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

by Jack Bowers
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 ...
Continue ReadingBirdland Big Band, New York, NY. December 28, 2011

by Ernest Barteldes
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. ...
Continue ReadingBirdland Big Band, New York, NY, December 28, 2011

by Dan Bilawsky
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 ...
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