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Armando Vergara
Bobby Sanabria: Arsenio and Beyond
by Jack Bowers
Much of the music on Arsenio and Beyond was written by the trailblazing Cuban composer Arsenio Rodriguez, a master of the mandolin-like Cuban tres guitar who is credited among other innovations with creating the musical design that became known as son montuno. Rodriguez, drummer and bandleader Bobby Sanabria writes, was “the true Father of Mambo and Son Montuno," without whom “there is no salsa, Afro-Cuban jazz, or, many would even argue, rock or funk." Sanabria and his Multiverse ...
Continue ReadingNikos Chatzitsakos: Tiny Big Band 2
by Jack Bowers
Cleaving to the premise that one Tiny Big Band deserves another, bassist Nikos Chatzitsakos is back with Tiny Big Band 2, the second album by his feisty nonet and a follow-up to the well-received Tiny Big Band! (self-produced), recorded in 2022. This time, Chatzitsakos uses two vocalists instead of one, rotating them on half of the album's eight tracks, and brings back only three of the earlier album's instrumentalists, plus himself. The returnees are cornetist Robert Mac ...
Continue ReadingSteven Feifke Big Band: Kinetic
by Jack Bowers
Jazz connoisseurs who lean toward big bands that swing as earnestly and often as the renowned architects of the epic big-band era should find plenty to cheer about on Kinetic, the debut recording by New York-based pianist, composer and arranger Steven Feifke's audacious and fiery ensemble. This is a band that fires on all cylinders—but it couldn't even leave the garage unless Feifke supplied the fuel. With one exception (noted below), Feifke's intense and high-powered charts neatly pave the way, ...
Continue ReadingSteven Feifke Big Band: Kinetic
by Angelo Leonardi
Assimilare la tradizione per poi creare cose originali. È questo il percorso che hanno seguito e continuano a seguire i musicisti jazz, in forme e approfondimenti diversi. A 30 anni esatti il pianista Steven Feifke è ancora al primo passo ma in questo scintillante debutto orchestrale dimostra di avere tutte le carte in regola per sviluppare percorsi originali. Kinetic è infatti un esempio del miglior modern mainstream orchestrale, elaborato sulle lezioni di Thad Jones e Mel Lewis, ...
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The Windmills of Your Mind
From: Tiny Big Band 2By Armando Vergara
All or Nothing at All
From: All or Nothing at AallBy Armando Vergara
