drums, as well as a pair of fine Latin percussionists -- Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja. The groove quotient was very high on Spellbinder, maybe even higher than on later albums such as Jazz Raga or Sorcerer. This set is all Szabo, drifting, wafting, and soaring above all that rhythm; the track selection provides ample space for Szabo's highly individualized Eastern modal style to shine. The set opens with the title track, a snaky guitar masterpiece with plenty of droning strings and pinched chords that are followed by open string flourishes. Carter holds the entire band together as Hamilton plays in counterpoint to the percussionists. This is followed with two nuggets from the pop book of the day, the Coleman/Leigh classic "Witchcraft" and "It Was a Very Good Year." From the performances here, it's apparent that Szabo was deeply influenced by singers, and Frank Sinatra was at his pinnacle during this time. There's the emerging '60s psychedelic sound in Szabo's playing, but it is underlaid with bossa rhythms and swells. These tracks, while flavored with Latin and pop stylings, are gorgeous guitar jazz. Szabo gets back into his own mystic thang with "Gypsy Queen" (the opening droning moments of which the Doors lifted entirely for "The End"). Here the Latin rhythms and guitar go head to head, point to counterpoint. A pronounced yet elusive melody line propels a series of polyrhythms forward into an abyss of melody, mode, and frighteningly intense legato phrasing, leaving the listener breathless. He takes the edge off with Sonny Bono's "Bang Bang (She Shot Me Down)." Szabo sings here in his plaintive Hungarian-inflected English, and the tune becomes something other than a pop song, but a tome on despair and loss. The funky "Cheetah" follows with gorgeous arpeggios, pointedly turning into chords of distinction as Hamilton rides the crash cymbal into territories unknown and double-times the band until it notches up the intensity. This set follows with one more Szabo original ("Yearning") and a trio of standards, with a heartbreakingly beautiful read of "My Foolish Heart" and a medley of "Autumn Leaves" and "Speak to Me of Love." Szabo's read on jazz in the '60s was brilliant. He embodied all of its most popular aspirations with a genuine spirit of innovation and adventure. Spellbinder is a masterpiece.     
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Tracklist:
1 Spellbinder  5:30
Gabor Szabo
2 Witchcraft  4:39  
Cy Coleman / Carolyn Leigh
3 It Was a Very Good Year  2:47
Ervin Drake
4 Gypsy Queen  5:13
Gabor Szabo
5 Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)  2:28
Sonny Bono
6 Cheetah  4:10
Gabor Szabo
7 My Foolish Heart  5:28
Ned Washington / Victor Young
8 Yearning  2:59
Gabor Szabo
9 Autumn Leaves/Speak to Me of Love  3:35
Joseph Kosma / Johnny Mercer / Jacques Prévert
Credits
Bass – Ron Carter
Drums – Chico Hamilton
Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder
Guitar – Gabor Szabo
Percussion [Latin] – Victor Pantoja, Willie Bobo 

JIMMY SMITH - Bluesmith (1972-2006) APE (image+.cue), lossless

It is ironic that one of Jimmy Smith's best Verve releases would be his next-to-last for the label. This surprisingly freewheeling but relaxed jam session also features Teddy Edwards on tenor, guitarist Ray Crawford, bassist Leroy Vinnegar, drummer Donald Dean, and the congas of Victor Pantoja. Together they perform five of Smith's fairly basic originals and Harvey Siders's "Mournin' Wes," a tribute for Wes Montgomery. Fine straight-ahead music. by Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1    Straight Ahead 5:25
Oliver Nelson / Jimmy Smith
2    Absolutely Funky 9:12
Jimmy Smith
3    Lolita 6:23
Jimmy Smith
4    Mournin' Wes 10:00
Harvey Siders
5    Blues for 3+1 4:52
Jimmy Smith
6    Bluesmith 6:41
Jimmy Smith
Credits :
Bass – Leroy Vinnegar
Congas – Victor Pantoja (tracks: 3, 5)
Drums – Donald Dean
Guitar – Ray Crawford (tracks: 1 to 4, 6)
Organ – Jimmy Smith
Tenor Saxophone – Teddy Edwards (tracks: 1 to 4, 6) 

WILLIE BOBO - Tomorrow Is Here (1977-2012) RM / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Willie Bobo's only LP for Blue Note came at a point well past the label's heyday, when crossover was its primary focus. Hence Tomorrow Is Here has a pronounced '70s R&B/funk feel, with synthesizers, envelope followers, electric pianos, guitars and occasional strings interwoven with Bobo's steady Latin congas, timbales and self-effacing vocals. But there are a few gems to be found here -- one in particular. The leadoff track "Suitcase Full Of Dreams" is a great, haunting, Latin-accented song about a journeyman musician's life on the road that should have become a standard but is now almost completely forgotten. Karma's Reggie Andrews sits in on keyboards to give the record its contemporary sound; the other participants are L.A. sessionmen. Bobo's engaging personality, the injected Latin element, and "Suitcase" are what makes this otherwise dated record come alive. by Richard S. Ginell
Tracklist :
1    Suitcase Full of Dreams 3:48
Milo Adamo / Gene Goe
2    Funk De Mambo 3:17
Reggie Andrews / Joe Blocker / Curtis Robertson, Jr.
3    Keep On Walking 4:28
Gino Vannelli
4    Dreamin' 5:08
Bernard Ighner
5    Wacky Tobacky (The Race) 2:58
William Cosby / Larry Farrow / Stuart Gardner
6    Can't Stay Down Too Long 3:29
Reggie Andrews
7    Time After Time 3:16
Jule Styne
8    Kojak Theme 3:33
William Goldenberg
9    A Little Tear 4:53
Eumir Deodato
Credits :
Arranged By – Larry Farrow (faixas: 1, 3, 9), Reggie Andrews (faixas: 2, 6, 7), Willie Bobo (faixas: 1, 4, 5, 8)
Bass – David Troncoso, Dean Cortez, Jim Hughart
Drums – Carlos Vega, Gary Denton, James Gadson, Jeff Porcaro
Guitar – Craig McMullen, Curtis Robinson, Jr., Dennis Budimir, John Cadrecha, Sidney Muldrow
Keyboards – David Garfield, Larry Farrow, Reggie Andrews
Percussion – Victor Pantoja
Reeds – Gary Herbig
Saxophone – Ernie Watts, Ray Pizzi
Trombone – George Bohanon, Thurman Green
Trumpet – Gary Grant, Nolan Smith, Ron King
Vocals – Bernard Ighner, Sandi Erwin

HERBIE HANCOCK - Crossings (1972-2014) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

With the frenzied knocking of what sounds like a clock shop gone berserk, Crossings takes the Herbie Hancock Sextet even further into the electric avant-garde, creating its own idiom. Now, however, the sextet has become a septet with the addition of Dr. Patrick Gleeson on Moog synthesizer, whose electronic decorations, pitchless and not, give the band an even spacier edge. Again, there are only three tracks -- the centerpiece being Hancock's multi-faceted, open-structured suite in five parts called "Sleeping Giant." Nearly 25 minutes long yet amazingly cohesive, "Sleeping Giant" gathers a lot of its strength from a series of funky grooves -- the most potent of which explodes at the tail-end of Part Two -- and Hancock's on-edge Fender Rhodes electric piano solos anticipate his funk adventures later in the '70s. Bennie Maupin's "Quasar" pushes the session into extraterrestrial territory, dominated by Gleeson's wild Moog effects and trumpeter Eddie Henderson's patented fluttering air trumpet. Even stranger is Maupin's "Water Torture," which saunters along freely with splashes of color from Hancock's spooky Mellotron and fuzz-wah-pedaled Fender Rhodes piano, Gleeson's electronics, and a quintet of voices. Still a challenging sonic experience, this music (which can be heard on Warners' Mwandishi two-CD set) has yet to find its audience, though the electronica-minded youth ought to find it dazzling. by Richard S. Ginell  

Tracklist:

1. Sleeping Giant (24:48)

2. Quasar (7:25)

3. Water Torture (13:54)

Total Time 46:21

Credits:

Herbie Hancock - Piano, Electric Piano, Mellotron, Percussion

Eddie Henderson - Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Percussion

Billy Hart - Drums, Percussion

Julian Priester - Bass, Tenor and Alto Trombone, Percussion

Buster Williams - Electric Bass, Bass, Percussion

Bennie Maupin - Soprano Saxophone, Alto Flute, Bass Clarinet, Piccolo, Percussion

Patrick Gleeson - Moog Synthesizer

Victor Pontoja - Congas

Voices - Candy Love, Sandra Stevens, Della Horne, Victoria Domagalski, Scott Breach

HERBIE HANCOCK - Sextant (1973-1998) APE (image+.cue), lossless

When Herbie Hancock left Warner Bros. in 1971 after releasing three musically sound but critically and commercially underappreciated albums -- The Crossing, Mwandishi, and Fat Albert's Groove -- he was struggling. At odds with a jazz establishment that longed for his return to his Blue Note sound and a fierce consciousness struggle with free music and the full-on embrace of electricity since his tenure with Miles Davis, Hancock was clearly looking for a voice. Before diving into the commercial waters that would become Headhunters in 1973, Hancock and his tough group (including Billy Hart, Julian Priester, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Bennie Maupin, and Buster Williams) cut this gem for their new label, Columbia. Like its Warner predecessors, the album features a kind of post-modal, free impressionism while gracing the edges of funk. The three long tracks are exploratory investigations into the nature of how mode and interval can be boiled down into a minimal stew and then extrapolated upon for soloing and "riffing." In fact, in many cases, the interval becomes the riff, as is evidenced by "Rain Dance." The piece that revealed the true funk direction, however, was "Hidden Shadows," with its choppy basslines and heavy percussion -- aided by the inclusion of Dr. Patrick Gleeson and Buck Clarke. Dave Rubinson's production brought Hancock's piano more into line with the rhythm section, allowing for a unified front in the more abstract sections of these tunes. The true masterpiece on the album, though, is "Hornets," an eclectic, electric ride through both the dark modal ambience of Miles' In a Silent Way and post-Coltrane harmonic aesthetics. The groove is in place, but it gets turned inside out by Priester and Maupin on more than one occasion and Hancock just bleats with the synth in sections. Over 19 minutes in length, it can be brutally intense, but is more often than not stunningly beautiful. It provides a glimpse into the music that became Headhunters, but doesn't fully explain it, making this disc, like its Warner predecessors, true and welcome mysteries in Hancock's long career. by Thom Jurek
Tracklist:
1 Rain Dance 9:16
2 Hidden Shadows 10:11
3 Hornets 19:35
Credits:
Bass Trombone, Tenor Trombone, Trombone [Alto Trombone], Cowbell – Pepo
Composed By – Herbie Hancock
Congas, Bongos – Buck Clarke
Drums – Jabali
Effects [Random Resonator] – Fundi
Electric Bass [Fender Electric With Wah-wah And Fuzz], Acoustic Bass – Mchezaji
Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes], Clavinet [Hohner D-6 With Fender Fuzz-wah And Echoplex], Mellotron, Piano [Steinway], Handclaps – Mwandishi
Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Piccolo Flute, Afoxé [Afuche], Kazoo [Hum-a-zoo] – Mwile
Synthesizer [Arp 2600] – Dr. Patrick Gleeson
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Mganga