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Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble: Havana Blue
by Jack Bowers
With diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba warming, the chances for musical reciprocity have escalated apace. As one who has long admired the music of our neighboring island the the south, Chicago-based trumpeter / composer Orbert Davis was quick to seize the initiative, spending nine days in Havana with Cuban-born choreographer Frank Chavez in October 2012 and returning with the outline of his seven-part Havana Blue Suite," which explores and delineates the tantalizing harmonies and rhythms that are a ...
read moreOrbert Davis: Clifford Brown with Strings
by William Ellis
Orbert Davis: Symphony Centre, Buntrock Hall, Chicago. 15th May, 2013 This is Clifford Brown with Strings (EmArcy, 1955). I was a teenager when I first heard this incredible albumthe depth is in its subtletiesand Clifford is so perfect with the string writing of Neal Hefti. It's a true blending of classical and jazz. The first thing I knewthis is funnyI recognized the name Neal Hefti from the Batman theme! For me as a trumpet ...
read moreChicago Jazz Philharmonic: Sketches of Spain Revisited
by Jack Bowers
One by one, the trio of classic big-band collaborations by Miles Davis and Gil Evans is being rediscovered and reinvented by contemporary jazz ensembles: Miles Ahead, Porgy & Bess and last but not least, the tasteful and picturesque Sketches of Spain, reappraised here by trumpeter Orbert Davis (no relation to Miles) and the splendid Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. Besides composing, adapting and orchestrating the music, Orbert Davis sits in for his celebrated namesake on solo trumpet. What makes ...
read moreOrbert Davis: Trumpeting All Kinds of Music
by R.J. DeLuke
Orbert Davis is one of the most active trumpet players on the music scene, heard in tons and tons of contexts and not just by jazz fans. He's credited with performing on something like 2,500-plus commercials. He's done film music, most recently helping arrange music in Road to Perdition" with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. His work with pop acts includes Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Duran Duran, Gladys Knight, The Temptations and others.
He is known as a guy who ...
read moreOrbert Davis: Blue Notes
by Jack Bowers
Orbert Davis, one of the Chicago area's favorite sons and best-kept secrets (although that status is rapidly changing), hasn't tinkered much with his third and latest album--it's essentially straight-ahead small-group jazz--but has managed to place the engine where the caboose should be.
What I mean is, when you're a mind-bending trumpeter and have programmed songs like the sepulchral Blue Notes and Parker/Gillespie's lightning-quick archetype Shaw'Nuff, it's quite clear (to me, at least) which one to lead with if you wish ...
read moreOrbert Davis: Blue Notes
by AAJ Staff
No pretense surrounds Chicago trumpeter Orbert Davis's third effort, Blue Notes. The album eulogizes the hard bop ethos of the '60s Blue Note catalog. Davis covers classics from that period like Wayne Shorter's Hammer Head" and Herbie Hancock's Driftin'." The trumpeter's own composition, Back in the Day," sounds like a cross between Watermelon Man" and The Sidewinder."
This is isn't to say that Blue Notes is a sterile recycling of another era's sound. Davis imbues the tunes ...
read moreOrbert Davis: Priority
by Jack Bowers
Trumpeter Orbert Davis may have let the cat out of the bag with Priority, an album that is almost sure to blow his cover as one of the Chicago area"s best-kept secrets.
Davis, who has recorded before with strings and voices and as a member of William Russo's Chicago Jazz Ensemble, unleashes the full arsenal on this spectacular studio date, showcasing his prodigious talents as player, composer and arranger in a colorful program of small"group Jazz that is at once ...
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