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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 ...
Don Ellis: Haiku
by John Kelman
One of the more tragic casualties of the 1970s was Don Ellis. Emerging from the big bands of Maynard Ferguson, Charlie Barnet, and Ray McKinley, the trumpeter began releasing albums under his own name in the early 1960s, distanced from his mentors' more mainstream big band sound. Beginning in small ensembles with free-thinking players such as ...
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, ...
"Maynard!" -- New Book About Maynard Ferguson Now Available
MAYNARD! becomes the first new book on bandleader and jazz trumpet phenomenon Maynard Ferguson in nearly a dozen years. It's 240 pages of raw MF as remembered in interviews by 30 musicians and others from his earliest U.S. gigs in the late 40s to the peak of his career on Columbia Records in the 70s. Grammy ...
The Jazz Audience
When The National Endowment for the Arts study on Public Participation in the Arts came out a few weeks ago, the survey's bad news about the size of the jazz audience caused ripples of concern. It showed that over a six-year period, the number of Americans attending jazz events dropped to a low of 7.8%. In ...
Jazz Orchestras
by Nick Catalano
This excerpt appears in New York Nights: Performing, Producing and Writing in Gotham (IUniverse, 2008). In addition to the productions of the dance band shows, being a Performing Arts producer meant that I had the opportunity to present artists from every genre imaginable. I steadfastly tried to adhere to some sense of objectivity listening ...
"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 ...
Phil Woods: Philology
by George Kanzler
When pianist Jim McNeely replaced Hal Galper in the Phil Woods Quintet in 1990 it was the current winner--repeating in 1991--of the Downbeat Readers Poll as top jazz small group. But, as McNeely remembers, his first days with the alto saxophonist's band included a benefit concert for the local volunteer fire department in Delaware Water Gap, ...
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 ...
