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Ben Markley: Tell the Truth
by Jack Bowers
Ben Markley, who has already earned wide praise as a pianist, educator and leader of the Ben Markley Big Band, brandishes his sturdy composing and arranging chops on Tell the Truth, wherein he leads an able-bodied Colorado-based quintet through its paces on eight of his typically melodious and sunlit original compositions. According to Markley, the pieces were written to parallel the classic 1960s Blue Note quintet recordings, with guitarist Steve Kovalcheck replacing the customary trumpet lead and ...
Continue ReadingBen Markley: Live at Nocturne
by Pierre Giroux
Ben Markley's Live At Nocturne encapsulates a rare alchemy that emerges from nightly performances in an intimate collaborative setting. Over two uninterrupted months, Markley and his cohorts guitarist Steve Kovalcheck, alto saxophonist Will Swindler, bassists Domi Edson (tracks 1-5), Matt Smiley (tracks 6-7) and drummer Andy Wheeler, transformed Denver's Nocturne into a crucible for creativity that celebrates the improvisational spirit of jazz and the rewards of sustained musical interaction. Markley's seven original compositions serve as the ...
Continue ReadingBen Markley: Ari's Funhouse
by Angelo Leonardi
Accade spesso nel jazz che dagli incontri estemporanei nascano le cose migliori. Il bandleader e arrangiatore Ben Markley e il batterista Ari Hoenig si sono conosciuti nel 2019 in un jazz festival del Texas. Da quell'incontro è nato questo progetto discografico, che ha visto Markley orchestrare le composizioni di Hoenig per la big band che guida a Denver. Il batterista è ospite dell'ensemble e dà il suo contributo con un vivace e articolato sostegno ritmico. L'album è stato registrato nel ...
Continue ReadingWil Swindler: Space Bugs
by Jack Bowers
Space Bugs is essentially multi-layered yet readily accessible chamber jazz admirably performed by saxophonist/composer Wil Swindler's Colorado-based Eleventet—a finely woven banquet for the ears that was handsomely recorded in May 2022 before an appreciative audience at Denver's Mighty Fine Productions. Gil Evans springs to mind when listening, as do Pete Rugolo and late- career Bob Brookmeyer. As a composer, Swindler writes that he has “always been between worlds," loving “the pristine intervals and warm timbres of orchestral ...
Continue ReadingBen Markley Big Band: Ari's Funhouse
by Jack Bowers
Ari's Funhouse, recorded in July 2021, sprang from a chance encounter at a Texas jazz festival in 2019 between New York-based drummer & composer Ari Hoenig and Denver-based pianist & arranger Ben Markley. After performing with Hoenig in a small group, Markley asked if he might score some of Hoenig's songs for a big band. Hoenig readily agreed, and after a lengthy Covid-induced pause, he and Markley's band finally met face-to-face in Denver to record the album. Two things are ...
Continue ReadingAndy Wheelock: View from Here
by Jack Bowers
When high-caliber musicians invest time and effort to produce music they believe in, one is loath to dismiss it as anything less than persuasive. On the other hand, any assessment of Colorado-based drummer Andy Wheelock's album, View from Here, must be tempered by an awareness that this is his special view, and that of his group, and that the overall result may not be embraced with equal fervor by every ear. That is one way of saying ...
Continue ReadingDan Jonas: The Spirituality Suite
by Jack Bowers
Utah-based trumpeter Dan Jonas says The Spirituality Suite was written as a response to his own struggles with spirituality in the twenty-first century. The music is thus largely conceptual, or as Jonas explains it, “Much of the inspiration . . . lies in the musical interval of a perfect fourth. The interval can be either consonant or dissonant, where the context in which it appears is the determining factor. Additionally, on one side lies a major third, one of the ...
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