Big Bands
September 2007 By Harvey Siders
Legacy
Empressario
Top-call studio trumpeter Paul Cacia, who studied with Cat Anderson and Arturo Sandoval, materialized after a long hiatus to assemble his 10th album, his first in 15 years. It’s a compilation of sessions he organized from 1991 through 2005, and the list...
September 2007 By Harvey Siders
The Surprise of Being
CJO
Ever since the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra was founded in 1984, it’s been attracting great jazz instrumentalists, singers and arrangers from both coasts. After trumpeter Jack Schantz became its third artistic director in ’93, the band also began attracting...
September 2007 By Harvey Siders
Live! It Up
Live! It Up
The phenomenal success of Denver Bierman’s Mile High Orchestra may be a well-kept secret in the secular world. This is CD number six from the band, which works over 100 days each year. That’s because it’s no secret in the world of Christian music. The MHO...
September 2007 By Harvey Siders
Clairvoyance
Gargull
There’s an energetic creative force on the horizon named Ayn Inserto, and based on this debut album, she’s Maria Schneider on steroids. Boston-based Inserto, an assistant professor at Berklee, arranged all nine tracks and composed six. George Garzone, who...
September 2007 By Harvey Siders
Star Dust & Beyond: A Tribute to Artie Shaw
Crazy Scot
Johnson finds himself in a peculiar position. He’s been around the big band scene for half a century, yet this marks the first big band recording of his own. The distinction lies in the title, Star Dust & Beyond. Since 1983, when Artie Shaw asked Johnson...
September 2007 By Harvey Siders
My Museum
Origin Records
In 2003 a cross-pollination of Pacific Northwest and L.A. jazz communities resulted in Kelly’s first Origin album, Convergence Zone. It happened again in ’06, leading to this masterpiece. No rehearsal time. As Kelly explained, “It was straight gonzo.” Thanks...
September 2007 By Harvey Siders
Wish Me Well
Capri Records
Based on the subtitle, “Reflections on Gary McFarland” (who died in 1971 at age 38), Masters’ idolatrous mission becomes clear. He was long ago attracted to McFarland’s 1969 album, Today. But as these liner notes suggest, it’s “an intimidating task to arrange...
September 2007 By Harvey Siders
Live at The Pittsfield CityJazz Festival
Sea Breeze
Two debuts here: first live recording for the NEJE; first CityJazz Festival for Pittsfield, Mass. For the most part, the recording went well. But considering the 16-piece band is made up of music-teaching pros, one basic flaw surfaces: a tendency to over...
September 2007 By Harvey Siders
Port Chicago
Noir Records
One of the most difficult undertakings is to write a tone poem in the language of jazz. What unfolds here is a 14-movement suite based on the Port Chicago explosion of 1944, near Oakland, Calif. An explosion of undetermined origin killed more than 320 men...
April 2007 By David Franklin
Spirit Music
ArtistShare
Bob Brookmeyer doesn’t write conventional big-band “charts.” Instead, he composes sophisticated, creative works for jazz orchestra that fuse traditional big-band techniques with elements from the broader musical landscape. Yet as advanced as Brookmeyer’s...
