Epic, Vivid Spanish-Tinged Big Band Jazz and a Joe’s Pub Show From Emilio Solla
Pianist Emilio Solla writes picturesque, symphonic, state-of-the-art big band jazz that draws on both tango and Spanish Caribbean traditions but transcends both. For those who might be interested in...
View ArticlePredictive Programming For the Future of Big Band Jazz From the MSM Jazz...
Last night at Manhattan School of Music, the MSM Jazz Orchestra and a slightly smaller ten-piece unit played an all-Jim McNeely program worthy of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the group the composer...
View ArticleA Vividly Symphonic, Epic Big Band Album and a Chinatown Gig From Pianist...
Pianist Manuel Valera has been a reliably tuneful fixture on the New York jazz stage, best known for his monthly residency with his New Cuban Express at Terraza 7, which ran for years until live music...
View ArticleA Blazing Big Band Album and a Low-Key Trio Show From Pianist Steven Feifke
If you’re interested in checking out a musician in an intimate setting, why would you want to listen to his big band album? Because it shows how far he can take an idea and keep it interesting. Steven...
View ArticleAn Inspired, Dynamic Live Debut Album by the Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band
Drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.’s debut album with his big band, Soul Conversations – streaming at Spotify – sounds like one of those exuberant field recordings that jazz clubs love to play before shows....
View ArticleA State-of-the-Art, Majestic Big Band Suite From the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
The world is in a very strange place right now, and some of the least likely candidates are doing herculean work just about everywhere you turn. So anyone who might be surprised that some of this era’s...
View ArticleA Colorfully Melodic Big Band Debut by the Sam Pilnick Nonet
If you want to make a big splash with your debut album, you put as many players on it as you can. Maybe you leave no doubt about where the record is going by opening with a nine-minute song which...
View ArticleVivid, Lush, Cinematic Big Band Jazz From Lawrence Sieberth
Pianist Lawrence Sieberth‘s big band album Musique Visuelle – which hasn’t hit the web yet – is aptly titled. There’s a cinematic sweep and an abundance of vivid narrative in his majestic compositions...
View ArticleAn Epically Genre-Smashing, Deliciously Unpredictable Album From Charlotte Greve
Over the years there have been a ton of jazz records made with a string section, or even an orchestra. But jazz with a choir? Has anyone ever made a jazz album with a choir? Saxophonist/singer...
View ArticleTranscendence and Thrills From a Great Florida Big Band
One of the best large jazz ensembles in the country hails from Florida. So it’s possible that Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge‘s new album Within Us – streaming at Spotify – is the first big band album to...
View ArticleA Rich, Multi-Layered, Epic New Middle Eastern-Flavored Album From Amir Elsaffar
Amir Elsaffar’s Rivers Of Sound Orchestra play oceanic, tidally shifting soundscapes that blend otherworldly, microtonal Middle Eastern modes, lushly immersive big band jazz improvisation and what...
View ArticleA Historic, Ferocious Return to the East Village by the Mingus Big Band
Last night a fired-up, sold-out standing-room-only crowd at Drom got to witness the Mingus Big Band’s historic return to the neighborhood where Sue Mingus first pulled together some of the greatest...
View ArticleOne of the World’s Mightiest Latin Jazz Orchestras Gets Back to Business at...
When a bunch of oligarchs and their puppets in politics tried to take over the world in 2020, musicians were left out in the cold. In the liner notes to his new album Virtual Birdland, pianist Arturo...
View ArticleBittersweeet, Imaginative Large Ensemble Jazz From Johannes Wallmann
Pianist Johannes Wallmann’s new Elegy for an Undiscovered Species – streaming at Bandcamp – is an unusual and strikingly tuneful big band jazz album. For one, the lineup – jazz quintet plus a...
View ArticleAn Intricately Constructed New Big Band Suite From Trumpeter Tim Hagans
Trumpeter Tim Hagans‘ ambitious new five-movement “concerto” with the NDR Bigband, A Conversation – streaming at Bandcamp – came out earlier this month. The suite owes as much to contemporary classical...
View ArticleA High-Voltage, Colorful, Historically-Inspired Big Band Jazz Suite From the...
At the end of December, 2019, the Saskatchewan All Star Big Band played bandleader and keyboardist Fred Stride’s colorful, cinematic, historically-infused Saskatchewan Suite at the Casino Regina – and...
View ArticleAn Electrifying, Entertaining, Amusing Magnum Opus From Multi-Reedwoman Anna...
Damn, this is a funny record. Multi-reedwoman Anna Webber‘s mammoth new double album Idiom – streaming at Bandcamp – is her most ambitious yet. She’s no stranger to large-ensemble work, most memorably...
View ArticleA Breathtaking, Epic Debut Album From the Fabia Mantwill Orchestra
There hasn’t been a debut big band jazz album on as ambitious a level as the Fabia Mantwill Orchestra’s initial release, Em.Perience (streaming at Spotify) in a long time. Maybe since Asuka Kakitani’s...
View ArticleA Wild, Gorgeously Surreal Jazz Mass From the Czech Republic
You have never heard anything as surreal or triumphantly outside-the-box as the B-Side Band’s performance of Jaromír Hnilička’s Missa Jazz, which hasn’t hit the web yet. Structured in segments that...
View ArticleA Vibrant, Evocative, Summery Album From the Dennis Kwok Jazz Orchestra
The Dennis Kwok Jazz Orchestra’s album Windward Bound – streaming at Bandcamp – opens with a mist of wave splashes and sounds of shorebirds. But those aren’t samples. That’s the band conjuring up...
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