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Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band: The Phat Pack
by Jack Bowers
The suave and irrepressible Rat Pack, whose urbane image was shrewdly nurtured for so many years by Ol' Blue Eyes, meistersinger Frank Sinatra himself, is no longer with us. Luckily, we have as partial solace The Phat Pack, the convivial third recording by jack-of-all-trades Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band. Goodwin bows respectfully to his illustrious predecessors ...
Montclair Women's Big Band: MWBB
by Jack Bowers
Move over DIVA, SWOJO, Kit McClure, Maiden Voyage and other all-women big bands; you've got company. Even though the new kid on the block is only eight years old, she plays with perception and maturity well beyond her years. Born in Oakland, California and named in honor of that city's Montclair Women's Cultural Arts Club, she ...
Greg Pasenko: Something Old New Borrowed Blue
by Jack Bowers
Greg Pasenko is a talented guitarist with an impressive resumé. There's no doubt about that. He also owns the Blujazz label, for which he records. So if he wants to sing as well as play, who's to say no? Pasenko sings on all save two of the dozen selections on Something Old New Borrowed Blue, adds ...
Lionel Hampton: There Will Never Be Another You
by Jack Bowers
Legendary vibraphonist Lionel Hampton auditioned Italian-born vocalist Sylvia Bennett in the early '80s, hired her on the spot to sing with his band, and subsequently recorded two albums with her. The first, Sentimental Journey, received a Grammy Award nomination, but the second, recorded in 1989 when Hamp was a frisky eighty years old, sat neglected for ...
The Ian Pearce Big Band: Dedication
by Jack Bowers
Most American jazz enthusiasts, if pressed to name a world-class British big band, would likely invoke the hallowed name of Ted Heath. Ask them to name another and you'd probably draw a blank stare. If, however, anyone were to answer with the name Ian Pearce, you'd have to jury-rig a fanfare and award him or her ...
The Buddy Collette Big Band: Live at El Camino College
by Jack Bowers
Another big band recording that was a long time coming but well worth the wait. Saxophonist Buddy Collette's twenty-member ensemble was taped in May 1990 during a concert at El Camino College in Torrance, California. The plan was to release the concert recording as an album, but as producer David Keller writes, life intervened and the ...
Doug Lawrence & His Orchestra: Big Band Swing
by Jack Bowers
When one is employed as a sideman with the Count Basie Orchestra, as tenor saxophonist Doug Lawrence has been for several years, he learns a thing or two about Big Band Swing. Lawrence has also worked for Benny Goodman, Buck Clayton, Grover Mitchell, Frank Wess, Loren Schoenberg, Tony Corbiscello and the Smithsonian, DMP and Manhattan and ...
The Chris Walden Big Band: No Bounds
by Jack Bowers
Any way you slice it, it's not easy for a big band to earn a Grammy Award nomination. Composer/arranger Chris Walden's debut album, Home of My Heart, received not one but two, for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and Best Instrumental Arrangement. One year later, Walden returns with another strong contender, No Bounds, showcasing eleven of his ...
Kit McClure Band: Just the Thing
by Jack Bowers
Just the Thing is Part Two of the Kit McClure Band's warmhearted salute to the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a groundbreaking all-woman ensemble that came out of a school for poor black children in Piney Woods, Mississippi, to become one of the most widely successful and admired big bands of the World War II era. Whereas ...
Bob Brookmeyer and the New Art Orchestra: Spirit Music
by Jack Bowers
Clever title this, even though perchance unintended. Bob Brookmeyer (in his 76th year) and the impressive New Art Orchestra have recorded their fifth album, and first for ArtistShare, Spirit Music--in other words, the Spirit of '76. Brookmeyer doesn't mention that in the liner notes, preferring to let others read between the lines and saying only that ...


