Articles by Jack Bowers
Springfield Symphony Jazz Orchestra: Royalty: The Music of Duke Ellington & Count Basie
by Jack Bowers
According to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, there are at least 33 cities, towns and other populated areas in the U.S. that answer to the name “Springfield." Only five boast populations of more than 20,000, and one (Illinois) is a state capital. Springfields can be found in Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Kentucky, among other places. And also in Ohio, which is presumably the only Springfield that is home to its very own Symphony Jazz Orchestra. ...
Continue Reading...Fumi Tomita: Yokai: Songs of the Japanese Supernatural
by Jack Bowers
In 2023, seeking solace after the recent death of his father, bassist and composer Fumi Tomita began exploring the artwork in a book of woodblock Japanese images that his wife had given him, and found in them the inspiration for an album devoted to exploring the mystical realm of Japanese spiritualism from a jazz perspective. Tomita, a New Yorker of Japanese descent, wrote nine themes based on his understanding of Japanese supernatural beliefs and recorded them with his ...
Continue Reading...Geof Bradfield, Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Dana Hall: Open Or Close
by Jack Bowers
A quartet of notable jazz artists--two from Midwestern Illinois, the others imported from the West Coast--venture far out on a limb to spruce up Open or Close, recorded in November 2025 at Chicago's popular Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. The foursome obviously had a game plan, and the audience at the Green Mill seems to have been on board with that. But when said plan consists for the most part of drab and disorderly melodies and unwieldy ...
Continue Reading...Houston Person: From the Heart
by Jack Bowers
There are seldom any big surprises when tenor saxophonist Houston Person releases a new album. On the other hand, there are few moments that are less than pleasing, as consistency and good taste have been and remain Person's calling cards throughout his more than 60-year career as one of the jazz world's leading artists. Known for his warm, blues-drenched sound, Person, now in his 90s but showing few signs of bowing to Father Time, draws his magnetism From ...
Continue Reading...Rob Dixon: Naptown Soul
by Jack Bowers
Saxophonist Rob Dixon, who has called Naptown (aka Indianapolis) home for most of his adult life, salutes the city's enviable jazz heritage on Naptown Soul, leading a splendid quartet through its paces on four of his original compositions (one of which opens the album and three of which close it), a pair by Indy legend Wes Montgomery and two others. Guitarist Dave Stryker and organist Sam Fribush are in the starting lineup (with drummer Richard “Sleepy" Floyd), and ...
Continue Reading...Seth Kibel: Clarinet, Without a Net
by Jack Bowers
The late great Phil Woods once observed that the clarinet “was invented by six guys who had never met each other," which is another way of saying it is more than challenging to play. It is a challenge that woodwind virtuoso Seth Kibel accepted years ago and has spent much of his career as an award-winning jazz artist pursuing. On Clarinet, Without a Net, Kibel plays clarinet on every number, backed on even-numbered tracks by one quintet, on ...
Continue Reading...George Garzone: Themes For Good Friends
by Jack Bowers
Tenor saxophonist George Garzone, a driving force on the New England jazz scene for more than half a century, traveled to the famed Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey to record the genial Themes for Good Friends, his 13th album as leader, with an all-star supporting cast that includes trumpeter Randy Brecker on his quintet's front line. The rhythm section (Luis Perdomo, piano; Santi Debriano, bass; Jeff “Tain" Watts, drums) is no less impressive, lending Garzone and Brecker ...
Continue Reading...Jalen Baker: RePaved
by Jack Bowers
RePaved, vibraphonist and composer Jalen Baker's third album as leader of his own ensemble, is an eight-part suite that depicts in musical terms the history of Houston, Texas' historic Black neighborhoods and his family's deep connection to the city's Third Ward, which spans four generations. As is usually true of thematic music, that becomes largely irrelevant once it begins. What is of more than passing interest is that Baker composed the suite's first half-dozen movements, while the seventh ...
Continue Reading...Fernando Ferrarone: Beautifully Different
by Jack Bowers
It is one thing to be a multi-instrumentalist; it is quite another to play two or more instruments so remarkably well that heads start to turn and listeners ask, “Who was that?“ Florida-based Fernando Ferrarone is in the latter class. He plays electrifying alto saxophone on the first and last tracks of Beautifully Different, impeccable trumpet on everything in between. And Ferrarone does so while leading a quintet that consists of American pianist Russell Kranes and three sidemen ...
Continue Reading...Christian Finger: Zeit Zirkel
by Jack Bowers
Listening to Zeit Zirkel (Time Circle), German-born and New York-based drummer Christian Finger's sixth album, you might not surmise that he was the leader of this ensemble--unless, that is, you glanced at the album jacket. Yes, Finger is present on every track and he anchors the quintet's reliable rhythm section. And yes, he composed and arranged every one of the session's 13 uniquely personal numbers. On the other hand, he nestles mostly within the woodwork, ceding the lion's ...
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