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28

Article: Album Review

Joe McCarthy's New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band: The Pan American Nutcracker Suite

Read "The Pan American Nutcracker Suite" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Yes, Peter Tchaikovsky's timeless Nutcracker Suite is basically holiday music; and, yes, the 2022 holiday season is squarely in everyone's rear-view mirror. Even so, there is always room for a fresh approach to the annual festive staple, which is what drummer Joe McCarthy's New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band brings to The Pan American Nutcracker ...

42

Article: Album Review

Jesse Davis: Live at Smalls Jazz Club

Read "Live at Smalls Jazz Club" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Alto saxophone master Sonny Stitt always chafed when he was called “little Bird," a reference to the greatest alto of them all, Charlie Parker. “I'm not a little Bird," he would say, “I'm me; Sonny Stitt." In similar fashion, Jesse Davis would probably shrug off any comparison to another of the instrument's esteemed patriarchs, the late ...

36

Article: Album Review

Rodney Whitaker: Oasis: The Music of Gregg Hill

Read "Oasis: The Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Oasis is the third time around for bassist Rodney Whitaker and music written by fellow Michigander Gregg Hill, following Common Ground (Origin 82780) and Outrospection (Origin 82819). Personnel is the same as on Common Ground (Terell Stafford, trumpet; Tim Warfield, saxophone; Bruce Barth, piano; Dana Hall, drums; Rockelle Fortin, vocals) with Hall and Fortin returning from ...

29

Article: Album Review

Eric Goletz: Standard-ized!

Read "Standard-ized!" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

If variety is on your wish list, you will find a lot to like on Standard-ized!, New York-based trombonist Eric Goletz's third album in three years. Group size and makeup are seldom the same, Goletz's charts traverse new realms, there are special guests to enhance the proceedings, and Goletz even enlists a six-piece string “orchestra" on ...

42

Article: Album Review

Rodger Fox Big Band: Plays Hone Tuwhare

Read "Plays Hone Tuwhare" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

New Zealand's flagship jazz ensemble, the Rodger Fox Big Band, marks its fiftieth anniversary with an impressive homage to “the people's poet," Hone Tuwhare (1922-2008), on the centenary of his birth. As is pointed out in the album's liner notes, Tuwhare “was loved and cherished by New Zealanders from all walks of life. Touring tirelessly, Hone ...

44

Article: Album Review

Santi Debriano & Arkestra Bembe: Ashanti

Read "Ashanti" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Panama-born bassist Santi Debriano's Arkestra Bembe is a nonet whose centerpiece is the bembe music of west Africa. During the Coronavirus pandemic, Debriano began hosting weekly bembes (musical celebrations) in the basement of his Staten Island, New York home, gradually assembling a group of musicians who would comprise the Arkestra and perform Debriano's compositions and arrangements. ...

43

Article: Album Review

Neil Swainson: Fire In The West

Read "Fire In The West" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

It's hard to believe that 35 years have flown by between the release of bassist Neil Swainson's debut album, 49th Parallel (Concord Jazz), and his second, Fire in the West, recorded in November 2021 and released nine months later. But Swainson was hardly in hibernation during those years, as he has been one of Canada's busiest ...

40

Article: Album Review

Millennium Jazz Orchestra: Bleeding Amazonia

Read "Bleeding Amazonia" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Bleeding Amazonia, the latest album by The Netherlands' superb Millennium Jazz Orchestra, offers clear proof that “music with a message" need not be barren nor bland. Amazonia is a vibrant and colorful eight-part suite by composer / arranger Joan Reinders, whose disheartening theme is the loss of the Amazon rainforest. Four of its movements have lyrics ...

43

Article: Album Review

Jim Self: My America 2: Destinations

Read "My America 2: Destinations" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Tuba maestro Jim Self's My America 2: Destinations is a successor of sorts to the album My America, recorded and released some twenty years before, also on Self's Basset Hound label. While personnel has inevitably changed (only trombonist Bill Booth returns from that earlier album), Self has employed the services of the same arranger, Kim Scharnberg—and ...

30

Article: Album Review

Scott Burns / John Wojciechowski / Geof Bradfield: Tenor Time

Read "Tenor Time" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Tenor Time unveils the talents of a trio of Chicago-area tenor saxophonists, each of whom--presumably—solos on each of the album's eight numbers. The qualifier is necessary because the solo order is not given and, skillful as they are, the tenors sound much like triplets at the same workbench. That is to say that in terms of ...


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