CD Review: Great American Music Ensemble - It's All in the Game

(Review by Lance).  

Most of my contemporaries would have shied away when they noted that In the Mood was the opening track! If it had sailed under previous titles such as Tar Paper Stomp or Hot and Anxious they may have been more welcoming - such is jazz snobbery!

Not me! When, as a callow youth, I received my first pay packet, I cycled along to our local record shop and plonked down a couple of bob (shillings) for Glenn Miller's [in]famous version of the tune. As such, it still has a place in my heart and, on my 78rpm shelf.

This version bares no resemblance to the original and is none the worse for that!

 A punchy American big band that takes standards and injects new life into them.

The guests play their part. Jon Faddis is in incredible form - West End Blues = Louis Armstrong Meets Dizzy Gillespie meets Maynard meets Cat! He does a rather special workout on Stardust too. Memories of Jon at Durham's Brass Festival.

Rene Marie has one of those voices that exude intimacy, the suggestion that she's in love with you!

Joe Kennedy Jr swings like Stephane and the band swings like Basie.

Apart from the guests, Gailes blows sop and ten as if his parents had given him them as a dummy substitute!

John D'earth ensures that Faddis doesn't collect all the trumpet points and, but what the 'eck? you don't get on this band from Amateur Hour - you need the chops.

They've got the chops!

Of course, the guy who made it all happen was composer and arranger Doug Richards. One of the relatively unsung legends of the American jazz/music scene.

Check him out.

Lance.

Doug Richards (md); Marty Nau, Jim Nesbit, Skip Gailes, John Winn, Rob Holmes (reeds); Roy Muth, Bob Ransom, John D'earth, Rob DeDominick (tpt/flug); Jim McFalls, Dean Englert, Lee Gause (tmb); Weldon Hill (pno); Victor Dvoskin (bs); Howard Curtis (dms) + Rene Marie (vcl); Jon Faddis (tpt); Joe Kennedy, Jr (vln).