Jazz Articles about Donny Kennedy

About Donny Kennedy

Album Review

Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra: Harbour

Read "Harbour" reviewed by Scott Lichtman

by Scott Lichtman
August 8, 2024

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 ...

Album Review

The Saskatchewan All Star Big Band: Saskatchewan Suite

Read "Saskatchewan Suite" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2021

On Saskatchewan Suite, composer/arranger Fred Stride and the twenty-member Saskatchewan All Star Big Band have combined to paint a luminous and colorful portrait of that western Canadian province, canvassing 150 years of its history in eight picturesque movements that describe in musical terms the land itself, its indigenous peoples, newcomers from Europe and elsewhere, its recognition in 1905 as a province, the importance of various sports to Saskatchewan's inhabitants, and the legacy of jazz as an essential part of its ...