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Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra: Bernstein Reimagined
by Jack Bowers
This impressive anthology by the superb Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra is not so much Bernstein Reimagined as Bernstein Unleashed. The jazz component in Leonard Bernstein's memorable compositions for symphony orchestra, Broadway shows, films and even liturgical works always lay simmering just below the surface. As Bernstein is said to have confided to Duke Ellington: “Maybe that's really the difference between us. You write symphonic jazz, and I write jazz symphonies." However credible the remark, there is no doubt that the ...
Continue ReadingThe DIVA Jazz Orchestra: DIVA + The Boys
by Dan Bilawsky
The all-female DIVA Jazz Orchesta has a boy-meets-girls story threaded into its origin, as drummer Stanley Kay served as the impetus behind the group's formation. Therefore, it's only fitting that the ladies have a few gentleman over to join them for some high times in the music every now and then. This eight-song set, recorded live at Pittsburgh's Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in March of 2017, finds clarinetist Ken Peplowski, dearly departed trumpeter Claudio Roditi, trombonist Jay Ashby, and ...
Continue ReadingThe DIVA Jazz Orchestra: DIVA + the Boys
by Jack Bowers
After more than twenty-five years as one of the world's most renowned big bands, drummer Sherrie Maricle's superlative all-female DIVA Jazz Orchestra invited a quartet of “the boys" onboard to help ensure the ensemble's twelfth album's success. Even though DIVA needs no consorts to affirm its unremitting mastery, it is nonetheless pleasurable to witness these talented women sharing the stage and blowing up a storm with such esteemed guest artists as clarinetist Ken Peplowski, trombonist Jay Ashby and (it hurts ...
Continue ReadingLeigh Pilzer: Strunkin'
by Jerome Wilson
Leigh Pilzer is a baritone saxophonist from the Washington, DC area who has made a busy career for herself teaching, playing in various small groups and holding down the baritone chair in the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra and the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra. On this, her first CD as a leader, she fronts a small group made up of her bandmates from all three of those ensembles. This is a live recording of Pilzer's ...
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