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158

Article: Album Review

The UMO Jazz Orchestra: One More Time

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

What can one say when the composer is widely acclaimed, the orchestra world–class, and the music (in his opinion) well–written and arranged but singularly unexciting? Well, he could begin by noting that One More Time, the UMO Jazz Orchestra’s collaboration with composer / trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and vocalist Norma Winstone, is far better than its earlier ...

145

Article: Album Review

Saxomania: Saxidentally

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

Saxomania, Denmark’s answer to SuperSax, consists of five saxophonists, one rhythm section, and a generous storehouse of musical talent. In a word, these gentlemen can play! And what they choose to play is music that is consistently bright and charming. Music that “doesn’t push any limits,” as the liner notes affirm, “nor does it pretend to. ...

201

Article: Album Review

The Jazzpar Combo 1999: Shortcuts

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

Deducing how this album by the Jazzpar Combo came about is rather tricky business. Each year, Denmark’s prestigious Jazzpar Prize is awarded to an outstanding musician who is, as a part of the honor, given a recording date with sidemen of his or her own choice. In 1999 the Jazzpar Prize was bestowed on French pianist ...

223

Article: Album Review

The Thilo Wolf Big Band: Swing It! Volume II

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

Cloning sheep? Small potatoes. Pianist Thilo Wolf has cloned an entire big band! On Swing It!, Volume II his German–based ensemble is practically a mirror image of the late pianist Gene Harris’s SuperBand which recorded three albums in 1987–90 for Concord Records, and Wolf himself sounds so much like the irrepressible Harris that it’s downright spooky. ...

244

Article: Album Review

The Archie Shepp / Lars Gullin Quintet: The House I Live In

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

Nearly four decades have passed since this nightclub date in Copenhagen was recorded, and I still haven’t caught up with Archie Shepp. Perhaps I never will. Shepp, who never met a squeak, squawk, grunt or growl he didn’t like, is paired with Sweden’s Lars Gullin, one of the most restrained and lyrical baritone saxophonists of his ...

160

Article: Album Review

The Towson University Jazz Ensemble: With the Old Man in Mind

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

The “old man” remembered on this newest recording by the Towson University (Maryland) Jazz Ensemble is Stan Kenton, one of two Jazz giants to whom the album is dedicated. The other is Hank Levy who played saxophone in Kenton’s orchestra and also wrote and arranged for Stan before he became director of Jazz Studies at Towson. ...

149

Article: Album Review

The New York University Concert Jazz Ensemble: Works for Jazz Orchestra

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

Four of these seven works for Jazz orchestra were penned by the renowned tenor saxophonist and NYU artist in residence Frank Foster who played in and later led the Count Basie Orchestra and writes with the Count always in mind. Basie would have been quite comfortable playing any of Foster’s charts, as is the well–disciplined NYU ...

208

Article: Album Review

Bill O'Connell's Chicago Skyliners Big Band: Big Bands Greatest Hits

by Jack Bowers
May 1, 2001

This is the kind of album, says drummer Bill O'Connell, that his Chicago Skyliners must release from time to time to induce the paying gigs that help keep the ensemble together. But even though the songs on Big Bands Greatest Hits are for the most part Swing Era classics, the charts have been lovingly renovated by ...

203

Article: Album Review

The Christer Boustedt Quintet with Bosse Broberg: Blues, Ballads and Bebop

by Jack Bowers
May 1, 2001

These straight–ahead sessions led by alto saxophonist Christer Boustedt date from 1982 and ’85; six of the first seven tracks (excluding an alternate take of pianist Åke Johansson’s “One for Billy”) were released on vinyl as Dragon LP 99. Apparently, those from ’85 (a quartet date recorded in concert without trumpeter Bosse Broberg) are only now ...

125

Article: Album Review

Only Jazz: Double Digit

by Jack Bowers
May 1, 2001

This compilation, encompassing selections from a dozen albums on Lars Samuelson’s splendid Four Leaf Clover label, showcases many of Sweden’s foremost Jazz artists with a handful of Americans getting in their licks as well. Personnel are listed but not specific instruments, so we’ve had to withdraw the information from our not–always–reliable memory bank and apologize in ...