Jazz Articles about James Danderfer

About James Danderfer

Album Review

Vancouver Jazz Orchestra: Vancouver Jazz Orchestra Meets Brian Charette

Read "Vancouver Jazz Orchestra Meets Brian Charette" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
January 21, 2026

The Vancouver Jazz Orchestra's debut album arrives with a sense of purpose that feels both timely and reassuringly traditional. Formed to showcase the city's rich pool of jazz musicians while creating a platform for composers and arrangers, the VJO proves itself not through rhetoric but through sound. This release features a confident, well-rehearsed ensemble playing music almost exclusively by Vancouver writers, united here by the invigorating presence of Hammond B3 master Brian Charette. Steve Kaldestad's “Equestrian Interlude" opens ...

Album Review

Vancouver Jazz Orchestra: Meets Brian Charette

Read "Meets Brian Charette" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 17, 2026

Through the years, Canada has produced an impressive number of world-renowned big bands including Rob McConnell's peerless Boss Brass, the Toronto and Winnipeg Jazz Orchestras, those led by trombonist Dave McMurdo, pianist Jill Townsend and trumpeter Steve McDade, and one of the world's foremost undergraduate bands, Montreal's McGill University Jazz Ensemble. On its debut recording, Meets Brian Charette, the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra proves beyond any doubt that it deserves inclusion in that special fraternity. Simply put, the VJO ...

Album Review

James Danderfer: If Not Now

Read "If Not Now" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
November 12, 2025

Clarinetist James Danderfer's If Not Now showcases warmth and craftsmanship. It is the kind of album that affirms jazz's enduring ability to blend tradition with personal expression. Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary Englewood Cliffs studio on November 4, 2024, the album features a select group including Steve Davis on trombone, Cory Weeds on tenor saxophone, Atley King on vibraphone, Miki Yamanaka on piano, Tyrone Allen II on bass, and drummer Kush Abadey. All nine compositions are by Danderfer, forming ...

Album Review

James Danderfer: If Not Now

Read "If Not Now" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 9, 2025

The clarinet, which once was commonplace in jazz (think Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Pee Wee Russell, Tony Scott, Buddy DeFranco, Jimmy Giuffre, Pete Fountain, Bob Wilber and many others), is all but absent these days save for a handful of adamant diehards such as Paquito D'Rivera, Eddie Daniels, Don Byron and Ken Peplowski. That is one reason why it is always a pleasure to welcome a new voice into the choir, especially one as sharp and talented as ...

Album Review

Cory Weeds: Home Cookin'

Read "Home Cookin'" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 17, 2024

On Home Cookin', his second recording with an eleven-piece “little big band," tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds is doing the best he can. Really. As Weeds writes in the liner notes, the plan was to rehearse the band for two nights at Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver, Canada, home to Weeds and most of the band's personnel, then to convene at the Warehouse Studio on Sunday to record. Arriving at the club on Friday evening, Weeds found to his dismay that ...

Album Review

Cory Weeds: Home Cookin'

Read "Home Cookin'" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
November 26, 2023

Cory Weeds, a prominent figure in the contemporary jazz scene, has made a remarkable statement with his Little Big Band's latest album Home Cookin'. The session showcases a vibrant collection of compositions/arrangements carefully curated to resonate with his personal journey, including those by Horace Silver, Thad Jones and Oliver Nelson, which are essential to him for a variety of reasons. The band comprises ten of his favorite world-class Vancouver, BC-based musicians. These previously mentioned influential tracks ...

Album Review

Fraser MacPherson: From The Pen Of...

Read "From The Pen Of..." reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 11, 2022

The late tenor saxophonist Fraser MacPherson was well-known in western Canada and elsewhere for his brilliance—but as player, not a writer. In fact, according to MacPherson's son Guy, who wrote the excellent liner notes to From the Pen of..., his father wrote barely a dozen or so original compositions, almost all of which are included on this superlative album with performances by a who's who of well- known jazz artists from Canada and other countries. Considering what ...