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The Rob Parton Big Band: Christmas Time Is Here
by Jack Bowers
The only plausible impetus for releasing an album of Christmas themes so close to the holiday itself is the inclusion of music that transcends the season and may be auditioned and appreciated throughout the year. Trombonist Chris McDonald accomplished that with his splendid album In the Mood for Christmas, and trumpeter Rob Parton has mirrored that ...
Christian Pincock: Plentiful Excitement
by Jack Bowers
Here's an unusual combination: valve trombone, piano, drums and tuba (no bass). The leader, Christian Pincock, was until recently a teacher at the University of New Mexico and member of the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra, and Plentiful Excitement was recorded in Santa Fe shortly before he left New Mexico to explore greener pastures in the Great Northwest ...
Frank Macchia: Grease Mechanix
by Jack Bowers
One thing that must be said about Frank Macchia (well, two things, actually)--he's a wild and crazy composer / bandleader whose satchel is always overflowing with splendid musical surprises. On his new album, Grease Mechanix, Macchia goes funky in a New Orleans brass band manner, employing a seventeen-piece ensemble comprised of some of the best sidemen ...
Archie Shepp Attica Blues Orchestra: I Hear the Sound
by Jack Bowers
Saxophonist Archie Shepp wrote Attica Blues" in 1972, not long after a five-day uprising at that New York state prison left thirty-nine people dead, twenty-nine of whom were inmates. Now, more than forty years later, Shepp's Attica Blues Orchestra (comprised for the most part of French musicians) has resurrected the Blues" and made it the linchpin ...
UNI Jazz Band One: This Is the Band
by Jack Bowers
UNI is the University of Northern Iowa, which has had a respected Jazz Studies program for more than three decades, first under director Robert Washut and more recently under Chris Merz whose charges have recorded and released their tenth CD since Merz assumed the reins in 2002 (the band recorded eleven albums under Washut's guidance). Six ...
Nnenna Freelon & the John Brown Big Band: Christmas
by Jack Bowers
Renowned jazz singer Nnenna Freelon's first Christmas album truly is a gift, made possible by a small bequest from her Christmas-loving mother and a long-time friendship with John Brown, director of Duke University's Jazz Studies program and leader of the splendid John Brown Big Band. Brown not only made his ensemble available but co-produced the album ...
Mike Jones Trio: Plays Well with Others
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Mike Jones not only Plays Well with Others, he plays well--period. Using a sharp, two-fisted style that hearkens back to Dave McKenna, Dick Hyman and even Earl Hines, undergirded by a buoyant melodicism worthy of Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan or his namesake Hank Jones, it's clear there's not much that Jones can't accomplish musically with ...
Phil Woods & the Festival Orchestra: New Celebration
by Jack Bowers
Any album with the renowned Phil Woods leading a big band (or jazz orchestra) is cause for celebration, especially so when he has written all but one of the charts and takes the bulk of the alto solos. More than fifteen years have passed since Woods last recorded with the COTA Festival Orchestra from his home ...
The Glenn Miller Orchestra: In the Mood
by Jack Bowers
You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of big bands formed in the 1930s that continue to perform today, long after the storied Big Band Era has faded from national craze to modest footnote in American musical history. Foremost among the survivors is the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the latest incarnation of which ...
University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band: Lab 2013
by Jack Bowers
The University of North Texas is situated in Denton, a city of roughly 120,000 less than an hour's drive northwest from Dallas / Fort Worth. To students at UNT as well as its year-round residents, Denton is home, even if in the former case a home away from home. And speaking of home, the university is ...


