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Jim Widner

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3
Album Review

Jim Widner Big Band: And the Beat Goes On

Read "And the Beat Goes On" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Bassist Jim Widner formed his band in 1987 to carry on the legacy of summer jazz camps established by bandleader Stan Kenton in the early '60s. Since then the band has added touring and recording to its resume; And the Beat Goes On, the ensemble's sixth CD for the Chase Music Group, was recorded in June 2012 to commemorate its twenty-fifth anniversary. That's quite a long time in big-band years, especially when one takes into account deaths and other personnel ...

191
Album Review

The Jim Widner Big Band: Out of This World

Read "Out of This World" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Bassist Jim Widner, who set the bar incredibly high on his earlier albums as leader of the Jim Widner Big Band (there have been four), clears it handily again on Out of This World, whose name graphically underscores the ensemble's impressive strength and solidarity as well as the album's abundance of superlative charts and hair-raising solos. There are no poll-winners on the premises, simply a group of anonymous blue-collar workers who park their egos at the door and strive together ...

135
Album Review

The Jim Widner Big Band: Flying High...

Read "Flying High..." reviewed by Jack Bowers


Something was bothering me as I listened to “Juba,” the adrenalizing opening track on the fourth and most recent album by bassist Jim Widner’s world-class big band. It was Phil DeGreg’s piano. Not the comping—Phil’s too capable for that—but the piano itself, unusually clanky and far too prominent in the mix. Rather than chaperoning quietly in the background, the piano was drawing attention to itself—never a good sign—as alto saxophonist Dave Pietro and trumpeter Dave Scott soloed. ...

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176

Education

Bassist/Educator Jim Widner Elected to Jazz Education Network Board of Directors

Bassist/Educator Jim Widner Elected to Jazz Education Network Board of Directors

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Bassist and educator Jim Widner has been elected to the board of directors of the Jazz Education Network (JEN), a relatively new organization formed in 2008 not long after the collapse of the International Association of Jazz Educators. JEN's Web site says the group is “dedicated to building the jazz arts community by advancing education, promoting performance and developing new audiences."The newly elected board has seventeen members who took office on July 1 and will have their first ...

142

Award / Grant

Jim Widner Receives Award from Down Beat Magazine

Jim Widner Receives Award from Down Beat Magazine

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Bassist, bandleader and educator Jim Widner (pictured), who directs the jazz studies program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, is featured in the June edition of Down Beat magazine.The issue spotlights the mag's 32nd annual Student Music Awards, and Widner is one of just three recipients nationwide of an Achievement Award for jazz education. (Alas, DB doesn't put most of their content online, so there's no link to the story about Widner.)The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's gossip ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

And the Beat Goes On

Chase Music Group
2013

buy

Out of This World

Chase Music Group
2007

buy

Flying High...

Chase Music Group
2004

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