Jazz Articles

Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble: A Fresh Take

by Bruce Lindsay
July 27, 2011

A Fresh Take is Eugene Marlow's third album of songs from the Hebrew tradition. It builds on the foundation of the excellent Celebrations (MEII Enterprises, 2010) but rather than extending the Heritage Ensemble's repertoire still further, it reworks the tunes on the 2006 debut, Making The Music Our Own (MEII Enterprises). It's unusual to find a band revisiting its back catalogue so early in its recording career, but keyboardist/leader Marlow has a clear justification for the move, explaining that the ...

Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble: Celebrations

by Bruce Lindsay
October 25, 2010

Celebrations, the Heritage Ensemble's second album following Making The Music Our Own (MEII Enterprises, 2006), is subtitled Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble Interprets Festive Melodies From The Hebraic Songbook. The review copy arrived with a polite but serious covering letter rather than the usual hyperbolic press release. The album's closing track is a lecture by bandleader and keyboardist Marlow on “The Heritage Ensemble: its history, repertoire and philosophy." Not a typical jazz recording, then. A preservation project for musicologists, not fans? ...

Arturo O'Farrill: Wonderful Discovery

by Michael P. Gladstone
December 26, 2007

Pianist Arturo O'Farrill acknowledges the compositions of Dr. Eugene Marlow on Wonderful Discovery, where one of the composer's longtime wishes is fulfilled with an all Latin jazz album of his tunes. All but three of the dozen tunes are from Marlow's pen, along with one O'Farrill composition ("Arturo's Reverie"), an improvisation by percussionist Bobby Sanabria ("Raices"), and George Gershwin's “Summertime."

Marlow has composed more than 180 compositions for jazz and classical ensembles, with his songs performed by such ...

Arturo O'Farrill and Friends: Wonderful Discovery

by Ken Dryden
October 11, 2007

Even though Dr. Eugene Marlow has an impressive résumé as a composer/arranger and educator, many jazz fans are likely to have never heard of him at all though he has written numerous jazz and classical pieces for solo instruments, chamber ensembles and big bands, while also participating in the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop since 1998. Wonderful Discovery provides an excellent introduction to his compositions. This session features a large Latin jazz ensemble, well-led by pianist Arturo O'Farrill, with a strong ...

Arturo O'Farrill and Friends: Wonderful Discovery

by Jerry D'Souza
September 14, 2007

Long before the “Wonderful Discovery that constitutes the music and the musicians on this CD, Eugene Marlow had discovered Latin music. The muse hit him way back in London, England in the '40s. Jump cut to the '90s and Marlow was listening to Tito Puente. From then on, there were quite a few Latin bands that came his way as a member of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives Concert Series committee at Baruch College. Among them were the Latin-Jazz All ...

Eugene Marlow: Making the Music Our Own

by Jim Santella
April 10, 2006

Jazz pianist and composer Eugene Marlow reinterprets songs from the Jewish vernacular on Making the Music Our Own, along with a mainstream trio and quintet. The first five tracks were recorded in 1986 with a bassist and drummer whose names have been lost. The next four were recorded in 1995 along with the personnel listed. Marlow's interpretations carry a deep, exotic flavor that recalls the lasting thrill Duke Ellington and His Orchestra gave the world through Juan Tizol's “Caravan. Other ...