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Article: Album Review

The Mark Masters Jazz Ensemble: The Clifford Brown Project

Read "The Clifford Brown Project" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 3, 2004

We don’t hand out stars with our reviews at All About Jazz, but if we did, this spectacular tribute to legendary trumpeter Clifford Brown by the Mark Masters Jazz Ensemble would easily earn five of them—or a solid ten on the oft-quoted “scale of one-to-ten.” Some albums are good, some are better than good, while others, ...

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Article: Album Review

The Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra: 27 East

by Jack Bowers
February 2, 2004

I don't know if this is composer/arranger/bandleader Anita Brown's first album, but if it is, she couldn't have arranged a more impressive coming-out party. Brown is a composer whose remarkable craftsmanship and insight enable her to inscribe picturesque orchestral themes that hang together extremely well and also swing “in their own sweet way. She is aided ...

249

Article: Album Review

Rob McConnell and the SWR Big Band: So Very Rob

by Jack Bowers
February 1, 2004

Few big bands anywhere have a more far-reaching or well-deserved reputation for excellence than Germany’s SWR Big Band, which began life in the early ’50s as Erwin Lehn and his Southern Radio Dance Orchestra. When Lehn stepped aside in 1991 after forty years at the helm, the Stuttgart-based band didn’t miss a beat, swinging resiliently onward ...

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Article: Album Review

The Swiss Jazz School Orchestra: Shades of Time

by Jack Bowers
February 1, 2004

Five years have passed since last I saw and heard the Swiss Jazz Orchestra in New York City, and this latest album (there is at least one other, Live in Montreux, that I know of) serves as a welcome reminder of what an outstanding ensemble it is. The SJSO, ably directed by world-class trumpeter Bert Joris, ...

228

Article: Big Band Report

Wait Till Next Year...

by Jack Bowers
February 1, 2004

Things being as they are, I skipped this year’s conference of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) in New York City, and was later informed by my friend Jerry Swanberg, who was there, that I missed one of the best of these events ever, at least in terms of the number and quality of big ...

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Article: Big Band Report

Back in the Saddle Again...

by Jack Bowers
January 10, 2004

January 9, 2004. Back in harness after three months of “hibernation” and what better way to christen the new computer than by resuming the monthly big-band column at AAJ. It has been a frustrating ninety days (or more) but we are ready now to start living again, even though the data that was lost when the ...

328

Article: Big Band Report

I'm OK, But My Hard Drive Ain't What It Used to Be

by Jack Bowers
December 13, 2003

As a number of readers (well, at least two or three) have noticed the absence of a big-band column in this space for the past two months and asked if I’m still upright and breathing, the answer is yes. But it has been a rather difficult and frustrating time. Briefly stated, the reason there has been ...

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Article: Big Band Report

Rendezvous in Balboa

by Jack Bowers
October 1, 2003

Although it’s probably too late in the game to mention, I received a brochure in mid-September from the Los Angeles Jazz Institute promoting the “Balboa Rendezvous,” to be held October 23-26 at the Hyatt Newport Resort in Newport Beach, CA, to celebrate “the musicians and the music that created the Stan Kenton Orchestra legacy.” The Rendezvous ...

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Article: Big Band Report

After You've Gone . . .

by Jack Bowers
September 29, 2003

How would you like to be remembered? I mean, after you’re gone. Yes, you are going, my friend. I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you that, but sooner or later we’re all going. And when we’re gone, we’ll continue to live on -- for a while, anyway -- in the memories of ...

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Article: Album Review

The New York University Jazz Ensembles: Dancing in Frames

Read "Dancing in Frames" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 25, 2003

This is an interesting overview of the more than twenty smaller Jazz ensembles that are a part of the Jazz/Contemporary Studies program at New York University. The group sizes range from quartet (So-Hum) to octet (Tony Moreno Ensemble) with two sextets (Ralph Lalama, Bob Albanese ensembles) and a septet (the NYU Composers Ensemble). The school also ...