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New Standard Jazz Orchestra: Waltz About Nothing
by Jack Bowers
Since trumpeter Rob Parton's superlative JazzTech Big Band left the scene more than a decade ago, Chicagoans have been left to wonder when, or even if, another ensemble of that caliber would arrive to fill the void left by its departure. In 2020, their hopes were realized with the formation of the New Standard Jazz Orchestra, comprising a handful of JazzTech alumni and an assortment of the finest young jazz musicians in the Chicago area. Having landed ...
read moreNew Standard Quintet: Another Time, Another Place
by Jack Bowers
Another Time, Another Place is a well-drawn album by Chicago's New Standard Quintet whose seven original compositions may please the ears but seldom inflame the senses. The music is good—and often better than that—without prompting a listener to reach for the replay button. Of course, that could be the listener's fault, as there is nothing here that lands shy of respectable. A matter of personal taste? That's as reasonable as any assumption. Be that as it may, ...
read moreNew Standard Jazz Orchestra: Waltz About Nothing
by Jack Bowers
Any orchestra that professes to establish a new standard had better be able to back that up. Happily for the listener, on its debut recording, Waltz About Nothing, Chicago's New Standard Jazz Orchestra can--and does. In a little more than two years, the NSJO has arisen as a worthy successor to one of the more exemplary ensembles ever to grace the Windy City, trumpeter Rob Parton's JazzTech Big Band. The equivalence seems predestined when one notes that no less than ...
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