Results for "Jim Williamson"

Jim Williamson

Chris McDonald: A Big (Band) Swinging Christmas!

by Jack Bowers
November 25, 2017

A Big (Band) Swinging Christmas! is at least the tenth holiday album recorded by the peerless arranger Chris McDonald's impressive Jazz Orchestra--but the first one whose title has been amplified by an exclamation mark. Could it be that this one is extra-special? That's hard to say, as the albums that preceded it have all been remarkably ...

Benny Bailey / Nashville Big Band: A Bird in the Hand

by Jack Bowers
November 23, 2014

To accentuate the positive: A Bird in the Hand is Georgia-based drummer Ben Bailey's debut album as a big-band leader, and a splendid one it is, thanks to Bailey's ample talents and those of the Nashville Big Band. The recording arose from a chance meeting in 2011 when another well-known timekeeper, Duffy Jackson, traveled to from ...

No Pews Required: Chris McDonald Jazz Orchestra

by Jack Bowers
June 4, 2014

A glance at the name and song titles on Chris McDonald's new album might lead to an assumption that this is a Christian manifesto masquerading as big-band jazz, when in fact the reverse is true--McDonald, a superlative arranger, happens to be a man of faith who uses Christian themes as the basis for some of the ...

Nashville Jazz Orchestra: It Ain't Necesssarily So

by Jack Bowers
April 5, 2014

This splendid debut recording by the Nashville Jazz Orchestra is subtitled “New Twists on Gershwin Classics." No argument there, starting with the picturesque “Cuban Overture" from 1932 and encompassing a trio of songs from the folk opera Porgy and Bess, which premiered three years later. Also on the bill of fare are the standards “But Not ...