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The Whitworth College Jazz Ensemble: 2004
by Jack Bowers
When a jazz ensemble at a relatively small college sounds as sharp as this one, you know the director is making the right moves. Three cheers to Dan Keberle, the guiding force behind the Whitworth College ensemble from Spokane, WA, and a big hand for the ensemble itself, which takes Keberle's cues and translates them into ...
The DIVA Jazz Orchestra: T.N.T
by Jack Bowers
I first heard DIVA more than ten years ago, and it was love at first note. It was called “no man's band" then, as if there were something to prove, but that's no longer necessary. DIVA has shown time and again that it can stand toe-to-toe and slug it out with any band anywhere. My admiration ...
The Indianapolis Jazz Orchestra: Cook the Books
by Jack Bowers
Someone help me out here. If big bands really are dead, as I've often heard, why is it that world-class ensembles like the Indianapolis Jazz Orchestra keep springing up like weeds almost everywhere one looks in this great country of ours? I'd never heard of the IJO--didn't even know they had a band there--so Cook the ...
The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra: A Love Supreme
by Jack Bowers
I have to start this review with a confession. I've never heard John Coltrane's original recording of A Love Supreme. Sorry; Trane and I parted ways after some of his earlier successes ( Blue Train, Settin' the Pace, Giant Steps, My Favorite Things ), so I must appraise the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra's re-creation of the ...
Vaughn Wiester's Famous Jazz Orchestra: Herb's Book
by Jack Bowers
When Herb Harrison, director emeritus of Jazz Studies at Cal State University-Sacramento, retired a number of years ago and moved to his wife, Mary's, hometown of Columbus, Ohio, he never envisioned a “second career" writing for and conducting a ready-made big band. That was before he met Vaughn Wiester, whose Famous Jazz Orchestra holds forth each ...
The University of Northern Iowa Jazz Band One: The Unlikely Event
by Jack Bowers
In spite of this one's title, a new album by the University of Northern Iowa's Jazz Band One is hardly an unlikely event. This is the eleventh in my collection, and I may have overlooked one or two. Nine were directed by Bob Washut, the two most recent by his successor, Chris Merz, who, like Washut, ...
The Joe Elefante Big Band: Vanity Fair
by Jack Bowers
Pianist/composer Joe Elefante's New York City-based big band has been quite favorably received by the local media, and now we can hear why--well-built ensemble, impressive soloists, splendid arrangements by Elefante, who assembled all the charts on the band's debut album, Vanity Fair, and wrote everything save Ray Noble's “The Touch of Your Lips." “Lips," usually played ...
The Brisbane All-Star Youth Band: You Got It
by Jack Bowers
On the one hand, I'm a strong supporter of youth bands--always an admirable enterprise, and the more the merrier, I say. On the other hand, I'm no great fan of big band vocalists, even Ella or Sarah or whoever, preferring instead to hear the ensemble assume a starring role instead of comprising the supporting cast. So ...
East Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra & Wesley College
by Jack Bowers
Each year, high school and college jazz ensembles from overseas perform during the IAJE conference, and this year's 32nd annual event in Long Beach, California, was no exception. Often, these groups bring CDs, sometimes professionally produced, others no more than demos that give some indication of their overall level of proficiency, as is the case with ...
IAJE 2005: Memories of Long Beach
by Jack Bowers
Yes, I was at the 32nd annual conference of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) January 5-8 in lovely Long Beach, CA. No, I can't summarize the event in twenty-five words or less—or even twenty-five hundred. There was the usual head-spinning cascade of clinics, panel discussions, workshops, presentations, award ceremonies, exhibits, master classes, research papers, ...
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