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The Fabulous Studio Band: Still Swingin' After All These Years/Plays Capitol Jazz
by Jack Bowers
The Fabulous Studio Band, formed in 1953 and based in California’s San Joaquin Valley, is devoted to keeping alive music from the swing and big band eras. These albums, recorded four years apart ( Still Swingin’ in 1996, Capitol Jazz in 2000), accentuate charts from the Glenn Miller and Count Basie libraries with a handful representing ...
The Jan Lundgren Trio: Landscapes
by Jack Bowers
On Landscapes, the brilliant young pianist Jan Lundgren takes a break from the usual jazz and popular standards to survey and accentuate the music of his native Sweden, and what one notices almost immediately is that there is no perceptible decline in quality, melodically, rhythmically or harmonically. In other words, these are quite lovely songs; unfamiliar, ...
Ray Alexander: Down to Earth
by Jack Bowers
There is one “smooth jazz” radio station here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the music in trumpeter Ray Alexander’s debut album, Down to Earth, would be right at home on the playlist. Not, as Seinfeld would say, that there’s anything wrong with that. But it must be noted that smooth jazz, with its syrupy melodic contrivances, ...
Broadway: Music from West Side Story
by Jack Bowers
A pleasant enough hour of songs gleaned from Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim’s groundbreaking musical of 1957 and gracefully performed by Broadway, a well-ordered quartet whose melodic aspects rest largely in the capable hands of flautist Ali Ryerson. While I’d have preferred to hear the occasional fanfare for brass and winds, or romantic interlude for full string section, ...
The John Hogman Quartet: Reduce Speed
by Jack Bowers
Having heard Gerry Mulligan, Lars Gullin, Nick Brignola, Pepper Adams, Serge Chaloff, Ronnie Cuber, Gary Smulyan, Cecil Payne, Jack Nimitz, Claire Daly and so many other superb baritone saxophonists, I never thought I'd encounter another one who'd adrenalize my senses the way they could. And now I stand corrected. Trust me, Sweden's John Högman proves on ...
Pat Metheny / Kenny G: The Jazz Soul of P.D.Q. Bach
by Jack Bowers
In a move that has left the jazz world buzzing and their legions of fans traumatized in shock and disbelief, erstwhile polar opposites and outspoken adversaries Pat Metheny and Kenny G have recorded together for the first time, choosing as their common ground the singularly uncommon music of the opprobrious nineteenth/eighteenth century composer P.D.Q. Bach.
National Youth Jazz Orchestra: Jazz in Film
by Jack Bowers
National Youth Jazz Orchestra Jazz in Film Silva Screen 2004 This is the twenty-second album in my library by Britain’s remarkable National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and the first one that I’ve not thoroughly enjoyed. (Well, it was bound to happen one day.) Can’t blame NYJO for that, however; Bill Ashton’s ...
The Bill Watrous Quartet: Live in Living Comfort
by Jack Bowers
While an organ trio plus trombone isn’t unheard-of, it is uncommon, so much so, says Bill Watrous, that when friend and fellow trombonist Rob Stoneback approached him with the idea, he was skeptical. In the wake of Live in Living Comfort, recorded for what appears to be a small but responsive audience at the Comfort Suites ...
The Peter Brem Big Band: Natural Connections
by Jack Bowers
In reviewing a recent album by the Klüvers Big Band, I noted that Denmark, whose population is less than six million, is home to at least three world-class Jazz orchestras. Make that four. Natural Connections, the second album by composer/arranger Peter Brem’s state-of-the-art big band, is an electrifying tour de force in which the ensemble puts ...
Kl: Reflections
by Jack Bowers
Even though the notion may defy logic, Denmark, a country of less than six million extending from northern Europe’s Jutland peninsula, boasts no fewer than three world-class big bands—the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, pianist/composer Jan Kaspersen’s Special Occasion Band, and this one, the terrific Klüvers Big Band from Aarhus. Klüvers, which takes its name from leader ...
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