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Bevan Manson featuring Tierney Sutton with The Hollywood Studio Orchestra: Talking to Trees
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Bevan Manson is an artist who has a creative duality. As a pianist, composer/arranger and educator, he's been successful in classical and jazz environments. With Talking to Trees, Manson provides an array of both originals and jazz standards, most with an arboreal tint, as the title indicates. The work is a validation that his pen, guiding the talents of vocalist Tierney Sutton and L.A.'s premium players, can make the familiar fascinating and the novel intriguing. Miles Davis' ...
Continue ReadingRichard Williams: Hollywood Christmas
by Richard J Salvucci
Ready or not, Christmas music is on the way. And this is Christmas music, old school. Do you remember The Andy Williams Christmas Album? Then, as the old joke goes, there may be fire in the hearth, but snow on the roof, because that was 1963, at least the first version. This recording, for sure, is a walk down memory lane and will produce a lot of nostalgia in listeners of a certain age. For some folks, that ...
Continue ReadingGrant Geissman: Blooz
by Richard J Salvucci
There are several ways of judging the success of a recording. Perhaps a hearing makes the listener, if a musician, want to sit in and jam. That is a good sign. Then there is the “sit still test." For many, the direct, emotional and physical connection between music and brain leaves them simply hanging out, absence of motion impossible, sitting still not an option. Grant Geissman's Blooz happily passes both tests. Turn the volume up and a blues party comes ...
Continue ReadingBernie Dresel: The Pugilist
by C. Michael Bailey
Jack Bowers, All About Jazz's large ensemble authority, previously considered this entire recording, The Pugilist, remarking that ..."if swing is your thing, you've come to the right place, as that is what Dresel and his elite group of sun-baked sidemen (and two women) do best and most often." One of the elements that ensures “swing" is the attentive and informed arrangement of these often sprawling pieces. Dr. Jack Cooper is known for his insightful and creative arrangements of percussion-driven music. ...
Continue ReadingThe BBB Featuring Bernie Dresel: The Pugilist
by Jack Bowers
No, drummer Bernie Dresel hasn't taken a day gig at the Los Angeles-area Better Business Bureau; the BBB in front of his name stands for Bernie's Big Band or Bernin' Big Band or Bernie's Bernin' Band or something like that. It's really hard to say, as the band's full name isn't spelled out anywhere, even on Dresel's web site or Wikipedia. Be that as it may, the important point to keep in mind is that the BBB comes out swingin' ...
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