Seth Macfarlane - Swingin' In Concert' Comes To Los Angeles' Club Nokia Saturday, March 26. 2011 - With Special Guest Sara Bareilles

Los Angeles, CA (Top40 Charts/ Universal Republic / Club Nokia) Emmy-winning "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane  performed live at CLUB NOKIA with a 36-piece orchestra Saturday, March 26. Grammy nominated artist, Sara Bareilles,  joined MacFarlane performing their duet "Love Won't Let You Get Away." 

The album, titled Music Is Better Than Words, is a crisp sounding orchestral/ big band record that features MacFarlane singing some of the hidden musical gems of the '40s and '50s. Introducing this rich sound and classic integrity to a new audience, the album features duets with beloved artists Norah Jones and Sara Bareilles, and was arranged, conducted, and produced by accomplished film and television composer Joel McNeely, who will conduct the orchestra at the event. Universal Republic Records, who signed MacFarlane in 2010, the album has been release in stores and online platforms last September 2011.

MacFarlane has been a fan of music from this era for as long as he can remember, and has even trained with vocal coaches Lee, Sally, and Steve Sweetland. Lee and Sally coached many great singers throughout their careers, including Frank Sinatra. MacFarlane has featured countless musical numbers on his television shows, and has garnered multiple Emmy nominations as well as a win for Outstanding Music and Lyrics on "Family Guy."

Recorded at the legendary Capitol Records, the album was made with MacFarlane singing live in the same room as the orchestra, just as they did in 50's. Additionally, Frank Sinatra's original microphone "nicknamed The Frank", on loan from the Smithsonian, was used to record the album. All songs were recorded to analog tape, to match the warm sound of the historic records of that era.

MacFarlane's voice has been celebrated for it's perfect phrasing, richness, and consistency. He is an experienced live performer, having played to sold out audiences at London's Royal Albert Hall and New York's Carnegie Hall.

This performance was recorded by Network LIVE in high definition and multi track audio for the HDTV, online, mobile and cinema released in September 2011.

About Seth MacFarlane: Seth MacFarlane is the creative force behind "Family Guy," "American Dad!" and "The Cleveland Show." "Family Guy" has garnered four Emmys and seven Emmy nominations, including one in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. MacFarlane is in pre-production on his directorial feature film debut, TED, which he co-wrote with "Family Guy" writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild.

                                        

Gary Burton and Chick Corea - Live in Burghausen, Germany - 2011-03-23

40 years of Jazz Duets - Chick and Gary Burton perform material from their new album Hot House, exploring their unique takes on “standards” — by composers from Kurt Weill and Antonio Carlos Jobim to Thelonious Monk and Lennon & McCartney. The multiple Grammy-winning duo exploring each others talent and expanding their legendary chamber-jazz repertoire on Chick’s composition “Mozart Goes Dancing” and classic Chick & Gary tunes.Chick Corea and Gary Burton played in Burghausen promoting their latest album Hot House.

They played over two hours including two encores. The audience liked all their songs. It was a great experience looking and listening to two masters. 

Joe Jackson - AVO Session, Basel, Switzerland, 2010-10-31

Joe Jackson is an English musician and singer-songwriter now living in Berlin, whose five Grammy Award nominations span from 1979 to 2001. He is probably best known for the 1979 hit song and first single "Is She Really Going Out with Him?", which still gets extensive FM radio airplay; for his 1982 hit, "Steppin' Out"; and for his 1984 success with "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)". He was popular for his pop/rock and new wave music early on before moving to more eclectic, though less commercially successful, pop/jazz/classical hybrids.

In this very rare appearance of Joe in AVO Session, Basel, Switzerland. He  played mostly his old popular songs and the audience loved it.  Last time he made an album was still 2001 entitled "Stranger than You" Surprisingly, he is still popular in Europe. Lately, this very talented jazz vocalist and pianist has become mellow in his musical career. More often, artist like Joe become victims of their popularity. Fame can conquer anybody and artists easily ends up bankrupt for no reason at all. 


Gaining back popularity is a hard thing to do specially when the artist got lost of  his tracks.  Joe discovered something about this concert and found out  that playing his popular song like"Is She Really Going Out with Him?", "Can you be my no. 2" were still familiar to these 2011 audience here in AVO Session concert.   It has been 32 years ago? People were all chanting to the melody and they still loves it!  

Lat

Randy Crawford & Joe Sample Trio - Leverkusener Jazztage - Germany - 2011

Legendary jazz pianist JOE SAMPLE and soul vocal icon RANDY CRAWFORD performed their latest concert in Leverkusener, Jazzstage in Germany last year of 2011.

Their music is like a mixture of soul, jazz, gospel, pop, and of course a little bit of the blues, Crawford's performances underscore her position as one of the premier songstresses in contemporary music. “All Night Long" tears hearts out, and “But Beautiful" couldn't be more so. Sample's piano playing and arrangements envelop Crawford's voice, and capture the essence of each song.

Sample and Crawford first met 30 years ago when she was recording her debut album, Everything Must Change, on which he played. So you could say Feeling Good has been a long time coming. Shortly after that debut album, while writing songs for his band, The Crusaders, Sample invited Crawford to appear as a guest, and wrote “Street Life" especially for her. This international hit record for the Crusaders launched her on her own phenomenally successful career.

Their continued collaboration saw Sample playing on Crawford's own albums and writing many of her biggest hit songs, including “One Day I'll Fly Away," “When Your Life Was Low," and “Last Night At Danceland." The seed for Feeling Good took root when all-star producer Tommy LiPuma (two-time Grammy winner for Album of The Year and recipient of over 30 Grammy nominations and awards) came on board as producer of Crawford's own break through album, Secret Combination.

When Sample asked Crawford if she'd record a new album with him, it was a natural to ask Tommy LiPuma as well, and Al Schmitt (15-time Grammy Award winner as 'Recording Engineer/Mixer'), who had recorded and mixed all the early success with LiPuma and the two performers. The incomparable Steve Gadd on drums, and Christian McBride, today's master of the acoustic bass, round out Sample's trio, adding their own special genius.

Starting from that time and on they've been inseprable.  Performing every Jazz events yearly in Europe.

George Duke Band feat. Rachelle Ferrell - Live In Montreux, Switzerland - 1997

George Duke Band and Rachelle Ferrell - LIVE AT MONTREUX,

the gold watch of jazz. It seems like once a musician or vocalist

 has spent a few decades in smoky clubs and roughneck juke

 joints, they get to fly to Switzerland  and make a dignified

recording in front of a respectful audience. It's a tradition.

Singer Rachelle Ferrell made her LIVE AT MONTREUX

album only three albums into her career is surprising. That it's

her finest work yet is nothing short of amazing. In this

DVD Ferrell reinterprets a fine set of standards and works

wonders on her original song. All songs were excellently

executed by  George Duke and his band. The rest of the

tracks are even better, as they show the result of several years

of vocal experimentation on Ferrell's part; her phrasing is

remarkably free.  Rachelle Ferrell's  LIVE AT MONTREUX

is a revelation.

George Duke was one of the original players that brought

jazz fusion music in Montreux. Highly trained from Frank

Zappa's band, Billy Cobham and Stanley Clarke. In this

DVD, he played atleast 2 or 3 jazz fusion songs. The rest

are Ferell's music. The band itself is great, they are all

professionally trained and chosen by George himself.

George Duke Band feat. Rachelle Ferrell - Live In Montreux


Year : 1997
Genre : Mainstream, Jazz-Rock, Funk
Length : 1:37:54


Musicians :
George Duke - keyboards,vocals
Rachelle Ferrell - vocals
Jonathan Butler - guitars, vocals
Patti Austin - vocals
Brian Simpson - keyboards
Mino Cinelu - Percussion
Larry Kimpel - Bass
Lil John Roberts - drums


Tracklisting :
1 Welcome To My Love
2 Goin 'Home
3 Genesis
4 500 Miles To Go
5 With Every Breathe I Take
6 Sarah, Sarah
7 Speak Low Waiting

8 9 Bus Tours

10 You Don't Know What Love Is Quality

Dolby Digital 2.0 48KHz 192KbpsRecorded live at
The Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland
between July 15, 1991 and July 12, 1997. Includes
inner notes by Bruce Lundvall and Rachelle Ferrell.

Manhattan Transfer & New York Voices - Vocalese - Live at Estival Jazz Lugano, Piazza della Riforma Lugano, Switzerland, July 02, 2011

Grammy® award-winning vocal groups The Manhattan Transfer and New York Voices  brought their jazz stylings in Estival Jazz Lugano last July 02, 2011.

After releasing a few albums on Columbia Records, the Manhattan Transfer were signed to Atlantic Records by the legendary head of the label, Ahmet Ertegun. Their self-titled debut for that label was released in 1975 and yielded the quartet a top 25 Billboard single ('Operator') and a one-hour variety show on CBS television.

The first album featuring the current lineup of Tim Hauser, Janis Siegel, Alan Paul & Cheryl Bentyne was 1979’s Extensions and included a vocal remake of the Weather Report classic 'Birdland'. 'Birdland' would go on to be considered the group’s theme song, and earn Manhattan Transfer their first two Grammy Awards. In 1981, they became the first group ever to win Grammy Awards in both Pop and Jazz categories in the same year. In 1985, the group received an amazing 12 Grammy nominations for the album Vocalese.


New York Voices, founded in 1987, is a Grammy award-winning vocal ensemble renowned for the "art of group singing." The Voices have performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Blue Note Jazz Clubs (New York, Milan, Tokyo).  The Voices have performed with a variety of artists including Patti Austin, George Benson, the Boston Pops and the Count Basie Orchestra and continue to tour with both Paquito D’Rivera and Ivan Lins, presenting two independent programs of Brazilian music.


Got this copy in High Definition format -TS-H.264-1920X720p. The video is ultra clear and the audio is in it's finest tune -AC-3-2 CHANNEL.  The blending of their voices is just marvelous! The concert lasted for 1:09:34 hours.



TRACKLIST:

01 MY DESIRE
02 BAHIA aka HEAR THE VOICES
03 STUDY IN BROWN
04 CORNER POCKET
05 POINCIANA aka THE SONG OF THE TREE
06 JUMPIN' AT THE WOODSIDE
07 TUTU
08 SIDEWINDER
09 SOUL FOOD TO GO
10 TO YOU
11 CARAVAN (male singers only)
12 OFFBEAT OF AVENUE (female singers only)
13 BIRDLAND

Lineup Manhattan Transfer:

Tim Hauser: vocals
Janis Siegel: vocals
Cheryl Bentyne: vocals
Alan Paul: vocals

Lineup New York Voices:

Darmon Meader: vocals
Lauren Kinhan: vocals
Peter Elridge: vocals
Kim Nazarian: vocals

Dianne Reeves - My Living - Room In PARIS - Théâtre du Châtelet le - 3 novembre 2010 - France

                    

Dianne Reeves sings with her music, one of the very few jazz vocalist that can focus on pure jazz singing.  Challenging the boundaries of jazz music and improvisation. Exquisite taste, Au Naturel with warm, deep, rich in color and expression, a voice guided by a sense of rhythm and technical mastership.  This time Dianne's been caught in the rapture of a live performance, possibly her best ever.  She sings her heart out and kills you with a brilliant Brazilian guitarist Romero Lumambo - holding an acoustic  guitar. While on the other end playing  an electric hollow guitar - Russell Malone - a well known American guitarist. The combination of these two guitarist is a perfect match. Very impressive arrangements.  The acoustic reading of "Triste" is magnificent!   Each of the the songs of this superb set are simply stunning, a perfect collection to appreciate the CD's of Dianne Reeves.

It's no joke to perform in this kind of venue wherein everybody's intention is only to watch and listen Dianne Reeves performance. With Dianne's caliber of singing jazz music , everybody seemed to be surprised on how she was able to deliver every song in a very masterfully, flawless style. An absolute astounding concert! The recording of this video was shot entirely in Full High Definition Format (1920X1080p) that's why it's crystal clear and very crisp in sound delivery. 1 hour of full HD concert!  

Dianne Reeves      - vocals
Russell Malone      -  guitar
Romero Lubambo -  guitar


Tracks:

-Duo Tune
-Triste
-Social Call
-Improve "Tango"
-Once I Loved
-Solo
-Good Day
-Solo
-Just My Imaginatiom
-I'm in Love again
-Mista
-You Taught my Heart to sing

This video clip is entitled - Just My Imagination (Live in Paris).   This was taken by an amateur from the audience using a hand held camera. The only video I can retrieve from YOUTUBE.  The one I have was  shot professionally and was broadcast in Europe -  full HD format.