Added these albums to Big Band 2023, now ~85 albums, at Spotify/JazzTodayish. Check your streaming service, YouTube or Bandcamp. Abuncha good ones here.
The Flying Horse Big Band, A Message From The Flying Horse Big Band. Jack Bowers/AllAboutJazz gave this 5/5 stars.
Mario Corvini & New Talents Jazz Orchestra Play Enrico Pieranunzi, Entropy. Xango Music.
Hakan Brostrom & New Places Orchestra, Cosmic Friends. JazzBluesNews. 😎
This 2022 release is nominated for a 2024 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. The awards are on 4 February.
Album info from their website: “The flagship repertory ensemble Mingus Big Band (MBB) celebrated the 100th anniversary of Mingus’ birth with The Charles Mingus Centennial Sessions. Highlights include 11 compositions and new arrangements, vocals and narrations by Charles’ son Eric Mingus, and 34 first-class musicians, rotating in MBB tradition.”
This is MBB’s ~11th album since 1993. They’ve won a Grammy with 6 more nominations. The MBB is a project of the Charles Mingus Institute. They play ~weekly at DROM in NYC. Discogs ; website.
Mingus Big Band, The Charles Mingus Centennial Sessions, full album: YouTube ; Spotify ; Bandcamp
The album is on Jazz Best Albums 2022, Grammy Jazz 2022 and Big Band 2022 playlists at Spotify/Jazz Todayish. 😎
Grammy January/February continues. This begins/ends a trio of Chick Corea posts (below): large ensembles, none with traditional big bands; 2 were tributes, not this one; 2 with Grammy nods. This 1999 release also fits in for the quarter-century retrospective.
Pianist/composer Chick Corea won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Arrangement for the version of his 1971 song ‘Spain,’ on this 1999 release with the London Philharmonic and his band Origin.
Chick Corea & London Philharmonic Orchestra, Corea: Spain & Piano Concerto No. 1, full album: YouTube ; Spotify
This is on the Jazz Best Albums 1999 playlist at Spotify/Jazz Todayish. 😎
Added these albums to the Big Band 2023 playlist, with ~85 albums, at Spotify/Jazz Todayish. Check your streaming service, YouTube or Bandcamp. 😁
Miguel De Armas & Ottawa Latin Jazz Orchestra, From Me To You. LatinJazzNet.
Torsten MaaS X SWR Big Band, Music Written By Real Life: Part 1. SWRMedia...
Drew Zaremba, Reunion. JazzTrail. 😎
This is both a preview of this year and a review of last year for this Grammy nominee. The 2024 Grammy Awards are on February 4.
This Chick Corea tribute album is a 2024 Grammy Award nominee for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. It was a 2023 Latin Grammy nominee for Best Instrumental Album, and for Best Arrangement for Emilio Sollo on the song ‘Spain,’ shown below.
Saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera guests, among others. Josep Vincent (conductor) and ADDA Simfònica have >20 classical releases since 2019. The Simfònica is based in Alicante, Spain. Emilio Solia (arranger) Discogs. Josep Wikipedia ; website.
ADDA Simfònica, Josep Vincent & Emilio Solla, The Chick Corea Symphony Tribute - Ritmo, full album: YouTube ; Spotify
This is on Grammy Jazz 2023 and Big Band 2023, at Spotify/Jazz Todayish. 😎
Added these 5 albums to Big Band 2023, now ~85 albums, at Spotify/JazzTodayish. Check your streaming service or YouTube.
UNLV Wind Orchestra, Joe's Tango: Concerto for Trombone & Other Works. Allmusic. With pianist Chick Corea's last completed composition.
Piero Umiliani, A Tempo Di Jazz. AllAboutJazz.
Jakob Buchanan, Song & Wind. With the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra. JazzViews.
Teitur & Aarhus Jazz Orchestra, Songs From a Social Distance. Bandcamp. 😎
The emphasis here is contemporary large ensemble jazz. However, to illustrate the timelessness of this wonderful musical form, an occasional series of albums from a quarter-century and a half-century ago will be recommended. Here’s a gem from 1999, and 2 earlier, all with Grammy wins or nominations.
Don Sebesky arranged for hundreds of artists, including Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, John Pizzarelli, Michael Buble, Liza Minnelli, Seal, and Prince. 3 Grammy Awards, plus 31 more nominations, 1 Tony Award and 2 nominations, his career began as a trombonist in 1956. He passed away in 2023.
He only released ~16 albums under his own name. A nice one is 1999s Joyful Noise: A Tribute To Duke Ellington. Michael Nastos/Allmusic is succinct: "Of all the tributes to Ellington, this is the best, a magnum opus to the maestro from a man and his band who are well aware of his grandeur, plus how to play all the right notes." This album won him 2 of his 3 Grammy Awards in 1999: Best Instrumental Composition for ‘Joyful Noise Suite,’ and Best Instrumental Arrangement for ‘Chelsea Bridge.’ Don’s: website ; Discogs.
Don Sebesky, Joyful Noise: A Tribute To Duke Ellington, full album: YouTube ; Spotify
His 3rd Grammy was also for a big band tribute album, 1998s I Remember Bill: A Tribute To Bill Evans. He won Best Instrumental Arrangement for ‘Waltz for Debby.’ The YouTube link is the album on one file, with a ~10 minute Bill Evans interview at the end, and sounds fine.
Don Sebesky, I Remember Bill: A Tribute To Bill Evans, full album: YouTube
Here’s his album from a half-century - plus one - ago, Giant Box, from 1973. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band in 1975.
Richard S. Ginell/Allmusic: “The lineup reads almost like a gathering of the gods: Freddie Hubbard, Randy Brecker/tr; Hubert Laws/flu; Paul Desmond, Joe Farrell, Grover Washington, Jr./sax; Milt Jackson/vb; George Benson/gtr; Bob James/kb; Ron Carter/bs; Jack DeJohnette, Billy Cobham, Airto Moreira/dr & pc; Jackie Cain, Roy Kral/voc. Thankfully the music lives up to the billing… Giant Box still ranks as a sensational coup.”
Don Sebesky, Giant Box, full album: YouTube ; Spotify
Joyful Noise is on Jazz Best Albums 1999 and Giant Box is on Jazz Best Albums 1973 playlists at Spotify/Jazz Todayish. 😎
The overview of instrumental big-bandy albums nominated for 2024 Grammy Awards continues. The awards are on 4 February.
[Update. Hilario Duran won the 2024 Latin Grammy for Best Arrangement for the song "Night In Tunisia" in November! 😁 See the YouTube album link to see the tune played live.]
Pierre Giroux/AllAboutJazz: ‘Hilario Duran is a renowned Cuban-Canadian jazz pianist and composer known for contributing to Latin jazz. With the release of Cry Me A River, his Latin Jazz Big Band takes us on an extraordinary musical journey, effortlessly blending myriad genres into his singular style.”
Hilario earned a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Arrangement for the song ‘I Remember Mingus,’ which features saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera. This is Hilario’s ~14th release since 1996. Hilario’s website ; Discogs
The YouTube link has the entire album played live-in-studio. The Grammy-nominated tune is shown below.
Hilario Duran & his Latin Jazz Big Band, Cry Me A River, full album: YouTube ; Spotify
This is on Jazz Best Albums 2023, Grammy Jazz 2023 and Big Band 2023, at Spotify/Jazz Todayish. 😎
Here's one for the preview of instrumental big-bandy albums nominated for 2024 Grammy Awards. The awards are on 4 February.
Walter Atkins/AllAboutJazz: “Raymond Scott Reimagined is an engaging collaborative project with Quartet San Francisco, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band and the Grammy winning acapella group Take 6 on two tracks. The album is a thoughtful and stylish interpretation of Raymond Scott's legacy. It is also interspersed with audio tidbits featuring Scott's singular musical approaches.” The song ‘Cutey and the Dragon’ was nominated for Best Instrumental Composition.
Scott was a composer/arranger/musician active from 1931-’85. He sold his music catalog to Warner Bros in 1943, which then became the most famous tunes in cartoons. He did release ~8 albums from 1947-’85, and was an electronica pioneer in the ‘50s-’60s. This is the Phat Band’s ~11th release since 1999, and their 4th nomination with 1 Grammy win. The video is the nominated tune performed live in the studio. Scott’s Discogs. Phat’s website & Discogs.
Quartet San Francisco & Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, Raymond Scott Reimagined, full album: YouTube ; Spotify
This is on the Grammy Jazz 2023 and Big Band 2023 playlists at Spotify/Jazz Todayish. 😎
