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Jazz Articles about Virginia MacDonald

30
Album Review

Michael Dease: Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill

Read "Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Even though all but unsung outside his customary locale, Michigan-based composer Gregg Hill has drawn into his orbit a small but well-respected circle of jazz artists including bassist Rodney Whitaker, guitarist Randy Napoleon and trombonist Michael Dease, all of whom have recorded albums dedicated to Hill's diverse and sophisticated music. Found in Space is Dease's second homage to Hill, with a third one in the planning stages. Hill's compositions, which traverse the spectrum from straight-on jazz to ...

12
Album Review

Michael Dease: Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill

Read "Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by Paul Rauch


Leaving a legacy in this life is a subject that holds different meanings for people. For some, it involves building a structure of permanence that will stand up to the test of time after one's entrance into eternity. For others, it is more fleeting, something that can be shaped and reshaped, and if desired, completely torn down. For some it is a function of building a monument to oneself. For others, like Central Michigan composer/arranger Gregg Hill, it is a ...

4
Liner Notes

Michael Dease: Found in Space - The Music of Gregg Hill

Read "Michael Dease: Found in Space - The Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by Bill Milkowski


The title itself is revealing. A clever play on words of the old '60s sci-fi show Lost in Space, it immediately suggests an irreverent wit and slightly twisted perspective; qualities that also permeate the unique music of prolific Michigan-based composer Gregg Hill. How this fairly obscure presence on the national music scene has managed to garner such a fervent following remains a mystery to those of us outside the Great Lakes State. Converts include bassist-educator Rodney Whitaker, Director ...

33
Album Review

Canadian Jazz Collective: Septology

Read "Septology" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The Canadian Jazz Collective is a septet comprised of several of that country's leading jazz musicians. Trumpeter Derrick Gardner, tenor saxophonist Kirk MacDonald and guitarist Lorne Lofsky certainly need no introduction to jazz fans, in Canada or most anywhere else, nor do pianist Brian Dickinson, bassist Neil Swainson, drummer Bernd Reiter and clarinetist Virginia MacDonald. Septology, a compendium of eight songs written by Gardner, Lofsky or MacDonald, was recorded at a studio in Germany's Black Forest during a European tour ...

9
Album Review

Michael Dease: The Other Shoe: The Music of Gregg Hill

Read "The Other Shoe: The Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Gregg Hill is a jazz composer favored by several jazz musicians who have recorded entire albums of his work, such as guitarist Randy Napoleon and bassist Rodney Whitaker. Here trombonist Michael Dease joins the party with a full album of Hill pieces arranged for a quintet. Hill's writing on this album delves into a wide array of conventional forms such as blues, ballads, and Latin jazz, but always with unique twists and ideas present. Some of his compositions ...

5
Liner Notes

Michael Dease: The Other Shoe: The Music of Gregg Hill

Read "Michael Dease: The Other Shoe: The Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by AAJ Staff


"Think of any big city," Greg Hill says, introducing the narrative armature of his composition, “The Other Shoe," the denouement and title track of this stimulating collaboration with Michael Dease, who arranged each of Hill's 10 compositions contained herein. “It's 2 in the morning, you're still awake, and your neighbor comes in upstairs. You hear the first clunk when his shoe hits the floor. Then you wait. He may be inebriated. It may take a while to get the other ...

33
Album Review

Fraser MacPherson: From The Pen Of...

Read "From The Pen Of..." reviewed by Jack Bowers


The late tenor saxophonist Fraser MacPherson was well-known in western Canada and elsewhere for his brilliance—but as player, not a writer. In fact, according to MacPherson's son Guy, who wrote the excellent liner notes to From the Pen of..., his father wrote barely a dozen or so original compositions, almost all of which are included on this superlative album with performances by a who's who of well- known jazz artists from Canada and other countries. Considering what ...


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