Friday, April 30, 2010

Paul Anka - Rock Swings

Paul Anka Rock Swings
What!! Paul Anka!! Well yes, the same Paul Anka singer, song-writer who became a teen idol in 1957 with his single "Diana", "Top-40" singer in the 60's, and one of the most prolific, successful songwriters in history whose amazing writing credits include the English lyrics for the song "My Way" and "She's a Lady" for Tom Jones and The Tonight Show Theme, the big-band tune that was heard at the beginning of the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson for who knows how many years. "Rock Swings" is a concept album that takes a well crafted selection of rock hits such as "Jump" by Van Halen, "Smells like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, "Wonderwall" by Oasis arranged as if they were swing standards with a completely different, and fresh new sound. Sonically amazing, musically impeccable, vocally superb, this album swings hard from start to finish. Crank it loud! This is seriously fun music that swings hard. To those who are familiar with the originals, some of the arrangements may feel weird but once you allow yourself to disconnect your memories of the originals these arrangements stand on their own as testimony to the longetivity of these songs and why they have become the new standards. It’s also hilarious to play this CD as background music and see how long it takes your friends to figure out what's being played. Musicians are Paul Anka on vocals plus a big band.
NOTE: This album is not available digitally.
Track Listing:
1. It's My Life (sampled above)
2. True
3. Eye of the Tiger
4. Everybody Hurts
5. Wonderwall
6. Black Hole Sun
7. It's a Sin
8. Jump
9. Smells Like Teen Spirit
10. Hello
11. Eyes Without a Face
12. Lovecats
13. The Way You Make Me Feel
14. in Heaven
Buy Rock Swings at Amazon

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Terry Silverlight - self titled

Terry Silverlight
Drummer Terry Silverlight was well known in the jazz-fusion scene in the 1970s, appearing at a young age with his brother, keyboardist Barry Miles. Silverlight is an amazing drummer with great technique. He is well regarded as a session player and he has made a career as such and also writing and arranging for television and movies. On this 1997 release, Silverlight seems to have aimed for the radio-friendly so-called “smooth jazz” and he achieves that aim by mixing his studio production techniques, his synthesizer programming with his blistering drumming. Many people would ask why such an amazing drummer chooses to program drums for his own recording, but I am sure that Silverlight being a also a composer/arranger/producer made a calculated decision that his drum programming technique would be more applicable to some of this material than playing live drums on it.  There are a couple of burning tracks, “On Fire” (sampled below) and “Magic Rainbow”. If you like Smooth Jazz the rest of the album is for you. Musicians are: Terry Silverlight on drums, synthesizers and programming, Barry Miles on piano, Jeff Ciampa on guitar and Robert Kenmotsu and Danny Wilensky on saxes.

Track Listing:
1. Someday Beneath the Sun
2. The Love of My Life
3. On Fire (sampled above)
4. Planet Rhythm
5. Magic Rainbow
6. Soul Mate
7. Taking Twos
8. Peace on Earth
9. Let There Be Silverlight
10. Redwinged Sparrow

Friday, April 2, 2010

Terry Silverlight - Wild

Terry Silverlight - Wild
Terry Silverlight began his recording career at the age of 14 when he played drums on his brother Barry Miles’s album "White Heat", an innovative harbinger of the fusion movement. Since then he has been involved with many facets of the music business and has contributed his musical talents as a leader, composer, producer, arranger, drummer, author and educator to projects in almost every style of music. He has performed all over the world and has played drums on gold and platinum recordings, movie scores and countless jingles and TV shows. He has also toured extensively with many artists and he has written, produced and arranged hundreds of pieces for network TV shows and songs recorded by many artists. Terry has also released a drum instruction book entitled "The Featured Drummer" accompanied by an audio CD of Terry playing the exercises backed by Barry Miles and John Patitucci. His band is continuously touring at several New York jazz venues. For such a prolific career, he has only released a hand-full of solo recordings. “Wild” is one of the best, demonstrating an explosive jazz fusion style very much like the recordings with his brother Barry Miles. Most of the tracks are smoking so this is a great album. Musicians are: Terry Silverlighht on drums, Charles Blenzig and Mike Ricchiuti and Paul Shaffer on keyboards, Hiram Bullock and Chuck Loeb on guitar, Will Lee on bass, David Mann and Edgar Winter on sax, Lew Soloff on trumpet and John Clark on french horn. Produced by Will Lee and Silverlight.

Track Listing:
1. Sparkey J's
2. Pugnacious
3. Brown 'N Serve
4. Windsurfing
5. Wild (sampled above)
6. Phantom of Bebopera
7. Yo
8. WTC
9. Insane
10. Closing
Buy Wild at Amazon at the Artist Page, CD Baby or WILD - Terry Silverlight