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Dave Morgan: Blue Is More Than a Color
by Jack Bowers
If nothing else, bassist-composer Dave Morgan's album, Blue Is More Than a Color, affirms that big-band jazz is alive and well in the Akron, Ohio, area. Perhaps more than coincidentally, Morgan's large and well-drilled ensemble plies its trade on a regular basis at Akron's Blu Jazz Club whose patrons may presumably hear previews of the seven ...
Greg Abate & The Tim Ray Trio: Gratitude: Stage Door Live @ the Z
by Jack Bowers
If somehow you haven't yet heard saxophonist Greg Abate (pronounced Uh-BAH-tay), now in his seventh decade and as sharp and eloquent an orator as ever, it is high time you did. The Rhode Island native is an earnest post-bopper from the Phil Woods / Bud Shank school of straight-on swinging, and Gratitude, Abate's fourth album with ...
Fred Hersch & the WDR Big Band: Begin Again
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Fred Hersch, who needs no introduction to most well-informed jazz enthusiasts, is by and large known as a leader of trios and other small groups. Begin Again displays another side of Hersch's appreciable talents: nine of his handsome compositions, astutely recast by six-time Grammy Award winner Vince Mendoza and impressively performed by Germany's superb WDR ...
Jaelem Bhate: on the edge
by Jack Bowers
At a time when many contemporary big bands are veering off-course, too often leaving jazz as we know and understand it as an afterthought, foundering and searching in vain for an anchor, it's comforting to encounter an ensemble that is not only as fresh as today's harvest but upholds such time-honored jazz traditions as melody, harmony ...
Howard University Jazz Ensemble: HUJE 2018
by Jack Bowers
One sure sign of spring is the arrival of the latest yearly recording by the superb Howard University Jazz Ensemble, a tradition that dates without pause from the days of vinyl in 1976, one year after the ensemble was formed by its first and only music director, Fred Irby III. For archivists and numbers-crunchers, that's forty-four ...
New Orleans Jazz Orchestra: Songs: The Music of Allen Toussaint
by Jack Bowers
Allen Toussaint (1938-2015), a composer / producer who made his mark in the broad spheres of R&B, rock and roll, funk, country and pop music, may seem at first glance an unusual choice for a big-band jazz tribute. On the other hand, the New Orleans native never strayed far from the pivotal music of his home ...
Dan Banks Quintet: Simulated Cities
by Jack Bowers
Simulated Cities, the second recording by British pianist Dan Banks' well-schooled quintet, consists of seven original compositions by the leader, the bulk of which call to mind the storied hard-bop conclaves of the mid 20th century while enwrapping the music in an up-to-date wardrobe tailored to accommodate today's more sophisticated and savvy audiences. Once past the ...
Steve Haines: And the Third Floor Orchestra
by Jack Bowers
This is by and large lovely music, to be sure, but to paraphrase a Burger King ad from years gone by, “Where's the jazz?" Aside from a handful of perfunctory solos by soprano saxophonist Chad Eby and pianist Joey Calderazzo, there isn't much here. Instead, composer / arranger Steve Haines and the Third Floor Orchestra canvass ...
Cory Weeds Quintet: Live at Frankie's Jazz Club
by Jack Bowers
Yes, this is saxophonist/master of all livelihoods Cory Weeds' quintet, the year is 2018, and the group is beyond a doubt Live at Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver, British Columbia. But close your eyes, open your ears and it's the unapologetic re-creation of a quintessential hard-bop session from the historic Blue Note / Prestige years of ...
Millennium Jazz Orchestra: Octopus
by Jack Bowers
Octopus, the tenth album released by the Millennium Jazz Orchestra in its nearly twenty-five years of impressive music-making in The Netherlands, is actually an eight-part suite by composer / arranger Joan Reinders devoted to one of the sea world's more fearsome and enigmatic creatures. The thematic essay spans the whole nine yards, from “Evolution" and “Environment" ...
