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Remembrance 2025: Jim McNeely, Chuck Mangione, Andy Bey, Eddie Palmieri and Hermeto Pascoal
by Larry Slater
Every year the jazz world loses some major artists and 2025 was no exception.In this hour, we remember the composer and arranger Jim McNeely, one of the most distinguished large ensemble jazz composers of his generation.Hermeto Pascoal was a Brazilian artist who defied classification. He became a favorite of audiences around the world, though he was never particularly well known in the US. Known in Brazil as “The Sorcerer" and “The Mad Genius," he wrote more ...
Continue ReadingRyan Truesdell: Synthesis: The String Quartet Sessions
by Angelo Leonardi
«L'idea di Synthesis--dice Ryan Truesdell presentando il progetto--è nata dalla consapevolezza che molti compositori di jazz traggono ispirazione dalla scrittura per quartetto d'archi di eminenti compositori classici come Bartok, Brahms e Ravel, e dalla necessità di trovare un modo realistico e al tempo stesso stimolante per creare musica insieme». Il giovane orchestratore, divenuto famoso per aver dato vita a inedite partiture di Gil Evans, presenta un progetto di 17 composizioni per quartetto d'archi (alcune in forma di ...
Continue ReadingJim McNeely/Frankfurt Radio Big Band: Rituals
by Jack Bowers
The first thirty-three minutes or so of Rituals, the latest album by the excellent Frankfurt Radio (hr) Big Band, is an homage to Igor Stravinsky's symphonic suite The Rite of Spring, which premiered in Paris in 1913, reimagined “in the Stravinsky spirit" by the group's director, Jim McNeely, in a big-band framework and featuring the acclaimed American tenor saxophonist Chris Potter. The first three movements are designated “Adoration," the next two “Sacrifice," and McNeely has added a sixth, “Rituals Rebirth," ...
Continue ReadingJim McNeely Frankfurt Radio Big Band feat. Chris Potter: Rituals
by Angelo Leonardi
Commissionata dall'Alte Oper Frankfurt a Jim McNeely nell'ambito del festival dedicato a Stravinsky del 2013, quest'originale esecuzione de “Le Sacre du Printemps" è stata registrata due anni dopo in studio e viene pubblicata solo ora. Assieme all'arrangiatore di Chicago, i protagonisti sono Chris Potter al sax tenore e soprano, e la Frankfurt Radio Big Band. La presenza di una figura solista chiarisce da subito che non si tratta di una rivisitazione de “La sagra della primavera" ma ...
Continue ReadingJim McNeely: Barefoot Dances and Other Visions
by Jerome Wilson
When today's top composer-arrangers of large ensemble jazz are discussed, Jim McNeely's name sometimes gets overlooked. He deserves the recognition. He's been a long- time associate of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and its descendant, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and he's also done a lot of work with several European big bands. It could be that simply his large ensemble writing seldom gets recorded. That makes Barefoot Dances special. It's a powerful suite McNeely wrote for the Frankfurt Radio ...
Continue ReadingJim McNeely / Frankfurt Radio Big Band: Barefoot Dances and Other Visions
by Jack Bowers
Barefoot Dances and Other Visions is a contemporary seven-part suite written by composer/arranger Jim McNeely in 2014 for the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, with whom he has worked since 2008. “I tailored my musical visions," he writes, “to fit each player in the ensemble, and placed each soloist in a framework both familiar and challenging." Challenging it is, starting with “Bob's Here," a well-drawn homage to one of McNeely's mentors, the late composer / valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, written in ...
Continue ReadingCollegiate Jazz at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola
by Nick Catalano
For the better part of a decade I've escorted my jazz class at Pace University on trips to Dizzy's to see the Manhattan School of Music Concert Jazz Band perform. The series was forged by veteran jazz academic Justin DiCioccio whose leadership and programming has prompted a rarely noticed success of Collegiate jazz bands across the country. Since DiCioccio's pioneering efforts schools such as Juilliard, Purchase, and Temple have organized similar groups and also appeared at Dizzy's. ...
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