Jazz Articles about Stephen Philip Harvey

Stephen Philip Harvey: Big Band Superhero In the Making

by John Chacona
July 6, 2022

There's a passage in “Party Song," the concluding cut on the Stephen Philip Harvey Jazz Orchestra's debut recording, Smash! (Next Level, 2022) where the band claps hands, whoops and cheers over a syncopated praise-band saxophone riff. It's pure, unbridled joy and just like the exuberance implied by the exclamation point in the album's title, it's an essential element of the composer's extroverted music and personality. There's a fine indiscipline to Harvey's big band writing. Ominous horror-film riffs sit ...