Jazz Articles about Jill Townsend

About Jill Townsend

Album Review

Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra: Tidal Currents: East Meets West

Read "Tidal Currents: East Meets West" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 26, 2024

When it comes to appraising contemporary big bands, Canada's Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra is on equal footing with the best of them. For its seventh album, Tidal Currents, the WJO has engaged two of that country's leading jazz composers, Jill Townsend and Christine Jensen, to present in musical terms impressions of places that have a special meaning to them, in particular the bodies of water that inspired them in their younger years and up to this point in time.

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Album Review

The Jill Townsend Big Band: Tales from the Sea

by Jack Bowers
February 18, 2004

This is what makes reviewing such an adventure. Just when one thinks he may have heard it all, a new big band comes out of nowhere—well, out of Vancouver, British Columbia, actually—to prove that he hasn’t, that there’s always something new under the sun, and that there’s almost nothing more rewarding than the thrill of discovering a marvelous new Jazz ensemble whose artistry and resourcefulness can best be described as breathtaking. The band in question is led by composer/arranger Jill ...