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Jazz Articles about Bill Easley
Swingadelic: Bluesville
by Jack Bowers
If you're partial to music that is sunny and freewheeling and almost commands a smile, you should have no trouble warming to Bluesville, the eighth recording by New Jersey-based Swingadelic, now twenty-two years old and counting. As its name implies, the orchestra (more often than not a mini-big band a dozen or so strong) re-creates an era wherein young fun-lovers (and some older ones as well) listened, danced and grooved to bands whose essential purpose was to make sure everyone ...
read moreBill Easley: Business Man's Bounce
by Ken Dryden
For most of his career, tenor saxophonist Bill Easley has worked as a sideman, including sessions for the Stax label. For just his fourth CD as a leader, his band includes pianist Larry Ham, bassist Hassan JJ Shakur and the seasoned drummer Michael Carvin on selections which draw from different eras of jazz. Easley soars in his opener, “Straighten Up and Fly Right" (the Nat King Cole sermon-like hit inspired in part by his preacher father), which ...
read moreBill Easley Sextet: Easley Said
by AAJ Staff
Whether the genre is blues, rhythm & blues or hard bop, Bill Easley remains a versatile and often silent practician of musical mastery. Easley has played with Sir Roland Hanna, James Williams, Bill Mobley, Mulgrew Miller, Grady Tate, George Caldwell, Victor Gaskin and Billy Higgins among others. Unfortunately for his audience, Bill Easley has not performed very often as a leader. His preference is to remain a steady contributor in the background. “Easley Said" is his fourth outing as a ...
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