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The DIVA Jazz Orchestra: 25th Anniversary Project
by Jack Bowers
To mark the DIVA Jazz Orchestra's twenty-fifth year as one of the world's leading jazz ensembles--male or female--drummer / music director Sherrie Maricle gave herself and eight members of the all-woman orchestra a homework assignment: to compose and arrange each of the ten numbers on the group's eleventh CD, the bright and exhilarating 25th Anniversary Project. Now that the task has been completed and the grades compiled, it should come as no surprise that everyone's work--not to ...
read moreThe DIVA Jazz Orchestra: 25th Anniversary Project
by Geannine Reid
A 25th Anniversary is a rare event in today's music world, and Sherrie Maricle the leader and driving force behind the DIVA Jazz Orchestra has achieved just that. A vehicle for some of today's most recognized names in jazz, this Orchestra goes beyond the label of an all-female ensemble, it is more about the achievements and heights of each of its players, as a collective sound and a force of significant women who have worked hard for each of their ...
read moreThe Diva Jazz Orchestra: 25th Anniversary Project
by Hrayr Attarian
The Diva Orchestra, with its vibrant sound and stellar soloists, is one of the premier large ensembles in jazz today. It also happens to be one of the few made up entirely of women. Therefore, it is both a creative hot bed for talented musicians and a forum for female instrumentalists, who remain sorely underexposed, to express themselves. The 25th Anniversary Project is an intriguing set of ten originals by various members of band that highlights their inventive and imaginative ...
read moreThe DIVA Jazz Orchestra: Special Kay!
by Jack Bowers
WOW! No, it is definitely not advisable to open a review with an unequivocal superlative (for one thing, it sort of gives the game away, doesn't it?). But on Special Kay!, its ninth impressive album in twenty-four years, DIVA--the gold standard among all-female big bands since its inception--really gives a commentator no reasonable choice. Simply put, this is a mind-blowing live performance at the Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek, NY, that electrifies and satisfies from ...
read moreBand Ambition: Sherrie Maricle and Diva
by Richard J Salvucci
In the iconic photo A Great Day in Harlem (1958), bandleader and pianist Count Basie has taken a seat on the curb. Eleven neighborhood kids and one ringer, Taft Jordan Jr, are seated single file to Basie's right. Marian McPartland and Mary Lou Williams stand behind the kids, chatting. They are bookended, appropriately, by Oscar Pettiford and Monk. The only other woman is Maxine Sullivan. I never noticed her until now--a telling oversight. Fifty years later, the ...
read moreDIVA: A Swingin' Life
by Jack Bowers
As if being the premier all-female big band on the planet weren't enough, DIVA has enlisted the services of two purebred divas--Nancy Wilson and Marlena Shaw--to enrich its latest album, A Swingin' Life, recorded live at Pittsburgh's Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (November 2011) and Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center (September 2012). Wilson and Shaw are more than window dressing, giving their all on five of the album's eleven numbers. Wilson brings out the best in ...
read moreDiva: A Swingin' Life
by Richard J Salvucci
Back in 1967, Buddy Rich was one of the headliners on a summer replacement television broadcast for “The Jackie Gleason Show." If I remember correctly, the show's theme, which Rich and the band did was “Away We Go." It was subsequently released on a Pacific Jazz record The New One. Why is it that the opening track on Diva's most recent recording A Swingin' Life reminds me of that recording? It's not because Sherrie Maricle is in the Buddy Rich ...
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