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Svetlana Shmulyian: Night at the Movies
by C. Michael Bailey
Svetlana Shmulyian is a gift that keeps on giving. The Russian-American emigre made her recording debut with Night at the Speakeasy (AO2 Records, 2016), where she infused the Great American Songbook's early canon with an Eastern essence of determination and intelligence. The singer followed that with her survey of film music Night at the Movies (Starr Records, 2020). Then the pandemic emerged, changing everything in the musical performance landscape. Shmulyian responded by surprising listeners with an outtake from ...
Continue ReadingDave Pietro: Hypersphere
by Paul Rauch
You may not know the name Dave Pietro offhand, but it is likely, if you are a jazz fan of any sort, that you have heard him play. As a saxophone/woodwind artist, composer, educator, sideman, and bandleader, he has performed across a broad spectrum of projects since his becoming a mainstay on the New York scene in 1987. That aspect of his career has enabled a sizable skill set that transfers over into his personal projects. His compositional ...
Continue ReadingSvetlana Shmulyian: Night at the Movies
by C. Michael Bailey
Russian-American singer Svetlana Shmulyian has blended an East Europe/Russia combination of elegant determination and delicate grit into the American Songbook on her debut recording Night at the Speakeasy (AO2 Records, 2016), and then film music on Night at the Movies (Starr Records, 2020). The artist surprised listeners by dropping an outtake from Night at the Movies, Young and Beautiful" from The Great Gatsby (Warner Bros., 2013) in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Young and Beautiful" was ...
Continue ReadingCharles Pillow Ensemble: Chamber Jazz
by Jack Bowers
Chamber Jazz, alto saxophonist Charles Pillow's eighth recording as leader of his ensemble, is a generally sedate but remarkably engaging series of tone poems that combine contemporary jazz with elements of classical music to produce a hybrid that underlines what is most harmonious and charming in each genre. Chamber Jazz is what it says, and chamber jazz is what it is. For comparison's sake, think of the ensemble as the Modern Jazz Quartet times five. True, there is no John ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober: Hiding Out
by Angelo Leonardi
Un decennio dopo Quake (Sunnyside 2009), l'arrangiatore e bandleader Mike Holober riporta sotto i riflettori la newyorchese Gotham Jazz Orchestra in uno scintillante doppio compact che raccoglie due ricercate composizioni ("Flow" in tre movimenti, Hiding Out" in cinque) e tre brani medio-lunghi (tra cui il delizioso Caminhos Cruzados" di Jobim in due versioni). Come è ovvio che sia, l'organico registra alcune sostituzioni. Tra i nuovi ingressi il trombettista Marvin Stamm, i sassofonisti Jason Rigby e Bill Drewes, il ...
Continue ReadingSvetlana: Night at the Movies
by C. Michael Bailey
Russian-American singer-composer Svetlana (she has a last name, Schmulyian, but prefers the monomoniker) is onto something. Her debut recording, Night at the Speakeasy (OA2 Records, 2016) with her self-appointed Delancey Five, was a structured affair which concentrated on the music of the Jazz Age" (save for the Beach Boys' God Only Knows") performed in a Jazz Age fashion, featuring trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. Svetlana returns with another themed recording, Night At the Movies, again featuring Gordon, on a collection of film ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Hiding Out
by Jerome Wilson
Mike Holober is a celebrated composer and arranger who has worked for ensembles like the Westchester Jazz Orchestra in New York and the WDR and HR Big Bands in Germany. He is also the leader and founder of the Gotham Jazz Orchestra which here makes its first appearance on record in ten years. Holober makes this return a fruitful one, coming up with a 2CD set featuring two long suites, both with themes involving American landscapes. The first ...
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