The Pratt Brothers Big Band

The Pratt Brothers Big Band Featuring Roberta Gambarini: 16 Men & a Chick Singer Swingin'

by Jack Bowers
March 19, 2005

I could endorse the Pratt Brothers' second album on the basis of Dean Pratt's candid and incisive liner notes alone, but entertaining and provocative as they are, the music is even better, encompassing half a dozen persuasive instrumentals and four superb vocals by the outrageously talented Roberta Gambarini.

As far as the ensemble is concerned, the album title says it all--mama don't 'low no ballads 'round here. This is a smoking, straight-ahead, Basie-style firestorm from end to end, including three ...