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State-of-the-Art Big Band Jazz and a Shapeshifter Show by John Yao’s 17-Piece...
John Yao is one of New York’s elite trombonists, and a frequent performer with both Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.Yao is also a first-class, ambitious...
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The Gregorio Uribe Big Band Air Out Their Mighty, Slinky Cumbia Sounds at Two...
The Gregorio Uribe Big Band are one of those groups whose music is so fun that it transcends category. Is it cumbia? Big band jazz? Salsa? It’s a little of all that, and although it’s a sound that...
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The Erica Seguine/Shannon Baker Jazz Orchestra Bring Their Epic Sweep and...
The most intriguing big band concert of this new year isn’t happening at the Vanguard, or Birdland, or the Jazz Standard or even Brooklyn’s home to exciting new large ensembles, Shapeshifter Lab in...
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A Weekend Jazz Gallery Stand and a Killer, Funny New Album by the Dan Weiss...
Drummer-led bands tend to be excellent. And they should be. Good drummers are more in demand than any other musicians: consequently, they tend to have enormous address books. So it was hardly difficult...
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Bright and Dark Shades of Cutting-Edge Big Band Jazz in Gowanus
Bassist Robert Sabin did triple duty the night of one of the year’s best twinbills this past Tuesday at Shapeshifter Lab, first leading his own group, Humanity Part II, then playing two sets with...
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The Pedro Giraudo Big Band Bring Their Pan-American Intensity to the Jazz...
Pedro Giraudo is one of the most sought after bassists in New York. Born in central Argentina, he’s unrivalled as a tango bass player, but he’s also immersed himself in klezmer and jazz. His dedication...
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The Alan Ferber Nonet Bring Their Dynamic, Intense Large Ensemble Sound to...
Considering how time-consuming it is just to keep a big band together and playing, it’s amazing how the likes of Arturo O’Farrill and Maria Schneider manage to do that and keep coming up with fresh and...
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Satoko Fujii Debuts Her Harrowingly Relevant Fukushima Suite in Brooklyn Last...
Last night in Gowanus, I-Beam was packed to the point where it was impossible to get in the door for the debut performance of Satoko Fujii’s harrowing Fukushima suite. The iconic Japanese-born...
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A Relatively Rare Appearance by the Darkly Exhilarating Scott Reeves Jazz...
Big band jazz composers may be the most pure artists in all of music. These people do what they do strictly out of love. When you’re done paying the band – if in fact there IS anything to pay the band...
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Annie Chen Brings Her Fearlessly Eclectic, Soulful, Smart New Jazz...
Annie Chen sings with a resolute, purposeful alto voice, often with a sense of suspense. But her greatest strength right now, as she becomes more comfortable with her adopted English language, is as a...
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The Mighty, Intense Awakening Orchestra Sound the Alarm in Gowanus
Composer/conductor Kyle Saulnier’s twenty-piece Awakening Orchestra blend art-rock and classical music into their mighty big band jazz sound. They sound like no other group around: as the name implies,...
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A Transcendent Big Band Jazz Twinbill with the Awakening Orchestra and Fabian...
Composer/conductor Kyle Saulnier’s mighty twenty-piece Awakening Orchestra played one of the year’s best concerts last month at Shapeshifter Lab in Gowanus, on a fantastic doublebill with pianist...
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The New Album by Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society Explores the Menace and...
The term “conspiracy theory” was invented by the right wing as a facile way to dismiss investigative reporting, lumping it in with farcical myths about aliens and Zionists. As actor James Urbaniak...
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A Sardonically Sinister Evening with Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society
It was a grim, grey day, sticky with global warming-era humidity. No sinister force could have conjured a more appropriate atmosphere for a concert inspired by conspiracy theories. As the...
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David Murray Rips the Roof Off Lincoln Center with His Nat “King” Cole Latin...
On face value, the idea of David Murray tackling the latin side of the Nat Cole songbook is like Gogol Bordello covering Hector Lavoe. But Murray and his ten-piece, all-star Cuban-American band...
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A Mighty, Majestic Big Band Debut from Christopher Zuar
Let’s say you want to start your career with a real bang. You don’t just want to slip in via the back door – you want to smash a grand slam on the first pitch you see in the majors. That’s pretty much...
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Lush, Lavishly Ambitious Big Band Jazz With Miho Hazama & M-Unit at Lincoln...
Pianist/organist/conductor Miho Hazama writes big, blustery, fearlessly energetic big band jazz themes. Her music is cosmopolitan in every sense of the word: sophisticated, individualistic and...
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Haunting, Cinematic, Relevant State-of-the-Art Big Band Jazz from the Jihye...
If tuneful, cinematic, vivid and distantly haunting big band jazz is up your alley, you should know that the Jihye Lee Orchestra are playing Symphony Space this Friday, April 14 at 8 PM. Cover is $25,...
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Hot Swing Jazz on a Cool Spring Night at Drom
A big ‘ooooh” went through the crowd when arranger/conductor David Berger announced Juan Tizol’s Casablanca, the noir cha-cha classic that turned out to be the high point of a dynamic opening set by...
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A Rare Manhattan Show by the Fiery Cecilia Coleman Big Band
Here are some highlights from the Cecilia Coleman Big Band’s show last year at St. Peter’s Church in midtown. If they played another after that, the monthly concert calendar (just completed – whew)...
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