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Steven Feifke Big Band: Kinetic

By Jack Bowers
April 10, 2021
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Jazz connoisseurs who lean toward big bands that swing as earnestly and often as the renowned architects of the epic big-band era should find plenty to cheer about on Kinetic, the debut recording by New York-based pianist, composer and arranger

Steven Feifke

piano
b.1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Steven Feifke's audacious and fiery ensemble. This is a band that fires on all cylinders—but it couldn't even leave the garage unless Feifke supplied the fuel. With one exception (noted below), Feifke's intense and high-powered charts neatly pave the way, giving the band a well-drawn road map on which to shape its dynamic course.

Feifke wastes no time before expressing his assertive point of view, opening with "Kinetic," a full-throttle flag-waver wherein he solos forcefully with trumpeter

Gabriel King Medd

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Gabriel King Medd and drummer

Ulysses Owens, Jr.

drums
b.1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Ulysses Owens, Jr.. "Unveiling of a Mirror," which follows, is another buoyant swinger with solos to match by trumpeter

Benny Benack III

trumpet and vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Benny Benack III, tenor saxophonist

Sam Dillon

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Sam Dillon and drummer

Joe Peri

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Peri.

Lucas Pino

saxophone, tenor
b.1987

" data-original-title="" title="">Lucas Pino's warm tenor sax is showcased on "The Sphinx," which lessens the tempo and energy level only slightly, before vocalist

Veronica Swift

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Veronica Swift makes the first of her two appearances, on the Sammy Cahn & Saul Chaplin standard "Until the Real Thing Comes Along."

"Word Travels Fast," which uses flutes to impart its charming melody, swings tastefully in its own way, as do the solos by Feifke, Medd, Pino and drummer

Jimmy Macbride

drums
b.1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Jimmy Macbride. "Wollongong," a fast-moving charmer whose name sounds Australian, introduces alto saxophonist

Andrew Gould

saxophone

" data-original-title="" title="">Andrew Gould and precedes

Horace Silver

piano
1928 - 2014

" data-original-title="" title="">Horace Silver's venerable jazz standard, "Nica's Dream," wherein Feifke and Benack are front and center in a sunlit version that swings with gusto. It is here, alas, that Feifke commits his only unforced error, presenting Swift in a tedious arrangement of Lerner and Loewe's "On the Street Where You Live" from My Fair Lady, one that may be well-intentioned but is misread in every way. Once past that, Feifke recovers his balance quickly with the beguiling "Midnight Beat," the last of the album's flat-out swingers, whose first-rate solos are delivered by bassist

Dan Chmielinski

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Dan Chmielinski and alto saxophonist

Alexa Tarantino

saxophone, alto
b.1992

" data-original-title="" title="">Alexa Tarantino. Feifke closes on a relatively temperate plane with the elegant, chorale-like "Closure," spotlighting Dillon's sensuous tenor sax.

As noted, for those who appreciate contemporary big bands whose guiding purpose is swing, Kinetic should furnish ample excitement and pleasure. If Herman, Basie and

Buddy Rich

drums
1917 - 1987

" data-original-title="" title="">Buddy Rich were still around, it is reasonable to surmise that this is the path they would have followed.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Kinetic; Unveiling of a Mirror; The Sphinx; Until the Real Thing Comes Along; Word Travels Fast; Wollongong; Nica's Dream; On the Street Where You Live; Midnight Beat; Closure.

Personnel

Steven Feifke

piano

Andrew Gould

saxophone

Alexa Tarantino

saxophone, alto

Lucas Pino

saxophone, tenor

Sam Dillon

saxophone, tenor

Andrew Gutauskas

saxophone, baritone

Max Darch��

trumpet

John Lake

trumpet

Benny Benack III

trumpet and vocals

Gabriel King Medd

trumpet

Robert Edwards

trombone

Jeffery Miller

trombone

Armando Vergara

trombone

Jennifer Wharton

trombone, bass

Alex Wintz

guitar

Dan Chmielinski

bass

Ulysses Owens, Jr.

drums

Veronica Swift

vocals

Jimmy Macbride

drums

Bryan Carter

drums

Additional Instrumentation

Alex LoRe - Alto Saxophone Joe Peri - Drums

Album information

Title: Kinetic | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Outside in Music

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