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Socrates Garcia Latin Jazz Orchestra: Shadows of Tomorrow

by Jack Bowers
Do not let the word Latin" in front of the Socrates Garcia Jazz Orchestra's name sway you. Shadows of Tomorrow is bright and spirited contemporary jazz albeit with a southerly twist. The salute to Latin America is for the most part rhythmic; everything else leans resolutely toward el norte, and the orchestra (which is actually based in Colorado, where Garcia teaches at the University of Northern Colorado) lends its considerable weight and savvy to every one of the leader's half-dozen ...
Continue ReadingDavid Caffey Jazz Orchestra: At the Edge of Spring

by Jack Bowers
With his album, At the Edge of Spring, composer and arranger David Caffey and his Colorado-based Jazz Orchestra not only defy the widely-held belief that big bands are dead, they emphatically blow that axium out of the water. This is an ensemble with no discernible weaknesses, as proficient and powerful as any that have come before it or are likely to follow. To verify that impression, you need only couple your ears with an open mind. As ...
Continue ReadingDenin Koch: re: manhattan project

by Friedrich Kunzmann
The conceptual scope of guitarist Denin Koch's debut recording could not be much more ambitious. With Re: Manhattan Project, the young Eastman School of Music graduate contemplates the impact nuclear inventions have had on the world and delivers a powerful ten-composition suite. Each piece is either inspired by an element of the infamous Manhattan Project story or his own experience growing up in Richland, Washington, only a few miles from the first large-scale nuclear reactor, known as the b reactor. ...
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