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The Tony Corbiscello Big Band: Real Time
by Jack Bowers
In reviewing an earlier album by Tony Corbiscello's New York-area big band ( In Full Swing , Alanna 5581), I wrote that “the band is squarely on top of every assignment, and Corbiscello is an admirable big-band drummer who never lets the momentum wane.... [the] ensemble reminds me of a less jazz-oriented version of the Lew ...
Jazz Under the Stars
by Jack Bowers
As mentioned before in this column, the 28th annual Jazz Under the Stars series is under way here in Albuquerque. I’ve attended two of the open-air concerts at the Albuquerque Museum, on opening night, June 5, to see and hear the splendid Albuquerque Jazz Orchesta and four other groups (three of which showcased musicians of high-school ...
The Brent Jensen/Rob Walker Quintet: Art of the Groove
by Jack Bowers
The Brent Jensen/Rob Walker Quintet opens in a mellow groove and stays there much of the way on this backward- glancing yet quite contemporary album that wouldn’t have been out of place in the bop-based Blue Note / Prestige catalogs of the late ‘50s–early ‘60s. Alto saxophonist Jensen and trumpeter Walker offer an earnest tribute to ...
The Contemporary Records Story
by Jack Bowers
Various Artists The Contemporary Records Story Contemporary 2004 Contemporary Records, the stylish West Coast label that flourished from 1952-77 under its founder, Lester Koenig, is wonderfully represented in this boxed set from Fantasy Records that ingeniously condenses the singular nature and quality of those twenty-five years into four remarkably comprehensive ...
Johnny Angel and the Swingin' Demons: Club Deuce
by Jack Bowers
Johnny Angel (I’m not sure that’s his given name) wrote to ask if I would review his album, and as I almost never turn aside a request from a musician, I said yes. Johnny, a New Yorker, is a vocalist, one of two on the date. The other is a Texan, Julia LaShae, also known as ...
The University of Kentucky Jazz Ensemble: Self-Contained
by Jack Bowers
Miles Osland, clever wordsmith that he is, knows that Self-Contained has several meanings, only some of which apply to this new album by his spit-shined University of Kentucky Jazz Ensemble. One of those meanings, according to Webster, is “formal and reserved in manner,” which the music therein definitely is not. Another is “sufficient in itself,” which ...
The Janne Ersson Big Band: Live at the Stockholm Jazz Festival
by Jack Bowers
The world is full of dreamers, but few of them have the boldness and tenacity to make their dreams come true. From the moment he heard a recording of the Buddy Rich big band in 1966, Swedish drummer Janne Ersson decided he would one day lead a band like that himself. After years of paying his ...
Gordon Lee and the GLeeful Big Band: Flying Dream
by Jack Bowers
We’re not told much about Gordon Lee except that he’s a Portland, Oregon-based music educator who has performed and recorded with a number of small groups and has been writing big-band charts for eight years. His influences, he writes in the brief liner notes, range from Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Maria ...
Vaughn Nark: Panorama
by Jack Bowers
When one is informed that a certain musician’s perspective “defies classification,” that his “orientation is holistic,” and that he advocates “diversity and balance,” producing “a mosaic of textural contrasts” that expresses “a broad overview of human emotion,“ it’s best to hunker down and prepare to withstand an everything-but-the-kitchen sink onslaught. In Vaughn Nark’s case that’s not ...
Mark Eisenmann: Sweet & Lovely
by Jack Bowers
Jazz musicians often run into one another at conferences, festivals, in nightclubs and sundry other places. Seldom, however, are they able to hold a meaningful conversation, let alone set up a recording session to take advantage of the opportunity. Sweet & Lovely, Canadian pianist Mark Eisenmann’s second album under his own name, is an exception to ...
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