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Austin Di Pietro: Live at Mackenzie Hall Jazz
by Jack Bowers
Trumpeter and composer Austin Di Pietro, whose musical enterprises span the border between Canada and the U.S., leads a hard-working quintet in a concert recorded in July 2025 Live at Mackenzie Hall in Windsor, Ontario, a few stones' throw across the border from Detroit. Di Pietro wrote four of the album's seven numbers, while tenor saxophonist Ryan Bills contributed the rapid-fire “Hangtet" to complement the standard “If I Had You" and Marcus Belgrave's charming finale, “All My Love." ...
Continue ReadingPlanet D Nonet: Blues to Be There
by Jack Bowers
The subtitle of Blues to be There, the Detroit-based Planet D Nonet's latest album (recorded in June and July 2022), is “A Salute to Duke Ellington." As with almost any bow to the Duke, it encompasses a healthy measure of Billy Strayhorn as well. Ellington wrote or co-wrote thirteen of the album's persuasive numbers, Strayhorn five including the classics “Take the 'A' Train" and “U.M.M.G." As for Ellington, he is represented almost exclusively by lesser-known compositions, most ...
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The Fleeting Moment
From: Live at Mackenzie Hall JazzBy Ryan Bills
