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Ken Poston's Big Band Showcase: You Had to Be There
by Jack Bowers
So what's it really like, inquiring minds often ask, to be present at one of Ken Poston's exhaustive (not to mention exhausting) big-band extravaganzas? Well, there are perhaps as many answers to the question as there are those who attend these semi-annual auditory marathons. Speaking for myself, by the end of Day 1 of the Poston/L.A. ...
Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, Thilo Wolf Big Band, and the Westchester Jazz Orchestra
by Jack Bowers
Knoxville Jazz Orchestra Blues Man from Memphis Blue Canoe 2007 Blues Man From Memphis is the second CD by the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra devoted to the music of Donald Brown, who proves again that his proficiency easily outshines his prominence. Brown, whose thematic compositions are invariably engaging and ...
Phil Woods / DePaul University Jazz Ensemble: Swingchronicity
by Jack Bowers
Nothing is perfect, so the saying goes, and thus it follows that one can, in theory, always find something to disparage or take issue with in any work of art or piece of music. While that may be true, on a scale of one to ten, Swingchronicity warrants at least an eleven. This is, after all, ...
The Rodger Fox Big Band: No Exit
by Jack Bowers
The superb Rodger Fox Big Band has twice been honored with New Zealand's award for Best Jazz Recording of the Year (2001, 2005), and if No Exit doesn't make it a threesome the judges may have to double-check to make sure their ears and taste buds are working properly. While it may be difficult for some ...
Another August, Another Summit
by Jack Bowers
August has flown, and with it the seventh annual Prescott (AZ) Jazz Summit, one of a waning number of such events that isn't remiss in using the name “jazz in its title. There were no aberrations here, no rock, heavy metal, hip-hop, folk or country music masquerading as jazz, only straight-ahead blowing by a number of ...
Buck Clayton & Harry Allen/Randy Sandke: Old Wine, New Bottles
by Jack Bowers
Assuming that these were new albums from the busy Nagel Heyer assembly line, I asked for review copies, only to find that they are in fact “old wine in new bottles. Both were previously released in 1999--Turnstile as Music Of The Trumpet Kings, and Buck Clayton Swings The Village as Live Fom Greenwich Village, NYC. As ...
Chris Walden Big Band & St. John's Choir: Kurt Marti Suite
by Jack Bowers
It's hard to wrap one's arms around this CD by composer/arranger Chris Walden. On the one hand, Walden has coupled his intrepid ensemble of talented southern California sidemen with the 100-member St. John's Choir from Hamburg, Germany (his hometown), to set to music works by the renowned Swiss poet/lyricist Kurt Marti. On the other, the playing ...
Mike Longo Trio: Float Like a Butterfly
by Jack Bowers
In 1961, while performing in Chicago, pianist Mike Longo was introduced to one of his musical heroes, Oscar Peterson. After hearing him play, Peterson invited Longo to study with him at the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto. Needless to say, Longo accepted eagerly, and spent six months absorbing wisdom from the master. It's an ...
Bud Shank / Bill Mays: Beyond the Red Door
by Jack Bowers
At its best, jazz is about spontaneity and surprise. It is also, as Bud Shank writes in his cogent liner notes to Beyond the Red Door, wherein his persuasive alto saxophone is seamlessly blended with Bill Mays's decorous piano, about “the expression of emotions... about feeling good, about self-respect, about self-assurance, about happiness and humor." Shank ...
Rodger Fox with the New Zealand School of Music Big Band: Rodger Fox Presents Ray Woolf
by Jack Bowers
Here's a splendid album from New Zealand that works two ways: as singer-with-big-band or big-band-with-singer. The singer is Ray Woolf, described by producer/music director/trombonist Rodger Fox as that country's “consummate performer/vocalist/entertainer. The band is from the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, ably conducted by the selfsame Rodger Fox. Woolf definitely lives up to his ...
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