Home » Jazz Articles » McGill University

Jazz Articles about McGill University

About McGill University

Album Review

The McGill University Jazz Orchestra: Ostinatocious

by Jack Bowers
May 2, 2005

While there may be some doubt that Ostinatocious is really a word, there's no doubt that the McGill University Jazz Orchestra from Montreal, Canada, is really a band. This is the MJO's eighth album, and to say it is up to its usual standards is the most earnest compliment one can bestow.

Ostinatocious spans the years 2002-04 with ensembles from each of those years taking part. The first five selections are performed by the 2004 orchestra, with four by the ...

200

Album Review

The McGill Jazz Orchestra: Conundrum

Read "Conundrum" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 2, 2003

A conundrum, according to Webster, is “a riddle in which a fanciful question is answered by a pun,” or “a paradoxical, insoluble or difficult problem; a dilemma.”

The only conundrum surrounding the seventh album by Montreal’s McGill University Jazz Orchestra is whether it may be the best recording by a college-level ensemble that one encounters this year or merely one of the best. While that remains to be seen (and heard), the undeniable fact is that Conundrum is on a ...