Jazz Articles about Chris Merz

University of Northern Iowa Jazz Band One 2014-15: Local Color

by Jack Bowers
February 9, 2016

In Local Color, the latest in a long series of splendid albums by the University of Northern Iowa's Jazz Band One, color is one of the primary ingredients; every number, in fact, is awash in radiant colors, from the prismatic opener, UNI alum Michael Conrad's “Gerry's Timepiece," to the chimerical closer, Curtis Fuller's dark-hued “The Egyptian." Between them are burnished original compositions by Brian Crew, Jack Cooper and Rick Hirsch; Wayne Shorter's well-grooved “Fee Fi Fo Fum," Eddie Harris' exuberant ...