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Portland Jazz Orchestra: Nor'easter
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Although the era of the gig-to-gig road-traveling big band is defunct, save for a few ghost bands, fine regional big bands continue to thrive around the United States. From Los Angeles, killer bands such as Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band and Tom Kubis's and Gary Urwin's respective ensembles, to the East Coast where groups such as ...
Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble: Blueprints
by Nicholas F. Mondello
When cooking a marvelous soup or stew from scratch with all the finest ingredients, there's that special moment when the culinary creation rushes to a boil and marvelous flavors burst out explosively into the air. It's the penultimate moment only surpassed by the delicious devouring. Contentment follows. The selections contained in the Chicago ...
Luca Aquino: Icaro Solo
by Nicholas F. Mondello
When he lived on Manhattan's Lower East side many years ago, the great tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, when searching for a locale to practice without disturbing his neighbors, would venture up on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York to shed for hours on end. It provided him the necessary environment within which to expand his musical ...
Denise Donatelli: When Lights are Low
by Nicholas F. Mondello
A recent news photo depicted pop singer, Lady Gaga, accepting an MTV Video Music Award bedecked in a gown of raw meat. While reactions to that stunt went to understandable extremes--condone as art or revolt as déclassé--it's easy to wonder what women jazz vocalists might have thought of it. Based upon the marvelously entertaining and stylistically ...
Eric Bolvin: No Boundaries
by Nicholas F. Mondello
One might wonder what might have drawn the great Miles Davis to record melodically verbatim covers of Michael Jackson's “Human Nature" and Cyndi Lauper's “Time After Time," in a smooth jazz format. Commercial interest? A musical category boundary to break? Because he could? With No Boundaries, trumpeter Eric Bolvin continues to validate his ...
Jim Manley: Brass Poison
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Mythology and its partners--history and literature--are replete with accounts of poisonings of all kinds; romantic, political, and those unfortunately accidental. Most of these tales culminate with unhappy, tragic endings. Someone usually “gets it" in the end. With Brass Poison, star trumpeter Jim Manley shrewdly plays title tongue-in-cheek, and delivers a supremely enjoyable and ...
Arturo Sandoval: A Time for Love
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Years ago, on The Tonight Show, host Johnny Carson asked guest Frank Sinatra what music he enjoyed listening to when “in those romantic moments." Sinatra, to the host's surprise, said he particularly enjoyed the hearing works of Debussy, Ravel and other Impressionists and Romantics. With A Time for Love, trumpet legend Arturo Sandoval steps away from ...
Chris Tedesco: Living the Dream
by Nicholas F. Mondello
In Living the Dream Los Angeles-based trumpeter/contractor/producer Chris Tedesco proves that he is a consummate multi-tasker. He leads his L.A. Jazz Big Band and Orchestra admirably, contracted the sessions, arranged a selection, composed four originals, engineered, edited, and produced the CD. The result of this array of endeavors is a slick, swinging, throwback salute to hip, ...
Andrea Tofanelli: Flamingo
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Back in 1974, a French daredevil named Philippe Petit brazenly high-wire walked across the span of New York's Twin Towers. He electrified the pre-internet, pre-YouTube world by spanning the buildings on a ¾" wire cable eight times; a feat of incredible skill, athleticism and bravery later detailed in his book, To Reach the Clouds (North Point ...
Larry Johnson: Circles
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Circles are infinitely symbolic in their geometric design and interpretation--no beginning and no end, directionally ambiguous, enclosing an extended infinite inner dimensional space. In Circles, his first CD as a leader, tenor saxophonist Larry Johnson steps up to deliver a dozen fine selections displaying that he's definitely no musical square. He sounds as if he knows ...
