Westchester Jazz Orchestra: All In

The Westchester Jazz Orchestra (WJO) is a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 to promote jazz within Westchester County, New York through jazz education outreach programs and the performance of classic standards and commissioned pieces in a series of concerts. All In is the group's debut album containing a repertoire of several jazz standards and one pop classic. A welcome addition to the big band genre, the album was recently named among the best CDs of 2007 by WBGO's Upbeat radio program and Jazzimprov magazine.

Billed as an all-star big band, the personnel is comprised of world class musicians who reside, play and/or frequently teach in the northern suburbs of New York City. The WJO is a seventeen-piece first-rate ensemble under the leadership of Artistic Director Mike Holober, a leading pianist, composer, arranger and Assistant Professor at the City College of New York.

Among the cast of players are Tony Kadleck and Craig Johnson sharing the trumpet leads, as well as Marvin Stamm providing the solo on Horace Silver's "Room 608. Other noteworthy solos are delivered by Ed Xiques on baritone sax, while Jan Brandford, Mike Migliore and Jason Rigby round out the group on reeds.

Starting out with Kadleck's arrangement of Joe Henderson's "Caribbean Fire Dance, the music is stellar big band complete with solid solo performances. Xiques delivers on a new take of "(No Longer) In The Mood, while Stamm blows a fine flugelhorn on the soft ballad of "Peace. Holober provides creative arrangements of John Coltrane's classic "Naima and George Harrison's "Here Comes The Sun, as the band turns in a magnificent performance throughout.

This first offering from the WJO holds nothing back and clearly establishes the orchestra as one of the premier big bands of the American East Coast. Leaving nothing out, All In includes great charts, excellent musicianship and an unforgettably memorable big band sound.