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Houston Person: I'm Just a Lucky So and So
by Jack Bowers
Perhaps tenor saxophonist Houston Person is indeed A Lucky So and So, as he professes on his newly recorded album of that name, but it has taken far more than luck to sustain a long and successful career that spans more than half a century and numbers more than sixty albums as leader of his own ...
Mike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Hiding Out
by Jack Bowers
Mike Holober has been Hiding Out rather openly for the past ten years or so, waiting for the proper time to gather together his world-class Gotham Jazz Orchestra and record for the first time since 2009's widely acclaimed album Quake (Sunnyside), in which his picturesque compositions and arrangements were compared favorably to those of Duke Ellington ...
Pureum Jin: The Real Blue
by Jack Bowers
Although alto saxophonist Pureum Jin would no doubt shrug her shoulders and ask “what's the big deal," the fact remains that she is a South Korean woman playing American jazz and doing so in a way that affirms conclusively that the country's inbred art form is not only universal but gender-neutral. On her debut album, the ...
Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra: The Wolf Awakens
by Jack Bowers
The Wolf Awakens, Seattle-based saxophonist Jim Cutler's third album as leader of his Jazz Orchestra, consists entirely of original compositions including four of his own, half a dozen by trumpeter Daniel Barry and one ("Haze Gray") by Matso Limtiaco. Before appraising them, a word about the ensemble, and that word is exemplary. These are without a ...
Erik Skov: Liminality
by Jack Bowers
Liminality is defined as “occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold." Guitarist Erik Skov had a good idea: infuse his debut album with a certain amount of liminality (ambivalence) in the form of eight long-form compositions designed to lend his able sextet weighty meat on which to chew.
Vosbein Magee Big Band: Come and Get It!
by Jack Bowers
One conclusive way to appraise an album—big-band or otherwise—is by the emotional response it arouses in the listener. Come and Get it!, the debut recording by the Virginia-based Vosbein Magee Big Band, gives rise to warmth and happiness for a number of reasons, not least of which are an unbroken series of bright and impressive themes, ...
Carrera Quinta: Traslaciones
by Jack Bowers
As one would anticipate from the group's name--and the album's song selection--the seven-member Carrera Quinta (pared down from big-band size) plays music from South America, more specifically the Andes region of Colombia, interlaced with mainstream American jazz. The Latin Grammy-nominated ensemble's third album, Traslaciones, comprises seven songs showcasing traditional Colombian styles such as pasillo, bambuco and ...
Espoo Big Band: Espoo Suite
by Jack Bowers
Almost forty years after its inception in 1980, Finland's world-class Espoo Big Band and composer / arranger Marzi Nyman have recorded an often brash and always impressive salute to their home base, the appropriately named Espoo Suite. “This is my attempt to describe [the city]," Nyman writes, “through free-associative composing." The word “free" aptly expresses Nyman's ...
Eyal Vilner Big Band: Swing Out!
by Jack Bowers
Eyal Vilner's fourth album as leader of his impressive New York-based big band is a throwback to the kind of concert dates audiences no doubt derived great pleasure from during the storied Big-Band Era well over half a century ago when groups not far removed from this one in spirit traveled cross-country by bus, car or ...
Rich Willey's Boptism Big Band: Down & Dirty
by Jack Bowers
What's in a name? While that maxim remains a matter for debate, don't let this particular name mislead you. In the parlance of trumpeter Rich Willey's Los Angeles-based Boptism Big Band, Down & Dirty translates into well-scrubbed & swinging. There's really no better way to describe the performance of eleven of Willey's wide-ranging compositions and one ...
