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Tobias Hoffmann Jazz Orchestra: Conspiracy
by Jack Bowers
While listening to Conspiracy, German-born composer-arranger Tobias Hoffmann's second album, the thought arose that “Stan Kenton would have loved this." Like Kenton, Hoffmann is an explorer who approaches music from a cerebral point of view but never overlooks the need to swing and to keep an audience engaged by varying the tone, tempo and color of ...
Judy Whitmore: Isn't It Romantic
by Jack Bowers
Sometimes it is a pleasure to listen to an album simply because the quality of the music is so consistently gratifying. And if the music is sung as well as Judy Whitmore sings it on Isn't It Romantic, well, that is icing on the cake, as are the superb performances by her supporting cast, especially pianist ...
Jim McNeely/Frankfurt Radio Big Band: Rituals
by Jack Bowers
The first thirty-three minutes or so of Rituals, the latest album by the excellent Frankfurt Radio (hr) Big Band, is an homage to Igor Stravinsky's symphonic suite The Rite of Spring, which premiered in Paris in 1913, reimagined “in the Stravinsky spirit" by the group's director, Jim McNeely, in a big-band framework and featuring the acclaimed ...
Shawn Purcell: 180
by Jack Bowers
Guitarist Shawn Purcell's latest CD, 180, is all about swinging; Purcell's trio (Pat Bianchi on Hammond B3 organ, Jason Tiemann on drums) nestles squarely into the groove on the double-quick opener, “Cat and Mouse," which sets an upbeat tone for the album as a whole. The rhythm seldom flags on Purcell's sunny compositions ...
Florian Ross: Tunes & Explorations
by Jack Bowers
Variety and nostalgia are the essence of Tunes & Explorations, the twenty-second album by German-born composer/arranger Florian Ross who observes his fiftieth anniversary by dipping into the Great American Songbook to revive and reshape for his splendid octet a number of luminous evergreens from the Golden Age of American music. Ross underlines the ...
Hendrik Meurkens and the WDR Big Band: Samba Jazz Odyssey
by Jack Bowers
One could probably count the number of big-band albums featuring a harmonica player on the fingers of one hand and leave some unused. Only one other springs to mind here, and it was released so many years ago that the names have long since been forgotten. And so it is indeed a genuine pleasure to hear ...
NYO Jazz: We're Still Here
by Jack Bowers
The “NYO" in NYO Jazz is shorthand for National Youth Orchestra, a marvelous concept that should be cloned and shipped to as many cities, towns and villages as possible. NYO, comprising carefully chosen musicians, ages 16 to 19, from across the U.S.A. is based at Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute in New York City, and We're ...
Roberto Magris: Duo & Trio
by Jack Bowers
Italian-born pianist Roberto Magris is a musician to whom the phrase “he could play the phone book and make it sound interesting" definitely applies--as it does to the late great Chicago-based saxophone maestro Mark Colby who met Magris in 2016, formed an instant bond and recorded one-half of this superlative album three years later, one year ...
Doug MacDonald: I'll See You in My Dreams
by Jack Bowers
There is at least one constant in guitarist Doug MacDonald's long and rewarding career: he likes to stay busy, whether hosting live gigs or inhabiting a recording studio. MacDonald's latest quartet session, I'll See You in My Dreams, is at least his twenty- ninth as leader of groups of various sizes and shapes. It is also ...
Nica Carrington: Times Like These
by Jack Bowers
Even though she had been singing, more or less, since she was a child, it was not until the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic that New Yorker Nica Carrington came to realize that tomorrows come with no guarantees, and that the time had come to buckle down and get serious about her craft. After moving from one voice ...
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