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Bill O'Connell's Chicago Skyliners Big Band: Big Bands Greatest Hits
by Jack Bowers
This is the kind of album, says drummer Bill O'Connell, that his Chicago Skyliners must release from time to time to induce the paying gigs that help keep the ensemble together. But even though the songs on Big Bands Greatest Hits are for the most part Swing Era classics, the charts have been lovingly renovated by such contemporary craftsmen as Sammy Nestico, Tom Kubis, Oliver Nelson, Don Sebesky, Dave Wolpe and others, and the Skyliners dig into them with vigor ...
Continue ReadingBill O'Connell's Chicago Skyliners Big Band: Play It Again, Sammy
by Jack Bowers
For those who can't get enough Basie, especially Basie""style charts written by quintessential swingmeister Sammy Nestico, Play It Again, Sammy may be just the ticket. The disc's subtitle is “The Count Basie / Sammy Nestico Years, and much of the material on offer has been recycled from an earlier LP (and later, CD), Basie Straight Ahead, by Chicago""area drummer Bill O'Connell's first""class big band (actually two bands, as tracks 1""6 were recorded in 1997, tracks 7""14 five years earlier sans ...
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