Articles | Popular | Future

Frank Macchia: Rhythm Kaleidoscope

By Troy Dostert

With a host of wide-ranging work not only as a musician but also as a producer and arranger for television and film projects, Frank Macchia has never been one to rest on his laurels. Even if you're not familiar with his recordings, chances are you've heard at least one of his many film orchestrations: from The Cable Guy to Mission Impossible III to Muppets Most Wanted, Macchia's resume covers virtually every movie genre imaginable. And his own recording projects have ...

Frank Macchia: Grease Mechanix

By Jack Bowers

One thing that must be said about Frank Macchia (well, two things, actually)--he's a wild and crazy composer / bandleader whose satchel is always overflowing with splendid musical surprises. On his new album, Grease Mechanix, Macchia goes funky in a New Orleans brass band manner, employing a seventeen-piece ensemble comprised of some of the best sidemen the Los Angeles area has to offer to design such instant jazz classics as “Zombies Ate My Grandma," “Chicken Neck," “I'm So Damn Mad!," ...

Frank Macchia: Frank Macchia's Swamp Thang

By Dan McClenaghan

You never can tell what some jazz guys have up their sleeves. Los Angeles-based reedman Frank Macchia has worked extensively in television and movies, while maintaining a busy jazz career. His two orchestral jazz outings--Emotions (2006) and Landscapes (2008)--each garnered Grammy nominations, and he has also offered up two very distinctive jazz re-imaginings of traditional fare with Folk Songs for Jazzers (2010) and Son of Folk Songs for Jazzers (2011), all released on his own Cacophony Records.With Frank ...

Frank Macchia: Son Of Folk Songs For Jazzers

By Edward Blanco

Composer/arranger Frank Macchia explores twelve more American folk songs and their reinterpretation through jazz on Son of Folk Songs for Jazzers, a follow-up to his critically acclaimed Folk Songs for Jazzers (Cacophony, 2010), for which he received his third Grammy nod in the Best Instrumental Arrangement category. As with the first album, Macchia uses a fourteen-piece ensemble, with many of the same A-list musicians from the Los Angeles area, among them, Wayne Bergeron, Bob Sheppard, Bill Reichenbach and vocalist Tierney ...

Frank Macchia: Son Of Folk Songs For Jazzers

By Dan McClenaghan

Saxophonist Frank Macchia keeps racking up the Grammy nominations. He got his third nod for the award with his big band interpretation of “Skip to My Lou," from his Folk Songs for Jazzers (Cacophony, 2010), following up his recognition for Emotions (Cacophony, 2007) and Landscapes (Cacophony 2008). In addition to his work in producing these excellent CD offerings, Macchia also works extensively in film and TV, as one of those musicians many have heard without knowing who it ...

Frank Macchia's Freaky Fricassee of Music

By Frank Macchia

These are just a random group of some of my favorite tunes compiled for your listening pleasure. Not just jazz tunes, but some rock, pop and classical as well. I hope you can check out some of these artists. I really dig them!! TrackNameTimeArtistAlbum1After Youre Gone3:53Terry GibbsDream Band Vol 12Alabama (Takes 4 & 5)5:10John Coltrane QuartetThe Classic Quartet--Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings3All Of Me2:18EsquivelMusic From A Sparkling Planet4Bernie's Tune (LP Version)4:21Clare FischerCrazy Bird5Clear Spot3:40Captain Beefheart & The Magic ...

Take Five With Frank Macchia

By Frank Macchia

Meet Frank Macchia: Born and raised in San Francisco, CA., Frank started on the clarinet at the age of ten years old. Soon afterward he began studies on bassoon, saxophone and flute. By the age of fourteen he began studying composition, writing jazz and classical pieces for his high school band and orchestra and for jazz ensembles that rehearsed at the local union hall, including trumpeter Mike Vax's Big Band. In 1975-76 Frank wrote jazz/classical hybrid ...

Frank Macchia: Folk Songs for Jazzers

By Edward Blanco

Never the conventionalist when it comes to music, Grammy-nominated composer/arranger and saxophonist Frank Macchia develops another theme album, this time reinterpreting time-honored traditional American folk songs in another innovative frame of jazz on Folk Songs for Jazzers. With a history of releasing concept albums like the saxophone-heavy Saxolollapalooza (Cacophony, 2008), the Third Stream-tinged classical jazz Landscapes(Cacophony, 2007), the orchestral Emotions (Cacophony, 2006), and the previous Animal series recordings, Macchia once again summons his creative juices in recording some classic American ...

Frank Macchia: Folk Songs for Jazzers

By Dan McClenaghan

Frank Macchia seems to have a thing about American folk songs--a very good thing. On his Grammy-nominated Landscapes, the Los Angeles-based multi-reedist/composer/arranger teamed up with The Prague Orchestra and bookended his superb “Landscape Suite" with traditional tunes like “Shenandoah," “Down in the Valley," and “Deep River," with marvelous results.On Folk Songs for Jazzers, Macchia and his thirteen-piece band jazzes up some seemingly unlikely traditional tunes like “Blue Tail Fly," “I've Been Working on the Railroad," Skip to My ...

Frank Macchia: Saxolollapalooza

By Jack Bowers

As John Cleese used to say on the Monty Python television series, “And now for something completely different." Of course, one can usually expect something completely different from free-thinking Frank Macchia, and this CD is no exception to the rule. Once upon a time, Macchia writes, he bought a bass saxophone and came up with the idea of recording half a dozen saxophones, from soprano to bass, accompanied only by drums. He wrote a number of charts and even recorded ...

Frank Macchia: Saxolollapalooza

By Jeff Dayton-Johnson

Way in the background on some classic big band recordings, there is a high-pitched aural glow, a sustained, ethereal, almost liturgical hum coming from somewhere in the reeds section. Duke Ellington's “There Shall Be No Night," from the great Blanton/Webster Band box set (Bluebird, 1990), has it. Partly it's the recording technology of the time, sufficiently imperfect that your brain suspects it's hearing things that aren't there; partly it's the art of the arranger (Billy Strayhorn, of course, in the ...

Frank Macchia: Landscapes

By Michael P. Gladstone

Tenor saxophonist/composer/arranger Frank Macchia has made a significant album that follows-up his Grammy-nominated Emotions (Cacophony, 2006). Again utilizing the strings of the Prague Orchestra under the direction of Adam Klemens, Macchia has submitted another ambitious work to the public.

Listening to Landscapes, the two things that come to mind are film scoring and the influences of Aaron Copland and Gil Evans. In the liner notes, Macchia reports that in preparation and inspiration for this album, he listened to ...