Jazz Articles about Scott Cowan

About Scott Cowan

Album Review

Western Jazz Collective: Dark Journey: The Music of Andrew Rathbun

Read "Dark Journey: The Music of Andrew Rathbun" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 7, 2025

The Western Jazz Collective is a seven-member co-op group that actually hails from America's Midwest--more specifically, Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo--where the ensemble's crew serve as members of the faculty. The designation “Western" thus refers to the university rather than the septet's geographic location. Be that as it may, what infuses and animates the Collective's debut album, Dark Journey, is the music, all of which was composed by the group's saxophonist-in-residence, Andrew Rathbun. There are nine songs ...

Album Review

Sven Anderson: Doc's Holiday

Read "Doc's Holiday" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 29, 2022

Teachers are often unaware of the impact they have on students' lives and careers. That is clearly the case with pianist Sven Anderson's album, Doc's Holiday, whose title number is dedicated to Marvin (Doc) Holladay, one of Anderson's teachers many years ago at Michigan's Oakland University. Holladay, who has been on “holiday" in Ecuador with his wife, Diane, since 2006, says that not only was he completely unaware of the dedication, at age ninety-three he was unable to recall Anderson ...

Album Review

Scott Cowan: Jack's Place

Read "Jack's Place" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza

by Jerry D'Souza
October 12, 2012

Trumpeter Scott Cowan built his strength performing with several top-notch musicians, including pianist Fred Hersch, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and guitarist Kenny Burrell, in addition to being an educator and a conductor and arranger. He makes an ambitious move on his debut as a leader by extending his core unit of a quartet into a quintet, sextet and octet. The basic configuration makes for some warm and cozy listening, with the expanded groups showing not only his compositional skill but also ...