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Jackie Allen: A Romantic Evening with Jackie Allen - Live At the Rococo
by Nicholas F. Mondello
In New York City, there's Radio City, the Blue Note, Birdland, and many other fine venues. Each has its own vibe and Big Apple flavor. In Lincoln, Nebraska there's the Rococo Theater—a gorgeously restored 1920s theater with a slick, small club ambience where vocalist Jackie Allen and her mates chose to record an evening's performance. The ...
Peter Welker: Touching All of Jazz's Bases
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Bay Area-based trumpeter, composer and arranger Peter Welker possesses one of the most musically historically fascinating biographies. His decades-long career emanates and developed from a robust musical heritage in which talent merged with Life's coincidences to set him on a journey few, if any, musicians have had. From his parents performing the days of radio through ...
Accent: Christmas All the Way
by Nicholas F. Mondello
A rhetorical question: what makes a great Christmas album? We know all or most of the chestnuts, both commercial and religious. The Drummer Boy flams, someone's dreaming white, and another will be home in their dreams. The annual marathon Yuletide programs rely heavily on the tried and true with an occasional novelty thrown in. Classical purists ...
Randy Brecker & Ada Rovatti: Brecker Plays Rovatti: Sacred Bond
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Jackie and Roy Krall, Louis Prima and Keely Smith, Marian and Jimmy McParland--all musically fruitful jazz marriages. The progression continues with Sacred Bond from trumpeter, Randy Brecker and saxophonist spouse Ada Rovatti. In some of the aforementioned cases, specifically Jackie and Roy, the duo are stylistically tied at the hip. Here, the respective styles of Brecker ...
Luca Aquino: Italian Songbook
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Given a stroke of sfortuna, trumpet players can encounter physically and psychologically debilitating facial injuries. Maladies such as embouchure overuse, lip muscle tears, trauma, dystonia and Bell's Palsy can disrupt or end careers. After a devastating bout with Bell's Palsy, obtaining the guidance of trumpet “Yoda," Bobby Shew, and undergoing a lengthy recovery, Italian trumpeter Luca ...
Rich Willey Boptism Funk Band: Conspiracy
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Both before and after his first terrific recording as leader--Gone with the Piggies (Consolidated Artists Productions, 1988)--Asheville, North Carolina-based Rich Willey has been a very busy jazzman. During that period, Willey spent dues-playing time with Philly Phenoms, New York Bopsters, did a stint with the great Maynard Ferguson, authored dozens of well-acclaimed trumpet and jazz improv ...
John Allee: Bardfly
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Overshadowed by the notoriety of Shakespeare's works, it is less known that accompanying music was regularly incorporated into his Globe Theatre productions. The music of William Byrd, Thomas Morley et al, was played there on lutes, hautboys (oboes), recorders and, for more martial and ceremonial aspects, trumpets. Conversely, the Bard's words have been used in more ...
Hendrik Meurkens: Cobb's Pocket
by Nicholas F. Mondello
It may be posited that what Louis Armstrong was to the trumpet, Toots Thielemans was to the mouthorgan. With Thielemans now blowing in the Upper Room, the field is open to aspiring and worthy replacements. Hendrik Meurkens fits that bill appropriately and is a leading contender, for sure. Like his aforementioned hero, Meurkens is not only ...
Mike Vax: Getting Vaxinated
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Mike Vax has one of the shortest surnames in jazz music—he's “tied" with Tommy Vig and Jack Six for that honor. However, those familiar with his activities as a well-respected lead trumpeter and soloist with Stan Kenton, a stalwart member of the famous Dukes of Dixieland, the leader and man behind the annual tour of the ...
Mariangela Cagnetta: e-motion
by Nicholas F. Mondello
A glance at the track listing on this album might prompt the title of another tune--"So What's New?" However, after a thorough listening, a more appropriate musical response could be “I Never Knew." e-motion is an innovative, fascinating and marvelously performed modern perspective on eleven jazz standards delivered by superior musicians. The ensemble ...
