Jazz Articles about Alan Ferber

About Alan Ferber

Album Review

John Ellis & Double Wide: Fireball

Read "Fireball" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
February 24, 2026

La spinta, la propulsione, la pienezza, che può generare la presenza di una tuba (o di un sousaphone, come accade qui) all'interno di un combo jazz è indiscutibile, generalmente tangibilissima, almeno se il suo impiego è di natura prevalentemente (ma non esclusivamente, attenzione) ritmica. Il Double Wide diretto ormai da quasi vent'anni dal cinquantunenne polistrumentista e compositore John Ellis ne è esempio quanto mai tipico. Ellis è nativo della Carolina del Nord, si è formato musicalmente a New ...

Album Review

Anthony Wilson: House of the Singing Blossoms

Read "House of the Singing Blossoms" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
December 14, 2025

Guitarist Anthony Wilson is well known for his session and touring work with vocalists, including Diana Krall, Norah Jones, and Paul McCartney, as well as his time in the big band led by his father, the late trumpeter Gerald Wilson. But in the early 2000s, he also released four albums with his own nonet, sharing solo space with five horns, which taught him a great deal about writing and arranging. House of the Singing Blossoms captures Wilson's return to this ...

Album Review

Jody Redhage Ferber / Alan Ferber / Mark Ferber: Confluence

Read "Confluence" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 18, 2025

Cellist Jody Redhage Ferber has been at the forefront of creative music for two decades, effectively straddling the line between jazz and classical settings. Her husband, celebrated trombonist Alan Ferber, is one of this genre's premiere large group composers, having garnered multiple Grammy nominations and topped polls with both his nonet and big band. His twin brother, ace drummer Mark Ferber, has long been a first call to both jazz stars and up-and-comers. Together, these three have experienced personal and ...

Album Review

Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

Read "This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 9, 2025

This Rock We're On, acclaimed composer and pianist Mike Holober's 2024 recording as leader of the Gotham Jazz Orchestra, is challenging to summarize in mere words, as it consists of a multi-part suite (on two CDs) which blends jazz, classical and art songs in a thematic environment that uses a series of “imaginary letters" from a half dozen writers, artists and activists. Holober's orchestral response to them is the premise for “a meditation on the beauty of nature and the ...

Album Review

The Len Pierro Jazz Orchestra: As I Was Saying

Read "As I Was Saying" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 17, 2025

Remember the good old days before high-tech hardware and software seized control and the country's leading big bands were recorded in a studio or in concert employing a wide dynamic range with no overdubs or splices to enhance the performance? Composer and arranger Len Pierro does, which is why he planned As I Was Saying, the second album with his Philadelphia-based Jazz Orchestra, to mirror those classic recordings by the likes of Woody Herman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich ...

Album Review

Christopher Zuar Orchestra: Exuberance

Read "Exuberance" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
December 30, 2024

È decisamente un periodo d'oro per l'orchestrazione jazz. Ai molti bandleader e arrangiatori emersi nel nuovo millennio, si aggiunge decisamente Christopher Zuar, che firma il secondo album confermando le doti espresse in Musings (Sunnyside), il debutto di otto anni fa. Con un diploma al New England Conservatory e un master alla Manhattan School of Music, Zuar aggiunge una spiccata fantasia nell'arricchire il modern mainstream orchestrale di nuove suggestioni. Questo progetto è stato concepito tra il 2017 e ...

Album Review

Christopher Zuar Orchestra: Exuberance

Read "Exuberance" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 23, 2024

Composer/arranger Christopher Zuar's second album, Exuberance, recounts in musical terms a twisting yet picturesque journey that began seven years earlier, in 2017, when Zuar first met his now-wife, the animator Anne Beal, at MacDowell, the famed artists' residency in New Hampshire. While the relationship “blooms" in winter, there are “moments between" and other inescapable detours until “certainty" erases any lingering doubts, “exuberance" carries the day and Zuar and Beal are united as one. Yes, the music is ...