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Albuquerque's Red-Letter Day
by Jack Bowers
A sold-out house at a jazz concert? In Albuquerque, New Mexico? It's possible. The two-day Albuquerque Jazz Festival closed February 18 with a concert featuring as guest artists trumpeter Wayne Bergeron and saxophonist Danny House, and if there was an empty seat in the Eldorado High School Performing Arts Center, which can accommodate more than 430 ...
Odds 'n Ends
by Jack Bowers
There's not a whole lot to write about this month (aside from Super Bowl XL, and that's not something we'll dive into here) so we'll call this ghoulash “odds 'n ends. Brother Ed in Maryland sent me a brochure detailing the 15th annual Fish Middleton Jazz Scholarship Festival set for February 15-20 in suburban Rockville. A ...
Poston Gathering Welcomes Buddy Charles Orchestra
by Jack Bowers
I received a phone call in late December from Buddy Charles to wish me a happy New Year and let me know that the Buddy Charles Jazz Orchestra would be performing at the next Ken Poston-L.A. Jazz Institute extravaganza, Encores in Big Band Jazz, May 25-28 at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Los Angeles. I ...
Jack Bowers' Best of 2005
by Jack Bowers
Selected picks representing the top recorded big band jazz for 2005... New Releases Emerald City Jazz Orchestra Come Rain or Come Shine Pony Boy Records Gerald Wilson Orchestra In My Time Mack Avenue Records ...
The Best-Laid Plans...
by Jack Bowers
Even the best-laid plans (I'm paraphrasing here, and ending the sentence with a preposition) don't always work out the way one wants them to. Betty and I had tickets November 12 to see and hear the great Eddie Daniels perform with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. The plans were derailed by a sudden attack of uncontrollable ...
DJO: Thirty Years and Counting
by Jack Bowers
I was reminded recently that the Dallas Jazz Orchestra is now more than thirty years old (which I should have known after reviewing its latest album, The Big 3-0, recorded in 2004). That's a long time for any big band to stay together, and would have been true even the in so-called Big Band Era, when ...
Blue Skies, Smilin' at Me...
by Jack Bowers
The early morning sky over Albuquerque is awash in brilliant colors this week as hundreds of gas-powered balloons of all shapes and sizes become airborne as a part of the thirty-fourth annual International Balloon Fiesta. With midday temperatures now in the seventies, autumn is in the air and gaining ground fast. Nothing to do with Jazz; ...
Prescott: Jazz at the Summit
by Jack Bowers
The afternoon was warm and postcard-perfect as Betty and I made the two-hour drive north on I-17 from Phoenix to Prescott, AZ. It was Thursday, August 25, and we had flown from Albuquerque to attend the fifth annual Prescott Jazz Summit, scheduled to begin the following day with a noontime concert at the city's picturesque Courthouse ...
Jazz in Albuquerque: Down But Not Out
by Jack Bowers
June 23 was hardly a red-letter day for Jazz here in Albuquerque. To be honest, doomsday could be a more apt description, for that was the day on which Ed Ulman, executive director of the New Mexico Jazz Workshop, had to make the “toughest phone call of his life. The recipient of that call, in Tucson, ...
Neophonic Impressions
by Jack Bowers
As the plane on which I was a passenger touched down in Albuquerque late in the afternoon on Memorial Day, I remained deep in thought, wondering to myself how one could possibly summarize in words the memorable experience that was Neophonic Impressions, a big-band extravaganza held May 26-29 at the Four Points Sheraton-LAX Hotel and sponsored ...
