Home » Search Center » Results: Don Menza

Results for "Don Menza"

Article: Big Band Report

Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival - Woodchopper's Ball: Part 2-4

by Simon Pilbrow
September 23, 2018

Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival “Woodchoppers' Ball" Four Points by Sheraton at LAX Los Angeles, CA May 23-27, 2018 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Concert 4: Keen and Peachy: Music of the Woody Herman Second Herd -Directed by Michael Berkowitz ...

Article: Album Review

University of Kentucky Jazz Ensemble: On the Road

Read "On the Road" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 7, 2018

The University of Kentucky Jazz Ensemble was indeed On the Road in recent years, performing the first eight of the fourteen numbers on this impressive album at the 2017 Elmhurst College (IL) Jazz Festival, the others at the Montreux and North Sea (Netherlands) Jazz Festivals in 2011. If you are puzzled by the lack of audience ...

Article: Album Review

University of North Texas: Anniversary Package; Lab 2017

Read "Anniversary Package; Lab 2017" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 24, 2017

To mark the seventieth anniversary of its establishment, the Division of Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas in Denton has issued superb CD compilations honoring four of its distinguished educators / bandleaders in addition to Lab 2017 by the university's flagship One O'Clock Lab Band, the fiftieth annual recording by that widely celebrated ensemble. ...

Article: Interview

Clarence Becton: Straight Ahead Into Freedom

by Barbara Ina Frenz
January 19, 2017

Clarence Becton is a musicians' musician—meaning, someone well-known in musician circles. He belongs to the generation of American jazz heroes who grew up under economically and socially difficult circumstances, and for that very reason, succeeded in gaining a comprehensive education, emancipating himself, and embodying the history of jazz music by directly learning from and working with ...

Article: Big Band Report

Buddy Rich Rides Again

by Jack Bowers
January 27, 2016

Those who believe that Buddy Rich is the greatest big-band drummer who ever lived (yes, I'm one of them) can look forward to a marvelous treat this spring when Ken Poston and the Los Angeles Jazz Institute present Time Check: A Buddy Rich Alumni Reunion May 19-22 at the Sheraton Gateway / LAX Hotel. The four-day ...

Article: Album Review

Pete Magadini: Bones Blues

Read "Bones Blues" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
August 18, 2015

The Canadian label Sackville is known for its unique catalogue of superb Avant-Garde music and engaging trad-jazz recordings. So its 1976 Bones Blues is a bit of an anomaly as it documents a modern mainstream session that drummer Pete Magadini led and featured California based saxophonist Don Menza. Five standards and two originals comprise ...

Article: Big Band Report

Buddy Rich: The Beat Goes On

by Jack Bowers
June 11, 2014

Was Buddy Rich really “the world's greatest drummer"? The answer to that speculative question is debatable, of course, and opinions may vary, as they no doubt do on what kind of a person (or persons) he was when not weaving his particular brand of magic behind a drum kit. Buddy's remarkable talents as a drummer and ...

Article: Album Review

Kirk MacDonald: Symmetry

by Jack Bowers
January 12, 2014

Following two splendid albums as leader of his own big band (Deep Shadows, Family Suite for Large Jazz Orchestra), Toronto-based saxophonist / educator Kirk MacDonald has returned to a small-group format for Symmetry, the thirteenth recording on which his name has been listed atop the marquee. In this case, however, any member of MacDonald's quintet could ...

Article: Interview

Brian Landrus: The Low End Theory

by Daniel Lehner
November 14, 2013

Specialists don't usually have the luxury of controlling much of their destiny. For a low woodwind expert like Brian Landrus, it would be of little surprise to anyone to find that, though he'd have the freedom to experiment with sounds and timbres for his own records, he would be little more than a hired gun for ...

Article: Take Five With...

Take Five With Diane Taber

by AAJ Staff
August 28, 2013

Meet Diane Taber:Born in Buffalo, NY, Diane began singing professionally when she was 16. She has had the privilege of working with amazing jazz talents like saxophonist Don Menza, acclaimed pianist Anne Fadale, trumpeter Sam Noto, master jazz pianist Al Tinney, and Spyro Gyra keyboardist, Tom Schuman. She has studied with classical vocal coach ...