Jazz Articles about Sean Imboden

About Sean Imboden

Album Review

Sean Imboden Large Ensemble: Communal Heart

Read "Communal Heart" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 17, 2026

Communal Heart is the first album by saxophonist and composer Sean Imboden's superb Indiana-based Large Ensemble, recorded about a year before his second recording, Uncharted Realms (Self Produced, 2026). As before, all the compositions and arrangements are Imboden's, while the personnel in the eighteen-member orchestra remains virtually intact. If there is a difference between the two, it is that Imboden's themes are even more intriguing and intense the first time around, which is saying a lot, as Uncharted ...

Album Review

Sean Imboden Large Ensemble: Uncharted Realms

Read "Uncharted Realms" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 19, 2026

Saxophonist and composer Sean Imboden's Large Ensemble springs forth from America's heartland--more specifically, the thriving capital city of Indianapolis, Indiana. The ensemble is indeed large--18 members strong--and Imboden gives every one of them serious work to do on the group's second recording, Uncharted Realms, unraveling a series of colorful and adventurous charts written with the ensemble's skill-sets in mind. Even though there are solos--impressive ones at that--on each of the album's five numbers, Imboden's primary focus is on ...

Radio & Podcasts

Sean Imboden: Into The Heart Of Big Band Jazz

by Lawrence Peryer
August 2, 2025

Today, the Spotlight shines on saxophonist and composer Sean Imboden. Sean spent years touring with Broadway shows and working as a sideman, but something was missing. He stepped away from a lucrative career path and took a leap, returning to Indianapolis, where he ultimately formed his 17-piece orchestra. Now that ensemble releases Communal Heart (self-released), an album that captures the community spirit Sean has built around his music, as well as his transformation from comfortable sideman to big ...

Album Review

Sean Imboden: Communal Heart

Read "Communal Heart" reviewed by Dean Nardi

by Dean Nardi
June 8, 2025

Sean Imboden's Large Ensemble Has a Communal Heart Sean Imboden was bitten by the big band bug early on. It is understandable. Both his parents were musicians, and his father taught him to play clarinet when he was in sixth grade. As a teenager, besides playing in middle school and high school bands, he sometimes sat in on gigs with his father's ensemble. After college, he moved to New York City and became involved with the touring Broadway show circuit, ...

Album Review

Tucker Brothers: Live at Chatterbox

Read "Live at Chatterbox" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 14, 2024

Chatterbox is a nightspot in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Tucker brothers (Joel, guitar; Nick, bass) homegrown siblings whose weekly gig at Chatterbox serves essentially as their home base. The brothers lead a quartet on this concert date, with tenor saxophonist Sean Imboden and drummer Carrington Clinton rounding out the group. Joel Tucker is the latest in a long line of splendid Indy-based guitarists that started more than seventy-five years ago with the legendary Wes Montgomery. Coincidentally, Wes Montgomery ...