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The Birdland Big Band: Storybook: The Music of Mark Miller
by Jack Bowers
Storybook, the third recording by the New York City-based Birdland Big Band, is subtitled “the music of Mark Miller" and is designed to showcase compositions and arrangements by that multi-talented artist who doubles (triples) as the band's lead trombonist. Miller wrote or co-wrote half of the album's 10 colorful and impressive numbers (11 if one counts ...
Joe Elefante's Wheel of Dharma: Return of the Light
by Jack Bowers
The second act of Joe Elefante's laudable jazz career was born in tragedy: the loss in 2024 of his wife of sixteen years to cancer. It was then that Elefante, who once led the world-class Joe Elefante Big Band, decided to leave his long-time position as a schoolteacher and return to his first love, jazz, and ...
Randy Napoleon: Waking Dream
by Jack Bowers
What greater satisfaction could a teacher have than to see his or her students achieve success--and in their chosen field, no less. On Waking Dream, renowned jazz guitarist and educator Randy Napoleon shares center stage with four fellow guitarists, all of whom are former students in his classes at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing. ...
Marc Seales: People & Places
by Jack Bowers
When planning an album, one good idea can make a world of difference. If, for example, a trio is in place but a horn is needed to make it a quartet, asking the incomparable Ernie Watts to fill that chair is always a good idea. That is what Jazz Hall of Fame pianist Marc Seales has ...
Jacob Chung: Live At Frankie's Jazz Club
by Jack Bowers
Boss tenor Jacob Chung is back, performing Live at Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is the reed master's second recording for Cory Weeds' Cellar Music Group (following 2024's The Sage), this time leading a quartet rather than a quintet as he did on that earlier album. Chung, who moved from ...
George Coleman: With Strings
by Jack Bowers
Sooner or later (usually later), a jazz saxophonist (or other instrumentalist) will entertain a desire to leave his or her normal comfort zone and record an album with “class." In other words, cue the string section and get ready to score some ballads. Tenor virtuoso George Coleman, who likely needs no introduction to even the more ...
Bruce Gertz: Octopus Dreams
by Jack Bowers
Veteran bassist and composer Bruce Gertz, who has more than 20 albums under his belt in a career spanning more than half a century, wrote and arranged every number on his latest recording, Octopus Dreams, wherein his skills in every realm are essential to its outcome. As a bassist, Gertz is sharp and ...
Ira B. Liss: Unexpected Guests
by Jack Bowers
Unexpected Guests is the seventh recording by Ira B. Liss' southern California-based Big Band Jazz Machine since Liss formed the ensemble in 1979. His guests on this radiant and high-energy studio date are “unexpected" in more ways than one, as only one of their 11 names can be found anywhere on the album aside from the ...
Socrates Garcia Latin Jazz Orchestra: Shadows of Tomorrow
by Jack Bowers
Do not let the word “Latin" in front of the Socrates Garcia Jazz Orchestra's name sway you. Shadows of Tomorrow is bright and spirited contemporary jazz albeit with a southerly twist. The salute to Latin America is for the most part rhythmic; everything else leans resolutely toward el norte, and the orchestra (which is actually based ...
David Bode: Good Hang
by Jack Bowers
Good Hang. That is not only a good name for an album but one that depicts the luminous spirit animating a splendid debut recording by New Orleans-bred composer, arranger and saxophonist David Bode's stellar nineteen-member Crescent City-based big band. From end to end, top to bottom, stem to stern or inside out, this studio session is ...
