Igmar Thomas Elevates the Modern Big Band on His New LP
Igmar Thomas’ Revive Big Band meld classic jazz and modern hip-hop to great effect on ‘Like a Tree It Grows’ with its exciting textures and rock-solid grooves.
big band
The Alan Ferber Nonet Takes It ‘Up High, Down Low’
Alan Ferber plays a large (trombone) musical instrument with a massive sound, leads a big band of nine, and arranges the material in a spacious manner.
Ella Fitzgerald Live at the Hollywood Bowl in 1958 Rediscovered
Ella Fitzgerald mixed styles in a unique way while sticking to the work of one songwriter at a time. This recording shows how she could masterfully do this with a live orchestra.
‘Cherchez La Femme’ at 45: An Interview with GRAMMY-nominated Vocalist Cory Daye
In this exclusive interview with PopMatters, co-founder and lead vocalist of Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, Cory Daye, celebrates the 45th anniversary of the group’s classic self-titled debut.
Finding Joe Castro’s ‘Passion Flower’
Jazz's Joe Castro is always in the groove and the other players in the pocket. There's a uniformity of taste on these records despite their different sources, styles, and periods from which they originally emerged.
Pink Martini’s China Forbes Discusses New Songs Created in the Pandemic
Despite a global pandemic and a year of difficult unrest, Pink Martini's China Forbes soldiers on with her band's sharp eye for optimism and a newfound life mission.
Jazz Composer Maria Schneider Takes on the “Data Lords” in Song
Grammy-winning jazz composer Maria Schneider released Data Lords partly as a reaction to her outrage that streaming music services are harvesting the data of listeners even as they pay musicians so little that creativity is at risk. She speaks with us about the project.
Webber/Morris Big Band Are Tightly Arranged and Gorgeously Free on ‘Both Are True’
The new jazz gets a treatment from a thrilling 18-piece big band playing compositions by saxophonists Angela Morris and Anna Webber on Both Are True.
‘The Song Is You’ Is the Frank Sinatra Biography That’s Not a Biography
The revised and expanded version of Will Friedwald’s acclaimed Frank Sinatra book, The Song Is You, is about the music and nothing but the music.
Glenn Miller and the End of an Era
Setting the record straight about the tragic ending of legendary Big Band leader/trombonist Glenn Miller.