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160

Article: Album Review

Darren Barrett: Deelings

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

This is the second J Curve release by trumpeter Darren Barrett, a relatively young firebrand who won the Thelonious Monk trumpet competition four years ago. As on the previous album ( First One Up ), what Barrett and his companions lay down sounds much like the Blue Note sessions from the ’50s and ’60s that featured ...

195

Article: Album Review

The Mark Masters Jazz Orchestra: Early Start

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

I’d heard the Mark Masters Jazz Orchestra before and been disappointed — not by the orchestra itself but by the recording, which sounded dry and sterile, almost as though it had been recorded in someone’s closet or a telephone booth. This reissue on Americatone is much better, both sonically and aesthetically. Masters has fashioned his ensemble ...

169

Article: Album Review

Sam Trippe and His Jazz Orchestra: Explosion!

Read "Explosion!" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

This reissue on Americatone by Sam Trippe's orchestra was recorded more than forty years ago, shortly before Trippe and his wife, Dorothy, were killed in an auto accident, which accounts for its LP—like 30:40 playing time. Trippe's ensemble was modeled closely on that of Woody Herman—not a bad model at all—and Trippe was convinced he had ...

183

Article: Album Review

The Siena Jazz Band: GOP

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

Klaus Lessmann, conductor of Italy’s Siena Jazz Band, leaves no doubt as to where his musical sentiments lie, as seven of the first ten selections on the band’s debut album, GOP, are associated with the peerless Duke Ellington, the last seven with the great alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. Completing the program are Count Basie’s “Swingin’ ...

158

Article: Album Review

The Texas Instruments Jazz Orchestra: Jazz Bytes -- Version 1.0

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

Another Jekyll–and–Hyde big band — but these gentlemen (and one lady) make no attempt to “hyde” the fact that they are (or in some cases were) engineers and technicians by day at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Jazz musicians (amateur division) at night. The story of the TI Jazz Band began in 1986 when a summer co–op ...

223

Article: Album Review

The Gene Krupa Quartet: Live from the Inn Club, Chicago, IL, January 11, 1957

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

By January 1957, when this concert date was recorded at the Inn Club in Chicago, Gene Krupa’s salad days as a member of the Benny Goodman Orchestra and leader of his own big bands were behind him, but he remained a major figure on the Jazz scene, even though his flamboyant style of drumming, once considered ...

118

Article: Album Review

Catherine Dupuis: Moments

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

Having made some unflattering remarks about Catherine Dupuis’ debut album ( I Hear Music, jbQ Records), I’m happy to report that her second one is much better. She’s not quite there yet, but one can almost visualize the learning curve bending upward as she comes to grips with the substance of a lyric and prudently shapes ...

162

Article: Album Review

Raul Romero and His Jazz Stars Orchestra: Moon Trip 2000

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

In spite of its futuristic (and somewhat misleading) title, Moon Trip 2000 wasn’t recorded last year, or anywhere near it. Raul Romero, a splendid saxophonist and even better writer who logged time with big bands led by Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Gene Krupa and Benny Goodman, among others, before settling in Las Vegas in 1955, succumbed ...

133

Article: Album Review

Ted Weems and His Orchestra: More 1940 "Beat the Band" Shows

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

While there may not be many people walking around today who even remember the Ted Weems Orchestra, there are a great number, I’d wager, who remember his male vocalist, a fellow named Perry Como, who passed away in May six days before his eighty–ninth birthday. Some may even recall the band’s other vocalist, Marva (later to ...

219

Article: Album Review

Greg Hopkins: Okavongo

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

I’m always a touch apprehensive when preparing to review a big–band album whose title is as exotic as Okavongo, but trumpeter Greg Hopkins and his New England–based Jazz Orchestra set my mind at ease immediately with a sharp and dynamic reading of pianist James Williams’ “Stretchin’” (with the author sitting in on piano) and easily held ...