Jazz Articles

Nick Colionne: The Seduction

by Dave Nathan
April 18, 2002

By classifying this album as smooth jazz, the liner notes do a disservice to the melodic, swinging and often funky guitar of Chicagoan Nick Colionne. I guess it's the presence of the electronic gizmo called keyboards that makes some automatically classify the musical output as smooth. Right from the opening chords of the first track, “Winelight", one gets the feel that Colionne is a descendant of guitar master Wes Montgomery, with more than a dash of soul added. “Black Cow" ...

Frank Catalano: Pins 'n' Needles

by Jack Bowers
February 1, 2002

Baby­faced Frank Catalano, who looks barely old enough to shave, wields his razor­sharp tenor saxophone like a machete on Pins ‘n’ Needles to slice and dice a trio of standards, three of his own compositions and Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple from the Apple,” ably supported by renowned trumpet master Randy Brecker (on three selections) and an incendiary rhythm section spearheaded by pianist Willie Pickens, anchored by bassist Larry Gray and driven by drummer Joel Spencer. Catalano, a Chicagoan who’s still in ...

Morgan Powell: The Morgan Powell Jazz Album

by Jack Bowers
November 1, 2001

Composer Morgan Powell’s music reminds this listener of some of the more radical charts written years ago for the Stan Kenton Orchestra by Pete Rugolo or the almost–forgotten Bob Graettinger. Powell, a graduate of North Texas State University’s renowned Jazz Studies program, has long sought to transpose his interests in Jazz and classical music into an original and more comprehensive milieu, which he has to some extent accomplished on this album with help from trumpeter, longtime friend and fellow NTSU ...

John Burnett and His Orchestra: Swingin' in the Windy City

by Jack Bowers
April 1, 2001

John Burnett, a transplanted Englishman who is best known to Chicagoans as the morning host at WDCB–FM, a Jazz–oriented outlet of the College of DuPage, has had a life–long love affair with big bands, especially those that flourished during America’s golden age of big–band music, also known as the Swing Era. He’d always dreamed of leading a band of his own, and in January ’99 made that dream a reality by forming the John Burnett Orchestra whose main purpose is ...

The Kelly Brand Nextet: Sister Luna

by Jack Bowers
April 1, 2001

Pianist Kelly Brand’s second album is as tastefully cooked as her first ( A Dream in a Stone ), with crisp blowing by front–liners Art Davis and Lou Stockwell and sure–handed support from Brand, bassist / husband Kelly Sill and drummers Tim Davis or Eric Montzka. A “nextet,” by the way, can be either a trio (Rodgers and Hart’s “My Funny Valentine,” Chick Corea’s “Tones for Joan’s Bones”), quartet (“An Old Road”) or quintet (the four other tracks). Brand, Sill ...

John Burnett & His Orch. Featuring Buddy DeFranco: Swingin' in the Windy City

by Dave Nathan
January 1, 2001

P>John Burnett has a day job as a jazz broadcaster for FM station WDCB in Chicago. In 1999 he put together a very fine orchestra made up of top notch Chicago musicians. Many of them have had considerable big band experience with Glenn Miller's, Barrett Deems and others. Several members also play in another Windy City-based aggregation, Lenny King's Chicago Metropolitan Jazz Orch.

For this maiden album, Burnett has scored a coup by getting one of the true icons of ...

Frank Catalino: Pins `n Needles

by Dave Nathan
January 1, 2001

P>Frank Catalano comes out of DePaul University's well-respected jazz studies program. He's worked with top performers occupying diverse spots on the musical spectrum, from vocalist Tony Bennett to the rock group Ministry. Catalano has also toured and recorded with the likes of Louis Bellson, Charles Earland and Clark Terry. He also sits in the sax section of two of Chicago's top big bands, John Burnett's Orch. and Lenny King's Chicago Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra.

Pins `n Needles is bop at it's ...

Chicago Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra: Kive and Screamin'

by Dave Nathan
December 1, 2000

Recorded at two separate performances in 1997 at FitzGerald's Night Club and originally released in March of 1998, the Chicago Lakeside Jazz label has now reissued the two concerts by the Chicago Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra under the leadership of Lenny King. Guesting is former Stan Kenton trumpet player Dennis Noday whose high atmosphere pyrotechnics are featured on “Blue", “Maria" and “MacArthur Park". Noday played that screeching high register trumpet part with Kenton like Ray Wetzel and Maynard Ferguson did in ...

Chicago Metropolitan Jazz Orch.: Labor of Love

by Dave Nathan
December 1, 2000

CMJO Leader Lenny King makes no bones about it. He looks to Stan Kenton and his great arrangers for his musical inspiration. The group plays in the style of the Kenton groups, not in imitation, but more in admiration. This album features arrangements by Bill Holman, Gene Roland, Marty Paich and Lennie Niehaus. It also has a few good orchestrations by members of the band, like Kirk Garrison. Whatever they are performing, the outfit specializes in the same tight, disciplined ...

The Chicago Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra: Labor of Love

by Jack Bowers
February 1, 2000

The Chicago Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra’s first recording ( Live and Screamin’, a concert date from October–November ’97) was so impressive the thought here was that only a “labor of love” could possibly equal or surpass it. Well, the millennium has arrived, and with it the CMJO’s Labor of Love, and if the band’s second excursion can’t eclipse the flash and excitement of Screamin’, it comes close often enough to dissuade any reproval. As usual, the CMJO’s repertoire is conspicuously inspired ...