Jazz Articles about Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra

Buselli Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: Carol of the Bells

by Ken Dryden
December 17, 2007

Every band that records a Christmas album faces identical challenges: find fresh approaches to familiar repertoire or think outside the box and choose songs that weren't written with the holiday in mind. While the Buselli Wallarab Jazz Orchestra sticks with traditional favorites, trombonist/arranger Brent Wallarab--who counts Duke Ellington, Sy Oliver, Billy Byers, Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Henry Mancini among his favorite arrangers--together with a top-notch group of instrumentalists and an outstanding vocalist, has produced a clear winner for Christmas ...

The Buselli / Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: Heart & Soul / The Music of Hoagy Carmichael

by Jack Bowers
May 3, 2003

The second album by the superb Indianapolis-based Buselli / Wallarab Jazz Orchestra is comprised entirely of compositions by Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981), a fellow Indianan who wrote mostly “popular” music (as in the Great American Songbook) but always saved a place for jazz in his Heart and Soul.

Carmichael penned hundreds of songs, a number of which have become jazz standards, and from that treasure trove the BWJO has chosen eleven sparkling gems including one of the earliest, “Washboard Blues,” and ...

Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: Happenstance

by Jack Bowers
March 1, 2000

Almost every year, it seems, a marvelous new big band comes out of nowhere to bowl me over and leave an irrepressible smile on my face. In '98, the mile--wide grin was occasioned by the high--flying Hawk--Richard Jazz Orchestra from Austin, TX, followed last year by trumpeter Kevin Seeley's dazzling Emerald City ensemble from Seattle, WA. As the new millennium dawns I'm smiling rhapsodically again, and the impetus this time is the sharp and swinging Mark Buselli--Brent Wallarab Jazz Orchestra ...