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Entourage: Things Are Looking Up
by Jack Bowers
Even with interest in the genre waning, most decent-sized cities are home to one or more local jazz groups, which vary in size, membership, temperament and ability. Entourage, formed in 2007, is an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based quintet led by vocalist Emerson Susan Corley whose core group has been enlarged to as many as fifteen for its ...
Dick Oatts / Mats Holmquist New York Jazz Orchestra: A Tribute to Herbie +1
by Jack Bowers
A Tribute to Herbie +1 is Swedish-born composer / arranger Mats Holmquist's third “tribute" album, following well-received salutes to Chick Corea (2003) and Wayne Shorter (2012). For his encomium to pianist / composer Herbie Hancock, Holmquist called upon two of New York City's most respected sidemen, alto saxophonist Dick Oatts and trombonist John Mosca, known and ...
Rolf Sturm: Young
by Jack Bowers
Albums featuring a lone instrument are often the most difficult to review, especially if the writer is not a musician. After commenting on technique, sound and musical selections, what more is there to say? It is even more troublesome when said instrument is a guitar, as there are legions of virtuosos on the scene today, both ...
Howard University Jazz Ensemble: HUJE 2015
by Jack Bowers
In 1975, Howard University, a bulwark of higher education in our nation's capital since 1867, formed its first Jazz Ensemble and named a young trumpeter / educator, Fred Irby III, as director. One year later, Irby ushered the ensemble into a recording studio to verify its prowess, a tradition that has continued uninterrupted for forty years. ...
Jeremy Manasia Trio: Metamorphosis
by Jack Bowers
The Jeremy Manasia Trio: new names one and all in this neighborhood save for the gentleman who makes the trio a quartet, guitarist Peter Bernstein. As it turns out, pianist Manasia, a native of Staten Island, has been a mainstay on the New York jazz scene since he returned from Europe in 1997, and Metamorphosis is ...
Joe Syrian's Motor City Jazz Octet: Sanctuary
by Jack Bowers
The Motor City Jazz Octet numbers in its ranks thirty or more of the Detroit metropolitan area's most accomplished musicians, eight of whom actually perform together at any given moment. Because of that, and some other quirks, the octet's debut album, Sanctuary, is in some respects a study in confusion. A press release accompanying the album, ...
Various Artists: Oscar, with Love
by Jack Bowers
To mark the ninetieth anniversary of the legendary jazz pianist Oscar Peterson's birth (August 15, 2015), Peterson's widow, Kelly Peterson, produced a tribute album for the ages: Oscar, with Love, a marvelous three-disc set comprising ten never-before-recorded Peterson compositions, nineteen of his better-known works and seven compositions written especially for him, performed by sixteen contemporary piano ...
Trumpetology: This Is Trumpetology
by Jack Bowers
Southern California-based Trumpetology is an octet comprised of five sure-handed trumpeters and rhythm. For comparison's sake, think SuperSax for trumpets. Even though leader / arranger Walter Simonsen doesn't transcribe solos by well-known horn players to unsettle his mates, several of his charts demand the same kind of snug digital dexterity employed by SuperSax, and the group ...
Jim Riggs & Stefan Karlsson: Texas Times
by Jack Bowers
Recording a duo album is something that old friends Jim Riggs and Stefan Karlsson have wanted to do for some time, and they make the most of the long-delayed opportunity on Texas Times, an eloquent and engaging recital that never wears thin in spite of its more or less familiar playlist and the fact that Riggs ...
Christopher Zuar Orchestra: Musings
by Jack Bowers
When a composer / arranger who hasn't yet turned thirty can enlist the caliber of musicians who are present and accounted for on Musings, the inescapable assumption is that something special is afoot. Upon listening, that appraisal proves to be quite accurate, as young Christopher Zuar (twenty-seven when this debut album was recorded) presents seven of ...
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