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Album Review

The Birdland Big Band: Storybook—The Music Of Mark Miller

Read "Storybook—The Music Of Mark Miller" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell
June 3, 2026

Storybook: The Music Of Mark Miller is at one level the unfolding narrative of its 10 musical selections. At another, it is a tale about its primary author, Mark Miller, who prefaced his journey from Racine to New York City with a preliminary solo album, Mark Miller: The Return Of Slide Huxtable, before retaking the long road that is a serious jazz player's dream of making it in the Big Apple. But most of all, this new album is a ...

In Pictures

The Birdland Big Band at Birdland Jazz Club

by Dan Bilawsky
February 10, 2026

Happy hour on Friday is for unwinding, leaving the work week's burdens behind and--if you're lucky, and in the New York City area--catching The Birdland Big Band. That ensemble has long been holding court at its namesake club in a liminal space between afternoon and evening, filling the gap between life's structured nine-to-five commitments and the weekend's reprieve. Its music, mirroring both sides of that reality, walks a line between tight team work and personal freedom, allowing and encouraging ace ...

Album Review

The Birdland Big Band: Storybook: The Music of Mark Miller

Read "Storybook: The Music of Mark Miller" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 7, 2025

Storybook, the third recording by the New York City-based Birdland Big Band, is subtitled “the music of Mark Miller" and is designed to showcase compositions and arrangements by that multi-talented artist who doubles (triples) as the band's lead trombonist. Miller wrote or co-wrote half of the album's 10 colorful and impressive numbers (11 if one counts Joaquin Rodrigo's brief “Concerto de Aranjuez," which serves as an introduction to Chick Corea's “Spain") and arranged all of them. Miller's ...

Live Review

Birdland Big Band, New York, NY. December 28, 2011

by Ernest Barteldes
January 7, 2012

The Birdland Big Band directed by Tommy IgoeBirdlandNew York, NYDecember 28, 2011 On a chilly Wednesday night in December, drummer and bandleader Tommy Igoe directed the fifteen-piece Birdland Big Band as part of its weeklong headlining residence at the club the group has been calling home since its inception in 2005. The ensemble kicked off the set with an intriguing piece that shifted tempos, going from swing to blues, depending on who was soloing. ...

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Live Review

Birdland Big Band, New York, NY, December 28, 2011

by Dan Bilawsky
January 2, 2012

The Birdland Big Band directed by Tommy IgoeBirdlandNew York, NYDecember 28, 2011 Establishing a foothold in the world of big bands today is no easy feat. Strong label support and distribution (Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, for example), constant touring, television appearances and festival appearances (as with Wynton Marsalis and the LCJO), the weight of big band history (in the case of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra), and/or a unique, high brow concept in musical ...