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The University of Miami Concert Jazz Band: Romances
by Jack Bowers
Whit Sidener’s University of Miami Concert Jazz Band, long recognized as one of the country’s best, has built its latest album (and fourth in my library) around composer Maria Schneider’s “Three Romances,” with other selections gleaned from the band’s archival material spanning the decade of the ‘90s (and one from 1985). Schneider, who wrote the Romances ...
The UMO Jazz Orchestra: UMO Plays Frank Zappa
by Jack Bowers
With a playing time of 16:36 and no liner notes or list of personnel, this brief survey by Finland’s UMO Jazz Orchestra of the music of Frank Zappa is more a demo than a full-fledged album, but I can’t grasp who is being promoted. According to its cover, the album “Features Marzi Nyman,” but as I’m ...
The University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band: Lab 2003
by Jack Bowers
Another year, another strenuous final exam for the University of North Texas One O’Clock Lab Band. What’s the grade? Let’s see . . . well (this is becoming rather monotonous), after adding up the score, it appears to be an unequivocal A-plus. In other words, the One O’Clock Band, now more than half a century old, ...
Stan Kenton: Horns of Plenty
by Jack Bowers
Stan Kenton Horns of Plenty Tantara Records 2004 It's not often that I devote an entire column to a new big-band release, but Horns of Plenty, a superlative six-disc set from Tantara Records, is the exception that proves the rule. And what a storehouse of riches it is, ...
The University of Colorado Jazz Ensemble 1: CU 'Round Midnight
by Jack Bowers
For its second album, and first under new director John Davis, the University of Colorado Jazz Ensemble 1 has chosen to focus on the music of pianist/composer Jim McNeely... no easy task, my friend. Four of the nine selections were written by McNeely, who is music director of the cutting-edge Vanguard and Stockholm Jazz Orchestras. To ...
Craig Raymond and the Next Generation Big Band: Big Band Concert & Frank Sinatra Tribute
by Jack Bowers
The second album by trumpeter Craig Raymond’s Next Generation Big Band is almost a mirror image of the first; that is to say, a bright and swinging jazz/dance session from start to finish. There are some modest points of departure, however, as Raymond has added a few new wrinkles—a “Frank Sinatra tribute” by vocalist Lou Dottoli, ...
Octobop: Night Lights
by Jack Bowers
As it says in the liner notes to Night Lights, “West Coast Jazz rides again.” Not quite as high as it did in the ‘50s and ‘60s, but one must give due credit to Silicon Valley’s Octobop for helping to enliven and preserve the spirit of some of the greatest Jazz ever written or played. Yes, ...
The Espoo Big Band Featuring Trilok Gurtu: Neandertal Grooves
by Jack Bowers
The Espoo Big Band, a bellwether of the Finnish jazz scene for more than three decades, is known for its adventurous nature, and Neandertal Grooves, which showcases the music of guitarist/composer Jarmo Saari and the talents of master percussionist Trilok Gurtu, does nothing to undermine that enterprising spirit. As “neandertal” (Neanderthal) has become rather ...
Barry Harris: Live in New York
by Jack Bowers
Maestro Barry Harris, who's never at a loss for an appropriate note or phrase, leads a well-coordinated quintet through its paces on this smooth-as-velvet but no less invigorating date, recorded 'on location' (we're not told where) in New York City. Harris, one of the leading bop pianists of the past forty years and now ...
The Frank Potenza Quartet: The Legacy
by Jack Bowers
Guitarist Frank Potenza, who was a member of the Gene Harris Quartet from 1996 until the pianist’s untimely death in 2000, has dedicated his second album on Azica Records to his late friend and former employer. Not surprisingly, Potenza’s group sounds much like Harris’s, with pianist Larry Fuller adopting Gene’s crisp, percussive style and swinging almost ...
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