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432

Album Review

The Jazz Jamaica All Stars: Massive

by Jack Bowers
October 25, 2004

If one were to award points for boldness and thinking outside the box, the Jazz Jamaica All Stars would rank high by any measure. The All Stars, a large ensemble of (mostly) Brits, several with Caribbean or African roots, led by Jamaican bassist Gary Crosby (whose core group, the 10-piece Jazz Jamaica, has released two earlier albums), have something to prove--that almost any music can be adapted to suit the rhythmic and harmonic temperament of the West Indies. “My aim," ...

430

Album Review

Jazz Jamaica All Stars: Massive

Read "Massive" reviewed by Norman Weinstein

by Norman Weinstein
September 4, 2004

Jazz artists experimenting with Jamaican pop musical forms are nothing new, but this U.K. musical group does so with an imaginative freshness and an instrumental virtuosity that is groundbreaking. Led by bassist Gary Crosby, this ten piece band, augmented by a happy band of additional studio musicians, offers a completely beguiling synthesis of ska and jazz, “skazz," working within the tight constraints of ska's insistent, polka-like rhythms. Ska revival bands, both rock and jazz, have been heavily ...