Sonny Rollins once said, "Music is an open sky." On that Tuesday when horror came from the open sky, he was at his apartment six blocks from the World Trade Center. From th…
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It's been a long time between recording dates for the Don Menza Big Band. Menza, a monster tenor player and creative arranger, led his own big band on the West Coast in the…
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They called him "Wild Mab." (There's a story behind that fishpond tune!) Charlie Barnet was independently wealthy, much-married and larger than life. At 16 he was a bandlea…
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I have heard CDs featuring classical greats (often singers) attempting jazz performances with disappointing results. But Beautiful, Sara Caswell's first Arbors relea…
The monk who is the subject of this intriguing big band release is not Thelonious but the "Monk of Salzburg." This monk lived in the late Middle Ages, and is described in t…
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