jazz2love

  6th Avenue from Mike Thompson Label:  Hexproof Records Release Date: May 16, 2025 Website:  https://www.mjthompsonmusic.com 6th Avenue , the debut album from Mike Thompson is a contemporary big band collection of six Great American Songbook standards and four original compositions.  Thompson is a student of vibraphone, marimba, concert percussion, jazz composition, and contemporary writing.  He has teamed up with songwriter Sam Nickson for this debut, who wrote string arrangements and co-produced the offering.  Leading a 17-piece ensemble (five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones and a four-piece rhythm section) comprising mostly of veteran players from the local Boston big band scene, Thompson displays traditional big band pageantry with billowing flourishes reminiscent of Glenn Miller Orchestra and elegant sophistication akin to the Guy Lombardo Big Band.   Special guest vocalist Charlize Vermaak performs an impassioned rendering of Cole...

Album:  On the Sunny Side Artist:  Interplay Jazz Orchestra Label:  Self-Released Website:  www.interplayjazzorchestra.com Big Band jazz is alive and percolating amply on Interplay Jazz Orchestra's latest release On the Sunny Side .  Co-directed by trumpet player Gary Henderson and trombonist Joey Devassy, the Long Island, New York-based Interplay Jazz Orchestra perform original compositions with arrangements written by several members of the band, in addition to performing a handful of jazz standards.  Recorded at the Bunker Studios in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the assortment roars with rambling horns that swing fervidly while also being able to caress the listener's ears with majestic serenades on Jay Orig's piano keys and sentimental soliloquies played by the trombones and saxophones.  There is something for every side of the spectrum that engages the human spirit. Ballroom swing in the style of bandleaders like Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller can b...