Jazz Articles about RJ Spangler

About RJ Spangler

Album Review

Planet D Nonet: Echoes of Harlem: A Salute to Duke Ellington Vol 2

Read "Echoes of Harlem: A Salute to Duke Ellington Vol 2" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 30, 2024

Operating on the time-honored principle that one successful tribute deserves another, the Detroit-based Planet D Nonet has recorded Echoes of Harlem, Vol. 2, an homage to the great Duke Ellington and follow-up to the ensemble's well-received album from 2023, Blues to Be There: A Salute to Duke Ellington. Each of the studio session's fifteen selections was written by Ellington and/or Billy Strayhorn, and the ensemble does its best Ellington impression interpreting them, even replicating the distinctive rhythmic, ...

Album Review

Planet D Nonet: Blues to Be There

Read "Blues to Be There" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 11, 2023

The subtitle of Blues to be There, the Detroit-based Planet D Nonet's latest album (recorded in June and July 2022), is “A Salute to Duke Ellington." As with almost any bow to the Duke, it encompasses a healthy measure of Billy Strayhorn as well. Ellington wrote or co-wrote thirteen of the album's persuasive numbers, Strayhorn five including the classics “Take the 'A' Train" and “U.M.M.G." As for Ellington, he is represented almost exclusively by lesser-known compositions, most ...

Album Review

The Paxton / Spangler Septet: Ugqozi

by Chris May
June 17, 2022

Ugqozi is a celebration of modern, urban African music, especially that from South Africa, with which co-leaders trombonist John Tbone" Paxton and percussionist RJ Spangler have been in love for decades. It is also an affirmation of the vibrant Detroit scene of which the multi-generational Paxton / Spangler Septet is a part. Actually, the band is not a septet. Depending on whether one goes by the sleeve credits or the press release, it is either an octet ...

Album Review

RJ Spangler Trio: This Is What We Do

Read "This Is What We Do" reviewed by Steve Bryant

by Steve Bryant
November 21, 2012

Detroit has always been a home for a multitude of jazz traditions. From big band to swing, from hard bop to the avant-garde, any jazz style can be heard in a given week. The city has especially embraced the organ trio, that staple of neighborhood joints found throughout the urban landscape. Veteran drummer and bandleader RJ Spangler has made that ubiquitous instrument his bread and butter for quite a while. Spangler (who, incidentally, is the nephew of the legendary San ...