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Alex Iles

Alexander Iles is an American trombonist who teaches at the California Institute of the Arts, Azusa Pacific University, and California State University, Northridge. He has toured as lead and solo jazz trombonist with Maynard Ferguson, with whom he has recorded twice, and Woody Herman.

He began his musical career while a student at UCLA. He studied trombone privately with Roy Main, Ralph Sauer, Byron Peebles, and Per Brevig.

Iles has worked with Joe Cocker, Alan Jackson, The Tonight Show, Prince, Harry Connick Jr., the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Johnny Mathis, Natalie Cole, Danny Elfman, Avenged Sevenfold, Ray Charles, Robbie Williams, Terence Blanchard, Hans Zimmer, Henry Mancini, James Horner, Lalo Schifrin, Trevor Rabin, and John Williams.

In the 2000s, he performed with the Tom Kubis Big Band, Bob Florence's Limited Edition] and Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band. He has also recorded and performs with the Bill Cunliffe Sextet and the David Roitstein Group.

Iles has played in the pit orchestras of Broadway shows, including Chicago, The Lion King, The Producers, Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, Hairspray, and Wicked

He appears frequently as a recitalist, guest soloist, and clinician with schools and organizations, including Indiana University, Oklahoma State University, the Disney Magic Music Days Program and his "alma mater", the Disney All American College Band.

Iles has also performed on the Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, the People's Choice Awards and hundreds of television series and motion picture soundtracks including Polar Express, National Treasure, The Incredibles, Troy, Robots, The Last Samurai, Pirates of the Caribbean, Planet of the Apes, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, Alias, Lost, JAG, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and Seinfeld.

In October 2002 he was appointed principal trombonist of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed as alto, tenor and/or bass trombonist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Opera Pacifica, the Pacific Symphony, the Pasadena Symphony, and the Santa Barbara Symphony. Iles has also commissioned and premiered several new works for solo trombone. Source: Wikipedia

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Album Review

Brian Eisenberg Jazz Orchestra: Pain & Beauty

Read "Pain & Beauty" reviewed by Edward Blanco


A religious man at heart, composer/band leader and producer Brian Eisenberg leads an 18-piece big band (The Brian Eisenberg Jazz Orchestra) on a personal musical exploration on the meaning of love through the perspective of what may be beautiful, and what may seem hurtful on the very introspective and challenging Pain & Beauty. The album, as he writes, “is dedicated to that ideal of genuine love...painful yet, beautiful love." Eisenberg sets the musical bar quite high on such lofty and ...

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Album Review

Dave Slonaker: Convergency

Read "Convergency" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


In December 1910, Virginia Woolf once observed, human character changed and, along with it, so did everything else. Politics, society, religion, sex, all of it, she thought, would leave the ancien regime behind. And, to a point, she was correct. Within a few years, the old world was gone, swept away by war and revolution. It was not coming back. Ever. Somehow, listening to the marvelous musical products of modern big bands, Woolf seems oddly relevant. The level ...

45
Album Review

Dave Slonaker Big Band: Convergency

Read "Convergency" reviewed by Jack Bowers


While big-band albums generally differ, sometimes widely, in tone and temperament, there are definitive criteria by which every one may be evaluated--arrangements, performers, sound quality, sequencing and, above all, the elusive but imperative swing quotient. Dave Slonaker checks all those boxes and more on Convergency, a superlative successor to his excellent Grammy-nominated debut album, Intrada, released in 2013. To begin with, Slonaker, best known as a film and television composer, is an excellent big-band writer and arranger, ...

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Album Review

Dave Slonaker Big Band: Convergency

Read "Convergency" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Composer/conductor Dave Slonaker probably won't qualify as “prolific," at least based on recorded output alone, as he spends a lot of his time behind the scenes in film and television work—but one must appreciate the level of craftsmanship that he brings to his big band projects. His debut release, Intrada (Origin Records, 2014), received a well-earned Grammy nomination, and his sophomore effort is no less accomplished, with the well-designed compositions and outstanding ensemble work that justify all the attention it ...

5
Album Review

Frank Macchia & Brock Avery: Rhythm Abstraction: Azure

Read "Rhythm Abstraction: Azure" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Reedman-arranger-composer Frank Macchia didn't take the conventional route in putting his EP Rhythm Abstractions: Azure together. He didn't get a huge orchestra in one studio, pass out the charts and explain to the players what he was trying to do. What he did was pare the personnel down to a minimum and turn drummer Brock Avery loose for some serious improvisation time. Then Machia layered in a whole bunch of reeds—piccolo, flutes (alto,bass, contrabass), clarinets (alto, bass contrabass), saxophones (sopranino, ...

3
Album Review

Dave Slonaker Big Band: Intrada

Read "Intrada" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Don't be put off by the name. Intrada, composer / arranger Dave Slonaker points out, is “a musical form often composed as a prelude, overture or fanfare," one whose upbeat phrases give rise to an exhilarating curtain-raiser on Slonaker's initial big-band recording. Rest assured this is a world-class ensemble and there's no doubt whose steady hand is at the helm: Slonaker wrote every number save the standard “It's Only a Paper Moon" and arranged the complete package. ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Pain & Beauty

Self Pulished
2023

buy

Convergency

Origin Records
2022

buy

All In

Poundcake Records
2018

buy

Intrada

Origin Records
2014

buy

Convergency

From: Convergency
By Alex Iles

Echopraxia

From: Rhythm Abstraction: Azure
By Alex Iles

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