Jazz Articles about The UMass Jazz Ensemble

The UMass Jazz Ensemble 1: Live!

by Jack Bowers
January 1, 2001

The University of Massachusetts Jazz Ensemble I, whose debut album, Pay the Fiddler, earned a place on our Top Ten list in Cadence magazine of the best recordings of ’99, continues to impress on these live sessions in which the ensemble is joined on three numbers by New York–based alto saxophonist Dick Oatts. As on the earlier disc, director Jeff Holmes’ choice of songs is exemplary, and the ensemble scampers merrily through them as to the manor born. The concert ...