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A Sneak Peek at One of the Year’s Most Enticing Big Band Shows
It used to be that an artist never got a Lincoln Center gig until they were well established. That’s changed. These days, if you want to catch some of the world’s most exciting up-and-coming acts,...
View ArticleLush, Epic, Hauntingly Cinematic Jazz from the Robert Sabin Dectet
Today’s Halloween album, streaming at Bandcamp, is Humanity Part II, released by bassist Robert Sabin and his dectet in 2015. The black-and-sepia cd packaging leaves no doubt about this lushly Lynchian...
View ArticleRevisiting Some Classics by Mingus and His Many Advocates
Trombonist Ku’Umba Frank Lacy is a mainstay of the New York jazz scene, with a list of recording and touring credits a mile long as a both a bandleader and sideman. His Live at Smalls album, a red-hot...
View ArticleThe Todd Marcus Orchestra Play a Riveting, Epic Set at Smalls
Last night Smalls was packed for the New York debut of the Todd Marcus Orchestra’s new Middle Eastern jazz suite In the Valley. Much as the band onstage was cooking, these people had come to listen....
View ArticlePerennially Vital, Poignant, Epic Grandeur From the John Hollenbeck Large...
In the history of jazz, is there a greater drummer/composer than John Hollenbeck? Paul Motian wrote some great songs. And so has Tain Watts. Beyond that, it’s a short list. This past evening at the...
View ArticleHigh-Voltage Suspense and State-of-the-Art Big Band Jazz From Darcy James...
The suspense was relentless throughout Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society’s sold-out concert Saturday night at the Miller Theatre. Although a couple of numbers on the bill had genuinely visceral...
View ArticleLush, Kinetic, Imaginatively Purist New Big Band Jazz From Dan Pugach’s Nonet...
How do you get the most bang for your buck, to make a handful of musicians sound like a whole orchestra? Composers and arrangers have been using every trick in the book to do that since the Middle...
View ArticleThe Michael Leonhart Orchestra Bring Their Epic, Ominously Cinematic...
The Michael Leonhart Orchestra’s debut album The Painted Lady Suite – streaming at Sunnyside Records – doesn’t concern a medieval femme fatale. The central seven-part suite portays the epic,...
View ArticleThe All-Female NYChillharmonic Raises the Bar For Epic Big Band Grandeur
Finding eighteen musicians capable of doing justice to singer/keyboardist Sara McDonald’s kinetic, stormy, intricately epic compositions is an achievement all by itself. Finding a night when they’re...
View ArticleA Colorful, Auspicious Debut Album and a Jazz Gallery Show by the Mighty Big...
Big Heart Machine’s debut album – streaming at Bandcamp – is not for curmudgeons. It’s for people who appreciate robust tunesmithing and vivid, lavish arrangements with a sense of humor. That quality...
View ArticleMiho Hazama Reinvents Thelonious Monk
More about that Big Heart Machine show tonight, Aug 16 at the Jazz Gallery: Miho Hazama is conducting. Of all the major big band jazz artists right now who would be right for the job, Hazama is at the...
View ArticleViolinist Meg Okura Brings Her Kaleidoscopic Melodic Sorcery to Jazz at...
Anne Drummond’s flute wafts over Brian Marsella’s uneasily rippling, neoromantic piano as the opening title track on violinist Meg Okura‘s Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble’s new album, Ima Ima gets...
View ArticleMajestic Menace and a Free Download From an Iconic Big Band
Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society rank with the Maria Schneider Orchestra as this era’s greatest big bands, even if Argue’s eighteen-piece behemoth hasn’t been around as long as hers. While his...
View ArticleA Mighty, Moody Album and a Lincoln Center Gig by the Scott Reeves Jazz...
The rain-slicked streetcorner tableau on the album cover of the Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra’s latest release Without a Trace – streaming at Bandcamp – Is truth in advertising. In recent years the group...
View ArticleA Stormy, Epically Relevant Jazz Standard Show by Darcy James Argue’s Secret...
In their late set last night at the Jazz Standard, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society threw caution to the wind with a stormy, careeningly dynamic career retrospective of sorts. Which isn’t what you...
View ArticleA Gusty, Gutsy Return by Brooklyn’s Most Individualistic Guitarist and His...
An enigmatic mist of sound rose from the inner courtyard at Pioneer Works to the top of a makeshift tower with a spiral staircase scarier than any Hitchcock movie set a couple of weekends ago. As...
View ArticleBobby Sanabria Brings His Brilliant, Electrifying Reinvention of the West...
Latin jazz drum sage Bobby Sanabria’s mission to tackle Leonard Bernstein’s iconic West Side Story score is ambitious, and a little hubristic. And it’s been done before: The Oscar Peterson Trio, the...
View ArticleCécile McLorin Salvant Premieres Her Macabre, Majestically Relevant New Suite...
“The man is lying!” Cécile McLorin Salvant’s voice rose with an ineluctable, fearsome wail through that accusatory phrase as the orchestra behind her reached hurricane force. In the year of Metoo, fake...
View ArticleThe Ghost Train Orchestra Steam Back to Upbeat, Playful Terrain
Back in January, this blog asserted that “It’s impossible to think of a better way to start the year than watching Brian Carpenter’s Ghost Train Orchestra slink and swing their way through the darkly...
View ArticleA Feast of Catchy Tunesmithing, Big Ideas and Picturesque Themes on Annie...
Composer/singe Annie Chen’s imagination knows no bounds. By any standard, her music is richly layered and often lavishly orchestrated. There’s an unusual majesty and cinematic sweep to much of her...
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