Search results for "Bill Barber"

Gary McFarland: Reflections in the Park (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music July 05, 08

There are three Gary McFarland albums that I regard as his masterworks, and this is the first. (The others are The Oc...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: ESSENTIAL GARY MCFARLAND

Gary McFarland's life could be the subject of a movie screenplay. Until he was in his mid-20s, McFarland (1933-1971) ...

Miles Davis: Bess, You Is My Woman Now (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music June 10, 08

Of the numerous jazz adaptations of Porgy and Bess in the mid-to-late 1950s – many motivated by the production of a H...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: THE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY OF PORGY AND BESS

Kind of Blue (1959) is usually cited as Miles Davis's best-selling album, and has often been called the bes...

John Lewis: Three Little Feelings (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music November 23, 07

This track both connects and disconnects Birth of the Cool and Third Stream. BOTC holdovers include Miles, J.J., Barb...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: TWELVE ESSENTIAL 'THIRD STREAM' PERFORMANCES

A few years after longtime Metropolitan Opera French hornist Gunther Schuller assisted in Miles Davis's Birth of the ...

Miles Davis: Buzzard Song (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music July 05, 08

Miles's and Gil's Porgy and Bess opens with a loud chord, proceeding to Miles's take on a song cut from the opera's o...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: THE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY OF PORGY AND BESS

Kind of Blue (1959) is usually cited as Miles Davis's best-selling album, and has often been called the bes...

Miles Davis-Gil Evans: Bess, Oh, Where Is My Bess? (Rating: 100/100) posted in Music July 10, 09

How does one pick a favorite piece from Gil's and Miles' Porgy and Bess album? Tough to do. I've chosen this piece ...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: MARIA SCHNEIDER SELECTS 12 ESSENTIAL GIL EVANS TRACKS

In 2006, during a “listening session” with New York Times music writer Ben Ratliff, Maria Schneider compared Gil Evan...

Miles Davis: Bess, Oh Where's My Bess (Rating: 90/100) posted in Music July 10, 09

In Act III, Scene 3 of Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess (1935), Porgy returns to Catfish Row after a week in jail that...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: THE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY OF PORGY AND BESS

Kind of Blue (1959) is usually cited as Miles Davis's best-selling album, and has often been called the bes...

Claude Thornhill: Yardbird Suite (Rating: 93/100) posted in Music November 23, 07

Once the Swing Era expired like a lapsed subscription to The Saturday Evening Post, many big-name bandleaders became ...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: JAZZ FOR THE BIRDS

It's only fitting. Since birds inspire us with their songs, composers return the favor, dedicating music in every gen...

Hal McKusick: Jambangle (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music December 21, 08

Hal McKusick was a veteran of the Boyd Raeburn and Claude Thornhill orchestras, and was an active freelance musician ...

Patricia Barber: Yesterdays (Rating: 90/100) posted in Music February 27, 08

Among the wave of new female singers that came to prominence in the last decade of the 20th century, Patricia Barber ...

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra: Nina Never Knew (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music July 19, 08

Except for an instrumental midsection with solos by Travis (muted) and Harris, this recording features Joe Mooney bac...

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra: Hit the Road to Dreamland (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music July 18, 08

This version of the Mercer-Arlen gem is a gem itself, issued as the 'B' side of a single and forgotten until Collecto...

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra: Child's Play (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music March 31, 09

For those who believe that this ensemble was not a jazz band, this track would probably be one of those cited. To thi...

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra: Horseplay (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music July 17, 08

Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan were asked to write 6-minute compositions for release on extended-play 45-rpm records t...

Gerry Mulligan: Deception (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music January 06, 09

It's hard to believe that the complete Birth of the Cool, including all 12 studio tracks recorded in 1949 and '50, di...

Miles Davis: Move (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music March 03, 08

Written by drummer Denzil Best, this is one of the Birth of the Cool arrangements that could be naturally opened up f...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: THE BIRTH OF THE COOL

On September 4, 1948, a live broadcast from the Royal Roost featured a group led by trumpeter Miles Davis. Th...

Gil Evans: Bird Feathers (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music January 06, 09

Gil Evans has long had the well-earned reputation as jazz's supreme orchestral colorist. There was, however, a lot mo...

Miles Davis: Godchild (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music March 03, 08

One of the most popular jazz compositions of its era, "Godchild" boasts a wonderful Gerry Mulligan arrangement with v...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: THE BIRTH OF THE COOL

On September 4, 1948, a live broadcast from the Royal Roost featured a group led by trumpeter Miles Davis. Th...

Evans, Gil (Ian Ernest Gilmore Green) posted in Encyclopedia January 19, 09

Arranger and composer Gil Evans made his mark on modern jazz by taking the sometimes-rough edges of bebop and smoothi...

Rodney, Red (Robert Rodney Chudnick) posted in Encyclopedia March 20, 09

Trumpeter Red Rodney’s bright tone acted as a natural bridge between swing and bebop. After his start with big bands,...

Claude Thornhill (featuring Gil Evans): The Troubador (based on "The Old Castle" from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Ex... (Rating: 100/100) posted in Music July 10, 09

I ask that you spend 99 cents and buy “Pictures at an Exhibition” (the orchestral version) orchestrated by Ravel, and...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: MARIA SCHNEIDER SELECTS 12 ESSENTIAL GIL EVANS TRACKS

In 2006, during a “listening session” with New York Times music writer Ben Ratliff, Maria Schneider compared Gil Evan...

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