Home » Search Center » Results: Jack Bowers
Results for "Jack Bowers"
Orchestra Jazz dell' Universit: Take the "U" Train
by Jack Bowers
This is a fairly decent college-level ensemble from Salerno, Italy, but ‘U’ Train includes eight vocals on its dozen tracks, which would be far beyond my threshold of tolerance for big-band albums even if they were sung by Ella Fitzgerald or June Christy. In this case, they are divided between Virginia Sorrentino and Mariateresa Petrosino (I’ve ...
Frank Foster's Loud Minority Big Band: We Do It Diff'rent
by Jack Bowers
Frank Foster’s Loud Minority Big Band is more limber than loud -- although it doesn’t shrink from shouting whenever that’s appropriate on this persuasive in-concert album recorded in June ‘02 at NYC’s Jazz Standard, when the seventy-three-year-old Foster was recovering from a stroke that immobilized his left arm and left leg and limited his role to ...
The Walt Boenig Big Band: A Lot of Us
by Jack Bowers
Trombonist Walt Boenig, who paid his dues on the road with the Glenn Miller, Harry James and Jimmy Dorsey bands, among others, has shaped his own Las Vegas-based ensemble in their swing-era image while bringing them up to date with sparkling new arrangements by Tommy Check, Walt Stuart, Bobby Harrison and Joe Lano. A Lot of ...
The Jazzmania Big Band: New Impressions
by Jack Bowers
The Jazzmania Big Band, writes leader Peter Guidi, “represents the highest level of the Muziekschool Amsterdam’s Jazz department and contains some of the best young Jazz talents in The Netherlands.” No doubt about that. The players are indeed young (as the group photo in the album’s booklet attests) and remarkably talented -- the ensemble is taut ...
The University of North Florida Jazz Ensemble 1: Second Thoughts
by Jack Bowers
I would love to hear critics of jazz education who argue that students are taught “by the numbers” and can’t grasp the finer points of the music try to explain away albums such as this one by the University of North Florida’s superb (and consistently swinging) Jazz Ensemble 1. As if to prove those detractors wrong, ...
The Ryles Jazz Orchestra: Live at Ryles
by Jack Bowers
Another big band has left me foraging for words with which to describe my great surprise and pleasure on hearing it for the first time. Boston’s Ryles Jazz Orchestra is most definitely the real deal, or it was when this awesome concert date was recorded almost three years ago at the jazz club from which it ...
The Buselli / Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: Heart & Soul / The Music of Hoagy Carmichael
by Jack Bowers
The second album by the superb Indianapolis-based Buselli / Wallarab Jazz Orchestra is comprised entirely of compositions by Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981), a fellow Indianan who wrote mostly “popular” music (as in the Great American Songbook) but always saved a place for jazz in his Heart and Soul. Carmichael penned hundreds of songs, a number of which ...
The Bix Beiderbecke Centennial All-Stars: Celebrating Bix!
by Jack Bowers
Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, who considered himself a failure and died (primarily from alcohol abuse) in 1931 at age twenty-eight, would no doubt have been astonished to learn that a group of world- class musicians was assembling to record an album celebrating the hundredth anniversary of his birth. But if Bix was unable to recognize his own ...
The Carla Bley Big Band: Looking for America
by Jack Bowers
Composer / pianist Carla Bley, a Californian who has traveled all over the world playing her music, has devoted her latest album to Looking for America, an enormous undertaking by any measure. As a reviewer, my quest is far less ambitious; I am looking only for exciting big-band jazz that swings. I hope she had better ...
Sherman Ferguson's Jazz Union: Welcome to My Vision . . .
by Jack Bowers
One need only glance at Sherman Ferguson’s smiling face on the cover of his long-overdue debut as leader of his own quartet to understand that this is a gentleman who thoroughly enjoys his work. Ferguson’s happiness is evident throughout the session, lending it an aura of good-natured camaraderie that enables his companions to simply loosen their ...
Album Showcase
Trending
In Tribute To...
Points of View: Celebrating Dave Holland
In Tribute To...
John Coltrane At 100: A Global Perspective
Jazz Raconteurs
Julius Hemphill: Marty Ehrlich and Tim Berne Remember a...
Live Review
Detroit Jazz Festival 2026: A Gathering in a Great Jazz City
Profile
Sequoia Snyder: Growing in the Light of the Masters
Paul's Picks
New York City Jazz Performance Preview: Fall 2026
Interview
Jasur Khalilov: From Falak to Fusion
VOTE!
