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Mikael R: Suite Extended
by Jack Bowers
I’ve nothing against suites, extended or otherwise. I ask only two things of them — that they include (a) some sort of comprehensible melodic structure and (b) sturdy rhythmic components (in other words, that they swing). I’m happy to report that Mikael Råberg’s four–movement Suite Extended for soprano, big band and symphony orchestra easily satisfies both ...
Ulf Bandgren: Nordic Sketches
by Jack Bowers
While eleven musicians are named in the album’s booklet, only five comprise the core unit on Ulf Bandgren’s perceptively drawn Nordic Sketches, and the harmonious interplay among them is a pleasure to hear. Bandgren’s expressive guitar, acoustic or electric, traverses the landscape with smooth, colorful strokes while the others in his quintet (and from time to ...
Magnus Lindgren & the Swedish Radio Jazz Group: Paradise Open
by Jack Bowers
Word apparently hasn’t reached Sweden that the big bands are dead, as you’ll seldom hear livelier or more colorful music than on Paradise Lost, written and arranged by young lion Magnus Lindgren and expertly performed by the fabulous Swedish Radio Jazz Group for an understandably appreciative audience at Stockholm’s Jazzclub Fasching. Lindgren, who’s not yet thirty, ...
The SWR Big Band with Slide Hampton: Jazz Matinee
by Jack Bowers
Barbra Streisand sang that “people who need people” are the luckiest people in the world. To that list should be added big–band enthusiasts in and around Stuttgart, Germany, as the SWR Big Band’s Jazz Matinees there just keep getting better and better. The latest in the ensemble’s series of live recordings, showcasing the prodigious talents of ...
The National Youth Jazz Orchestra: The Very Best of NYJO
by Jack Bowers
This new four–disc boxed set raises to twenty the number of albums in our library by Great Britain’s outrageously talented National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and a strong case could be made that every one of them represents The Very Best of NYJO, as nothing that orchestra does is less than spectacular. That is certainly the case ...
Alan Kaplan: Lonely Town
by Jack Bowers
Alan Kaplan’s name may be new to you but it’s well–known among music professionals in Los Angeles where he’s one of the area’s busiest and most sought–after studio musicians, having played trombone on everything from Star Trek to The Simpsons, Streisand concerts to Sleepless in Seattle, not to mention thousands of cartoons and other films. Even ...
The Big Band Convention: Live at the Rheinl
by Jack Bowers
Are there any less–than–stellar big bands in Germany? Surely there must be — but the Big Band Convention isn’t one of them, an observation that is pressed home emphatically from the opening measures of Don Menza’s electrifying “Blues for Uncommon Kids,” recorded, as was everything else on this consistently impressive album, without a safety net at ...
David Matthews & the Manhattan Jazz Orchestra: Hey Duke!
by Jack Bowers
To celebrate properly its tenth anniversary in 1999 the Manhattan Jazz Orchestra and conductor / arranger David Matthews turned to the music of Duke Ellington, the centenary of whose birth was that same year, to produce an album whose aim, in Matthews’ words, was to be “unique while maintaining a clear sense of Ellington’s originals.” As ...
David Berger and the Sultans of Swing: Doin' the Do!
by Jack Bowers
A generous helping of well-cooked nouveau swing by David Berger's undeniably talented Sultans of Swing that's easy to swallow but doesn't sharpen one's craving for more of the same.Berger arranged everything except the album's bonus track, Duke Ellington / Mildred Hill's “Birthday Jam," which he transcribed. While the charts are admirable, the music itself ...
Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra: 1944-45 Broadcasts
by Jack Bowers
LIonel Hampton, the first musician to establish the vibraphone as a viable component of Jazz instrumentation, was (with Red Norvo) one of its acknowledged monarchs when these air–check performances were recorded in 1944–45, mostly for the benefit of U.S. servicemen at home and abroad. Hamp was a product of the Swing Era and his bands always ...
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