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Article: Album Review

John MacLeod & His Rex Hotel Orchestra: Our Second Set

Read "Our Second Set" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 23, 2016

Somewhere, Rob McConnell must be smiling broadly. McConnell, once the peerless leader of Canada's flagship jazz ensemble, the Boss Brass, is no longer with us, sad to say, but the Brass lives on in the guise of trumpeter John MacLeod's superlative Rex Hotel Orchestra, which mirrors McConnell's band from its skin-tight section work and well-drawn charts ...

News: Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Rob McConnell

February 14, 2016

All About Jazz is celebrating Rob McConnell's birthday today! Robert Murray Gordon (Rob) McConnell is a Canadian jazz valve trombonist, composer, arranger, music educator and recording artist. Rob McConnell took up the valve trombone in high school, and began his performing career in the early 1950s, performing and studying with Don Thompson, Bobby Gimby, and later, ...

News: Music Industry

Ed Bickert: Canada's Secret

April 8, 2015

Canadian jazz artists don't get enough respect. American fans swoon over Belgians (Bobby Jaspar), French (Martial Solal), British (Tubby Hayes) and even Argentines (Gato Barbieri). But when it comes to Canada, many jazz fans yawn, viewing them as doppelgängers at best, or pale comparisons to U.S. jazz musicians. The problem has always been that Canadian jazz never ...

News: Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Rob McConnell

February 14, 2015

News: Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Rob McConnell

February 14, 2014

Article: Album Review

University of Toronto 12TET: Rebirth

by Jack Bowers
January 11, 2014

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more congenial curtain-raiser than Jason Stillman's animated, inflexibly swinging “Contemporary Insanity," which opens Rebirth, the debut album by the University of Toronto's snug and well-upholstered 12TET. That's admittedly a tough act to follow, and while the ensemble gives it the old college try it doesn't always live up to the ...

Article: Extended Analysis

Maria Baptist: Music for Jazz Orchestra

by Jack Bowers
January 6, 2014

Like it or not, a new wave of young composer / arrangers has surfaced, scrupulously guiding big bands into heretofore uncharted waters, now and then smooth, at other times choppy, but always intriguing and inspired. Maria Schneider, George Gruntz, Jim McNeely and Carla Bley were among the pacesetters, followed in short order by such (relative) newcomers ...

Article: Extended Analysis

The Rob Parton Big Band: Christmas Time Is Here

by Jack Bowers
January 5, 2014

The only plausible impetus for releasing an album of Christmas themes so close to the holiday itself is the inclusion of music that transcends the season and may be auditioned and appreciated throughout the year. Trombonist Chris McDonald accomplished that with his splendid album In the Mood for Christmas, and trumpeter Rob Parton has mirrored that ...

Article: Album Review

University of Toronto Jazz Ensemble: Reflections

Read "Reflections" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 29, 2013

Wherever Gordon Foote goes, you may rest assured that pleasurable music is sure to follow. After twenty-six years at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he led the school's superlative Jazz Ensemble, Foote moved eastward to Toronto a year or so ago to oversee the splendid University of Toronto Jazz Orchestra, which recorded its most recent ...

Article: Extended Analysis

The Jazz Professors: Live from the UCF-Orlando Jazz Festival / Do That Again

by Jack Bowers
August 30, 2013

The Jazz Professors aren't wearing any hats they don't own; the fact is, they really are Professors in the Jazz Studies program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Instead of letting the students have all the fun, however, the Professors have recorded three albums of their own, the second Live from UCF-Orlando Jazz Festival, ...