Results for "Jack Bowers"

Jack Bowers

Marc Seales: People & Places

by Jack Bowers
September 25, 2025

When planning an album, one good idea can make a world of difference. If, for example, a trio is in place but a horn is needed to make it a quartet, asking the incomparable Ernie Watts to fill that chair is always a good idea. That is what Jazz Hall of Fame pianist Marc Seales has ...

Jacob Chung: Live At Frankie's Jazz Club

by Jack Bowers
September 24, 2025

Boss tenor Jacob Chung is back, performing Live at Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is the reed master's second recording for Cory Weeds' Cellar Music Group (following 2024's The Sage), this time leading a quartet rather than a quintet as he did on that earlier album. Chung, who moved from ...

George Coleman: With Strings

by Jack Bowers
September 23, 2025

Sooner or later (usually later), a jazz saxophonist (or other instrumentalist) will entertain a desire to leave his or her normal comfort zone and record an album with “class." In other words, cue the string section and get ready to score some ballads. Tenor virtuoso George Coleman, who likely needs no introduction to even the more ...

Bruce Gertz: Octopus Dreams

by Jack Bowers
September 13, 2025

Veteran bassist and composer Bruce Gertz, who has more than 20 albums under his belt in a career spanning more than half a century, wrote and arranged every number on his latest recording, Octopus Dreams, wherein his skills in every realm are essential to its outcome. As a bassist, Gertz is sharp and ...

Ira B. Liss: Unexpected Guests

by Jack Bowers
September 12, 2025

Unexpected Guests is the seventh recording by Ira B. Liss' southern California-based Big Band Jazz Machine since Liss formed the ensemble in 1979. His guests on this radiant and high-energy studio date are “unexpected" in more ways than one, as only one of their 11 names can be found anywhere on the album aside from the ...

Socrates Garcia Latin Jazz Orchestra: Shadows of Tomorrow

by Jack Bowers
September 11, 2025

Do not let the word “Latin" in front of the Socrates Garcia Jazz Orchestra's name sway you. Shadows of Tomorrow is bright and spirited contemporary jazz albeit with a southerly twist. The salute to Latin America is for the most part rhythmic; everything else leans resolutely toward el norte, and the orchestra (which is actually based ...

David Bode: Good Hang

by Jack Bowers
September 9, 2025

Good Hang. That is not only a good name for an album but one that depicts the luminous spirit animating a splendid debut recording by New Orleans-bred composer, arranger and saxophonist David Bode's stellar nineteen-member Crescent City-based big band. From end to end, top to bottom, stem to stern or inside out, this studio session is ...

Ben Thomas Tango Project: The Hat with the Grin and the Chuckle

by Jack Bowers
September 7, 2025

On The Hat with the Grin and the Chuckle, his sixth recording as leader of the Tango Project, composer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Thomas once again invites his audience to put on their dancing shoes and sway to Argentina's unique and emblematic musical genre. In doing so, he affirms that there is far more than one way ...

Yoko Yates: Eternal Moments

by Jack Bowers
September 6, 2025

On her second album, Japanese-born, New York City-based pianist and composer Yoko Yates, ever the genial story-teller, presents ten of her elegant original compositions. Based on feelings and emotions she has experienced while living and working in and around the New York area, they encompass a wide range of phenomena--from outer space and a serpentine river ...