Charlie McGhee

Unexpected Guests

By Ira B. Liss

Label: Tall Man
Released: 2025
Track listing: Renaissance Woman; I��m Counting on You; San Joaquin; Knock on Wood; Extraordinary Woman; Violinspiration; Tapped Out; Reeds Between the Lines; Pineapple Mango; Strings in the Wind; French Fries.

Ira B. Liss: Unexpected Guests

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 ...

Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine: Tasty Tunes

by Jack Bowers
February 11, 2018

Tasty Tunes is the fifth CD by Ira B. Liss' stalwart San Diego-based Jazz Machine, which was formed almost forty years ago, in 1979--a span that, when reckoned in big-band years, is much closer to a century or more. While other bands have come and gone the Jazz Machine has adamantly stayed the course, presenting dynamic ...

Ira B. Liss: It's About Time

by Jack Bowers
August 28, 2014

So are there any first-rate big bands worth hearing in California outside of the Los Angeles area? So happy you asked. As a matter of fact, San Diego is solidly entrenched in that position thanks to the superb Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine which, coincidentally, has recorded a spectacular new album, It's About Time. ...