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Geoff Stradling: Nimble Digits
by Jack Bowers
Remember the good old days when bandleaders would give a downbeat and their bands would start swinging and keep on doing so until their audiences literally begged for more? Welcome to the past--present tense--courtesy of pianist Geoff Stradling's superb Los Angeles-based StradBand, which swings heartily and with seldom a pause on its radiant and power-laden introductory album, Nimble Digits. Yes, the album does swing--more than thirty of the L.A. area's most accomplished musicians make sure of that--but ...
Continue ReadingDoug MacDonald: Big Band Extravaganza
by Richard J Salvucci
Some reviewers have been known to complain that contemporary big bands can do most anything but swing. Like all generalizations, there is some merit to the observation. But, like all generalizations, the occasional exception falsifies it. Looking for a big band that pushes all the right buttons? Look no further. Doug MacDonald's “desert jazz" band is an extremely good one. While it might be difficult to make claims about the novelty of what is on offer, the band is tight, ...
Continue ReadingDoug MacDonald: Big Band Extravaganza
by Jack Bowers
Pardon the superlative, but what a terrific album! Extravanga marks the debut of guitarist Doug MacDonald's seventeen-member Jazz Orchestra, and he has guaranteed that it swings with gusto by writing nine perceptive and luminous charts that are sure to bring out the best in any ensemble, especially one as well-equipped as this. During his decades-long career as one of the West Coast's foremost guitarists, MacDonald has recorded fifteen albums with groups ranging from solo to duo, quartet to brass and ...
Continue ReadingSan Gabriel 7: Under The Stars
by Richard J Salvucci
How many times has one heard the saying, “This isn't rocket science"? Well, in this case, it is. One might be tempted to think Jim Lewis' biography is fictional, but no. Lewis is the trombone player and founding member of San Gabriel 7 (SGS). He was a student (and friend) of Bill Watrous, and began life as a sessions player in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, after graduating from the University of Alabama. He moved to LA in ...
Continue ReadingForest Sun: Stubborn Breathing Heart
by Doug Collette
Evocative as is Forest Sun's name, that moniker mirrors the vivid music on Stubborn Breathing Heart. At this point, after ten plus albums in his discography, the Cali native has not wholly evolved into a original thinker, but his deeply earnest sense of purpose renders his work here inordinately charming. As does his penchant for the subtle topicality at which the album title hints: his forthright attitude transforms an otherwise somewhat transparently eclectic style into a credible semblance of modern ...
Continue ReadingMayita Dinos: The Garden Is My Stage
by C. Michael Bailey
Many artists have day jobs to pay the bills, and vocalist Mayita Dinos is no exception. After studying landscape design, and working in the field for “decades," Dinos emerges with a debut jazz vocal recording The Garden is My Stage. But, this is no wet-feet newbie recording. Dinos has been performing as an avocation around her Los Angeles home, including jam sessions hosted by vocalist and composer Cathy Segal-Garcia, who recognised Dinos' potential, taking her under her wing as a ...
Continue ReadingAlex Budman and the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra: Instruments of Mass Pleasure
by Jack Bowers
Mass Pleasure is the fourth album by the San Francisco-based Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, which is contemporary in the best sense of the word; that is, belonging to this age and time. While the nine charts are as modern as one could envision, they are firmly grounded in time-honored jazz and musical tradition, never forswearing rhythmic or harmonic convention and structure to accomplish some undefined or exotic purpose. The CJO, which was launched more than a decade ago, validates the fruit ...
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