Home » Jazz Articles » The Rodger Fox Big Band

Jazz Articles about The Rodger Fox Big Band

31
Album Review

The Rodger Fox Big Band: Reimagined! The Roger Fox big Band Plays Sir Dave Dobbyn

Read "Reimagined! The Roger Fox big Band Plays Sir Dave Dobbyn" reviewed by Jack Bowers


On Reimagined!, New Zealander Rodger Fox's superlative big band takes a fresh look at the music of Sir Dave Dobbyn, one of that country's most honored and beloved musicians. Although Dobbyn has spent his celebrated career in the fields of pop and rock, his evocative compositions lend themselves well to light and swinging interpretations by Fox's seventeen-member ensemble and more than half a dozen well-known guest artists from the U.S. Even so, there is enough heavy backbeat ...

27
Album Review

The Rodger Fox Big Band: Plays New Zealand

Read "Plays New Zealand" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Even though such news would hardly make a ripple beyond the South Pacific, trombonist Rodger Fox's superlative big band was nearing its golden anniversary when Plays New Zealand was recorded in 2021. As the milestone loomed only two years in the distance, Fox decided it was time the band produced an album devoted entirely to new works written and arranged by his fellow countrymen and women. And so the excellent Plays New Zealand may be more accurately named “plays New ...

5
Album Review

The Rodger Fox Big Band: Plays New Zealand

Read "Plays New Zealand" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Although trombonist Rodger Fox has somehow managed to keep New Zealand's finest big band alive and swinging for more than four decades, the band has never devoted an entire album to music written and arranged by New Zealanders--until now. That's not to say that Fox and the band have ignored music from their home country. Over the years, more than ninety compositions by New Zealand-based musicians have been commissioned for the ensemble, sixty-eight of which have made it onto various ...

4
Album Review

Michael Houstoun with the Rodger Fox Big Band: Concerti

Read "Concerti" reviewed by Jack Bowers


There is a saying about “the best of both possible worlds," an adage that springs immediately to mind when listening to Concerti, a remarkable collaboration between classical pianist Michael Houstoun and trombonist Rodger Fox's superb big band from Wellington, New Zealand. The captivating program consists of four extended works, two by American pianist / composer Bill Cunliffe, another by New Zealand's own Mike Nock, and the first movement of Sergei Prokofiev's lyrical and dramatic Piano Concerto No. 3, astutely arranged ...

6
Album Review

New Zealand School of Music Big Band: Awright Awright

Read "Awright Awright" reviewed by Jack Bowers


It's hard to believe this is a school band, no matter what the level. Music director Rodger Fox, a seasoned trombonist who leads his own play-for-pay band, must be extremely pleased and proud of what his students at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington have accomplished, as their third album, Awright Awright, is superlative from start to finish. The first five numbers, in fact, offer a textbook lesson in how big-band jazz should feel and sound. The ensemble ...

191
Album Review

The Rodger Fox Big Band: Ain't That the Truth

Read "Ain't That the Truth" reviewed by Jack Bowers


This is the fourteenth recording by one of the best big bands you’ve probably never heard, trombonist Rodger Fox’s world–class ensemble from far–away New Zealand. As on several of those earlier albums, which featured guest appearances by such well–known Jazz artists as John Scofield, Tom Harrell, Gary Grant, Bobby Shew and Bill Reichenbach, Fox employs a “secret weapon” on Ain’t That the Truth in the person of spectacular lead trumpeter Jon Papenbrook from Los Angeles who galvanizes the secton on ...

129
Album Review

The Rodger Fox Big Band: Xtra Juicy

Read "Xtra Juicy" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Trombonist/bandleader Rodger Fox, until recently one of New Zealand’s best–kept secrets, has for many years helped keep the flame of Jazz burning brightly in that faraway land Down Under. Fox’s impressive 19–piece ensemble surfaced in 1997 at the annual Conference of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) in Chicago, performed that same year in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and made a well–received second appearance in January at the IAJE Conference in Anaheim, California. The ensemble gets right down ...


Engage

Contest Giveaways
Enter our latest contest giveaway sponsored by Musicians Performance Trust Fund
Polls & Surveys
Vote for your favorite musicians and participate in our brief surveys.

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.