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John Daversa: Junk Wagon

By Scott Lichtman
March 30, 2025
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"Junk Wagon" is a singularly dynamic big band arrangement. It is a pretty wild ride, in fact. Composer/trumpeter John Diversa has completed three academic degrees in music, won numerous jazz awards, and performed with artists including Yellowjackets and Renee Olstead. His big band work truly stretches the players' chops and the listeners' ears. "Junk Wagon" opens with wah-wah horn attacks, followed by brass and woodwind trills. It does not take long to slip into a distorted guitar lead-in to a passage reminiscent of the "Mission Impossible" theme, then a Jan Hammer-like synth solo. At every moment, however, the chart reminds us that this is big band jazz. Diversa has explored widely and recorded prolifically since John Daversa: Junk Wagon:The Big Band Album , making his whole, magnetic body of work worth sampling.

Contact Scott Lichtman on All About Jazz.
Jazz/fusion keyboardist & autograph collector in Stamford CT.

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