Nice to be able to meet a number of old and new friends earlier this month and to get "insider" knowledge about the jazz scene in some of the various major cities around the States. The whole experience is really eye-opening so that you learn just how the current scene in places like Kansas City is really burgeoning with musicians following the lead of Bobby Watson and moving to the mid-West. The scene in Seattle seemed equally vibrant (made all the more surreal by meeting the bass-playing son of Wayne Horowitz and Robin Holcomb who whose music I posed a link to last month.)
The most exciting aspect of the hearing a number of American college bands play was discovering a musician such as saxophonist / arranger Steve Owen who was directing a college band from Oregon where he teaches. I managed to speak to him on a couple of occasions afterwards and he gave me a copy of his new CD by his own big band. I was thinking about posting this on thread where oldball and SA had suggested that big bands weren't as innovative as I had proposed. Well, his album "Stand up Eight" is absolutely exceptional with the music offering some suggestions as to where orchestral jazz may be heading. There are all sorts of influences with the most "orthodox" track being the standard "Everything I love" which is like Thad Jones more adventurous material. Elsewhere the music does remind me a lot of Maria Schneider (of whom he is a big fan) with a track like "Still" being like the kind of record Gil and Miles would produce if performing today. There are elements of west African music, a cover of Radiohead's "kid A" and other tracks where the writing uses devises like parts written in different tempos. Some of the arranging is redolent of Gil in the way that sound colours are used to compliment the extensive solos. This is pretty much how I feel contemporary jazz writing for large ensembles should sound.
To my shame Steve Owen is not a familiar name to me yet his CV is impressive.
This is an absolute cracker of a record and it displays a wealth of ideas and some impressive soloing. Not sure if anyone else has ever come across his work but this bloke is a World Class jazz arranger on my opinion.
The most exciting aspect of the hearing a number of American college bands play was discovering a musician such as saxophonist / arranger Steve Owen who was directing a college band from Oregon where he teaches. I managed to speak to him on a couple of occasions afterwards and he gave me a copy of his new CD by his own big band. I was thinking about posting this on thread where oldball and SA had suggested that big bands weren't as innovative as I had proposed. Well, his album "Stand up Eight" is absolutely exceptional with the music offering some suggestions as to where orchestral jazz may be heading. There are all sorts of influences with the most "orthodox" track being the standard "Everything I love" which is like Thad Jones more adventurous material. Elsewhere the music does remind me a lot of Maria Schneider (of whom he is a big fan) with a track like "Still" being like the kind of record Gil and Miles would produce if performing today. There are elements of west African music, a cover of Radiohead's "kid A" and other tracks where the writing uses devises like parts written in different tempos. Some of the arranging is redolent of Gil in the way that sound colours are used to compliment the extensive solos. This is pretty much how I feel contemporary jazz writing for large ensembles should sound.
To my shame Steve Owen is not a familiar name to me yet his CV is impressive.
This is an absolute cracker of a record and it displays a wealth of ideas and some impressive soloing. Not sure if anyone else has ever come across his work but this bloke is a World Class jazz arranger on my opinion.
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