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Kendrick Oliver & The New Life Jazz Orchestra: Welcome to New Life
by Jack Bowers
If Count Basie were alive today, he’d no doubt be leading the enthusiastic applause for Kendrick Oliver’s New Life Jazz Orchestra which punctuates the Basie-centered ensemble’s debut album, recorded in concert last September at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston. “One thing we’ve never been accused of,” says Oliver, “is being boring”--and that they are not, zealously ...
The Mike Kaplan Nonet: How's That?
by Jack Bowers
Saxophonist Mike Kaplan and his New York City-based nonet play contemporary jazz; that is to say, jazz that is emphatically modern but neither purposely bland nor maddeningly incomprehensible.Kaplan’s debut album contains a number of tasty musical surprises, and it's one of only a handful to leave me wishing the leader had soloed more often ...
Mel Torme: The London Sessions
by Jack Bowers
Professionalism, I suppose, implies the ability to perform to the best of one's ability in spite of whatever obstacles are placed in one's path. In June 1977, when the late Mel Tormé recorded the songs that comprise The London Sessions, he relates that he was nervous, apprehensive, and nearly exhausted after a long flight from New ...
Gap Mangione: Diana in the Autumn Wind
by Jack Bowers
Gap and Chuck Mangione roared out of Rochester, NY in 1960 with their exciting Riverside Records debut, The Jazz Brothers, and returned to the studio eight years later to produce Diana in the Autumn Wind under pianist Gap’s name, showcasing his trio on four tracks and a big band conducted by younger brother Chuck on the ...
The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra: Miles Ahead
by Jack Bowers
If you’ve ever wondered how those classic Miles Davis / Gil Evans collaborations from the late ’50s might have sounded had Miles laid aside the mute and played open trumpet, here’s a proximate likeness from Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, accompanied by the excellent Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. These are Evans’ groundbreaking arrangements, performed in ...
The National Jazz Ensemble: 1975-1976
by Jack Bowers
I don’t know what brought the National Jazz Ensemble together or what ever happened to it, but I’m thankful that Hank O’Neal, the head man at Chiaroscuro Records, had the foresight to usher the ensemble into a studio to record three albums before it went the way of so many other promising ideas and vanished into ...
Jack Cooper: Big Band Reflections of Cole Porter
by Jack Bowers
The Delta in the Jazz Orchestra's name refers to the Mississippi Delta, specifically around Memphis, TN, where the five-year-old JOD is based. Formed in 1998 by composer / arranger Jack Cooper, the eighteen-piece ensemble is comprised of some of the finest professional jazz and studio musicians in the area. On its debut album, Big ...
The National Youth Jazz Orchestra: Jasmine
by Jack Bowers
There are at least four aspects of any new album by Great Britain’s superlative National Youth Jazz Orchestra that any prospective listener can be sure of without even opening the package: (1) it will be marvelously performed; (2) it will be immaculately recorded; (3) it will be generously timed; and (4) it will embody some of ...
Full Spectrum Jazz: Rayna's Dance
by Jack Bowers
A second helping of invigorating big-band jazz from the marvelous San Francisco-based ensemble Full Spectrum. Although the liner notes affirm that most (if not all) of FSJ’s members are full-time professionals in Silicon Valley’s high-tech corporations and part-time musicians who simply play for fun, you may have trouble believing that after hearing them perform on Rayna’s ...
The Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble: We Came to Swing!
by Jack Bowers
This is the third album in a row by the Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble that includes the words “swing” or “swingin’” in its title. I’m beginning to suspect that director Ronald Carter and his apprentices are trying to tell us something. In this case, the announcement is directed toward its audience, as We Came to ...
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