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Album Review

South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza

Read "Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 10, 2020

In 2019, the acclaimed Michigan-bred, Paris-based tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza thought he was being asked to contribute a couple of charts to the University of South Florida Jazz Orchestra's fifth recording in its fifteen-year history as a working ensemble. But when SFJO founder and leader Chuck Bergeron looked at the charts he had an even better idea, and asked Margitza to write and / or arrange everything on the album, which thus became Cheap Thrills: The Music of Rick Margitza. ...

Album Review

South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza

Read "Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
October 8, 2020

The concept of a large, tightly-knit big band in a recording studio, on a concert or jazz club stage may just be a plug-in memory in today's environment. Fortunately there is the fifteenth anniversary recording of The South Florida Jazz Orchestra directed by bassist/bandleader Chuck Bergeron, entitled Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza, to remind us what a disciplined inventive big band sounds like. With the exception of George and Ira Gershwin's “Embraceable You," all the other ...

Album Review

The South Florida Jazz Orchestra: The Music of Gary Lindsay / Are We Still Dreaming

Read "The Music of Gary Lindsay / Are We Still Dreaming" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 20, 2018

When a big band devotes an entire album to the compositions and arrangements of one musician, the obvious opening question is: why? In other words, who is Gary Lindsay and why is the South Florida Jazz Orchestra performing his music? In brief, the answer is that Lindsay, an alto saxophonist and well-respected educator, has written and arranged music for Maynard Ferguson, the U.S. Air Force Airmen of Note and Florida Philharmonic, among others, and was nominated for a Grammy Award ...

Album Review

The South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Trumpet Summit

Read "Trumpet Summit" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
August 18, 2012

Following its self-titled South Florida Jazz Orchestra (MAMA Records, 2008) debut, this Miami-based big band now presents a power-infused second effort. The highly anticipated Trumpet Summit showcases several wonderful jazz trumpeters. Renowned bassist, and founder and director of the band, Chuck Bergeron was inspired to feature sounds of the trumpet after remembering all of the great trumpeters that have performed with the band over the last several years. Bergeron calls on a host of trumpeters including: Grammy ...