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Bill Reichenbach Jr.
Dave Slonaker Big Band: Shifty Paradigms
by Jack Bowers
While Los Angeles-based composer and arranger Dave Slonaker's paradigms may be shifty, his all-star big band is about as forthright as one could wish. On Shifty Paradigms, his third recording fronting the band, Slonaker guides his peerless eighteen-member ensemble through its paces on a dynamic and always-swinging program that encompasses seven of his stellar original compositions and the venerable standard, “Bye Bye Blues." Slonaker's game plan is simple: give the band superior themes and charts on which to ...
Continue ReadingRich Willey: Boptism Christmas
by Jack Bowers
With seasonal jazz albums in rather short supply this year, it is a pleasure to welcome Boptism Christmas, a series of mostly well- known holiday tunes ably performed by multi-instrumentalist Rich Willey and his impressive North Carolina-based octet-plus-one. The “plus one" applies to Tracks 5 and 6, on which Russ Wilson joins the ensemble to sing ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer") or play drums ("Little Drummer Boyz"). Wilson sings respectably on a jazzed-up version of “Rudolph," a mega-hit ...
Continue ReadingDoc Stewart Big Band Resuscitation: Code Blue!
by Jack Bowers
"Doc" is much more than a nickname to Chris Stewart: it's a profession. And straight-ahead jazz is far more than a pastime: it's a passion. For the past sixteen years, Doc Stewart's day gig has been ER physician at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Scottsdale, AZ. Long before that, however, Stewart was a working musician who played alto sax with a number of big bands including those led by Tom Kubis, Ladd McIntosh, Matt Catingub, Louie Bellson, Toshiko Akiyoshi / ...
Continue ReadingDoc Stewart and Big Band Resuscitation: Code Blue!
by Edward Blanco
Those who subscribe to the notion that big band music is a dying musical art form, are obviously unaware of Chris “Doc “ Stewart and his star-studded Resuscitation big band that have just given the genre a shot in the arm, a jolt of electricity and some life-saving musical medicine with the amazing Code Blue! An alto saxophonist by passion and pleasure, Stewart is actually an emergency room doctor with the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ, practicing the trade for ...
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Shifty Paradigms
From: Shifty ParadigmsBy Bill Reichenbach Jr.
