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The National Youth Jazz Orchestra Featuring Sumudu Jayatilaka: Who's Blue?
by Jack Bowers
Unaccustomed as we are to hearing Great Britain’s superlative National Youth Jazz Orchestra play a supporting role, it’s for a good cause here — the debut recording of the band’s exciting young vocalist (nineteen years old when the recording was made), Sumudu Jayatilaka — and NYJO performs its assigned tasks with typical dexterity and aplomb. The ...
The Central Missouri State Jazz Ensemble: 1998-99
by Jack Bowers
This is the first recording by the Central Missouri State Jazz Ensemble, and on the whole, it’s a fairly respectable debut — a bit shaky in spots, rather stiff in others, but one can definitely recognize the potential as director Dave Aaberg’s young charges confront some challenging material by Bob Mintzer, Sammy Nestico, Thad Jones, Toshiko ...
The Maria Schneider Orchestra: Allegresse
by Jack Bowers
There are no liner notes in the booklet accompanying the latest release by the Maria Schneider Orchestra, but there are five candid close'ups of Schneider conducting, and another photograph on the front cover in which she is seen holding a white rose to her face. So exactly what is being promoted here? Leaving the rhetorical question ...
The Steve Spiegl Big Band: Enigma
by Jack Bowers
Steve Spiegl is a thoughtful — and thought–provoking — big–band composer / arranger / leader with a modus operandi all his own. There aren’t many who can draw on the works of such diverse composers as J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, Alexander Scriabin and Sir Edward Elgar to fashion Jazz compositions that are not only accessible but ...
The SWR Big Band Live: Featuring Jens Winther
by Jack Bowers
This is one of a series of recent in–concert recordings in which Germany’s SWR Big Band has welcomed accomplished guest artists, in this instance the award–winning Danish composer / trumpeter Jens Winther. “Featuring the compositions of Jens Winther” would be a more accurate description, as Winther wrote and scored each of the half–dozen numbers on the ...
The Jazz Big Band Graz: Here & There: The Music of Ed Neumeister
by Jack Bowers
Programming is an essential part of any recording endeavor, but one that too often is slighted. This new release by Austria’s Jazz Big Band Graz is a case in point; a generally commendable album whose weakest track is for reasons unknown placed first. And to compound the misstep, trombonist Ed Neumeister’s “Here & There” runs for ...
The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra: Shout Me Out!
by Jack Bowers
If there were an award for “most improved big band,” the opinion here is that the C–HJO would win going away, as its two most recent albums ( Explosive!, with vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and now Shout Me Out! ) have moved well beyond its earlier endeavors to prove beyond any doubt that this is one of ...
Vaughn Wiester's Famous Jazz Orchestra: Sight Readin', Baby!
by Jack Bowers
Remember those boisterous, heavy–swinging in–concert albums from the late ’50s–early ’60s by the Terry Gibbs Dream Band? I was reminded of them while listening to Sight Readin’, Baby! by Vaughn Wiester’s Columbus, Ohio–based Famous Jazz Orchestra. Not that Wiester’s cobbled–together orchestra is as talented (or even as famous) as Terry’s (not many bands can outclass such ...
Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band: Swingin' for the Fences
by Jack Bowers
To carry the baseball metaphor a step further, the hard–hitting Big Phat Band not only swings for the fences on skipper Gordon Goodwin’s dynamic new album, it slams almost every fastball or curve thrown its way well beyond the fence and out of the park. And even when the ensemble misses, it does so by no ...
Warren Vache: Swingtime!
by Jack Bowers
Some album titles so accurately describe the contents that there's almost nothing meaningful that a poor review can say about it. Such is the case with Swingtime!, wherein what is advertised is precisely what one gets--a baker's dozen of inflexibly swinging sorties by trumpeter Warren Vaché and his New York City All--Star Big Band (underweight division). ...
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