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About Tommy Poole
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
OSU Jazz Orchestra: Angular Tuesday
by Jack Bowers
The splendid Oklahoma State University Jazz Orchestra seldom pauses for breath on Angular Tuesday, its third album under director Tommy Poole. The ensemble enters as though shot from a cannon on Don Menza's frenzied “Time Check," and keeps on swinging and swaying through a lively program that encompasses sunlit compositions by Maria Schneider, Bob Mintzer, Thad Jones, Don Grolnick, Matt Catingub and Matt Harris, plus the animated and funky title selection, written by saxophonist Matthew Howell in 2021, his senior ...
Continue ReadingOSU Jazz Orchestra: Room 118
by Jack Bowers
Room 118 honors the space in the Seretean Center for the Performing Arts wherein the splendid Oklahoma State University Jazz Orchestra and other on-campus jazz groups held their rehearsals for many years. There must be something special there, as the OSU ensemble is one of the most well-rehearsed university-level jazz ensembles you're likely to encounter this side of the University of North Texas—and even that comparison marks a very close call. Director Tommy Poole had the band burnished and ready ...
Continue ReadingOSU Jazz Orchestra: Solid Gold
by Jack Bowers
Having overseen one impressive Jazz Studies program, at Northeast (OK) State University in Tahlequah, Tommy Poole has moved on to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater where he seems well on the way to repeating that success. The subtitle of Solid Gold, the first recording under Poole's direction by the OSU Jazz Orchestra, reads “featuring Michael Dease." And “featuring" is no understatement here. Not only does the Grammy award-winning and DownBeat magazine Rising Star trombonist solo (superbly) on every number, Dease ...
Continue ReadingNSU Jazz'Tet: Out Front
by Jack Bowers
The NSU Jazz'Tet is comprised of seven students (and one faculty member, director / saxophonist Tommy Poole) from the Jazz Studies program at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK. Together they present an assortment of small-group jazz that is scrupulously modern yet firmly grounded in the music's time-honored traditions. Bop is a salient part of their vocabulary, as are blues, ballads, Latin rhythms, funk and even a waltz. Besides putting their best foot forward musically, most members ...
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