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4

Article: Album Review

Fat Kid Big Band: New Beginnings

Read "New Beginnings" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Note to Montreal's Fat Kid Big Band: If you really want to make a favorable first impression on your audience, move the opening track on New Beginnings, “Bustin' My Ass," and replace it with any of the album's five instrumental numbers. Nothing personal, and no disrespect meant to singer Othniel PF, but why would a big ...

5

Article: Album Review

Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra: Without A Trace

Read "Without A Trace" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Grudging good wishes to New Yorkers who are able to see and hear the world-class Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra on a fairly regular basis. Everyone else must make do with the occasional recording (Without a Trace is only the second by the ten-year-old ensemble which made its debut in 2008). That's not nearly enough, of course, ...

5

Article: Album Review

John Macleod: The Toronto Sound

Read "The Toronto Sound" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Yes, this is Canada's John MacLeod and the Rex Hotel Orchestra. And yes, this is the ensemble's third CD, The Toronto Sound. But close your eyes and listen carefully and it modulates into no less than an earnest albeit clandestine homage to Rob McConnell and the peerless Boss Brass. Is that a good thing? Beyond any ...

10

Article: Album Review

Ronny Johansson: Manhattan

Read "Manhattan" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Manhattan, Swedish-born pianist Ronny Johansson's thirteenth album as a leader, is being reviewed on a Friday, the thirteenth (a rather odd coincidence but one that in no way impairs its worth). The album also marks Johansson's seventy-fifth birthday. In honor of the occasion he abandoned his usual trio format in favor of a quartet, adding Rolf ...

5

Article: Album Review

The Ken Peplowski Big Band: Sunrise

Read "Sunrise" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Many contemporary big bands are all about “breaking new ground" and “exploring new pathways." Not this one. Ace clarinetist Ken Peplowski, who has performed and recorded with myriad large ensembles, at home and abroad, but has seldom led one--although he did record one other big-band album, Last Swing of the Century (Concord Jazz, 1999)--simply wants to ...

7

Article: Album Review

Bob Washut Dodectet: Journey to Knowhere

Read "Journey to Knowhere" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Even as experience is often the best teacher, so it is that the teacher often has the most useful experience. Bob Washut, who has been a teacher for roughly four decades, brings that experience and more to bear on Journey to Knowhere, preparing an ambrosial banquet for his twelve-member Dodectet whose main course consists of seven ...

8

Article: Album Review

Bill Warfield: For Lew

Read "For Lew" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

The “Lew" referred to on Renaissance man Bill Warfield's latest big-band album, For Lew, is the late trumpeter Lew Soloff, whom Warfield remembers in the liner notes as “my mentor, colleague, friend and inspiration." The inspiration arrived when the teen-age Warfield, who had switched from trumpet to piano after losing his front teeth in an auto ...

6

Article: Album Review

Mica Bethea: Suite Theory

Read "Suite Theory" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

If nothing else is known about Mica Bethea, it should be clearly understood that he has never been one to brush aside or turn away from a challenge. When Bethea was twenty-one years old and a student / musician at the University of North Florida, a horrendous auto accident left him a quadriplegic. For most people, ...

5

Article: Album Review

Jim McNeely / Frankfurt Radio Big Band: Barefoot Dances and Other Visions

Read "Barefoot Dances and Other Visions" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Barefoot Dances and Other Visions is a contemporary seven-part suite written by composer/arranger Jim McNeely in 2014 for the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, with whom he has worked since 2008. “I tailored my musical visions," he writes, “to fit each player in the ensemble, and placed each soloist in a framework both familiar and challenging." Challenging ...

6

Article: Album Review

Dafnis Prieto Big Band: Back to the Sunset

Read "Back to the Sunset" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

The alliance of Latin music and American jazz ripened on these shores more than seventy years ago, nourished by pioneers such as Mario Bauza, Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, Tito Puente and others. It has been carried forward and enhanced since then by a succession of remarkable innovators including in recent years the Cuban-born drummer Dafnis ...


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