junsjazz cool grooves: Kenny Rankin

JUNSJAZZ e-FM Internet Radio

That's right folks! You can now listen to the coolest music in this blog thru JUNSJAZZ e-FM internet radio via SHOUTcast on your Winamp Media Player. If you don't have Winamp installed in your PC, you can download it here. It's probably the best media player around with tons of features and functionalities, and it's free!

Now the simple steps:
1. On the Media Library menu (left panel), click SHOUTtcast Radio.
2. On the "Enter Search Terms" box, type in JUNSJAZZ e-FM, on the "Genre" dropdown box choose smooth jazz, and on the nearby box choose All Bitrates. Click "Search".
3. When JUNSJAZZ e-FM crops up, just click "Tune In".

The good news, those without Winamp player which is compatible only with Windows OS, to the detriment of legions of Mac users, can also access and tune in to the station thru the SHOUTcast website. For a direct link to the station, click here.

This is not a commercial endeavor. I just had to find a way to personally share to the world the music I love and with the wonders of technology I am able to freely stream jazz music across the Internet. I'm broadcasting from my PC server at home and with my available bandwidth I could fit in 20 listeners simultaneously. I have made various playlists of the thousands of jazz MP3s in my 500 gig external hard disk and, of course, play them all for your listening pleasure. Aside from the obligatory sleep (for an insomniac like me that's just a few hours) and the times when I have to go outdoors to indulge my other passion which is photography, I will endeavor to keep the station up and running for most of the time.

So do tune in and enjoy the jazz experience! Thanks!

A Passion for Jazz

Two passions fill my free time: photography and jazz music. I maintain around seven blogs and sites relating to photography which I came to enjoy six years ago when I had my first digital camera. Jazz music, however, has been a personal fave and delight for more than half of my life, starting with my college days when I bought my first jazz album on cassette tape (CDs then cost like gold) - Dave Grusin's Mountain Dance. From that first, my cassette tape collection of jazz artists grew to 600 pieces, which I still keep and cherish until now. A separate collection of jazz CDs and MP3s amassed in recent years is another story. In short, this blog is an integral part of my passion for jazz where I get to collect online the tunes that I grew up with, listen again to the classics that were so hard to find then but are now just a "search" away, rediscover the artists whose creations have provided me years of musical enjoyment, and expose myself to the amazing new breed of jazz talents. Though I have learned to play just a note or two, I have however fully developed an appreciation and discernment of an ideal musical form which I humbly share with you through this blog. Be with me in this jazz journey.

How To Enjoy The Music In This Blog

Unless your PC is connected to your home theater system, as in my case, then you're missing out on fully enjoying the music in this blog. As some of you may know, the player you click to listen to the music (either blue or orange rectangular boxes below each artist's posted album image), is a compressed music code that churns out music at low fidelity, sometimes sampled only at 64kbps, as against the CD-quality of 128kbps and above. Assuming you have a stable and fast internet connection free of lags and crashes, you have to compensate in some other areas to enjoy a rich listening experience, and one of the crucial components are the speakers. My PC is wired to a Pioneer 5.1 receiver which is the nerve center of my HT system which powers 600 watts of surround sound. Without this kind of setup, it is wise to invest in a reliable and dependable PC speaker system which can faithfully reproduce music even in its less than pristine form. However, 6 speakers (5.1 system) may be too much of a clutter for most desktop lay-out and a decent 2.1 (left, right speakers, 1 sub) stereo system would be enough for many. But if your PC is also your media entertainment center and would like the whole surround sound shebang, then by all means go for it. Just remember that you would need a 5.1 analog output from your PC soundcard connected to the 5.1 inputs of your receiver to realize surround sound. Then again we're talking music listening here and the best for that is still the good ol' stereo with a sub unit to carry those low frequencies - the Hammond organ of James Taylor Quartet, the bass slaps of Stanley Clarke and those thunderous drums of Dave Weckl - well, you know what I mean. The carousel widget below shows some great new stuff from Amazon.com to help you in your choices.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Kenny Rankin

Click above image to download album
Visit Kenny Rankin's Official Website

	Kenny Rankin - Sunday Kind Of Love

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

The choice of material here is as diverse as it is musically rewarding – from Rankin’s inspired re-invention of such Pop classics as "Spanish Harlem", The Beatles’ "I’ve Just Seen a Face", and a heart-wrenching reading of Leon Russell’s "A Song for You", to Kenny’s ingenious spin on Thelonious Monk’s "’Round Midnight". These selections are perfectly balanced by a number of tunes from the Great American Songbook – both highly recognizable ("The Way You Look Tonight" and "Love Walked In") and slightly lesser known gems ("When The Sun Comes Out" and "She Was Too Good To Me"). All of these are beautifully rendered with Kenny’s trademark finesse and emotional honesty. The overall effect is a rarity on today’s music scene – an album that flows and engages from start to finish – an adult pop gem...The success of this recording is due in no small part to the legendary multi-GRAMMY Award winning production team of Tommy LiPuma and Al Schmitt (Diana Krall, George Benson, Natalie Cole, etc.) This CD is also of superior sound quality and is rounded out musically by the tastefully restrained orchestrations for small wind and string ensembles by pianist / arrangers Alan Broadbent and John Beasley...The real measure of this projects success is the vocal artistry of Kenny Rankin – a high, pure instrument that sounds as strong now as it did 35 years ago when he saw the release of the first full length recording under his own name. An engaging live performer who usually requires only his voice and nylon string guitar to mesmerize a crowd, Rankin is poised to start the next phase of his already illustrious career and musical journey. A Song For You will surely help take him where ever he wants to go.~Verve Music Group