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The New Wonders: The New Wonders
by Nicholas F. Mondello
In the vast array of jazz styles, if there is one segment which rises phoenix-like over time, it is the music of the first third of the Twentieth Century, the era which saw Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, and other individuals and bands ignite popularity. With “the New Wonders," NY-based cornetist, vocalist, arranger and ardent student of that early jazz era Mike Davis has pulled together some of New York's finest trad players in a romp and stomp collection ...
read moreJohn La Barbera Big Band: Grooveyard
by Jack Bowers
Composer/arranger John La Barbera has been at the top of his game for more than half a century, and Grooveyard is simply another example of his undiminished artistry. Besides arranging everything--superbly, as always--La Barbera wrote six of the session's ten charming songs, escorting other treasures by Carl Perkins, Dave Brubeck, Curtis Fuller and Elvin Jones. As he writes his handsome and colorful big-band charts, La Barbera is always careful to observe Rule No. 1: they have to ...
read moreThe John La Barbera Big Band: Grooveyard
by Nicholas F. Mondello
The geometry, if you will, of a terrific big band recording is such that the three major elements--the players, the arrangements, and the performance--balance in every regard. Grooveyard from the John La Barbera Big Band is such an offering. The album features ten masterfully selected, arranged, and performed selections, each containing outstanding section, solo, and ensemble playing. Wes Montgomery's “Grooveyard" launches a hip, swinging first course in which tenor man Pat La Barbera and guitarist Brandon Coleman ...
read moreDavid Finck: BASSic Instinct
by Jack Bowers
There's so much variety on BASSic Instinct, bassist David Finck's sixth recording as leader, that it's almost like grooving on half a dozen or more albums for the price of one. Ensembles run the gamut from duo to octet, with vocals added on three of its thirteen engaging numbers. Besides governing the rhythm, composing three of the numbers and arranging all of them, Finck shoulders melodic duties on five tracks and solos effectively throughout. As suits his temperament, every number ...
read moreMike Davis: Fortunes and Hat-Tricks, Vol. 2
by Eyal Hareuveni
Double bassist Mike Davis organizes his spontaneous, immediate improvisations-compositions according to two arbitrary guidelines. The Fortunes group of such compositions draw its inspiration from evocative song titles taken from about 100 fortune cookies, but Davis and his trio co-conspirators--saxophonist Jacob Duncan and drummer Jason Tiemann--never discuss their different interpretations of these titles before playing. The second concept for these compositions, Hat- Tricks, dictates that each musician writes brief, abstract instruction for another musician, and none of the musicians discusses with ...
read moreTake Five With Mike Davis
by Mike Davis
Meet Mike Davis:Mike Davis has lived several distinct musical lives. He has been a student, a serious student of performance and of theory and of composition and of art. He has been a gig warrior, playing multiple shows in multiple styles on different instruments at different venues with different bands on the same day numerous days per week, week after week after week. He has been a record producer, sitting in front of a computer and a rack ...
read moreNeil Ardley's New Jazz Orchestra: Camden '70
by AAJ Italy Staff
Se la Dusk Fire avesse voluto speculare un po’ sulla pubblicazione di queste belle registrazioni dal vivo avrebbe usato il nome dei Colosseum come richiamo in copertina. E invece giustamente l’album viene accreditato alla New Jazz Orchestra di Neil Ardley, vero leader del progetto e animatore appassionato della scena jazzistica inglese fra la fine degli anni sessanta e l’inizio della decade successiva. Le belle note di Dave Gelly contenute nel libretto del CD raccontano molto bene la genesi di questo ...
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