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The University of Texas Jazz Orchestra: Once in a Blue Moon
by Jack Bowers
Even though it doesn’t generate a whole lot of heat before the high–stepping finale, this largely easygoing and often pensive third album (at least, I think it’s the third) by the University of Texas Jazz Orchestra is in most respects its best effort to date. Ensemble work is bright and secure, soloists spry and resourceful, choice ...
The SWR Big Band Live!: Plays the Music of Maria Schneider / Kurt Weill
by Jack Bowers
Setting aside for the moment the question of her proficiency as a composer / arranger / conductor, one must concede that Maria Schneider is either a crackerjack (self)–promoter or has one of the best agents in the business. Ten photographs are included with this two–CD set, which was recorded in concert in May 2000 with Germany’s ...
The Sheena Davis Group: Smile
by Jack Bowers
I really wish I could become more enthusiastic about this album. Sheena Davis is a very good singer, and her accompanists are about as solid as Gibraltar. But when it comes to vocalists I’m a tough sell, and in spite of her obvious assets — a well–trained voice, adequate range, admirable intonation — Davis somehow fails ...
Tardo Hammer: Somethin' Special
by Jack Bowers
The best Jazz pianist you’ve never heard? He could answer to the name Tardo Hammer. The 43–year–old New Yorker is indeed somethin’ special, as he demonstrates time and again on his second album for Sharp Nine. We were lucky enough to review the first one ( Hammer Time ), and everything written then bears repeating, with ...
The Ken Watters Group: Southern Exposure
by Jack Bowers
Southern Exposure is trumpeter Ken Watters' first recording for Summit without his brother, trombonist Harry, in the starting lineup, but Ken has found an able replacement on the front line in friend and former Big Apple roommate Joel Frahm. Frahm is a fast""rising post""bop saxophonist, and it's a pity he's not used more often; as it ...
Astrid Cowan: Summit
by Jack Bowers
This is a moderately pleasant hour or so of easygoing small–group Jazz, but those are shark–infested waters into which pianist Astrid Cowan and her colleagues are diving, and I doubt that pleasant is enough to ensure their survival. Truth is, Summit doesn’t swing nearly as hard or as often as Cowan’s earlier release, Swing Team (Astron ...
The Millikin University Jazz Band 1: Swingin' Night and Day
by Jack Bowers
If you’re gonna be swingin’ night and day (or either of the above), you’d better have a pretty good drummer to lead the way. Fortunately, Millikin University’s Jazz Band 1 has a trustworthy timekeeper in Greg Fundis, and its second CD in the last half–dozen years scurries smartly along behind his admirable stick and brushwork and ...
The St. Johns River City Band: Swinging Up the River!
by Jack Bowers
Perhaps the day will come when every decent–sized city in America is home to a Jazz / dance band as good as Jacksonville, FL’s seventeen–year–old St. Johns River City Band. And perhaps the day will come when elephants fly. Until then, we’ll have to keep on praying for a change in the country’s musical climate as ...
Eric Alexander: The Second Milestone
by Jack Bowers
Let’s be honest; no Jazz reviewer can ever be completely objective because each of us has his or her favorite players, those musicians who, in our eyes, can do no wrong and whose next venture we look forward eagerly to hearing. When I was a young man (yes, I can remember that, albeit vaguely) Zoot Sims ...
The Frankie Condon Orchestra: Til Next Time
by Jack Bowers
Frankie Condon’s seventeen–piece orchestra is a first–class dance / swing ensemble with an occasional snippet of Jazz sprinkled in for extra seasoning. Its purpose, he says, is to perpetuate the big–band sound and “ensure that we keep this exciting music, which began in the big band era, alive.” Condon, who hails from our nation’s capital and ...
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