Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods - Dizzy Gillespie & Machito

Rating: 5.5/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Original Jazz Classics
Year Released: 1975
Album Covers: Included
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About Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children. Dizzy's father was a local bandleader, so instruments were made available to Dizzy. He started to play the piano at the age of 4. Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz.

In addition to featuring in these epochal moments in bebop, he was instrumental in founding Afro-Cuban jazz, the modern jazz version of what early-jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton referred to as the "Spanish Tinge". Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and gifted improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. In addition to his instrumental skills, Dizzy's beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop, which was originally regarded as threatening and frightening music by many listeners raised on older styles of jazz. He had an enormous impact on virtually every subsequent trumpeter, both by the example of his playing and as a mentor to younger musicians.

About Machito

Machito (December 3, 1909 – April 15, 1984), born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo in Havana, Cuba, was an influential Latin jazz musician. Machito played a huge role in the history of Latin jazz. His bands of the 1940s, especially the band named the Afro-Cubans, were among the first to fuse Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz improvisation. Machito was the front man, singer, conductor, and maraca player of the Afro-Cubans and its successors. Machito's brother-in-law Mario Bauza, the musical director, influenced Machito to hire jazz-oriented arrangers. The son of a cigar manufacturer, Machito became a professional musician in Cuba in his teens before he emigrated to America in 1937 as a vocalist with La Estrella Habanera. He worked with several Latin artists and orchestras in the late '30s, recording with the then-dominant Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat. After an earlier, aborted attempt to launch a band with Bauza, Machito founded the Afro-Cubans in 1940, taking on Bauza the following year as music director where he remained for 35 years. Machito's son Mario Grillo later took over the position.

In 1983, he won a Grammy Award in the Best Latin Recording category for "Machito & His Salsa Big Band '82".

More recently, the song "Mambo Mucho Mambo" has featured on the sound track for the game Grand Theft Auto Vice City.In 2005, the 1957 album Kenya was added to the list of albums in '1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'.Machito died during a concert in London, England in 1984, suffering a fatal stroke while playing Ronnie Scott's club. A documentary film by Carlo Ortiz, Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy, was released in 1987.

Flautista! Herbie Mann Plays Afrocuban Jazz

Rating: 4/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Verve
Year Released: 1959
Album Covers: Included
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About Herbie Mann

Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), better known as Herbie Mann, was an American jazz flautist and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played saxophones and clarinets (including bass clarinet), but Mann was among the first jazz musicians to specialize on the flute and was perhaps jazz music's preeminent flautist during the 1960s.

His most popular single was "Hijack," which was a Billboard Number-one dance hits of 1975 (USA) for 3 weeks.

Herbie Mann was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a teen, he attended Lincoln H.S. in Brighton Beach and was actually failed in a music class. He talks a lot about "the groove." Mann "locked into a Brazilian groove in the early '60s, then moved into a funky, soulful groove in the late '60s and early '70s. By the mid-'70s he was making hit disco records, still cooking in a rhythmic groove." He describes his approach to finding the groove as follows:"All you have to do is find the waves that are comfortable to float on top of." Mann argues that the "epitome of a groove record" is Memphis Underground or Push Push, because the "rhythm section locked all in one perception."

Mann was an early pioneer in the fusing of jazz and world music. He incorporated elements of African music in 1959 following a State Department sponsored tour of the continent, adding a conga player to his band, and the same year recorded Flautista, an album of Afro-Cuban jazz. In 1961 Mann took a tour of Brazil and returned to the United States to record with Brazilian players including Antonio Carlos Jobim and guitarist Baden Powell. These albums helped popularize the bossa nova. Many of his albums throughout his career returned to Brazilian themes. He went on to record reggae in London (in 1974), Middle Eastern (1966 and 1967) (with oud and dumbek), and Eastern European styles.

In the mid-1960s Mann hired a young Chick Corea to play in some of his bands, still with a Latin ti. In the late 1970s, early 1980s Mann played duets at New York City's Bottom Line and the Village Gate to sold out crowds with the late Sarod virtuso Vasant Rai.

Following the 1969 hit album Memphis Underground a number of disco-style smooth jazz records in the 1970s, mainly on Atlantic records, brought some criticism from jazz purists but helped Mann remain active during a period of declining interest in jazz. The musicians on these recordings are some of the best-known session players in soul and jazz, including singer Cissy Houston (mother of Whitney Houston), guitarists Duane Allman and Larry Coryell, bassists Donald "Duck" Dunn and Chuck Rainey and drummers Al Jackson and Bernard Purdie, these last from the Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama.

In this period Mann had a number of songs cross over to the pop charts — rather rare for a jazz musician. A 1998 interview reported that "At least 25 Herbie Mann albums have made the top 200 pop charts, success denied most of his jazz peers."

In the early 1970s he founded his own record label, Embryo, distributed by Atlantic Records, and which, apart from his own recordings, produced the 520 Series for jazz albums, such as Ron Carter's Uptown Conversation (1970); Miroslav Vitous' first solo album, Infinite Search (1969); Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival (1971); and Dick Morrissey and Jim Mullen's Up (1976), which featured the Average White Band as a rhythm section; and the 730 Series, with a more rock-oriented style, including Zero Time (1971) by TONTO's Expanding Head Band.

He later set up Kokopelli Records after difficulty with established labels.

His first gig was playing in the Catskills at age 15. His last, on May 3, 2003 was at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at age 73. Herbie Mann died at age 73 on July 1, 2003 after a long battle with prostate cancer.

Fantabulous - Oliver Nelson

Rating: 5/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Argo (Original), Verve (Reissue)
Year Released: 1964 (Original) , 2008 (Reissue)
Album Covers: Included
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Note From Dada!
Άλεξ...Thanks για το δισκάκι!

About Oliver Nelson

Oliver Edward Nelson (June 4, 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri – October 28, 1975) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer.

Oliver Nelson's family was musical: his brother was also a saxophonist who played with Cootie Williams in the 1940s, and his sister sang and played piano. Nelson began learning to play the piano when he was six, and started on the saxophone at eleven. From 1947 he played in "territory" bands around Saint Louis, before joining the Louis Jordan big band from 1950 to 1951, playing alto saxophone and arranging. After military service in the Marines, he returned to Missouri to study music composition and theory at Washington and Lincoln Universities, graduating in 1958. While back in his hometown of St. Louis, he met and married the former Miss Eileen Mitchell. From this union came a son, Oliver Nelson Jr.. Oliver and Eileen divorced, and, after graduation, Nelson moved to New York, playing with Erskine Hawkins and Wild Bill Davis, and working as the house arranger for the Apollo Theater in Harlem. He also played on the West Coast briefly with the Louie Bellson big band in 1959, and in the same year began recording as leader with small groups. From 1960 to 1961 he played tenor saxophone with Quincy Jones, both in the U.S. and on tour in Europe.

After six albums as leader between 1959 and 1961 for the Prestige label with such musicians as Kenny Dorham, Johnny Hammond Smith, Eric Dolphy, Roy Haynes, King Curtis and Jimmy Forrest), Nelson's big breakthrough came with The Blues and the Abstract Truth, on Impulse!, featuring the tune "Stolen Moments," now considered a standard. This made his name as a composer and arranger, and he went on to record a number of big-band albums, as well as working as an arranger for Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Eddie Davis, Johnny Hodges, Wes Montgomery, Buddy Rich, Jimmy Smith, Billy Taylor, Stanley Turrentine, Irene Reid, Gene Ammons and many others. He also led all-star big bands in various live performances between 1966 and 1975. Nelson continued to perform as a soloist during this period, though increasingly on soprano saxophone.

In 1967, Nelson moved to Los Angeles. Apart from his big-band appearances (in Berlin, Montreux, New York, and Los Angeles), he toured West Africa with a small group. He also spent a great deal of time composing music for television (Ironside, Night Gallery, Columbo, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and Longstreet) and films (Death of a Gunfighter and he arranged Gato Barbieri's music for Last Tango in Paris). He produced and arranged for pop stars such as Nancy Wilson, James Brown, the Temptations, and Diana Ross. Less well-known is the fact that Nelson composed several symphonic works, and was also deeply involved in jazz education, returning to his alma mater, Washington University, in the summer of 1969 to lead a five-week long clinic that also featured such guest performers as Phil Woods, Mel Lewis, Thad Jones, Sir Roland Hanna, and Ron Carter. Nelson died of a heart attack on 28 October 1975, aged 43.

Ramsey Lewis Trio At The Bohemian Caverns

Rating: 4.5/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Argo (Original), Verve (Reissue)
Year Released: 1964 (Original) , 2008 (Reissue)
Album Covers: Included
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About Ramsey Lewis

Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. (born May 27, 1935) is an American jazz icon, composer, pianist and radio personality. He has been referred to as "the great performer", a title reflecting his performance style and musical selections which display his early gospel playing and classical training (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, etc.) along with his love of jazz and other musical forms. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received five gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.

Ramsey Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ramsey Lewis, Sr. and Pauline Lewis. Lewis began taking piano lessons at the age of four. At 15 he joined his first jazz band, The Cleffs. The seven-piece group provided Lewis his first involvement with jazz; he would later join Cleffs drummer Isaac "Redd" Holt and bassist Eldee Young to form the Ramsey Lewis Trio.

The trio started as primarily a jazz unit and released their first album, Ramsey Lewis And The Gentlemen of Swing, in 1956. Following their 1965 hit The In Crowd (the single reached #5 on the pop charts, and the album #2) they concentrated more on pop material. Young and Holt left in 1966 to form the Young-Holt Trio and were replaced by Cleveland Eaton and Maurice White. White was replaced by Maurice Jennings in 1970. Later, Franky Donaldson and Billy "The Bhudda" Dickens replaced Jennings and Eaton; Felton Crews also appeared on many 1980's releases.

By 1966, Lewis was one of the nation’s most successful jazz pianists, topping the charts with The In Crowd, Hang On Sloopy, and Wade in the Water. Many of his recordings attracted a large non-jazz audience. In the '70s, Lewis often played electric piano, although by later in the decade he was sticking to acoustic and using an additional keyboardist in his groups.

In addition to recording and performing, Lewis hosted a morning show on Chicago "smooth jazz" radio station WNUA (95.5 FM) until May 22, 2009. His weekly syndicated radio program "Legends of Jazz," created in 1990, features recordings from artists such as David Sanborn, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau and Miles Davis. The show can be heard in 60 U.S. cities and overseas. On December 4, 2006, the Ramsey Lewis Morning Show became part of Broadcast Architecture's Smooth Jazz Network, simulcasting on other Smooth Jazz stations across the country for the first time. However, the show is still based in Chicago.

In 2006, a well-received 13-episode Legends of Jazz television series hosted by Lewis was broadcast on public TV nationwide and featured live performances by a variety of jazz artists including Larry Gray, Lonnie Smith, Joey Defrancesco, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Kurt Elling, Benny Golson, Pat Metheny and Tony Bennett.

Lewis is artistic director of Jazz at Ravinia (an annual feature at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois) and helped organize Ravinia's Jazz Mentor Program. Ramsey also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Merit School of Music, a Chicago inner-city music program. Early in 2005, the Ramsey Lewis Foundation was created to help connect at-risk children to the world of music. As an offshoot of that foundation, Lewis plans to form a Youth Choir and Youth Orchestra. In January 2007, the Dave Brubeck Institute invited Lewis to join its Honorary Board of Friends at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. Lewis is an Honorary Board member of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra.

Lewis still lives in Chicago, Illinois, the city of his musical roots. He has seven children, fourteen grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Goin' Latin - Ramsey Lewis

Rating: 5.5/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Cadet Records (Original), Verve (Reissue)
Year Released: 1967 (Original), 2008 (Reissue)
Album Covers: Included
Pass: radiodada
Links: rapidshare

About Ramsey Lewis

Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. (born May 27, 1935) is an American jazz icon, composer, pianist and radio personality. He has been referred to as "the great performer", a title reflecting his performance style and musical selections which display his early gospel playing and classical training (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, etc.) along with his love of jazz and other musical forms. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received five gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.

Ramsey Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ramsey Lewis, Sr. and Pauline Lewis. Lewis began taking piano lessons at the age of four. At 15 he joined his first jazz band, The Cleffs. The seven-piece group provided Lewis his first involvement with jazz; he would later join Cleffs drummer Isaac "Redd" Holt and bassist Eldee Young to form the Ramsey Lewis Trio.

The trio started as primarily a jazz unit and released their first album, Ramsey Lewis And The Gentlemen of Swing, in 1956. Following their 1965 hit The In Crowd (the single reached #5 on the pop charts, and the album #2) they concentrated more on pop material. Young and Holt left in 1966 to form the Young-Holt Trio and were replaced by Cleveland Eaton and Maurice White. White was replaced by Maurice Jennings in 1970. Later, Franky Donaldson and Billy "The Bhudda" Dickens replaced Jennings and Eaton; Felton Crews also appeared on many 1980's releases.

By 1966, Lewis was one of the nation’s most successful jazz pianists, topping the charts with The In Crowd, Hang On Sloopy, and Wade in the Water. Many of his recordings attracted a large non-jazz audience. In the '70s, Lewis often played electric piano, although by later in the decade he was sticking to acoustic and using an additional keyboardist in his groups.

In addition to recording and performing, Lewis hosted a morning show on Chicago "smooth jazz" radio station WNUA (95.5 FM) until May 22, 2009. His weekly syndicated radio program "Legends of Jazz," created in 1990, features recordings from artists such as David Sanborn, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau and Miles Davis. The show can be heard in 60 U.S. cities and overseas. On December 4, 2006, the Ramsey Lewis Morning Show became part of Broadcast Architecture's Smooth Jazz Network, simulcasting on other Smooth Jazz stations across the country for the first time. However, the show is still based in Chicago.

In 2006, a well-received 13-episode Legends of Jazz television series hosted by Lewis was broadcast on public TV nationwide and featured live performances by a variety of jazz artists including Larry Gray, Lonnie Smith, Joey Defrancesco, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Kurt Elling, Benny Golson, Pat Metheny and Tony Bennett.

Lewis is artistic director of Jazz at Ravinia (an annual feature at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois) and helped organize Ravinia's Jazz Mentor Program. Ramsey also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Merit School of Music, a Chicago inner-city music program. Early in 2005, the Ramsey Lewis Foundation was created to help connect at-risk children to the world of music. As an offshoot of that foundation, Lewis plans to form a Youth Choir and Youth Orchestra. In January 2007, the Dave Brubeck Institute invited Lewis to join its Honorary Board of Friends at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. Lewis is an Honorary Board member of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra.

Lewis still lives in Chicago, Illinois, the city of his musical roots. He has seven children, fourteen grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Used To Be A Duke - Johnny Hodges And His Orchestra

Rating: 5/10

Sound Quality: 320 kb/s

Format: Mp3

Record Label: Norgan (Original). Verve (Reissue)

Year Released: 1954 (Original) , 2009 (Reissue)

Album Covers: Included

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About Johnny Hodges

John Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges (July 25, 1906 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophonist best known for leading Duke Ellington's saxophone section for 38 years.

Hodges started playing with Lloyd Scott, Sidney Bechet, Lucky Roberts and Chick Webb. When Ellington wanted to expand his band in 1928, Ellington's clarinet player Barney Bigard recommended Hodges, who was featured on both alto and soprano sax. His playing became one of the identifying voices of the Ellington orchestra. Hodges left the Duke to lead his own band (1951-1955), but returned to the large ensemble shortly before Ellington's triumphant return to prominence--the orchestra's performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival.

Hodges was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was mostly self-taught, although he did take lessons on soprano sax with Bechet. He was one of the prominent Ellington Band members who featured in Benny Goodman's legendary 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. Goodman described Hodges as "the greatest man on alto sax I ever heard." Charlie Parker called him "the Lily Pons of his instrument."

Ellington's practice of writing tunes specifically for members of his orchestra resulted in the Hodges specialties, "Confab with Rab", "Jeep's Blues", "Sultry Sunset", and "Hodge Podge". Other songs recorded by the Ellington Orchestra which prominently feature Hodges' smooth alto-saxophone are "Magenta Haze", "Prelude to a Kiss", "Haupe" (from Anatomy of a Murder) -- note also the "seductive" and hip-swaying “Flirtibird,” featuring the "irresistibly salacious tremor" by Hodges, "The Star-Crossed Lovers" from Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder suite, "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)", "Blood Count" and "Passion Flower".

Generations of saxophonists turn to 1963 recording The Great Paris Concert, in which Hodges' lyrical poise is captured well, particularly on "On the Sunny Side of the Street".

He had a pure tone and economy of melody on both the blues and ballads that won him admiration from musicians of all eras and styles, from Ben Webster to John Coltrane, both of whom played with him when he had his own orchestra in the 1950s, to Lawrence Welk, who featured him in an album of standards. His highly individualistic playing style, which featured the use of a wide vibrato and much sliding between slurred notes, was frequently imitated. As evidenced by the Ellington compositions named after him, he earned the nicknames Rabbit, according to Johnny Griffin because "he looked like a rabbit, no expression on his face while he's playing all this beautiful music." and Jeep (for his apparent speed as a runner).

Hodges' last performances were at the Imperial Room in Toronto, less than a week before his death from a heart attack. His last recordings are featured on The New Orleans Suite, incomplete on his death.

In Ellington's eulogy of Hodges he said: "Never the world's most highly animated showman or greatest stage personality, but a tone so beautiful it sometimes brought tears to the eyes - this was Johnny Hodges. This is Johnny Hodges."

Johnny Hodges & Duke Ellington - Video

Duke Ellington - Videos

It Don't Mean A Thing

C Jam Blues

A Portrait Of Duke Ellington

Rating: 6.5/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Gallerie
Year Released: 1997
Album Covers: Included
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Links: rapidshare (Disc 1), rapidshare (Disc 2)

About Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Recognized during his life as one of the most influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music, Ellington's reputation has increased since his death, including a special award citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board.

Ellington called his style and sound "American Music" rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as "beyond category", including many of the musicians who served with his orchestra, some of whom were themselves considered among the giants of jazz and remained with Ellington's orchestra for decades. While many were noteworthy in their own right, it was Ellington that melded them into one of the most well-known orchestral units in the history of jazz. He often composed specifically for the style and skills of these individuals, such as "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, "Concerto for Cootie" ("Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me") for Cootie Williams and "The Mooche" for Tricky Sam Nanton. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan" and "Perdido" which brought the "Spanish Tinge" to big-band jazz. After 1941, he frequently collaborated with composer-arranger Billy Strayhorn, who he called his alter-ego.

One of the twentieth century's best-known African-American celebrities, Ellington recorded for many American record companies, and appeared in several films. Ellington and his orchestra toured the United States and Europe regularly before and after World War II. Ellington led his band from 1923 until his death in 1974. His son Mercer Ellington took over the band until his death from cancer in 1996. Paul Ellington, Mercer's youngest son, took over the Orchestra from there and after his mother's passing took over the Estate of Duke and Mercer Ellington.

Man With A Movie Camera - The Cinematic Orchestra

Rating: 8/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Ninja Tune
Year Released: 2003
Album Covers: Included
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Note From Dada

Η εκπληκτική μουσική επένδυση των Cinematic Orchestra πάνω στο βουβό αριστούργημα του Dziga Vertov - "Man With A Movie Camera".

About the Album

Man with a Movie Camera is a 2003 soundtrack album by The Cinematic Orchestra, released on 26 May, 2003 on Ninja Tune. The album contains re-workings and thematic reprises of some of the music from their previous album, Every Day, including the tracks "Man with a Movie Camera", and an instrumental version of "All Things to All Men" entitled "All Things".

The album comprises the soundtrack to a re-released version of the then ground-breaking 1929 silent documentary film, Man with a Movie Camera from Russian director Dziga Vertov. The Cinematic Orchestra were commissioned to record the score to play as the opening event in Porto, Portugal's year as European Capital of Culture in 2001.

The first live performance took place in the Coliseu do Porto theatre in May 2000 as part of that year's Porto Film Festival, and was met with a standing ovation from the audience of more than 3,500 people. The songs have since been performed at film festivals all over the world.

In November 2002, the band, along with a string section and percussionist Milo Fell, recorded the album over a 2-day period at Whitfield Street Recording Studio in London.

A DVD of the same name was given a limited release in 2003. It included Vertov's original film allied to The Cinematic Orchestra's soundtrack, and a "making of" documentary as well as some live performances and music videos from the band.

About The Cinematic Orchestra
The Cinematic Orchestra is a British-based jazz and electronic outfit, created in the late 1990s by Jason Swinscoe. The band is signed to Ninja Tune independent record label. In addition to Swinscoe, the band includes PC (former DJ Food member Patrick Carpenter) on turntables, Luke Flowers (drums), Tom Chant (Saxophone), Nick Ramm (piano), Stuart McCallum (guitar) and Phil France (double bass). Former members include Jamie Coleman (trumpet), T. Daniel Howard (drums), Federico Ughi (drums) and Alex James (piano). The most recent addition to the band is Mancunian guitarist Stuart McCallum. Swinscoe and Carpenter (PC) have also recorded together under the band name Neptune.

The Cinematic Orchestra's sound, in both live and studio contexts, employs a live band which improvises along with a turntablist and electronic elements such as samples provided by Swinscoe. In their studio releases Swinscoe will often remix the live source material to produce a finished product that is a seamless combination of live jazz improvisation with electronica, such that it is difficult to tell where the improvisation ends and the production begins.

Swinscoe first formed a group called Crabladder in 1990, whilst studying Fine Art at Cardiff College, releasing one official single on his own Power Tools label. In 1994, Swinscoe was given a DJ spot on Heart FM, a pirate radio station in south London.

Their debut album, Motion, was released in 1999. The critical success of that album led to them being asked to perform at the Director's Guild Awards ceremony for the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to film director Stanley Kubrick.

The band were asked by the organisers of the Porto European City of Culture 2001 festival to write a new score to Dziga Vertov's classic 1929 Russian silent film Man with a Movie Camera, to be performed live in accompaniment with a showing of the film. The work differed from the band's usual compositions due to its live performance, ruling out the post production work that was present on Motion. The Cinematic Orchestra toured with the work and later released it on an album of the same name. Many of the compositions originally created for Man with a Movie Camera were later adapted from live form (adding in vocal tracks and electronic elements, among other changes) for their next album, Every Day.

In 2006, The Cinematic Orchestra created a cover version of the Radiohead song "Exit Music (For a Film)" that appeared on an album titled Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads. In this piece the band slowed down the tempo of the original, divided the timbre into four sections beginning with saxophone, to the classical guitar, to the electric guitar, ending the piece with the same simple acoustic guitar rhythm as the original version.

The Cinematic Orchestra released the album Ma Fleur on May 7, 2007. Several songs feature Patrick Watson, Fontella Bass, or Lou Rhodes on vocals, with Rhodes and Watson sharing vocals on one song.

The Cinematic Orchestra recorded the soundtrack to the Disneynature film The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos (in French: Les Ailes Pourpres: Le Mystère des Flamants), released in France on December 15, 2008. The score was performed live with the London Metropolitan Orchestra at The Union Chapel, Islington on September 17th, 2009 and won the award for best original score at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Festival In Wyoming, USA on October 1, 2009.

Man With A Movie Camera - The Cinematic Orchestra - Videos

All Things - The Cinematic Orchestra





Theme De Yoyo - The Cinematic Orchestra

The Sonograph EP - Early Day Miners

Rating: 4/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Nois037
Year Released: 2003
Album Covers: Included
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About Early Day Miners

Early Day Miners are a band from southern Indiana, United States who release records on the Bloomington Indiana based label Secretly Canadian. In September 2009 the band will release their sixth full-length record The Treatment.Early Day Miners started as a 'musical-cooperative' based in Bloomington, Indiana. The group formed when Daniel Burton and Rory Leitch (both of Ativin) began playing on front porches and basements with their mutual friend Joe Brumley. Early Day Miners incorporate a revolving cast of accompanying musicians (many of whom are friends) for both live shows and recordings. Their first CD Placer Found was released in April 2000 on Western Vinyl.

Do You Understand What I'm Saying Sir?

Punk Rock - Mogwai

Come On Die Young - Mogwai

Rating: 6/10

Sound Quality: 320 kb/s

Format: Mp3

Record Label: Chem033

Year Released: 1999

Album Covers: Included

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About Mogwai

Mogwai are a Scottish rock band from Glasgow. Formed by Stuart Braithwaite and Dominic Aitchison in 1995, Mogwai have since become one of the most influential and best known names in post-rock. They typically compose instrumental, sometimes lengthy guitar-based pieces in the post-rock tradition. They are usually focused around the elaboration of a single theme and are known for dynamic contrast, melodic bass guitar riffs, their use of guitar distortion and effects. Braithwaite has commented on the absence of lyrics in most of Mogwai's music, saying I think most people are not used to having no lyrics to focus on. Lyrics are a real comfort to some people. I guess they like to sing along and when they can't do that with us they can get a bit upset. The band was originally signed to renowned Glasgow indie label Chemikal Underground, but are now distributed by different labels, such as Matador in the US and Play It Again Sam in the UK. They have also developed their own label, Rock Action Records, named after Stooges drummer Scott Asheton, who had his name changed to Rock Action. Their style has been influenced by bands including Dirty Three, Joy Division, Pink Floyd, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and post-rock pioneers Slint. During 2004, the band supported tours by two major influences, Pixies and The Cure. Mogwai's style has easily identifiable connections to genres like shoegaze, math rock, art rock and occasionally instrumental metal. Mogwai (meaning "ghost" or "devil" in Cantonese) are named after the creatures from the film Gremlins, although guitarist Stuart Braithwaite comments that "it has no significant meaning and we always intended on getting a better one, but like a lot of other things we never got round to it."

Pearly Dewdrop's Drops - Cocteau Twins

The Pink Opaque - Cocteau Twins

Rating: 6/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: 4AD
Year Released: 1985
Album Covers: Included
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About Cocteau Twins

The Cocteau Twins were a Scottish rock music band active from 1979 to 1997, known for complex instrumentation and atmospheric, nonlyrical vocals. Though formed in the post punk and new wave era, the Cocteau Twins tended to defy concise categorization, and their music was a key influence on dream pop. Although the entire band earned much critical praise, Elizabeth Fraser's distinctive vocals received the most attention. At times barely decipherable, Fraser seemed to veer into glossolalia and mouth music. Allmusic reviewer Ned Raggett writes that "part of her appeal is how she can make hard-to-interpret lyrics so emotionally gripping."

It'll End In Tears - This Mortal Coil

Rating: 7.5/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: 4AD
Year Released: 1984
Album Covers: Included
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About the Album

It'll End in Tears was an album released in 1984 by 4AD using the name This Mortal Coil as an umbrella title for a loose grouping of guest musicians and vocalists brought together by label boss Ivo Watts-Russell. When released in late 1984, the album reached #38 on the UK Albums Chart. It features many of the artists on the 4AD roster at the time of issue, including Dead Can Dance, as well as key post-punk figure Howard Devoto, who sang "Holocaust", one of two covers of songs from the Third/Sister Lovers album by Big Star to appear on the album. The other Alex Chilton-penned track, the album opener "Kangaroo", was released as a single to promote the album. Two key songs were performed by Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, including "Song to the Siren" by Tim Buckley; which reached #66 on the UK Charts when released as This Mortal Coil's debut single a year before the album. Their version of Buckley's haunting original showed continued popularity in alternative record shops as it spent almost 2 years on the UK Indie Chart. Fraser also performed on "Another Day" by Roy Harper, a track which has also been covered by Peter Gabriel as a duet with Kate Bush. 4AD would go on to release two further albums under the This Mortal Coil name: Filigree & Shadow (1986) and Blood (1991).

About This Mortal Coil

This Mortal Coil was a dream pop supergroup led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the British record label 4AD. Although Watts-Russell and John Fryer were technically the only two official members, the band's recorded output featured a large rotating cast of supporting artists, many who were signed to, or otherwise associated with, 4AD. About half of the songs released were cover songs, often of 1960s and 1970s psychedelic and folk acts, which displayed those two genres' place in the history and formation of dream pop. On each of the band's three LPs, at least one song would also be a cover of a 4AD artist, and most of the original songs were instrumentals. The name "This Mortal Coil" is drawn from William Shakespeare's Hamlet and is a poetic expression referring to the earthly condition.

This Mortal Coil - Videos

This Mortal Coil - Kangaroo

This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren

You're A Big Girl Now - Thalia Zedek

Rating: 5.5/10
Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Kimchee Records
Year Released: 2002
Album Covers: Included
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About Thalia Zedek

Thalia Zedek (born 1961) is an American singer and guitarist.
Zedek grew up in the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C. She attended Springbrook High School in Maryland, where she played clarinet in the marching band under band director Charles Sickafus. The early punk era of the late 1970s in which she came of age, and in particular Patti Smith, contributed deeply to the formation of her musical aesthetic. While still at high school, she would travel to New York with her brother, Dan Zedek (currently the editorial design director at the Boston Globe), to see Smith perform.
Zedek moved to Boston in 1979, attending Boston University for one semester before deciding to pursue a musical career instead. Her first band, the all-female White Women, broke up after a couple of years, and she formed the Dangerous Birds. This group had somewhat more success, including a single, "Smile on Your Face/Alpha Romeo", which achieved airplay on college and alternative-commercial radio; but Zedek wanted a more "violent" sound in contrast to the somewhat "girlie pop" tendencies of her Dangerous Birds bandmates. Her next project, Uzi, worked towards this aim, producing an EP, "Sleep Asylum". The EP was characterized by elusive yet subtly menacing lyrics superimposed upon lugubrious but driving instrumental tracks, featuring layers of dense, murky yet muscular guitar arrangements, blended with heady synthesizer and tape effects. However, despite the promise of "Sleep Asylum", Uzi dissolved, owing to tension between Zedek and the band's drummer, Danny Lee.

She next took the role of primary vocalist for New York City's Live Skull, a band already well established. While the album "Dusted," the first product of this collaboration, reflected an intense synergy between Zedek's vocal style and the complexly histrionic instrumental work of Live Skull, the follow-up "Positraction" floundered, and Live Skull also disbanded, due to conflicts, in 1990. By that time, Zedek had also run into problems regarding heroin addiction. Motivated to quit, she returned to Boston and the support of her friends. She soon co-founded Come, with former Codeine drummer Chris Brokaw. It was with them that she had her biggest successes, releasing four albums before the group disbanded in 2001. In that same year, she also released Been Here And Gone, her first solo project. Zedek was also a participant in the 1998 Suffragette Sessions tour, organized by the Indigo Girls.

In spite of limited commercial success, Zedek has been highly acclaimed by music critics throughout her career, and has arguably been deeply influential within the indie-rock realm, particularly through her influence within the prolific Boston indie scene, which has spawned many noteworthy artists.

She is an "out-and-proud lesbian".

Prison - Steven Jesse Bernstein

Rating: 5.5/10

Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Sub Pop
Year Released: 1992
Album Covers: Included
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About Steven Jesse Bernstein
Steven "Jesse" Bernstein (December 4, 1950 – October 22, 1991) was an American underground writer and performance artist who is most famous for his recordings with Sub Pop Records and close relationship with William S. Burroughs. Bernstein's substance abuse issues and mental illness contributed to his provocative local celebrity, though they ultimately culminated in his suicide.

Steven Jay Bernstein was born in Los Angeles, California. He moved to Seattle, Washington in January, 1967, where he adopted the moniker Jesse, and began performing and self-publishing chapbooks of his poetry (the first chapbook was Choking On Sixth, 1978). Bernstein would become something of an icon to many in Seattle's underground music scene. Notable fans included Kurt Cobain and Oliver Stone. Though often noted for his connection to grunge and punk music, Bernstein saw himself primarily as a poet and his live performances in Seattle, such as his regular readings at Dogtown poetry theater and Red Sky Poetry Theater were extremely influential on the Seattle poetry scene and he is credited as a major influence my many local poets from his era. Bernstein's mental illness was not as alarming as it might have been off the stage, as his drug-reinforced manic episodes were harnessed and channeled into engrossing, often perverse, entertainment. According to one Seattle newspaper, he opened for music acts such as Nirvana, Big Black, Soundgarden, U-Men, and The Crows:

He read poems from a stage with a live rodent in his mouth, its tail twitching as baseline punctuation. He tried to cut his heart out in order to hold it in his hands and calm it down. He once urinated on a heckler and tended to throw things: beer bottles, manuscripts, drumsticks, his wallet, a sandwich.

The concept for the Bernstein album Prison was for Jesse to do a raw, live performance at Monroe, Washington State Penitentiary Special Offenders unit in 1991. Jesse went with his manager Barbara Buckland, Bruce Pavitt from Sub Pop Records, Grant Alden (then with Seattle's Rocket Magazine, now known as the co-founder of No Depression Magazine), photographer Arthur S. Aubry, and various tech people. None of the session except for the photos taken by Aubry was usable. SubPop later contracted Steve Fisk to finish the project. The album was intended to be produced along the same lines as Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison, but Fisk later decided to score the recordings with jazz and ambient music. The album was only partially completed when Bernstein committed suicide by stabbing himself in the throat three times with a ball point pen. He was 40 years old when he died - about a month and a half before his 41st birthday.

Prison was released on April 1, 1992. In 1994, one of these recordings, Me and Her Outside (No No Man),was used in the film Natural Born Killers.

I am Secretly an Important Man, a collection of poetry, short stories, and spoken performances, was released in March of 1996 by Zero Hour Publishing.

His song "A Little Bit Of Everything (That Brought Me Down To This)" was also included on the two-cd set "Home Alive", the proceeds from which benefited women's self-defense groups in the Seattle area.

Harvest Moon - Neil Young

Rating: 5.5/10

Sound Quality: 320 kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: Reprise
Year Released: 1992
Album Covers: Included
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About Neil Young

Neil Percival Young OM (born November 12, 1945, Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician and film director. Young's work is characterized by deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work, and signature falsetto tenor singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments—including piano and harmonica—his style of claw-hammer acoustic guitar and often idiosyncratic soloing on electric guitar are the linchpins of a sometimes ragged, sometimes polished sound. Although Young has experimented widely with differing music styles, including swing, jazz, rockabilly, blues, and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into either of two distinct styles: folk-esque acoustic rock (as heard in songs such as "Heart of Gold", "Harvest Moon" and "Old Man") and electric-charged hard rock (in songs like "Cinnamon Girl", "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)"). In more recent years, Young has started to adopt elements from newer styles of music, such as industrial, alternative country and grunge, the latter of which was profoundly influenced by his own style of playing, causing some to confer on him the title of "the godfather of grunge".

Young has directed (or co-directed) a number of films using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including Journey Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Human Highway (1982), Greendale (2003), and CSNY Déjà Vu (2008), a documentary about the band's controversial 2006 "Freedom of Speech" tour. He is currently working on another documentary about new technology for automobiles, tentatively titled "Linc/Volt".

He is also an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and small farmers, having co-founded in 1985 the benefit concert Farm Aid, and in 1986 helped found The Bridge School, and its annual supporting Bridge School Benefit concerts, together with his wife Pegi. Although Young sings as frequently about U.S. legends and myths (Pocahontas, space stations, and the settlement of the American West), as he does about his native country (such as in "Helpless" and "Four Strong Winds"), he remains a Canadian citizen and has never wanted to relinquish his Canadian citizenship. He has lived in the U.S. for "so long" and has stated, about U.S. elections, that he has "got just as much right to vote in them as anybody else."