Album Reviews

Randy Wells | Sep 22, 2012 | 7 comments

When Diamond Life burst onto the scene in 1984/1985 it provided a calm oasis. This was not post-punk or techno-pop. This was an album of lush and lovely music with smooth jazz moods and world beat underpinnings. Superficially cool, the Latin tempos trapped in the grooves simmered with a passion just waiting to explode.

AAA Vinyl Album Reviews

Saft, Swallow, Previte and.... Iggy Pop?

Michael Fremer | Nov 04, 2017 | 5 comments

Pianist Jamie Saft's trio recorded a well-received, sonically superb 2014 album called New Standard. If you need a group or individual backgrounder, please hit that hyperlink.

Album Reviews

Sam Cooke on the Chitlin Circuit!

Michael Fremer | Feb 01, 2009 | 0 comments

The contrast between this Sam Cooke playing a tiny Miami stop on the Chitlin circuit and the one who showed up at New Yorkï¿½s Copacabana the next year couldnï¿½t put the singerï¿½s flip sides into greater relief.

Album Reviews

Sam Records Reissues Deluxe AAA Edition of Early French Chet Baker LP

Michael Fremer | May 08, 2014 | 10 comments

Sam Records is a one man, Paris, France-based operation began in 2011. The one man is Fred Thomas, who has self-professed interests in both jazz and photography. He also obviously is a man who cuts no corners and who believes in authenticity.

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AAA Vinyl Album Reviews

Sam Records Reissues Miles Davis's "ascenseur pour l’échafaud" Soundtrack in its Original 10" Format Michael Fremer | Oct 18, 2016 | 18 comments

Best known to American Miles Davis fans as side one of the twelve inch Columbia Records LP release Jazz Track (CL1268), Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (“Elevator to the Scaffold”), the jazz soundtrack to the Louis Malle film was originally released in France in 1958 on the Fontana label as a 10” LP.

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Album Reviews

Sam Records Releases "Nathan Davis The Hip Doctor"—Live in Paris 1966-67 Michael Fremer | Jan 28, 2019 | 8 comments

Sam Records just issued a never before released series of absolutely rocking live performances by the under appreciated American-born tenor/soprano saxophonist and flutist Nathan Davis (1937-2018).

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Album Reviews

Sam Records Releases Thelonious Monk's "Les liaisons dangereuses 1960" For RSD 2017 Michael Fremer | Apr 18, 2017 | 17 comments

Music composed for films is by definition precisely timed and intended to mirror or at least complement the on screen action. Of course that’s not always how its accomplished, especially when the hired musicians are not trained film composers.

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AAA Vinyl Album Reviews

Samantha Crain's Hardscrapple Tales Mesmerize Michael Fremer | Nov 12, 2015 | 13 comments

The golden gatefold cover art of Samantha Crain's Under Branch & Thorn & Tree makes clear that this is not a collection of "good times" tunes, but one is still left unprepared for the relentlessly bleak stories of betrayal, despair and desolation Crain delivers in an often pain-wracked voice that's somehow wrapped in a soothing, mesmerizing balm.

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Album Reviews

Sarah Plus Soul Plus Standards Michael Fremer | Apr 01, 2009 | 0 comments

Recorded at L.A.’s famed United Recorders June 6th and 12th 1963 and arranged by Gerald Wilson (Anthony’s dad) for the spare and daring combo of organ, trumpet, tenor sax and drums, this Sarah Vaughan set of mostly familiar standards will confound your expectations with every note.

Album Reviews

Sarah Vaughan - Live At The Berlin Philharmonie 1969 - Lost Recordings Double LP Cut From High Resolution Digital Files

Michael Fremer | Oct 11, 2021 | 31 comments

(Update: I was wrong. These were cut from files and not from tape. The information I received was not clear. Some of the commenters are correct and I was wrong. I am always happy to end up with egg on my face to get correct facts published. These digital transfers are the best I've heard. I'm leaving the review "as is".. Brief and to the point: This is a previously unreleased Sarah Vaughan fan “must have” double LP set recorded at the Berlin Philharmonie November 9th, 1969 with Vaughan sympathetically backed by a trio of relative unknowns: Johnny Veith on piano, Gus Mancuso on bass and Eddy Pucci on drums. Mancuso’s story is fascinating and worth a read. You’ll have to fend online for yourself for more about the others.

Album Reviews

Scorsese's Soundtrack On Firm Footing Without Picture

Michael Fremer | May 01, 2007 | 0 comments

Not having to include picture with sound gave the compilers of this 4 LP box set latitude Martin Scorsese did not have when he made his Dylan bio No Direction Home: The Soundtrack.

Album Reviews

Second Release After 20 Year Hiatus Hits Fun Zone Again

Michael Fremer | Aug 01, 2006 | 0 comments

I think there’s a recent interview with these guys online but I don’t want to read it. The less I know the better.

Album Reviews

Second Volume in Ella Fitzgerald And Louis Armstrong Collaboration Trilogy, Ella And Louis Again, Mixes Fine Duets With Individual Showcase Moments on New 180g 2LP Masterpiece from Verve and Acoustic Sounds

Mark Smotroff | Oct 14, 2022 | 18 comments

Your decision as to whether you need the second volume in the 1950s trilogy of recorded collaborations between Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong — October 1957’s Ella And Louis Again — may depend on how much of a fan you are of the Great American Songbook and vocal jazz in general. Read on to see if this 180g 2LP offering from Verve and Acoustic Sounds whets the audiophile palate. . .

Album Reviews

Secular Hymns from Sons of the Sons of the Pioneers

Greg Hill | Jul 01, 2010 | 0 comments

The Fleet Foxes are a new band from Seattle. Put aside any associations you might have with grungy histrionics. Imagine instead a small band of Blue Ridge mountain refugees spending a good long while in remote, lush forests where they smoothed away the rough edges and filigree notes of their musical forefathers while gathering up ideas from key times (the 60’s) and places (Laurel Canyon, rural England) to create their own, incantatory sound.

Album Reviews

Set the "Wayback Machine" to 1958!

Michael Fremer | Aug 01, 2003 | 1 comments

You won’t be buying these two LPs for their sonics. Primitive television show soundtracks from a Compton, California based local program recorded before an appreciative live audience, provide listeners with a “way back machine” glimpse of another time, and seemingly another universe—especially when you consider the music for which Compton’s currently best known.

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