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Results for "Neal Hefti"
Mike Barone Big Band: Flight of the Bumblebee
by Robert J. Robbins
For a quarter-century, Mike Barone provided arrangements for Doc Severinsen's NBC-TV <em>Tonight Show</em> Band, but these were seldom heard by anyone except the studio audiences for the actual telecasts (although excerpts were audible to viewers as intros and exits from commercial breaks). Since the band's dissolution more than fifteen years ago, however, Barone has been recording ...
Count Basie Orchestra: Swinging, Singing, Playing
by Robert J. Robbins
Count Basie OrchestraSwinging, Singing, PlayingMack Avenue2009 Although over a quarter-century has elapsed since the passing of William “Count" Basie in 1984, the bandleader and pianist's legacy has proved one of the most durable from the big band era, and the Basie band's Swinging, Singing, Playing maintains the Basie ...
Brett Favre Isn't The Only Comeback Kid
by Jack Bowers
The ink was barely dry on last month's report that trumpeter Rob Parton had decided to break up his superlative Chicago-based JazzTech Big Band after more than twenty years at the helm before Parton was back with a brand new ensemble, one whose purpose, he says, “is to mirror that of the European Radio Orchestras where ...
Bob Florence Limited Edition / Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band / Dana Legg Stage Band / John Burnett Swing Orchestra
by Jack Bowers
Bob Florence Limited Edition Legendary MAMA 2009 “Legendary" is a word that is often misused and shamelessly over-used, and in this case entirely appropriate. Even though composer / arranger / pianist Bob Florence is no longer with us, and wasn't in the studio when his Limited Edition recorded ...
Jason Hainsworth Big Band / DePaul University Jazz Ensemble / Big Band Ritmo Sinfonica Citta di Verona / Howard University Jazz Ensemble
by Jack Bowers
Jason Hainsworth Jazz Orchestra Kaleidoscope DW Jazz 2009 On his first turn at bat, composer / arranger / tenor saxophonist Jason Hainsworth has not only slammed one out of the park with Kaleidoscope but has produced a viable entrant in the big-band Record of the Year sweepstakes. The ...
"A Swingin' Affair" Outshines Its Name
by Jack Bowers
With an appreciative bow and genial tip of the hat to the late Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, the Los Angeles Jazz Institute named its semi-annual big-band soiree May 21-24 at the Sheraton LAX Four Points Hotel “A Swingin' Affair." Was the event able to live up to its name? In the immortal words of ...
Mike Vax Big Band / Dave Siebels / Phil Woods / London Horn Sound
by Jack Bowers
Mike Vax Big Band Sounds from the Road Summit Records 2009 As Bob Hope and Bing Crosby entertained millions with their “road" movies in the 1940s, so the Mike Vax Big Band has its own “road show," arguably as entertaining but playing to much smaller audiences than Hope ...
Phil Woods: Philology
by George Kanzler
When pianist Jim McNeely replaced Hal Galper in the Phil Woods Quintet in 1990 it was the current winner--repeating in 1991--of the Downbeat Readers Poll as top jazz small group. But, as McNeely remembers, his first days with the alto saxophonist's band included a benefit concert for the local volunteer fire department in Delaware Water Gap, ...
Dave Siebels: Dave Siebels with Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band
by Edward Blanco
A thrilling collaboration between one of the finest jazz ensembles in the business and a keyboardist whose résumé extends beyond jazz, the self-titled Dave Siebels with Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band is, quite frankly, one riveting session of big band music fronted by Siebels' commanding performance on the Hammond B3 organ. Not surprising, when the artistic ...
It's the Economy, Man!
by Jack Bowers
Even though the present (and future) state of the economy here in the States is no laughing matter, there has been at least one tongue-in-cheek article about jazz musicians seeking bailout money from Congress and the Bush administration (still in power when it was written last December). It's presented as a straight “news" story, but musicians' ...
