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Angela DeNiro: Swingin' with Legends 2
by Jack Bowers
On Swingin' with Legends 2, her fourth recorded collaboration with arranger (and husband) Ron Aprea's big band, vocalist Angela DeNiro sings beautifully--and receives a lot of help from her friends, especially guests Ken Peplowski on clarinet, Randy Brecker on trumpet and Lew Tabackin on tenor sax and flute. And what a band! Well-stocked with stars who are eager to fly whenever Aprea raises his baton. Not that DeNiro needs much help. She is quite simply a marvelous ...
read moreAngela DeNiro: Swingin' with Legends 2
by Pierre Giroux
Vocalist Angela DeNiro sings with blue-ribbon vocal abilities. This is evident in her release Swingin' With Legends 2 . Accompanied by the Ron Aprea Big Band, supplemented by special guests Randy Brecker, Ken Peplowski and Lew Tabackin, she sails through fourteen love songs written by some of the greatest composers of the American Songbook, providing a deep understanding and command of the material she performs. The album opens with “New York City Blues," a not frequently ...
read moreAngela DeNiro with the Ron Aprea Big Band: Swingin' with Legends 2
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Swingin' with Legends 2 from Angela DeNiro with the Ron Aprea Big Band, is a follow-up to their first Legends effort in 1988. The album, as was its Grammy-entered predecessor, is a quintessentially classic big band recording featuring a fine female vocalist. The fourteen tunes here are predominantly from the Great American Songbook, with jazz greats Randy Brecker, Lew Tabackin, and Ken Peplowski delivering outstanding cameos. The opener “New York Blues" is a flat-out swinger with DeNiro belting ...
read moreRon Aprea: Ron Aprea Pays Tribute to John Lennon and the Beatles
by Nicholas F. Mondello
The John Lennon-Paul McCartney canon has been recorded by everyone with the possible exception of “Honey Boo Boo" and “Mini Me." Some of those efforts are feckless attempts at moving the popular-genre so far away from its source it is laughable. Saxophone artist, Ron Aprea had the unique opportunity (along with trumpeter Steve Madaio, he of Stevie Wonder and the L.A. studios) to record with John Lennon on his post-Beatles award-winning album, Walls and Bridges (1974, EMI). ...
read moreRon Aprea: Remembering Blakey
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Legendary drummer Art Blakey, he of the eponymous Jazz Messengers, is regularly attributed with saying: “Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life." Well, if that's the case, this superb recording from saxophonist Ron Aprea and his cleaning crew certainly left the studio spotless, and themselves, to be somewhat crude but oh-so accurate, assless.This is a very fine recording--a cooker--in the hippest and hottest of Hard Bop traditions. With a dozen selections from speedballs ("Flown the Coup") to ...
read moreRon Aprea Sextet: Remembering Blakey
by Edward Blanco
Legendary New York alto saxophonist Ron Aprea is recognized as much for his skills as an arranger, composer, record producer and band leader as he is known for his superb musicianship. On Remembering Blakey, Aprea brings to the fore all of his talents in churning out a monster album that pays homage to the leader of the famed Jazz Messengers. Unlike most tribute recordings, however, it is not a reprise of the drummer's music; none of the pieces can be ...
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