Recent instrumental big band and orchestral jazz album recommendations. With 25 & 50 year retrospectives, to illustrate the timelessness of this great music.
THIS SITE PROMOTES FUN JAZZ!
Excerpts from and links to album reviews of rather boisterous jazz albums. Artist info links at: Wikipedia; website; Discogs; Bandcamp as available. Links to the full album on: basic/free YouTube; subscription Spotify; purchase download Bandcamp. Check your favorite service. Please enjoy!
Showing posts with label leader: bassist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leader: bassist. Show all posts
"There are few wasted moments on Relentless, which is a
marvelous tour de force for the band, its eloquent soloists and
especially Huergo's creative and finely tuned compositions and
arrangements." Jack Bowers/AllAboutJazz.
2nd of 3 posts about jazz big bands comprised of young musicians.
Joan Chamorro is a Spanish jazz saxophone, clarinet, flute, cornet, and double bass player. He is a tireless youth jazz educator. In 2006 he founded the Sant Andreu Jazz Band(SAJB), for 7 to 21 year olds, in Barcelona, Spain. The band has released ~ 27 albums in their Jazzing series since 2009. The albums are ~straight-ahead big band jazz, with ~3/4 instrumental tunes. Saxophonist Scott Hamilton is a frequent collaborator. Here's their 2024 releases:
The SAJB guests on Joan Chamorro Presenta Koldo Munne listed in a post below.
Here's a nice taste of what the kids can do, with a tune from Vol.1 that features guest Gerry Lopez on alto sax and Koldo Munne on baritone sax. The kids are alright! 😎
"Fresh charts on navigable waters," wrote George Harris at JazzWeekly. This is bassist Peter Vuust's 8th release, first with a large ensemble.
Peter has a day job as a music professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. Peter's Google Scholar page.
The Aarhus Jazz Orchestra (AJO) was incorporated in 1977 as the Kluvers Big Band (KBB), and has released >30 albums since 1990. AJO: website ; Discogs ; YouTube. KBB Discogs.
The review of last year’s instrumental big-bandy Grammy nominees and winners continues. The 2024 Grammy Awards are February 4.
Ron Carter and the Jazzaar Festival Big Band released Remembering Bob Freedman, and earned a nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. The Jazzaar Festival is a spring Swiss jazz-fest that has run since ~1997, with an emphasis on jazz education and youth.
From the festival website: "The album features the bass legend Ron Carter with acclaimed jazz instrumentalists trumpeter Ryan Quigley, saxophonist Antonio Hart, trombonist Jason Jackson, pianist Donald Vega, and drummer Carl Allen, as seasoned role models for twelve selected aspiring young jazz musicians from the Swiss music scene that completed the big band… The production was a long-awaited collaboration between Jazzaar Festival producer, Bob Freedman, and Ron Carter, which took a sudden tragic turn when Bob sadly passed away in the middle of planning." Hence, the album title. Ron’s: website ; Discogs. Freedman’s Discogs.
Ron Carter & the Jazzaar Festival Big Band, Remembering Bob Freedman, full album: YouTube ; Spotify
Ron Carter has 2 previous big band albums. Both are worth a listen, as are most Ron Carter projects.
From the album’s press-release: “Ron Carter chose ten pieces and … Richard DeRosa, principal conductor of the WDR Big Band, contributed the arrangements. The result is a sound, which pays attention to the lush big band tone as well as to the fine and sophisticated solo parts and allows both to fully bloom.” 2013 recordings released in 2016.
Ron Carter & WDR Big Band, My Personal Songbook, full album: YouTube; Spotify
Ken Dryden/Allmusic: “Ron Carter is … the most recorded bassist in jazz [>2000 session credits]. In his 70s at the time of these sessions, he is very much still at the top of his game as he leads the first big-band date of his own, with potent arrangements by conductor Bob Freedman with some of New York's busiest musicians, including Jerry Dodgion, Steve Wilson, Wayne Escoffery, and Scott Robinson in the woodwind section, brass players Steve Davis, Douglas Purviance, and Greg Gisbert, plus pianist Mulgrew Miller and drummer Lewis Nash… With this delightful big-band date, the veteran bassist continues to surprise and delight listeners.” From 2011.
The review of last year’s instrumental big-bandy Grammy nominees and winners continues. The 2024 Grammy Awards are February 4.
The band Snarky Puppy won their 5th Grammy Award in 2023, and 5 more nominations, for Best
Contemporary Instrumental Album, Empire Central. This Grammy category is
often smooth jazz and jazz fusion.
What is a Snarky Puppy? FromWikipedia: "The band was formed as a 10-piece group by bassist Michael League at the University of North Texas in 2004...The group has grown into an international super-band made up of '...a wide-ranging assemblage of musicians known affectionately as 'The Fam.' In more than 17 years since its founding, about 40 players have performed... in 'The Fam,' and 6 of the 10 original members are regulars." They rotate through 19 players on this album, and this is their ~39th release since 2005! Discogs.
The album was recorded, over several days, live in a club. For the video, at least, the feed is mixed and fed out to the crowd, who listen through wired headphones, somehow (!). A link to a YouTube playlist of 7 of the album tunes played live is included in addition to the usual album playlist.
