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Mike Fahie Jazz Orchestra: Urban(e)
by Jack Bowers
Most Western music, irrespective of its origin and premise, inhabits the same harmonic, chordal and rhythmic universe. So it should not be surprising that classical music, in the hands of a skilled arranger, can be readily recast in a jazz idiom, even one that is housed within a big-band framework. On Urban(e), trombonist Mike Fahie's New York-based Jazz Orchestra braves that challenge, quickening Fahie's translations of works by Frederic Chopin, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Bela Bartok, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and ...
Continue ReadingThe NYChillharmonic: Mean
by Mike Jurkovic
Having toured across five continents, you have to figure that no matter what musical element dares to share physical space within Brooklyn keyboard/vocalist Sara McDonald's brain-bending flight path, it is going to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and turned it into something forceful. Something fierce. Something startlingly her own. Leader of the eighteen piece, (sometimes twenty, sometimes more or less), orchestral-punk-prog-jazz-rock the NYChillharmonic, McDonald unveils the utterly invigorating “Mean," a churning, sawing, simmering shard of ...
Continue ReadingThe Seth Weaver Big Band: Truth
by Jack Bowers
Truth, the debut album by New York-based trombonist / vocalist Seth Weaver, has its ups and downs, most of which involve the leader himself. The “ups" enter the picture thanks to Weaver's five far-better-than-average compositions, the “downs" whenever he chooses to sing, as he does on three of eight numbers. Luckily, the pluses far outweigh the minuses, thanks in large measure to Weaver's admirable ensemble, a number of first-rate soloists and the above-mentioned compositions, which herald Weaver as a talented ...
Continue ReadingWebber / Morris Big Band: Both Are True
by John Sharpe
On Both Are True Canadian composers and reed players Anna Webber and Angela Morris reimagine the language of the big band. They extend the tradition through adventurous arrangements spiced with the unpredictability of improv, by co-opting the nimbleness of a much smaller group, and reveling in non-standard techniques. Webber has already garnered plaudits for the work of her Simple Trio with Matt Mitchell and John Hollenbeck, while Morris' ventures such as the Motel Trio boast a lower profile so far. ...
Continue ReadingSchapiro 17: New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60
by Jack Bowers
2019 marked the sixtieth anniversary of the Miles Davis sextet's acclaimed album, Kind of Blue (Columbia). While the tributes didn't exactly pour in, New York-based composer / arranger Jon Schapiro took it upon himself not only to revisit that classic session but to re-orchestrate it for a large ensemble (the Schapiro 17) and flesh it out with half a dozen compositions of his own and another by pianist Roberta Piket. In keeping with the spirit of the occasion, all of ...
Continue ReadingNick Grinder: Farallon
by Jerome Wilson
The striking thing about this CD by Bay Area trombonist Nick Grinder is how warm and soothing it sounds. It is not Smooth Jazz by any means, but there is a broad, melodic tone to Grinder's playing and the way he arranges the music that feels inviting and friendly. This is present even in up-tempo pieces like “New And Happy," with its brisk bebop cadences, and the prickly battle of “5 Steps" between Grinder's dancing horn, Ethan Helm's twisting alto ...
Continue ReadingNick Grinder: Ten Minutes
by Daniel Lehner
It's a shame that more trombonists don't make records like the one 25-year-old Nick Grinder has. The instrument has long since proven its worth in bebop, post-bop and neo- bop, but few bone players have elected to exploit the instrument's unique timbre and music- making structure, not to mention writing music most conducive for it, in the way that Grinder and his band have in their debut. In a strong first recording that lays out eight original compositions, Grinder and ...
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