Jazz Articles about Nick Ornelas

About Nick Ornelas

Album Review

The Reckless Night Ensemble: Pan Americanos: The Songs of Raymond Scott & Lalo Guerrero

Read "Pan Americanos: The Songs of Raymond Scott & Lalo Guerrero" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
June 29, 2021

Led by guitarist Skip Heller and bassist Nick Ornelas, The Reckless Night Ensemble on Pan Americanos feature the music of composers Raymond Scott and Lalo Guerrero and simultaneously captures two of Los Angeles' historic sounds in musical daguerreotype. A chameleonic jazz-blues guitarist and small ensemble roots music master, Heller ties several different musical threads together into Pan Americanos. In the early 2000s, he teamed up in Los Angeles with Lalo Guerrero, often called the Father of Chicano music, ...

Album Review

Mike Barone Big Band: Brazil

by Jack Bowers
October 29, 2020

Brazil doesn't signify that the venerable California-based composer / arranger Mike Barone has gone Latin; it simply means that “Brazil" is the opening number and the name Barone chose for the latest in his long-running series of remarkable big-band albums. No matter, as a Barone recording by any other name would be every inch as inspired and exciting, thanks in large measure to his unerring control of the vehicle, not to mention his invariably radiant and resourceful charts.