Jazz Articles
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Chuck Owen: Renderings
by Pierre Giroux
Renderings by Chuck Owen and The WDR Big Band is a remarkable jazz album that showcases the artist's mastery as a composer, arranger and bandleader. This release stands as a testament to Owen's innovative approach to jazz music blending traditional elements with modern influences to create a unique and captivating sonic experience. The album title is an apt description of the musical approach taken by Owen, as he focuses on the works by other composers along ...
read moreChuck Owen and the WDR Big Band: Renderings
by Jack Bowers
Anyone who uses YouTube to search for contemporary jazz must surely be familiar with Germany's blue-ribbon WDR Big Band, as it is abundantly represented at the site. Bearing that in mind, it may come as no surprise to those seekers (and others) that the WDR's latest recording, on which it is paired with the esteemed Florida-based composer and arranger Chuck Owen, offers another master class in big-band artistry, or how to make even the most arduous charts seem deceptively simple. ...
read moreSean Nelson's New London Big Band: Social Hour
by Chris M. Slawecki
"For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to have my own big band--an epic jazz orchestra of 17+ musicians," writes trombonist Sean Nelson in the liner notes to this set named for the 17-piece New London Big Band's home base, The Social Bar + Kitchen in New London, Connecticut. Nelson, also a member of the United States Coast Guard Band, contributes half of these dozen tunes (and arranges “When You Wish Upon A Star"). His compositions ...
read moreChuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us
by Jerome Wilson
Florida's Chuck Owen has been a jazz educator for over 40 years, led his big band, The Jazz Surge, for 25 years and earned seven Grammy nominations along the way, so he cannot be called an unknown. Still, it seems that he is nowhere as well known as he should be, going by the quality of the music on this CD which celebrates The Jazz Surge's 25th anniversary. The band's music has some of the brassy punch of ...
read moreChuck Owen: Within Us
by Pierre Giroux
Anniversaries are a big deal, especially when they celebrate a notable achievement in the history of a contemporary jazz big band. So when the 25th Anniversary of the first recording of the Jazz Surge came along, Chuck Owen thought it would be a suitable occasion to acknowledge the past and continue to look forward, with the current release Within Us as an attestation to the collective identity of the band. The 19-piece band that is directed ...
read moreChuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us
by Jack Bowers
Any big band celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary has earned a triumph surpassing most others. To mark the occasion with an album as admirable as this one is icing on the celebratory cake. The fact is, composer/arranger Chuck Owen's Florida-based Jazz Surge, formed in 1995, shows no signs of aging or becoming obsolete. Thanks to Owen's broad-beamed and colorful charts, the Jazz Surge is as mesmerizing as a memoir and stylish as tomorrow. Half a dozen of Owen's ...
read moreCharles Pillow Large Ensemble: Electric Miles
by Jerome Wilson
The electric music Miles Davis recorded from 1969 and into the 1970s was a game-changing event in jazz, a steamy, mysterious, ever-evolving soup of improvisation, rock, funk and electronics that launched numerous careers and inspired subsequent generations of musicians across genres. Its influence shows in the numbers of players who have since studied, dissected and interpreted this material in their own ways. Alto saxophonist Charles Pillow has adapted Davis' work for a full-scale big band but with mixed results.
read moreCharles Pillow Large Ensemble: Electric Miles
by Jack Bowers
So how does trumpeter Miles Davis' post-1969 “electric period" translate to a big-band format? About as well as could be expected, thanks to leader Charles Pillow's bright arrangements for his New York-based Large Ensemble. Davis' seminal Columbia albums from 1969-1972--In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Live at Fillmore East, Live-Evil, On the Corner--are considered by many to have ushered in the jazz / rock / fusion era, which could be a good thing or otherwise, depending on one's point of ...
read moreRandy Brecker & Mats Holmquist with the UMO Jazz Orchestra: Together
by Jack Bowers
Here's a productive cross-border alliance if ever there was one: American trumpeter Randy Brecker, Swedish composer / arranger Mats Holmquist and Finland's superb UMO Jazz Orchestra, Together for the first time in a recording studio. The versatile Brecker is the featured soloist throughout, while Holmquist wrote five of the album's engaging songs and arranged all of them. As for the orchestra, it is letter-perfect from end to end, performing Holmquist's often strenuous charts with singular proficiency and assurance.
read moreCharles Pillow Large Ensemble: Electric Miles
by Mark Corroto
You thought not, but you can put the genie back in the bottle. What we're talking about is the specter unleashed by Miles Davis with Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970). Davis' expanded lineup for BB with ten-plus musicians, including the electric pianos of Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, and Larry Young, Bennie Maupin playing bass clarinet, a young guitarist John McLaughlin, two bassists, percussion, and more percussion, and oh yeah, Wayne Shorter's saxophone was ever present. Charles Pillow did that with his ...
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