Jazz Articles about Joe Nero

About Joe Nero

Album Review

John Vanore & Abstract Truth: Easter Island Suite

Read "Easter Island Suite" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
January 26, 2026

The spirit of Oliver Nelson and the thousand ghosts of Easter Island loom large over John Vanore & Abstract Truth's Easter Island Suite. The Nelson side of the equation has its roots in trumpeter Vanore's attendance at a Nelson-directed summer program at Indiana University, which led him, as a student, into deeper explorations of Nelson's work, including 1961 classic Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!). Hence, the name of his ensemble: John Vanore & Abstract Truth. As for Easter Island--the ...

Album Review

John Vanore & Abstract Truth: Easter Island Suite

Read "Easter Island Suite" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 15, 2026

The first and last movements of Philadelphia-based trumpeter and composer John Vanore's epic Easter Island Suite were recorded thirty-five years apart, in 1989 and 2024, which says a lot about his determination to shepherd the ambitious enterprise to its conclusion. Movements 2 and 3 of the picturesque Suite were recorded in 2012. Even today, some three hundred years after it was first seen by Western eyes in the form of Dutch explorers led by Jacob Roggeveen, Easter Island, ...

Album Review

The Len Pierro Jazz Orchestra: As I Was Saying

Read "As I Was Saying" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 17, 2025

Remember the good old days before high-tech hardware and software seized control and the country's leading big bands were recorded in a studio or in concert employing a wide dynamic range with no overdubs or splices to enhance the performance? Composer and arranger Len Pierro does, which is why he planned As I Was Saying, the second album with his Philadelphia-based Jazz Orchestra, to mirror those classic recordings by the likes of Woody Herman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich ...

Album Review

Jim Levendis: The Big Band Project

Read "The Big Band Project" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 28, 2022

Jim Levendis knew that time was running out. In his mid-seventies, the veteran Philadelphia-area trumpeter and educator had contracted ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), the effects of which were rapidly sapping his energy and ability to function. As the disease progressed, Levendis confided in Len Pierro, a band mate in the Ward Marston band, that there was one thing he would dearly love to do while he was still able: record some of the big-band arrangements he had written over the ...