Dan Radlauer

Biography
Articles

Ira B. Liss: Unexpected Guests

Read "Unexpected Guests" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 12, 2025

Unexpected Guests is the seventh recording by Ira B. Liss' southern California-based Big Band Jazz Machine since Liss formed the ensemble in 1979. His guests on this radiant and high-energy studio date are “unexpected" in more ways than one, as only one of their 11 names can be found anywhere on the album aside from the playlist. That would be Daniel Ho, who solos on ukulele on the flavorful “Pineapple Mango" but is listed only as a member of that ...

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Album Review

Dan Radlauer / Ira B. Liss and the Big Band Jazz Machine: Symphomaniacs

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2002

Symphomaniacs is the third album by the San Diego–based Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine, the first devoted to works by a single composer, keyboardist Dan Radlauer. Coincidentally, it’s also the best, thanks not only to Radlauer’s arresting charts but to the stellar contributions of guest artists Eric Marienthal, Wayne Bergeron, Bill Armstrong, Dan Higgins and Carl Verheyen. Marienthal’s rhapsodic alto is featured on “Future Presents,” Verheyen’s down–home guitar on “Bar Talk” and “Local Loco.” Bergeron interposes an impressive ...