Jazz Articles about Stan Harrison

About Stan Harrison

Album Review

Russ Anixter's Hippie Big Band: What Next?

Read "What Next?" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 4, 2026

A big band by any other name... Arranger and orchestrator Russ Anixter has chosen to call his 11-piece ensemble the Hippie Big Band. Which is fine, Russ. Whatever works for you. Alas, much of the music on What Next? sounds as though it could have been imported from the mid- 20th century. Yes, this is unquestionably jazz even though it does lean rather heavily on rock, funk and even some free improvisation as its bedrock; and ...

Album Review

Stan Harrison: Some Poor Soul Has a Fire

Read "Some Poor Soul Has a Fire" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 17, 2025

As befits someone who has spent years in the pop/rock arena performing with name acts from David Bowie, Radiohead and Stevie Ray Vaughan to Duran Duran, Bruce Springsteen, Laurie Anderson and many others, composer and saxophonist Stan Harrison sees jazz through an extremely wide lens. While there are a few moments of clean straight-ahead blowing on Harrrison's album Some Poor Soul Has a Fire, there are many others that emulate more closely his kinship to and respect for the kind ...

Album Review

Russ Anixter's Hippie Big Band: What Is?

by Jack Bowers
March 3, 2025

Although the music of New York-based bandleader and arranger Russ Anixter may leave the average listener bemused and scratching his or her head, even the more perplexed among them would have to concede that Anixter has his personal North Star, and that he and the eleven-member Hippie Big Band follow it to the letter. Having grown up in San Francisco in the 1960s, Anixter was irresistibly drawn to bands such as The Grateful Dead, Santana and others who made improvisation ...

Album Review

Madeleine Peyroux: Let's Walk

by Chris May
July 29, 2024

Madeleine Peyroux's career took off in 2004 with her second album, Careless Love (Rounder), covering songs by such 20th century greats as Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Hank Williams. It was performed with a jazz sensibility, infusions of blues and touches of chanson, and mostly with jazz arrangements. In this respect, it continued the direction set by Peyroux's debut, Dreamland (Atlantic, 1996). Since those early albums, Peyroux's trajectory has evolved. The jazz sensibility, and love of chanson ...