Jazz Articles
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Bill O'Connell's Chicago Skyliners Big Band: Contemporary Classics
by Dave Nathan
Looking at the song list of Bill O'Connell's fine Chicago Skyliners Big Band latest album, one gets a sinking feeling that the band had regressed to regurgitating big band tunes and arrangements of yore, especially given the album subtitle, Big Band's Greatest Hits. But this concerns goes away when the CD is put into the player. This high flying group doesn't play familiar material exactly the way Artie Shaw, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey did and especially the way Glenn Miller ...
read moreBill O'Connell's Chicago Skyliners Big Band: Big Bands Greatest Hits
by Jack Bowers
This is the kind of album, says drummer Bill O'Connell, that his Chicago Skyliners must release from time to time to induce the paying gigs that help keep the ensemble together. But even though the songs on Big Bands Greatest Hits are for the most part Swing Era classics, the charts have been lovingly renovated by such contemporary craftsmen as Sammy Nestico, Tom Kubis, Oliver Nelson, Don Sebesky, Dave Wolpe and others, and the Skyliners dig into them with vigor ...
read moreDePaul University Jazz Ensemble: Shade Street
by Dave Nathan
In addition to heading the Chicago Skyliners Big Band, Bill O'Connell has a record label which he uses not only for his own productions but from time to time to put to disc the offerings of local university jazz groups. This time he has captured two separate sessions by the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble. Under the leadership of Jazz Study Coordinator Bob Lark and a hefty faculty roster, this group offers an hour of challenging and exciting music. Perhaps not ...
read moreDePaul University Jazz Ensemble: Shade Street
by Dave Nathan
In addition to heading the Chicago Skyliners Big Band, Bill O'Connell has a record label which he uses not only for his own productions but from time to time to put to disc the offerings of local university jazz groups. This time it's two separate sessions by the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble. Under the leadership of Jazz Study Coordinator Bob Lark and a hefty faculty roster, this group offers an hour of challenging and exciting music. Perhaps not on the ...
read moreBill O'Connell's Chicago Skyliners Big Band: Play It Again, Sammy
by Jack Bowers
For those who can't get enough Basie, especially Basie""style charts written by quintessential swingmeister Sammy Nestico, Play It Again, Sammy may be just the ticket. The disc's subtitle is “The Count Basie / Sammy Nestico Years, and much of the material on offer has been recycled from an earlier LP (and later, CD), Basie Straight Ahead, by Chicago""area drummer Bill O'Connell's first""class big band (actually two bands, as tracks 1""6 were recorded in 1997, tracks 7""14 five years earlier sans ...
read moreDePaul University Jazz Ensemble: Shade Street
by Jack Bowers
One of the things I admire most about contemporary college Jazz ensembles is their willingness to expand the repertoire beyond the tried–and–true standards, whether Jazz or popular, and address themselves to newer compositions, and not necessarily those whose waters are most easily navigated. On Shade Street, director Bob Lark’s impressive ensembles (1997–98) from DePaul University in downtown Chicago unravel sophisticated charts by Tom Matta, Vance Thompson, Mike Abene, Doug Angelaccio and Lark himself before wrapping things up with Johnny Mercer/Jimmy ...
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