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Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra: Harbour
by Scott Lichtman
There's something special about Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra's Harbour. Foremost, the album builds on Jensen's acknowledged talent as master composer for over 25 years. She writes songs that stimulate the emotions as well as the intellect, and she arranges them using rich, cross-instrumental blends and fresh, punctuated motifs. While Jensen already has won JUNO awards in Canada for best jazz album, Harbour raises the bar. That is because it is inspired by deeply personal themes and because her ...
Continue ReadingChet Doxas: Rich in Symbols II
by Troy Dostert
One of Chet Doxas' more distinctive projects, Rich in Symbols (Ropeadope, 2017), involved the saxophonist/clarinetist engaging the 1980s art movement of New York's Lower East Side, composing pieces that reflected his deep interactions with some of those iconic paintings. Now he has done the same with artists from his native Canada: specifically, the Group of Seven, a movement of landscape artists who were active from the early 1910s through the first years of the 1930s. By selecting several of their ...
Continue ReadingChet Doxas: You Can't Take It With You
by Jerome Wilson
Tenor saxophonist Chet Doxas has been getting attention in recent years by collaborating with prominent musicians such as Dave Douglas and Carla Bley. On this album he explores his own compositions in a trio with two sympathetic partners, pianist Ethan Iverson and bassist Thomas Morgan. Doxas' music here falls into one of two general styles, slippery blues-inflected pieces reminiscent of Jimmy Giuffre's trios with Jim Hall or more abstract work where the three musicians take on roles complementary to each ...
Continue ReadingCaleb Wheeler Curtis: Ain't No Storm
by Paul Rauch
Caleb Wheeler Curtis is a noted voice in the modern world of alto saxophone, in large part due to his association with fellow artists. Most significantly, his work with Philadelphia-based pianist Orrin Evans and the “village" of creative participants within has put a spotlight on his style which attaches itself to tradition while exhibiting a willingness to explore new territory. On his most recent release Ain't No Storm, he presents eleven original compositions that feature fellow Evans bandmates Mark Whitfield ...
Continue ReadingDoxas Brothers: The Circle
by Dan Bilawsky
Family figures squarely into The Circle. For tenor saxophonist Chet Doxas and drummer Jim Doxas, brotherhood is both a literal and figurative tie. These siblings have been playing music together in various configurations from their earliest days, so their bonds truly extend from blood to bandstand. And with their father manning the board for this quartet session recorded at the family homestead in Pointe Claire, QC, it's all Doxases on deck. This album's title references the crescent ...
Continue ReadingMike Fahie Jazz Orchestra: Urban(e)
by Dan Bilawsky
There's a rocky history surrounding jazz-classical hybrids. But, in truth, that has little to do with any potential incompatibility. Instead, it's usually misguided maneuvering and/or an excessive show of dominant traits from one side or the other that mars said unions. When done right a wedding of those worlds can truly birth brilliance. Just listen to Urban(e) for proof. Noted trombonist, composer, arranger and educator Mike Fahie's unabashed love for classical music and jazz is clear and ...
Continue ReadingMike Fahie Jazz Orchestra: Urban(e)
by Jack Bowers
Most Western music, irrespective of its origin and premise, inhabits the same harmonic, chordal and rhythmic universe. So it should not be surprising that classical music, in the hands of a skilled arranger, can be readily recast in a jazz idiom, even one that is housed within a big-band framework. On Urban(e), trombonist Mike Fahie's New York-based Jazz Orchestra braves that challenge, quickening Fahie's translations of works by Frederic Chopin, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Bela Bartok, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and ...
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