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Donald Walden and the Detroit Jazz Orchestra: Focus
by Jack Bowers
Before appraising the music on saxophonist Donald Walden's new album, Focus, we should first consider the “truth in advertising" issue. Webster's defines an orchestra as “a group of instrumentalists including especially string players [emphasis mine] organized to perform ensemble music." Walden's “orchestra" has no strings attached, and in fact is actually an octet. That's correct, a ...
The Matt Savage Trio: Cutting Loose
by Jack Bowers
Cutting Loose is the fourth album by the Matt Savage Trio, which was formed about three years ago. Since that time, Savage has been featured on NBC's Today show (twice, with the trio) and ABC's 20/20 and The View ; he has been interviewed twice by Montel Williams; and he has appeared on the Discovery and ...
Mark Elf: Glad to Be Back
by Jack Bowers
"Sometimes," guitarist Mark Elf writes in the liner notes to Glad to Be Back, “it takes something really serious to make one appreciate life and what the [importance] of good health means." In Elf's case, that “something" was two major surgeries, the first for a kidney disorder in December '02, the second for prostate cancer in ...
The Peter Asplund Quartet: Lochiel's Warning
by Jack Bowers
It took me a while to warm to Lochiel's Warning, the latest album by Swedish trumpeter Peter Asplund, and that's partly because the sequencing is flawed. As a result, it's one of those sessions wherein the whole seems less than the sum of its parts, if you follow my drift. Asplund is a splendid trumpeter, one ...
Harri Ihanus: Eye Opener
by Jack Bowers
Eye Opener is a pleasant enough session of post-bop jazz by three Swedes and American tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. On the other hand, nothing to become overly excited about. Guitarist Harri Ihanus, the nominal leader, composed each of the album's nine selections, and therein lies the rub. The music is likable but seldom rises above that. ...
The Per Henrik Wallin Trio, 1986-87: Where Is Spring
by Jack Bowers
Whatever else one thinks of Swedish pianist Per Henrik Wallin, one thing must be conceded--he has assuredly developed a style of his own, which is quite evident on this album recorded by his trio nearly two decades ago. Little wonder that he has been described in the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD as “a European ...
The Jan Lundgren Trio: Plays the Music of Jule Styne
by Jack Bowers
In reviewing an earlier album by Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren ( Bird of Passage, Four Leaf Clover), I wrote that “he has, among other things, exquisite taste, marvelous touch, flawless technique, an attentive ear, power to spare... and a bounteous wellspring of creative ideas." Listeners should be pleased to learn that nothing has changed. Well, one ...
Mike Longo and the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble: Oasis
by Jack Bowers
Having ignited an Explosion and braved the Aftermath on their first two albums, composer/arranger/pianist Mike Longo and the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble offer the listener an Oasis on the third, a sanctuary that is perhaps a touch more temperate and peaceful but nevertheless houses an ample reserve of pugnacity and power. Longo, ...
A Letter from Los Angeles
by Jack Bowers
October 6. 20004 Dear Reader, Nearly forty-eight hours have elapsed since I returned to Albuquerque from Los Angeles, and my feet have barely touched the ground. It's not often that one has the chance to spend a long weekend walking among -- and even conversing with -- honest-to-goodness giants. But thanks to impresario Ken Poston and ...
Pat Longo and His Latin/Jazz Big Band: Extreme Heat
by Jack Bowers
There's no messin' around in this hothouse. Pat Longo's star-laden Latin/Jazz Big Band cuts straight to the chase on Buddy Childers' torrid arrangement of Dizzy Gillespie/Chano Pozo's “Manteca" and keeps the fire-god Vulcan smiling throughout the remainder of this impressive scrapbook of rhythmically volatile jazz from south (well, mostly north) of the border. In fact, Luiz ...
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