Jazz Articles about Mace Francis Orchestra

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Mace Francis Plus 11: Isolation Emancipation

by Jack Bowers
January 31, 2022

After a brief pause to accommodate Covid-19 restrictions, Australian composer and arranger Mace Francis is back—with a brand new musical wardrobe, a new axe (trombone) and a pared-down ensemble reminiscent of the classic Art Pepper + Eleven album (with arrangements by Marty Paich) from 1960. Like that earlier album, Isolation Emancipation was written with Paich in mind—this is by and large light-hearted, happy music reminiscent of the West Coast “cool wave" of well over half a century ago, and quite ...

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Mace Francis Orchestra: Live

by Jack Bowers
April 9, 2007

Having already released two studio albums, the Mace Francis Orchestra from faraway Perth, Australia, goes live this time with a sturdy concert session taped in November, 2006 at Bennetts Lane Jazz Club in Melbourne during a tour of the country's eastern provinces. Even though less than three years old, the MFO shows considerable promise, as Francis has drawn to his side a number of West Australia's most accomplished musicians.

While the ensemble isn't especially well-served by the erratic sound quality ...

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Mace Francis Orchestra: Chinese Whispers

by Jack Bowers
March 7, 2007

In August 2005, barely a year after it was formed, the Mace Francis Orchestra appeared as part of the Jazz Windows Concert Series at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. Chinese Whispers, the orchestra's first album, was recorded (in part) during that performance.

The orchestra was created, Francis writes, “to experiment with composition in the style of the great modern big bands led by Bob Brookmeyer, Thad Jones, Bill Holman and Maria Schneider, ...

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Mace Francis Orchestra: Introducing the Mace Francis Orchestra

by Jack Bowers
March 5, 2007

Composer/arranger Mace Francis formed his orchestra three years ago as an outlet for creative music in Western Australia, and this album, in which the twelve-piece ensemble is “introduced, is actually its second. The first, Chinese Whispers, was recorded four months earlier (in August, 2005) as a part of the Jazz Concert Window Series at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, Perth.

All of the tunes on Introducing were written by Francis, and they lay bare an ...