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Toshiko Akiyoshi: The Music Keeps Her Young
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Billy Taylor, now in his eighty-ninth year, once recorded an album titled Music Keeps Us Young. I'm a firm believer in that and could point to several notable examples, one of whom is composer / pianist / bandleader Toshiko Akiyoshi who was in Albuquerque and Santa Fe last month with husband Lew Tabackin to headline ...
Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra Rekindles Cuban Fire Suite
by Jack Bowers
On June 5, 2010, with the temperature in Albuquerque hovering around 100 degrees, the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra couldn't have wished for a better time to perform Johnny Richards' incendiary Cuban Fire suite, first recorded in 1956 by the Stan Kenton Orchestra. The sold-out concert was the opening event in the city's annual Jazz and Blues Under ...
Rob McConnell: Boss of Bosses
by Jack Bowers
Even though largely unknown to most of us south of the border, a number of world-class big bands have made their home in Canada over the years. For nearly three decades, however, there was one whose name and influence rose conspicuously above the others. That band was, of course, the incomparable Boss Brass, and the reason ...
Sonny Rollins Elected as Member of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
by Jack Bowers
This month's most welcome news has nothing to do with big bands but everything to do with artistry and excellence: saxophonist and jazz icon Sonny Rollins has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The Academy, a center for independent policy research (I don't quite understand what that has to do ...
For the Grand Prize: April Is . . . ?
by Jack Bowers
Did you know that April is Jazz Appreciation Month? Neither did I until I chanced upon a press release to that effect. According to the Smithsonian Institution's Smithsonian Jazz website, there are “celebrations in all 50 states and 40 countries." If I'm not mistaken, New Mexico is one of those 50 states, and no one here ...
Farewell, Sir John
by Jack Bowers
Some of us are old enough to remember when Sir John Dankworth was simply Johnny Dankworth, and quite simply one of the finest jazz musicians Great Britain has ever produced. Johnny became Sir John in 2006 when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, nine years after his wife, the marvelous singer Cleo Laine, was made a ...
The Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra Meets Fred Sturm
by Jack Bowers
The Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra was onstage January 23, 2010 at the University of New Mexico's Woodward Hall for a concert featuring the compositions and arrangements of Fred Sturm, director of Jazz Studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. The concert was a part of the New Mexico All-State Band Competition, which was being held at the ...
Back in the Saddle Again...Sort Of
by Jack Bowers
After an absence of more than 45 years, your correspondent returned to the airwaves on December 15, 2009 co-hosting a three-hour program of big-band holiday music on KSFR-FM in Santa Fe, NM. I was invited to share a part of my CD library by Arlen Asher, one of New Mexico's finest jazz musicians, who has been ...
Strike Up the (Unsung) Bands
by Jack Bowers
The big band era is known for producing a number of enormously successful ensembles whose leaders were household names: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Fletcher Henderson, then on through Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, the brothers Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnet, Artie Shaw, Harry James, Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie and, ...
Salute to Stan Kenton: Artistry in Contrast
by Jack Bowers
Artistry in Rhythm, the Ken Poston / Los Angeles Jazz Institute's 2009 homage to the renowned bandleader Stan Kenton, was held October 8-11 at the Sheraton LAX Four Points Hotel. As always, there was much to see, hear and admire: films, panel discussions, special presentations and, last but not least, no fewer than nineteen concerts by ...
