Articles by Jack Bowers
Paul Yonemura: First Flight Home
by Jack Bowers
For a recording that almost did not happen, drummer Paul Yonemura's First Flight Home is a welcome intruder and an undeniable pleasure to hear. As Yonemura tells it, four of his compositions were recorded on a demo tape in 1984, which is as far as they were intended to go. After listening to them, however, saxophonist Larry Honda added a pair of his original compositions and pianist Rick Helzer one, and what was once a demo tape started ...
Continue ReadingDave Hanlon: Studio Sessions
by Jack Bowers
Once upon a time, movie trailers would sometimes promote their latest big-screen spectacle by ending with the phrase ..."and a cast of thousands!" Although Syracuse, NY-based drummer Dave Hanlon does not quite match that figure on Studio Sessions, he does use 24 musicians on its nine tracks, none of which encompasses a group that is larger than an octet (including vocalists). So what does all that talent add up to? Perhaps somewhat less than one might have hoped. ...
Continue ReadingGreg Chako: Hard Bop for the Record
by Jack Bowers
If the name Greg Chako is unfamiliar to you, perhaps it is because the veteran Cincinnati-bred guitarist, composer, and arranger has spent much of his career performing and recording in Asia, including years abroad in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Japan. After recovering from a near-fatal case of sepsis, Chako took full advantage of his new lease on life, returning home to lead a piano-less quintet on Hard Bop for the Record, whose second track, “Second Chance," salutes ...
Continue ReadingIvan Valentini: Camera Funky
by Jack Bowers
Modena, Italy-based saxophonist Ivan Valentini's quintet traverses a wide range of styles on Camera Funky, from African-oriented themes to funk, rock, free and contemporary straight-ahead jazz. As Valentini wrote and arranged every number, the album's charisma rests for the most part squarely on his shoulders. Are those shoulders strong enough to carry the load? That depends largely on the listener's point of view, which should be informed by a number of factors. First, Valentini and his teammates are ...
Continue ReadingMichael Rabinowitz Jazz Quartet South: Reunion
by Jack Bowers
Although the words “jazz" and “bassoon" rarely appear in the same sentence, that is something North Carolina-based jazz bassoonist Michael Rabinowitz would like to help change. Yes, Rabinowitz is a jazz musician, and the bassoon is his instrument of choice, which must have led to some interesting conversations: “Hey, would you like to join my jazz quartet?" “I might. What instrument do you play?" “I play the bassoon." “The bassoon? Like in ...
Continue ReadingTechnocats: Passionata
by Jack Bowers
The Technocats are a Michigan-based co-op septet devoted for the most part to performing the music of fellow Michigander Gregg Hill, who composed every number on the group's 2026 recording, Passionata, including its sure-to-please “bonus" track, “Double Play." The first of Hill's compositions, “Normality," sets the enterprise in motion but in so doing lands slightly on the wrong foot. After that lone misstep, however, Passionata easily qualifies as Comeback Album of the Year, as everything else is beyond ...
Continue ReadingAustin Di Pietro: Live at Mackenzie Hall Jazz
by Jack Bowers
Trumpeter and composer Austin Di Pietro, whose musical enterprises span the border between Canada and the U.S., leads a hard-working quintet in a concert recorded in July 2025 Live at Mackenzie Hall in Windsor, Ontario, a few stones' throw across the border from Detroit. Di Pietro wrote four of the album's seven numbers, while tenor saxophonist Ryan Bills contributed the rapid-fire “Hangtet" to complement the standard “If I Had You" and Marcus Belgrave's charming finale, “All My Love." ...
Continue ReadingRuss Anixter's Hippie Big Band: What Next?
by Jack Bowers
A big band by any other name... Arranger and orchestrator Russ Anixter has chosen to call his 11-piece ensemble the Hippie Big Band. Which is fine, Russ. Whatever works for you. Alas, much of the music on What Next? sounds as though it could have been imported from the mid- 20th century. Yes, this is unquestionably jazz even though it does lean rather heavily on rock, funk and even some free improvisation as its bedrock; and ...
Continue ReadingJim Rotondi & Dena DeRose: Out of the Past
by Jack Bowers
Although trumpeter Jim Rotondi and pianist-singer Dena DeRose had wanted to record together for years, life always seemed to get in the way. Finally, when they were both on faculty at the University for Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria, Rotondi decided to make it happen. He booked a studio in Vienna, enlisted the services of esteemed Austrian bassist Danny Ziemann (his studio) and drummer Mario Gonzi, and on June 23, 2024, the quartet recorded Out of the Past. ...
Continue ReadingMike Jones: Mike Jones With Strings
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Mike Jones' With Strings does not denote a sizable orchestral design but a piano-jazz trio in which a guitar replaces the drums, a format introduced in the 1930s by Nat King Cole's peerless trio and favored for years by the legendary Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson with Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel or Joe Pass on guitar. One thing that Jones, bassist Alex Frank and guitarist Graham Dechter share in common with those earlier groups is an unambiguous capacity--one ...
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