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Rob Parton's Ensemble 9+: Relentless
by Jack Bowers
Rob Parton, who once led the Chicago area's marvelous JazzTech big band, has since moved on to other pursuits, namely mentoring the next generation of jazz trumpeters at the stellar University of North Texas Jazz Lab in Denton. Having released eleven widely acclaimed albums with the JazzTech band, Parton has pared the lineup to nine (plus) on Relentless, enlisting the skills and talents of colleagues at UNT and drawing on the large talent pool of first-call musicians in the Dallas-Fort ...
Continue ReadingRob Parton's Ensemble 9+: Relentless
by Troy Dostert
After many years in the Windy City, most notably as the leader of the JazzTech Big Band, trumpeter Rob Parton wanted a change of scenery, which brought him to the University of North Texas, where he joined the faculty in 2019. And of course, that meant he now had the opportunity to work with lots of premium large-ensemble talent, as the college has been an incubator for big-band jazz for decades. Many of Parton's colleagues from UNT and other stalwarts ...
Continue ReadingAlexa Torres: In Situ
by Mike Jurkovic
With balletic verve, Latin violinist Alexa Torres goes about her debut disc, the hugely confident, ear and eye opening In Situ, with an inquisitive gusto and aplomb that belies her thirty-one years. A skilled, peer-reviewed ethnographic researcher, Torres is also the first woman and first violinist to graduate from the University of North Texas jazz strings program. And she brings a wide open palette to the proceedings. Knowing through science and instinct, study and practice, that any particular ...
Continue ReadingUNT Two O'Clock Lab Band: Long Way on a Blues
by Jack Bowers
The University of North Texas, generally recognized as home to one of the world's leading undergraduate Jazz Studies programs, is essentially set apart from others by the decisive proficiency of its various Lab Bands, led by the One O'Clock and Two O'Clock ensembles (there are half a dozen others). Each band has a large number of albums under its belt, dating back several decades, the most recent of which are the One O'Clock's Lab 2021 and this one, the Two ...
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