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Deck the Halls with Big Band Carols
by Jack Bowers
With the holiday season on track and hastening toward us like a runaway locomotive, it's time once again to hunker down and prepare for the annual onslaught of “Rudolph," “Frosty the Snowman," “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," “Sleigh Ride," “Silver Bells," chestnuts roasting on an open fire and everyone's perennial favorite, “White Christmas." Not to ...
Brett Favre Isn't The Only Comeback Kid
by Jack Bowers
The ink was barely dry on last month's report that trumpeter Rob Parton had decided to break up his superlative Chicago-based JazzTech Big Band after more than twenty years at the helm before Parton was back with a brand new ensemble, one whose purpose, he says, “is to mirror that of the European Radio Orchestras where ...
Jacksonville: Big City, Big Band, Big Plans
by Jack Bowers
Almost everyone who's even mildly interested knows that the big band scene in the US isn't what it used to be. On the other hand, the big bands aren't yet dead, as some alarmists have claimed, or even on life support. Thanks in part to college and armed services programs, there are perhaps as many or ...
Jack Nimitz: Baritone-in-Chief
by Jack Bowers
Baritone saxophonist Jack Nimitz died June 10, 2009 at his home in Studio City, California. He was 79 years old. That's hardly headline news except to a relative handful of jazz enthusiasts who were privileged to hear and appreciate his consummate artistry over the span of more than half a century when Nimitz was at the ...
"A Swingin' Affair" Outshines Its Name
by Jack Bowers
With an appreciative bow and genial tip of the hat to the late Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, the Los Angeles Jazz Institute named its semi-annual big-band soiree May 21-24 at the Sheraton LAX Four Points Hotel “A Swingin' Affair." Was the event able to live up to its name? In the immortal words of ...
Bud Shank: A Voice for the Ages
by Jack Bowers
I'll always have fond memories of the 2007 Prescott (Arizona) Jazz Summit, as it was the last time I had the great pleasure of seeing and hearing the phenomenal alto saxophonist Bud Shank doing what he did best: enfolding an entire audience in the palm of his hand with a seemingly endless stream of irrepressible notes ...
Louie Bellson: Tasteful Drummer, Sweeter Guy
by Jack Bowers
To say that drummer extraordinaire Louie Bellson, who left us on February 14, 2009 at age eighty-four, had a remarkable career would be to explicitly understate the record. Bellson's success at age 17 in a nationwide contest sponsored by one of his idols, Gene Krupa, and Slingerland Drums set the talented wunderkind on a path that ...
The Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra Gets "Thrasched"
by Jack Bowers
The thirty-third annual Albuquerque Jazz Festival ended its two-day run on February 21, 2009. The event is devoted mainly to performances by high school and middle school bands, while the grand finale features the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra with invited guests, this year the saxophone quartet Thrascher (Randy Hamm, soprano; Tim Ishii, alto; Ed Petersen, tenor; Glenn ...
It's the Economy, Man!
by Jack Bowers
Even though the present (and future) state of the economy here in the States is no laughing matter, there has been at least one tongue-in-cheek article about jazz musicians seeking bailout money from Congress and the Bush administration (still in power when it was written last December). It's presented as a straight “news" story, but musicians' ...
Some Words of Explanation . . .
by Jack Bowers
As this is the first Big Band Report filed since October 2008, a brief accounting of the reasons seems in order. The fact is that I've not been well since midsummer. The good news is that I seem to have turned a corner and hope to be my old self again in short order. The spring ...
