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Pete Rugolo, 1915-2011
Pete Rugolo has died in Los Angeles at the age of 95. Rugolo's composing and arranging, particularly for the Stan Kenton Orchestra,had much to do in the 1940s and '50s with the creation of what came to be called progressive jazz. As a discoverer of talent and as a producer, he was responsible for recording a ...
BuJazzO: That's German for Swinging Big Band Jazz
by Jack Bowers
On August 8, my friend Wes Pfarner and I drove to Santa Fe for a once-in-a lifetime event: a performance by the German Federal Youth Jazz Orchestra, better known to big band enthusiasts by its more condensed and colorful name, BuJazzO. The twenty-piece ensemble, directed by Jiggs Whigham, an American trombonist and educator from Cleveland, Ohio, ...
Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band / Gerald Wilson Orchestra / Knoxville Jazz Orchestra
by Jack Bowers
Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat BandThat's How We RollTelarc2010 After more than a decade of making beautiful music at home, on the road and in the studio, Gordon Goodwin's irrepressible Big Phat Band keeps rolling merrily along, burning rubber on its sixth free-wheeling recording (and first for Telarc Records). ...
Big Band Jazz: It's Not Just for Guys Anymore
by Jack Bowers
Back in the early '90s, Stanley Kay, one-time back-up drummer for the incomparable Buddy Rich, later a manager of such artists as Maurice Hines, Michelle Lee and Paul Burke and the entertainment director for the New York Yankees, had a good idea: the time had come, he reasoned, to assemble an all-woman big band that would ...
Jack's Gone! No He Isn't; Yes He Is; No He Isn't...!
by Jack Bowers
As I sat down to write this month's column, word came that trumpeter Jack Sheldon had died. No sooner had I written a few words about that when word came that trumpeter Jack Sheldon had not died. After some back-and-forth on the internet (is he or isn't he?), the last report, it seems, was the true ...
Gold Medalists Abound at Big Band Olympics
by Jack Bowers
As this is being written, Betty and I are just back from a ten-day visit to California, the first six days of which would be of absolutely no interest to readers of this column. The last four, however, were spent at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel attending the L.A. Jazz Institute's “Big Band Olympics," which ...
Stan Kenton: Artistry in Rhythm - Portrait Of A Jazz Legend
by Jack Bowers
Stan KentonArtistry In Rhythm: Portrait Of A Jazz LegendJazzed Media2011 “I thought that [Stan] was an echo of life itself: that life is precious, life is exquisite, and life is magnificent. He lived it, and his legacy points to some of those values. Whether we are able ...
Phil Woods / Stan Kenton / The Les Hooper Band
by Jack Bowers
Phil Woods / DePaul University Jazz Ensemble Solitude Jazzed Media 2010 Not to underplay the title, but Solitude, from alto saxophone master Phil Woods and the splendid DePaul University Jazz Ensemble, embodies far more than the sort of serenity it implies. In fact, Woods is as animated and ...
Patti Page: Patti Page with Pete Rugolo and His Orchestra
by Samuel Chell
The Classic Jazz Calendar 2010, with photographs by Chuck Stewart--a full-page devoted to each of 12 jazz greats--includes a striking photo of Patti Page, representing the month of May. While her inclusion may strike many as unexceptional, for jazz followers who remember the best-selling female singer of the 1950s, her name would seem a problematic fit. ...
The Four Freshmen: The Four Freshmen and Live Trombones
by Robert J. Robbins
Over six decades ago, four undergraduates at Indiana's Butler University first joined their voices in song as The Four Freshmen and, in 1950, the quartet was heard by Stan Kenton, on whose trombone section the “Frosh" had modeled their sound. Kenton immediately demanded that the group be signed by his label, Capitol, and began an association ...
