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Scott Cowan
Western Jazz Collective: Dark Journey: The Music of Andrew Rathbun
by Jack Bowers
The Western Jazz Collective is a seven-member co-op group that actually hails from America's Midwest--more specifically, Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo--where the ensemble's crew serve as members of the faculty. The designation “Western" thus refers to the university rather than the septet's geographic location. Be that as it may, what infuses and animates the Collective's debut album, Dark Journey, is the music, all of which was composed by the group's saxophonist-in-residence, Andrew Rathbun. There are nine songs ...
Continue ReadingSven Anderson: Doc's Holiday
by Jack Bowers
Teachers are often unaware of the impact they have on students' lives and careers. That is clearly the case with pianist Sven Anderson's album, Doc's Holiday, whose title number is dedicated to Marvin (Doc) Holladay, one of Anderson's teachers many years ago at Michigan's Oakland University. Holladay, who has been on “holiday" in Ecuador with his wife, Diane, since 2006, says that not only was he completely unaware of the dedication, at age ninety-three he was unable to recall Anderson ...
Continue ReadingScott Cowan: Jack's Place
by Jerry D'Souza
Trumpeter Scott Cowan built his strength performing with several top-notch musicians, including pianist Fred Hersch, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and guitarist Kenny Burrell, in addition to being an educator and a conductor and arranger. He makes an ambitious move on his debut as a leader by extending his core unit of a quartet into a quintet, sextet and octet. The basic configuration makes for some warm and cozy listening, with the expanded groups showing not only his compositional skill but also ...
Continue ReadingMusic
National Nightmare
From: Dark Journey: The Music of...By Scott Cowan
