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Javier Nero
Remy Le Boeuf: Heartland Radio
by Angelo Leonardi
Nel 2022 Remy Le Boeuf s'è trasferito da New York a Denver per dirigere il dipartimento “Jazz and Commercial Studies" presso la Lamont School of Music della locale università. La colonna sonora di quel lungo viaggio in autostrada è stata la musica delle radio che alternavano pop, rock, rhythm & blues, country, dance ed altro. “Non c'è molto jazz in mezzo al Paese" ha ricordato l'orchestratore e sassofonista ma la musica di quest'album (che riflette le emozioni di quell'itinerario) ...
Continue ReadingRemy Le Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows: Heartland Radio
by Dan Bilawsky
This ear-grabbing date from Remy Le Boeuf's Assembly of Shadows--the band's third release, following its eponymous debut (in 2019) and Architecture of Storms (SoundSpore Records, 2021)--is a sonic mirror, reflecting the multihyphenate leader's recent travels in both life and sound. Influenced by an odyssey across inland America, sights encountered along the way, and the adventitious, airwaves-dictated soundtrack to the journey, Heartland Radio offers up a striking portrait of a Promethean artist with an unfettered imagination. Opening on ...
Continue ReadingRuss Spiegel: Caribbean Blue
by Jack Bowers
Pleasant music with ample color and variety--that's an apt description of Caribbean Blue, the latest albulm from California-bred, Florida-based guitarist Russ Spiegel, who has surrounded himself with world-class musicians and given them rein to canvass ten of his generally engaging compositions and bring them admirably to life. While everything on offer is respectable, it is the album's midsection--tracks 3-8--that rise above the others and lend the session much of its vitality and charm. After harmonica virtuoso Hendrik ...
Continue ReadingRemy Le Boeuf: Architecture of Storms
by Jack Bowers
It's hard to become bored or complacent when listening to Architecture of Storms, alto saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf's second album as leader of the twenty-member Assembly of Shadows orchestra. Every song is quite different from the others, and every one has its moments of shapeliness and charm. Le Boeuf arranged every number and composed all but Justin Vernon's “Minnesota, WI" and the album's nameplate, which he co-wrote with poet Sara Pirkle, he asserts, “on a brooding stormy ...
Continue ReadingJavier Nero Jazz Orchestra: Kemet (The Black Land)
by Jack Bowers
On Kemet (The Black Land), trombonist/composer Javier Nero pays homage to a highly advanced African civilization that flourished before the Egyptian kingdom was established and thousands of years before the Greek and Roman empires that are hailed today as the pillars of modern/western culture. Even though Kemet is all but forgotten in 2023, Nero (whose name in Italian literally means “black") says that scholars from surrounding societies including the Greeks were once sent there to study the arts, sciences, literature, ...
Continue ReadingSteven Feifke: The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra
by Angelo Leonardi
Metti assieme un talentoso giovane orchestratore come Steven Feifke, un trombettista di prima grandezza come Bijon Watson e una big band con grandi nomi e prestigiosi ospiti e il risultato è scontato. Il debutto della Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra è stato propiziato dalla collaborazione col Jazz Education Network ed ha assunto le vesti di un album includendo in organico ospiti di rilievo come Kurt Elling, Sean Jones e Chad Lefkowitz Brown. Il principale riferimento è la tradizione ...
Continue ReadingGeneration Gap Jazz Orchestra: The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra
by Jack Bowers
The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, co-led by pianist/composer Steven Feifke and trumpeter par excellence Bijon Watson, is a seventeen-member ensemble comprising seasoned players paired with young lions who are poised to capture pride of place. Nowhere do the leaders say who is in which group, and it would be impolitic to name them here. Suffice to say that some of the names may be more familiar than others--as, for example, trombonist John Fedchock who cut his teeth with one of ...
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