Jazz Articles about Deborah Weisz

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Schapiro 17: Best Laid Plans

by Jack Bowers
June 29, 2026

There are times when even the Best Laid Plans are unable to generate quite enough horsepower to realize their full promise and purpose. New York City-based composer and arranger Jon Schapiro clearly had a plan in mind for the third recording by his large ensemble, Schapiro 17. The plan evidently included broadening the horizons of contemporary big-band jazz by writing adventurous new charts while taking a second look at themes composed by others and giving them a fresh coat of ...

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Schapiro 17: Human Qualities

by Jack Bowers
March 14, 2021

Following its splendid premiere recording, an exploration of Miles Davis' unrivaled album Kind Of Blue (Capitol Records, 1959), composer/arranger Jon Schapiro's 17-member ensemble broadens its horizons on Human Qualities, pairing seven of the maestro's astute and adventurous charts with the Roberta Flack best-seller, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." This time around, Schapiro proves that he need rely on nothing more than his own considerable experience as a jazz artist to create an album that expresses his point ...

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Schapiro 17: New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60

by Jerome Wilson
September 7, 2020

Miles Davis' album Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959) is the best-selling jazz album of all time and has been highly influential for the last 60 years. Most of its five tracks have become jazz standards and have been interpreted time and again. However it is rare to see the entire album reworked to the extent that Jon Schapiro and his big band, Schapiro 17, do here. The tracks undergo extensive retooling, expanding into big band arrangements that carry on the ...

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Schapiro 17: New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60

by Jack Bowers
April 10, 2020

2019 marked the sixtieth anniversary of the Miles Davis sextet's acclaimed album, Kind of Blue (Columbia). While the tributes didn't exactly pour in, New York-based composer / arranger Jon Schapiro took it upon himself not only to revisit that classic session but to re-orchestrate it for a large ensemble (the Schapiro 17) and flesh it out with half a dozen compositions of his own and another by pianist Roberta Piket. In keeping with the spirit of the occasion, all of ...

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Deborah Weisz: Trio

by Laurel Gross
February 8, 2008

When some people talk about jazz being good because it is “relaxing," this listener wants to scream: What's wrong with these people? Jazz should be all kinds of things, but “relaxing ? That word seems to imply that the music is not challenging, interesting. Well, here's one case where this writer might have to eat her words. Trio is a highly engaging and likeable foray into mostly straight-ahead territory; yes, served straight up but with a twist. ...

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Deborah Weisz: Trio

by Larry Taylor
December 7, 2007

Pleasantly relaxing--that's the way to describe trombonist Deborah Weisz and her sisters in sound, guitarist Sheryl Bailey and bassist Nicki Parrott, on Trio.

This loosely swinging session features standards, mixed with several originals from Weisz and Bailey. The fact that the group has played regularly at The Garage in New York City's Greenwich Village is always apparent in their cohesive arrangements. With Weisz's lush, warm sound leading, all have ample solo time as well. ...

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Deborah Weisz: Grace (for Will)

by Robert R. Calder
January 19, 2006

Deborah Weisz dedicates “Grace," which opens her album of the same name, to her brother Will, marking her struggle back into composition after his untimely death silenced her for a while. From dissociated flutterings of all the instruments, including harmonica, comes the big, blurry trombone sound of the leader with minimal accompaniment. Andrew Sterman's hard-toned neo-Coltrane tenor solos untamed and there's a rock-style solo from Sheryl Bailey, who can do much more. The following piece, Weisz's “Zoneing," inspired by George ...