Jazz Articles about Stefan Rey

About Stefan Rey

Album Review

Well, what is your pleasure? Swinging charts? You have them. A tight big band? Yes, that certainly, and more. Terrific soloists? In abundance. A blend of genres that go from straight ahead to Latin to funk? That is all here too. The only thing absent, and all respect to Bob Mintzer, is excitement. To be honest, many contemporary big bands doing studio recordings have a similar issue. The level of musicianship is astronomical, but something is not there. You wonder ...

Album Review

Bob Mintzer & WDR Big Band Cologne: Soundscapes

Read "Soundscapes" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 3, 2021

Saxophonist Bob Mintzer, a New Yorker who left home long ago to see the world, is a professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music and chief conductor of the world-class WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany, with whom he has recorded Soundscapes, a luminous showcase for his singular talents as composer, arranger and soloist. As anyone who is familiar with Mintzer--through big-band recordings, his quartet the Yellowjackets or other avenues--clearly understands, he will ...