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Results for "Jack Bowers"
Cristina Braga & Brandenburger Symphoniker: Whisper
by Jack Bowers
It's not often that a harpist's name crowns the marquee above that of a jazz quintet and symphony orchestra, but that is the case on Whisper, the latest CD by Brazilian-born harpist / singer Cristina Braga whose almost-whispered vocals and virtuosic harp command the spotlight in a concert performance in the Great Hall of the Brandenburger ...
Socrates Garcia Latin Jazz Orchestra: Back Home
by Jack Bowers
Back Home, the debut recording by composer / arranger / musicologist Socrates Garcia's Latin Jazz Orchestra, combines the best of two worlds: ardent Latin jazz that never forswears its roots, and emphatic American-designed big-band swing that provides a solid framework for Garcia's picturesque Latin / American excursions. Garcia, who was born in the Dominican Republic, is ...
Stockholm Jazz Orchestra: Today
by Jack Bowers
Before proceeding, three cheers and a hearty round of applause are in order, as Today, the fifteenth album recorded by the impressive Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, helps mark the thirtieth anniversary of one of Scandinavia's most celebrated big bands. This truly is an ensemble with no discernible weaknesses: sharp soloists in almost every chair, a remarkable adeptness ...
Kevin Kaska Jazz Orchestra: Shades of Rio
by Jack Bowers
Seductive melodies and danceable rhythms carry the day on Shades of Rio, a tasteful debut recording by the southern California-based Kevin Kaska Jazz Orchestra, which earns the name by using a full string section on most numbers to complement its well-upholstered twenty-three member core ensemble anchored by master drummer Harvey Mason. Kaska, a story unto himself, ...
The Great American Music Ensemble: It's All in the Game
by Jack Bowers
While those of a certain age may reasonably presume that It's All in the Game refers to a hit song from 1958 by Tommy Edwards ("Many a tear has to fall, but it's all in the game . . ."), the “game" in this case is actually an acronym for conductor / arranger Doug Richards' Great ...
The Empire Jazz Orchestra: Out of the Mist
by Jack Bowers
Out of the Mist is the sixth album (and first in a studio) recorded by the Empire Jazz Orchestra, a professional repertory ensemble founded in 1992 and in residence since then at Schenectady County (NY) Community College. While there is no comprehensive theme underlining its latest enterprise, the EJO's stated purpose is to perform music from ...
National Jazz Ensemble: Featuring Gerry Mulligan
by Jack Bowers
Any new CD whose cover proclaims “Featuring Gerry Mulligan" is guaranteed to turn heads, raise antennae and whip up interest. This one, on which Mulligan performs with the then-three-year-old National Jazz Ensemble, was recorded February 19, 1977, in a sold-out auditorium at the New School in New York City. In his liner notes, trumpeter David Berger ...
University of Northern Iowa Jazz Band One 2014-15: Local Color
by Jack Bowers
In Local Color, the latest in a long series of splendid albums by the University of Northern Iowa's Jazz Band One, color is one of the primary ingredients; every number, in fact, is awash in radiant colors, from the prismatic opener, UNI alum Michael Conrad's “Gerry's Timepiece," to the chimerical closer, Curtis Fuller's dark-hued “The Egyptian." ...
Roxy Coss: Restless Idealism
by Jack Bowers
Roxy Coss was inspired to name the second album as leader of her own group Restless Idealism after reading a passage by Hunter S. Thompson in The Rum Diary, in which he weighs the tension between “a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other." While Coss, as a working ...
Buddy Rich Rides Again
by Jack Bowers
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 ...
