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Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra: Habitat
by Jack Bowers
Christine Jensen is one of the new breed of composer / arrangers who write for large ensembles on a grand scale, favoring themes that paint well-drawn pictures and tell evocative stories, most of which are based on personal experiences or particular sights or sounds that have lingered in their mind and led them to put pen ...
Art Lillard's Heavenly Band: Reasons to Be Thankful
by Jack Bowers
Although drummer Art Lillard's Heavenly Band makes its home about as far from heaven as one could plausibly roam--New York City, to be precise--the music it produces on Reasons to Be Thankful (recorded in 2000 and released six years later) evokes at times an empyrean vibe, thanks in part to blissful arrangements by Lillard and guitarist ...
Watters / Felts Project: Watters / Felts Project
by Jack Bowers
On The Watters / Felts Project, Ken Watters, a fine trumpeter, and his quintet are confined for the most part to escorting singer Ingrid Felts as she wends her way through five present-day compositions, Billie Holiday's “Fine and Mellow" and the standard “I'll Be Seeing You." Is it a good idea? That depends in part on ...
Perry Beekman: Bewitched
by Jack Bowers
Perry Beekman: a guitarist who sings or a singer who plays guitar? It's a question that doesn't take long to answer. Clearly, Beekman is a guitarist who sings. That's not to say, however, that he sings poorly. Beekman has a pleasant voice, which he puts to good use on this album of marvelous songs by the ...
Nashville Jazz Orchestra: It Ain't Necesssarily So
by Jack Bowers
This splendid debut recording by the Nashville Jazz Orchestra is subtitled “New Twists on Gershwin Classics." No argument there, starting with the picturesque “Cuban Overture" from 1932 and encompassing a trio of songs from the folk opera Porgy and Bess, which premiered three years later. Also on the bill of fare are the standards “But Not ...
Dave Slonaker Big Band: Intrada
by Jack Bowers
Don't be put off by the name. Intrada, composer / arranger Dave Slonaker points out, is “a musical form often composed as a prelude, overture or fanfare," one whose upbeat phrases give rise to an exhilarating curtain-raiser on Slonaker's initial big-band recording. Rest assured this is a world-class ensemble and there's no doubt whose steady hand ...
John La Barbera Big Band: Caravan
by Jack Bowers
Summoning Juan Tizol's travel-worn “Caravan" to raise the curtain on a big-band album poses a challenge for any arranger, one that John La Barbera easily brushes aside on the third recording as leader of his own ensemble. And while “Caravan" dazzles in La Barbera's capable hands, it is merely the opening salvo in a session that ...
Clare Fischer: After the Rain
by Jack Bowers
The late Clare Fischer, best known as a multi-award-winning jazz composer / arranger, also had a classical side, one that is paramount on this engaging album whose themes were written over an extended period of time from Fischer's days as an undergraduate at Michigan State University to his later years as a renowned jazz artist whose ...
Swiss Jazz Orchestra: Sincerely Yours
by Jack Bowers
The world-class Swiss Jazz Orchestra produced the 2-CD set Sincerely Yours to mark its tenth anniversary in 2013. As is the SJO's custom, the nineteen tracks were taped during a series of stellar concert performances spanning those years, showcasing the orchestra's excellence as a unit and its roster of impressive soloists performing compositions and arrangements by ...
Swiss Jazz Orchestra: Live at Jazzfestival Bern
by Jack Bowers
Live at Jazzfestival Bern (Mons) Some big-band albums are heated and brassy, others cool and understated, while a precious few simply cast a mesmerizing spell. “Live at Jazzfestival Bern," recorded in May 2013 by the unerring Swiss Jazz Orchestra, drops anchor squarely in the last of those realms, thanks in part to the ensemble's ...
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