Music Download

Jazz Masters: Vintage Collection Customer Review: Masterpieces
I go along with most of the above reviews. There are moments in jazz history that are unparalleled on this DVD. It’s not just the music which is all first rate, from elders playing Louis Armstrong through Basie alumni cooking for the camera and for the beautiful lady who makes her appearance while the band is in full stride, through various cameos (I liked the Giuffre 3 very much)and eventually to Miles with his chops and his fame at their peak with Trane and gangly Gil Evans conducting the orchestra which is set up in a long, straight line. But the highlight is Billie’s stint. The guys are showing off for her like shy schoolboys around the class beauty. And she certainly is a woman of the world, worthy of all the attention she is receiving and up to a performance that somehow transcends all their best efforts at the art of the blues.
Customer Review: Billie Holiday’s finest moment
This is a fabulous collection. However one track stands out above the rest and that is Billie Holidays performance of ‘Fine & Mellow’.
This is one the most famous filmed performances in Jazz history. Even though its very near the end of her career, her performance is emotionally moving and musically perfect. She is helped by 8 of the finest soloists you’ll ever hear. Two musicians on Fine & Mellow stand out for differing reasons. Firstly Lester Young, again near the end of his career, plays a typically beautifully melodic solo. Secondly Roy Eldridge who on his second chorus goes for the high notes in classic jam session style.
There are many other performances that make this DVD worth buying:
Monk (with Count Basie watching) playing Blue Monk.
Miles with John Coltrane.
You cannot go wrong with this disc, its worth the money for the Billie Holiday track alone. With another 95mins of top quality Jazz from some of the greatest performers ever, its an essential purchase.

Jazz in Paris: Oscar Peterson-Stephanie Grapelli Quartet, Vol. 1 When Stephane Grappelli entered the recording studio with Oscar Peterson in 1973 to record this collection of standards, it marked his 50th anniversary as a professional musician. Grappelli’s most famous collaboration was of course his six-year stint in the 1930s with the Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, but it wasn’t until he started playing with pianists like Peterson that he really developed into a world-class soloist. Peterson’s lush, full chords suit Grappelli’s unabashedly romantic style perfectly, and on ballads like “My One and Only Love” his fiddling is lyrical, but with a melancholy depth that keeps it from descending into mere prettiness. The other musicians include bassist Niels-Henning rsted Pedersen and drummer Kenny Clark, whose supple, swinging rhythm gives the solos a gentle lift while driving them forward. Peterson and Grappelli were both old pros when they made this record, but the charm of tracks like “Thou Swell” and “Makin’ Whoopee” show that even after decades in the business, they hadn’t lost the ability to surprise and delight each other. –Michael Simmons
Customer Review: Piano and Violin: A Charming Combination
“Jazz In Paris, Volume 1″ by Oscar Peterson and St phane Grappelli was recorded in 1973. The album was digitally remastered on a CD format and released in 2001 by Verve Records. This is the first of two volumes. Peterson had always been the favorite musician of the mogul of record production, Norman Granz, who produced majority of Peterson’s body of work under Verve Records. On this recording he shares the spotlight with a genius of violin, St phane Grappelli. Together with drummer Kenny Clarke and Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen, Peterson and Grappelli present a set of tunes played in the most ingenious renditions. Grappelli shows his expertise in violin and is pretty at ease with his deliveries while Peterson consistently plays so effortless and precise. The two legends of jazz perfectly complement each other making all the tunes delightful and enjoyable to fans of jazz piano and violin alike.