MUSIC REVIEW BY John Killoch, Mainly Big Bands
A constant source of amazement to me (non-American), is just how many towns, large and small can present one or more outstanding big bands. Naively I used to assume that LA, NY, Chicago etc., would absorb all the hundreds of excellent who used to populate yesterday's great bands: Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton etc. It does not take much thought to realise that these centres only have so much work available and there is usually a cotirie of musicians, an inner sanctum that will be difficult to access. So we visit the the areas outside those alleged exclusive centres of excellence and find some astonishing bands that include 'names' you had lost track of. This is the case with the SRJO. The band has many of the top professionals in the area, many are band leaders in their own right. Notable names: Don Lanphere, Jay Thomas, Bill ramsay, Mark Taylor and more. the CD suggests that the library concentrates on classics by Basie Ellington, Mingus, Quincy Jones, Oliver Nelson. So swinging mainstream jazz is a 'given.
