Freddy Cole - Cole Everbody Knows/Best Year - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In 1981 Tenor Sax legend Illinois Jacquet pursued his career-long dream of assembling a truly great big jazz band in the tradition of his mentors, Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, bands with whom he recorded and toured in his youth. He would apply all the wisdom and experience he gleaned as their sideman, as well as from his years of leadership over his many small groups, and would include songs he made famous with his Inchlittle big bandInch of the 1940s. The Illinois Jacquet Big Band was filled with luminaries and young stars, but unfortunately would only record one studio album entitled InchJacquet's Got ItInch on Atlantic Records, in 1987. Here we have a very early snapshot of what that band was like at the world famous Village Vanguard club in New York City. This is the third time Jacquet had played the Vanguard, and had previously broken attendance records in the club with what seemed to be a guerrilla marketing campaign in the streets of NYC in order to launch the debut of his Big Band. Some NYC Jazz fans may recall flyers being distributed all over town, especially in the Times Square area, revealing that the Inchmissing in actionInch Jazz Legend Illinois Jacquet was indeed InchbackInch with a full 15 piece Big Band on tow. Well, the promotions worked effectively, announcing that InchThe KingInch was back to take the jazz world by storm! As listeners will easily hear, this band rocked the house, and swung hard! Illinois himself is in rare form, playing soulfully and strong, ripping through all his classics with fervor and fire. These wonderful arrangements are mostly by the pen of Eddie Barefield, Wild Bill Davis, and Jimmy Mundy. Featured here within the band are veterans such as E.V. Perry, Irvin Stokes, Johnny Grimes, Kiane Zawadi, Richard Wyands, Eddie Barefield, Rudy Rutherford, Norris Turney, and Babe Clarke; as well as young lions such as Robert Trowers

This is the third album that 16-year-old Christoph Preiss presents on the international market, with two years interval between each . The outstanding young artist has drawn attention to himself, not only with his numerous prizes at the InchJugend musiziertInch competition, but also with recital programmes that include the most important and difficult piano works from the Classical and Romantic repertoire and provoke ecstatic ovations from his audiences. Christoph Preiss has grown into an artist with a fascinating technique and unconventional, original interpretational skills; one who has become an insiders' tip among connoisseurs. This recording with Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata and Tchaikovsky's Grand Piano Sonata (that has such an awesome reputation among pianists), demonstrates the facility and virtuosity of this young man, who is blessed with a highly developed instinct for the stylish requisites of such differing epochs, and with pianistic abilities that overcome technical demands with no difficulty at all. Christoph has a healthy individuality at his disposal that manifests itself in all his interpretations, and armed with this, he pits himself against all forms of conformist, hackneyed and boring academicism. Incidentally, instead of the short middle section of the Waldstein Sonata, Christoph Preiss plays Beethoven's InchAndante favoriInch that the composer originally intended as the second movement but which has, as yet, not been taken seriously by performers.

Very few artists stay at the top of their game for their entire career. However, Freddy Cole's velvet unhurried singing style remains every bit as cool and hip as it was when his first record was released in 1964. Pianist John di Martino, bassist Elias Bailey, guitarist Randy Napoleon and drummer Quentin Baxter, are trusted associates of Cole who respond to his inimitable sense of swing with now intuitive assurance. Guest saxophonist Joel Frahm displays a sympathetic style that puts him in league with such earlier illustrious Cole saxophone allies as Houston Person and David InchFatheadInch Newman. Time has been kind to Freddy Cole, who is currently singing with the vitality and zest of a man half his age. His seasoned voice is as affecting as ever, his understanding of a song's expressive anatomy never more incisive. His unimpeachable artistry, rather than longevity, is what positions him as today's vocal jazz master.