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Jazz Articles about Mark Shilansky
Mike Thompson: 6th Avenue

by Jack Bowers
Composer and arranger Mike Thompson was in his mid-twenties when 6th Avenue, his debut album as leader of a big band, was recorded (in the mid-2020s) at Q Division Studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts, enlisting for the most part veteran Boston-area musicians whom Thompson had met and befriended while studying at the Berklee School of Music, from which he was graduated in 2021. Although Thompson names Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider and Igor Stravinsky as role models, you would be ...
Continue ReadingChris Humphrey: The Voice of Clark Terry

by Nicholas F. Mondello
With the possible exception of Louis Armstrong, Clark Terry was probably the most unique trumpet stylist" in jazz history. Hearing one note you would bet the farm that it was CT. Chris Humphrey's The Voice of Clark Terry, Vol. 1 is a marvelously unique salute. This recording presents a dozen Terry-composed originals. They are sung superbly by Humphrey with brilliant original lyrics provided by drummer Les Harris, Jr. As an additional treat, Humphrey s(w)ings vocalesed" lyrics again ...
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