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Maria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords
by Karl Ackermann
The skillfully designed cover art tells part of the story; a leaf--half as nature intended--the remainder, a circuit board doppelganger. The pastoral soundscapes associated with the music of Grammy-winning composer/bandleader Maria Schneider belie her activist alter-ego. An outspoken critic of copyright protections, prejudicial revenue schemes and the abuses of “big data," Schneider has authored op-eds and testified before the US Congress. She ventures onto unfamiliar terrain, coalescing her passions on a masterwork double album, Data Lords. The two ...
Continue ReadingMarshall Gilkes, Marilyn Maye and more
by Joe Dimino
The legendary singer Marilyn Maye kicks off this week's Neon Jazz in pure style with a classic song and a clip from her live 90th Birthday performance in Kansas City on Veteran's Day 2018. We catch up with new work by the great John Petrucelli off his 2018 CD Presence and move on into the great Marshall Gilkes and the WDR Big Band. Then, we look into the world of two cats that had a huge impact on Marshall and ...
Continue ReadingDan Bilawsky's Best Releases of 2018
by Dan Bilawsky
Every little bit of the year 2018 will soon take form as memory--first recent, then distant--but the fine music gifted to us in those twelve months will be forever present, living on in ears, hearts and minds. I had the pleasure of hearing north of 400 albums this past year, and I had the privilege of reviewing more than 75 of those for All About Jazz. These are the bunch from that review list that left the strongest impression. (Note: ...
Continue ReadingMarshall Gilkes / WDR Big Band: Always Forward
by Jack Bowers
This is the second album on which Maryland-born trombonist Marshall Gilkes (pronounced “Jilks") has collaborated with Germany's superlative WDR Big Band, a world-class ensemble with whom he has also served as a member of the trombone section. This time around, Gilkes not only gets to solo but to conduct, compose (eight numbers including the three-part “Denali Suite") and arrange (all of the album's ten selections). If that calls to mind a tour de force, give yourself a ...
Continue ReadingMarshall Gilkes & The WDR Big Band: Always Forward
by Dan Bilawsky
Ever onward for Marshall Gilkes. After snagging a Grammy nomination for Köln (Alternate Side Records, 2016)--a collaborative venture with the WDR Big Band (of which he was a member from early 2010 to the close of 2013) and one of the standout large ensemble releases of recent years--this sought-after trombonist-composer could have easily retreated to smaller scenarios and sideman work. But the very nature of his being as a musician--the urge to keep forging ahead--brought him back to the big ...
Continue ReadingWM Project: From a Familiar Place
by Dan McClenaghan
The WM Project, led by saxophonist Krzysztof Medyna and pianist Andrzej Winnicki, doesn't sound much like the Komeda Project. Medyna and Winnicki have earned well-deserved acclaim for their work in that ensemble that explores the music of their countryman, Krzysztof Komeda. But here, instead of the Polish melancholy, haunting themes and brooding melodies, they take From A Familiar Place into the more American realm of straight ahead, at times even brash bebop with, always, big solid grooves. Two ...
Continue ReadingMarshall Gilkes / WDR Big Band: Koln
by Jack Bowers
For four years, American-born trombonist Marshall Gilkes (pronounced “Jilks") was a member of one of Germany's premier jazz ensembles, the WDR Big Band, in Cologne (Koln). One month after leaving the band in 2013, Gilkes was invited back to preside over a farewell performance at the WDR Funkhaus Studio 4, the result of which is this sharp and stylish recording, named after the city in which Gilkes embraced new friends while broadening his musical horizons. Gilkes wasn't ...
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