Tuesday Morning Feeling

3 1/2 STARS A recent caller to my radio show expressed surprise that big band was music still being made in 2026. Not only is it still being made; there is both a reverence for the swing of yesteryear and thoughtful and inventive departures on display in a spate of recent large ensemble releases.

Pianist Ben Markley's Tuesday Morning Feeling (Origin) is an excellent case in point. Everything about this project feels classic. The blues inflection of the rhythm
section. The vibrancy of the horn section. Fans of this sound will see it applied to Markley's interpretations and arrangements of Thelonious Monk's "Off Minor" and the standard "Old Folks." On the latter, trumpeter Terell Stafford offers one of the brightest moments of the record. It is an album stock full of veterans of the
large ensemble space seizing the opportunity: trombonist Steve Davis on Markley's "Snowy Range Blues" and Steve Nelson on that tune and another original, "Tell The Truth." As a zoomer would say, the classic sound still gives.