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Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra: Invitation
by Jack Bowers
Here's how to make sure a five-star big-band album receives a four-star review: assemble a group of the finest musicians within a stone's throw or two of the chosen locale, place them in a recording studio, hand them superlative charts to read --then add vocals. In this case three of same, pretty much undermining what is ...
Ben Markley Big Band, featuring Terell Stafford: Clockwise: The Music Of Cedar Walton
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Cedar Walton (1934-2013) is one of the giants, as well known for his compositions and arranging as he is for his piano chair stints in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, his steering vocalist Etta James to an Emmy Award for Mystery Lady: The Songs Of Billie Holiday, (RCA, 1994), and his prolific recording career, beginning with ...
Ben Markley: Clockwise: The Music Of Cedar Walton
by Jack Bowers
Cedar Walton, whose long and illustrious career ended with his passing in August 2013, was not only one of his era's most celebrated jazz pianists but a musician whose impressive talents as a composer were often beclouded by his remarkable success as a performer. One of those whose admiration for Walton the composer is as earnest ...
UNT Two O'Clock Lab Band: Two Music: It Don't Mean a Thing, If It...
by Jack Bowers
As has been pointed out a number of times before, there's no audible difference between the University of North Texas' One O'Clock and Two O'Clock Lab Bands, which are customarily named for rehearsal times but based on performance alone could well be designated One O'Clock and One-Fifteen. This is not meant to devalue the One O'Clock ...
Bob Lark and his Alumni Big Band: Sweet Return
by Edward Blanco
Trumpeter/educator and big band leader Bob Lark, reunites his Alumni Big Band after their critically acclaimed debut Reunion (Jazzed Media 2012), produced some of the best Jazz orchestrations in the business. Sweet Return is the group's encore performance, their return engagement, their audacious follow up and another masterful stroke by leader Lark. This Alumni band is ...
UNT Two O'Clock Lab Band: Kind of Two
by Jack Bowers
The University of North Texas, home to the country's oldest, most honored and, many would say, explicitly outstanding Jazz Studies program, has a number of topnotch big bands in the stable, each of which is named after its specific rehearsal time. While the One O'Clock Lab Band, which has been recorded most often, is best known ...
Swingin' on a Riff . . . Hangin' by a Thread?
by Jack Bowers
Betty and I returned to Albuquerque on Memorial Day after attending Swingin' on a Riff, the latest in a series of marvelous semi-annual events presented by Ken Poston and the Los Angeles Jazz Institute for more than twenty years at venues in and around L.A. This one was held May 23-26 at the Los Angeles Marriott ...
Pointing Fingers... And Naming Names
by Jack Bowers
As the countdown continues toward the last Big Band Report in June, the time has come to point fingers and name names--in other words, to compile a short list of contemporary jazz musicians who have risen above the norm to help make life more pleasurable for one devoted listener. These are, mind you, personal choices, and ...
Buddy Rich: In a Zone of His Own
by Jack Bowers
One of the channels that came with my Dish Network package is Classic Arts Showcase, which is a treasure trove of film clips documenting classical, ballet, folk, pop and other forms of music that one is unlikely to see anywhere else (although some footage is presumably available on YouTube, which more and more seems to encompass ...
Bob Brookmeyer: Jack of All Trades, Master of Valves
by Jack Bowers
Bob Brookmeyer, a Renaissance man among jazz musicians who died December 15, 2011, four days before his eighty-second birthday, will be remembered as many things: composer, arranger, musician, educator, outspoken arbiter who brooked no nonsense and wasn't shy about letting others know when he believed they were not giving the music he loved the best they ...