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Bosse Broberg and Nogenja: Conspiracy in Flat Five
by Jack Bowers
More big–band Jazz for the thinking man or woman from Swedish trumpeter Bosse Broberg’s fifteen–piece ensemble, Nogenja (for “non–generation Jazz,” signifying that there’s no generation gap within the music itself or among those who play it). Broberg calls his band the “Jazz Soloist Ensemble,” an appropriate name indeed, as it is comprised of a number of ...
The Dave O'Higgins Biggish Band: Big Shake Up
by Jack Bowers
British saxophonist Dave O’Higgins’ Biggish Band is what we used to call a tentet — but the ensemble is having so much fun playing his picturesque and always interesting charts on Big Shake Up that we won’t hold it against him. O’Higgins the composer draws on a number of influences from traditional and contemporary Jazz to ...
Tom Boras: Three Houses
by Jack Bowers
Tom Boras, perhaps best known as an educator (he teaches at New York University), shows his versatility on this wide–ranging album, earnestly building three musical “houses,” each with its own special character. The first house harbors his big band, the second a septet backing vocalist Cynthia Scott, the third a quintet patterned after the Blue Note ...
The SWR Big Band: 50 Jahre
by Jack Bowers
Germany’s world–class SWR Big Band, which began life in 1951 as Erwin Lehn’s Südfunk–Orchester, marked its golden anniversary this year by releasing not one but three consistently spectacular albums. The first, Goldener Meilenstein, features compositions and arrangements by one of America’s most prominent big–band leaders, Bob Florence, while 50 Jahre, a marvelous two–disc set, covers the ...
The Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble: Swingin' Into the Millennium
by Jack Bowers
This latest album by the widely honored Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble, encompassing half a dozen concert appearances during 1999–2000, is greatly enhanced by the towering presence of Brazilian trumpet master Claudio Roditi who sketches a charming “Portrait of Art” [Farmer?] and weaves more of his special magic on the easygoing bossa “Arpoador.” When Claudio’s not ...
The SWR Big Band: Jazz in Concert Featuring Jens Winther
by Jack Bowers
The SWR Big Band is in danger of becoming Germany’s answer to the Netherlands Metropole Orchestra — but without the string section. Like Metropole, SWR has produced a series of albums in which the orchestra backs well–known guest artists, most of them Americans, but mainly in concert performances rather than the studio settings preferred by Metropole. ...
Les Brown and His Band of Renown: Session #55
by Jack Bowers
Few bandleaders enjoyed longer or more successful careers than Les Brown. After coming out of Duke University in 1936, where he led his first dance band, the Blue Devils, Brown formed what would later become the Band of Renown in 1938. Les got a big break in 1947 when comedian Bob Hope hired the band to ...
The Jan Lundgren Trio: For Listeners Only
by Jack Bowers
Another superlative outing by Sweden’s most accomplished young post–bop pianist, Jan Lundgren, and his clairvoyant sidekicks, bassist Mattias Svensson and drummer Rasmus Kihlberg. Lundgren, who is of course almost unknown here in the States, displays the delicate touch, flawless technique, clarity of tone, grasp of dynamics, depth of awareness and enormous improvisatory acumen that this reviewer ...
Bob Florence: Another Side
by Jack Bowers
As a follow–up to his Grammy Award–winning big–band album, Serendipity 18, Bob Florence has chosen to record a solo piano album, and one’s response to it will depend largely on his / her musical preferences. This is no whim; it’s something Florence has wanted to do for a long time. He’s been studying and playing piano ...
The Be-Bop Guitars: . . .and More!
by Jack Bowers
The Be–Bop Guitars — all five of them — are faculty members at Boston’s renowned Berklee School of Music, as are the other members of their bright–eyed and bushy–tailed nonet. I can’t say whether all five guitars ever play at the same time, but there’s certainly no overkill here with nimble solos by all hands (no ...
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