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The 8-Bit Big Band: Backwards Compatible
by Jack Bowers
It's about time a big band turned its gaze to and focused its attention on the many memorable songs and melodies spawned by—video games? While it's true these make-believe themes may brook no comparison to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, the Gershwin brothers, Cole Porter or even Neil Diamond, they are at least Backwards Compatible. And ...
Professor Aucoin & the Jazz Scientists: Mystified
by Jack Bowers
There is a heap of soul, blues, rock, funk and heart on Professor Tim Aucoin's album, Mystified. On the other hand, the jazz content is in rather short supply. The Jazz Scientists are good at what they do, but what they do is more akin to a nightclub act than a jazz performance, at times reminiscent ...
Cowboys & Frenchmen: Our Highway
by Jack Bowers
Okay, the name may be rather out of the ordinary (Cowboys & Frenchmen?), but once past that, what remains is a burnished New York City-based quintet whose music might best be described as decidedly liberated and contemporary. This isn't “free" jazz wherein each member of the group goes his own separate way; there is, however, a ...
Richard Howell: Moon Over Tiburon
by Jack Bowers
After easing past the words of praise for San Francisco Bay-area based saxophonist / educator Richard Howell's “spiritual connection" and the description of his work as “bridge music," uniting and merging the experiences of listeners, it sounds much like probative contemporary small-group jazz. Besides playing saxophone (and singing, on the soulful anthem “We Are All Connected"), ...
Greg Yasinitsky YAZZ Band: New Normal
by Jack Bowers
As one good album clearly deserves another, Greg Yasinitsky, who wears many hats—composer, arranger, woodwind specialist and educator among them—has released New Normal, the second impressive outing by his admirable Washington state-based ensemble, the YAZZ Band, which varies in size from septet to tentet. Unlike Yasinitsky's earlier album, YAZZ Band, which was recorded basically in one ...
Jesus Fuentes: Liminality: Live At Smith 25
by Jack Bowers
As everything we see and hear is no more or less than a snapshot in time, it is easy to forget that many of our brightest jazz stars once shined their light on campuses and in classrooms from coast to coast while honing their budding skills. Pianist Jesus Fuentes is one such scholar, the album Liminality: ...
Albare: Plays Jobim Vol. 2
by Jack Bowers
Albare Plays Jobim, Vol. 2 by Moroccan-born, Israeli-raised guitarist Albare (the only name given) isn't quite what it seems. While the names of the musicians and guest artists are listed on the jacket, what is not addressed is the presence of a string orchestra, the only suggestion of which is pianist Joe Chindamo's designation as “orchestra ...
Dave Stryker: Baker's Circle
by Jack Bowers
On Baker's Circle, guitarist Dave Stryker revisits a format in which he is quite comfortable: an organ-driven rhythm ensemble whose emphasis is on hard-nosed contemporary swing. There is, however, a refreshing exclamation mark this time around in the person of able-bodied tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, and one more fringe benefit (on three tracks): percussionist Mayra ...
Dan Bonsanti: Cartoon Bebop
by Jack Bowers
The malicious coronavirus pandemic that brought most of the world to its knees in 2020 has spawned the use of several reanimated words including “virtual," whose meaning is “sort of here but not really," as in virtual video chats, conference calls, exhibits, films and even musical performances. “Virtual" has spread its tentacles into almost every walk ...
John Lang: Now Ear This
by Jack Bowers
For what it is, bassist John Lang's fourth album, Now Ear This, is quite well done. For jazz fans, the dilemma lies there, precisely in what it is--a series of eleven rock/fusion themes, nine written by Lang, which would be right at home on a smooth jazz/easy listening radio station, for example, but whose jazz content ...
