The Whole Music Experience

Jazz/Big Band   The Michael Treni Big Band   Pop-Culture Blues   The Bell Production Company   When I think of big band, my mind wanders back to the swing era and the likes of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald.   I’m ready to join a chorus of Stevie Wonder’s Sir Duke commemorating the big band era.   Today, big band is less about swing and more about encompassing the history of jazz played on brassy horns, sultry winds and a big drum sound.   On Pop-Culture Blues , the title says it all, and trombonist and bandleader Michael Treni play jazz with blue notes with finger-snapping rhythms.   Expect high-octane solos on this instrumental album and a variety of blues, including Summer Blues, Smokin’ Blues , Mr. Funky Blues and of course, Pop-Culture Blues which reflects on weariness to pop culture and blues reflecting popular music styles.   I’m enjoying BQE Blues at the moment with sassy horns.   On Minor Blues ,...

Jazz/Big Band Asuka Kakitani Jazz Orchestra Bloom Nineteen-Eight Records My first musical glimpse of Japanese orchestra leader/big band composer Asuka Kakitani’s Bloom showed promise.   I admire a woman with musical ambition who leads men with horns through complex musical architecture.   However, I have had to listen to the recording in segments since I’ve not been able to sit through its entirety in one sitting.   The problem for me is not the soft wall of horns which includes a dozen or so flugelhorns, trombones, trumpet and saxophones and woodwinds thrown into the mix, but the bop saxophone solos that often ride over slightly dissonant passages, such as one-third of the way through Dragonfly’s Glasses or on the titular track.   However, I enjoy the mercurial opening of that song.   And the horn solo in Dance One with the orchestra playing lightly in the background sounds marvelous. However, Islands in the Stream , peppered by tr...

Duke Ellington Legacy With Houston Person Single Petal of a Rose Renma Recordings Virginia Mayhew Quartet With Wycliffe Gordon Mary Lou Williams--The Next 100 Years Renma Recordings I didn’t grow up listening to Duke Ellington, but I heard it playing in the background of my childhood.   In 2008, I had the honor and privilege of interviewing Edward Ellington, Jr. for a regional arts publication.   And I also witnessed the legacy band in concert--an enjoyable evening.   While Billy Strayhorn’s A-Train doesn’t appear on Duke Ellington Legacy’s Single Petal of a Rose , Lush Life (Strayhorn), Squeeze Me (Ellington), and In My Solitude (Ellington) float off this recording, bringing both nostalgic sheen and revitalized interpretations. While no musician, not even family, could ever recreate Duke Ellington, the composer-bandleader’s elegance shines in these modern interpretations.   The ballads Lush Life and In My Solit...

The Michael Treni Big Band Boy’s Night Out Bell Production Co. The Jens Wendelboe Big Band Fresh Heat Rosa Records When I think of big bandleaders, I think piano.   Yet, here are two new releases by trombonists leading modern-era big bands.   You won’t find rehashed covers of Ellington or other American jazz legends, but both the Michael Treni 16-piece big band and The Jens Weldelboe Big Band swing low and high.   First, there is Treni who began his jazz career with promise, almost landing a touring gig with Art Blakely that at the last moment fell through leading the musician to a new direction of arranging.    Trombonist Jens Wendelboe, on the other hand, has run the gamut between jazz, pop, and movie soundtracks.   He leans heavily on a strong melody. Opening with Leonard Bernstein’s Something’s Coming Treni and his musicians provide robust jazz on the album, Boy’s Night Out .   The musical personnel however, does...