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2013 Yuletide Offerings
by Dan Bilawsky
It's clear that the holidays are coming when the mercury dips and the cheery tidings of the season are balanced out by shopping-fueled malaise. When it comes to music, said shopping is often centered on a series of new holiday-themed releases that seem to arrive like clockwork in the weeks and months prior to Christmas; this ...
Nnenna Freelon & the John Brown Big Band: Christmas
by Jack Bowers
Renowned jazz singer Nnenna Freelon's first Christmas album truly is a gift, made possible by a small bequest from her Christmas-loving mother and a long-time friendship with John Brown, director of Duke University's Jazz Studies program and leader of the splendid John Brown Big Band. Brown not only made his ensemble available but co-produced the album ...
Phil Woods & the Festival Orchestra: New Celebration
by Jack Bowers
Any album with the renowned Phil Woods leading a big band (or jazz orchestra) is cause for celebration, especially so when he has written all but one of the charts and takes the bulk of the alto solos. More than fifteen years have passed since Woods last recorded with the COTA Festival Orchestra from his home ...
Ron Aprea: Passion Supreme
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Ron Aprea is a saxophonist's saxophonist. After all, none less than the late, great Frank Foster called him friend, confidant, section mate and leader. And Foster wasn't alone in this regard. Aprea has been a mainstay and graced the sax section in the bands of Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman and many others. A multi-faceted musician with ...
Frank Wess: Magic 101
by Jack Bowers
The “magic" here lies not only in the radiant music created by this stellar quartet of world-class musicians but also in the fact that its leader, Frank Wess, was a youthful eighty-nine years old when this splendid album was recorded in June 2011. Wess was once a star soloist (on tenor sax and flute) with the ...
Swingin' on a Riff . . . Hangin' by a Thread?
by Jack Bowers
Betty and I returned to Albuquerque on Memorial Day after attending Swingin' on a Riff, the latest in a series of marvelous semi-annual events presented by Ken Poston and the Los Angeles Jazz Institute for more than twenty years at venues in and around L.A. This one was held May 23-26 at the Los Angeles Marriott ...
Joe Locke: Lay Down My Heart: Blues & Ballads Vol.1
by Edward Blanco
The ever versatile vibraphonist extraordinaire Joe Locke returns to his early days of music-making, where he once felt that jazz was, is and “should always be, people music." On his third recording for the Motema label, Locke presents Lay Down My Heart: Blues & Ballads Vol. 1 designed as a vehicle for people everywhere who need ...
Joe Locke: Lay Down My Heart: Blues & Ballads Vol.1
by Dan Bilawsky
Vibraphonist Joe Locke doesn't seem to want to put his mallets down for very long. As soon as he arrived at Motéma Music, he released the modern-leaning Signing (Motéma Music, 2012) with the Joe Locke/Geoffrey Keezer Group, and partnered up with Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra for the somewhat serene Wish Upon A Star (Motéma Music, 2013). Now, ...
Pointing Fingers... And Naming Names
by Jack Bowers
As the countdown continues toward the last Big Band Report in June, the time has come to point fingers and name names--in other words, to compile a short list of contemporary jazz musicians who have risen above the norm to help make life more pleasurable for one devoted listener. These are, mind you, personal choices, and ...
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Mesa, AZ, March 8, 2013
by Patricia Myers
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton MarsalisMesa Arts CenterMesa, AZMarch 8, 2013The 25th anniversary concert by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis was an homage to the past, sparked by elements of modernism with a mix of standards by Duke Ellington, Gerry Mulligan and Chick Corea, plus ...
