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Christopher Merz
Christopher Merz's Very Happy Band: While We Wait
by Jack Bowers
Saxophonist Christopher Merz's Very Happy Band is essentially a foursome of like-minded fun-lovers with trombonist Anthony Williams added on two numbers and trumpeter Dave Rezek on one. For the most part, this is happy jazz, eleven original compositions by Merz that underscore the music's sunnier side without sacrificing proficiency or substance. To escape the quartet format's inbred redundancy, Merz interweaves and sustains contrast by moving from tenor saxophone to alto or soprano, and by sharing the front ...
read moreUNI Jazz Band One: That Doesn't Even Look Like You
by Jack Bowers
For more than two decades, the University of Northern Iowa's Jazz Band One has been recognized as one of the country's leading undergraduate ensembles, on a par with such outstanding programs as those at the Universities of North Texas, Miami, Northern Colorado, Cincinnati, North and South Florida and Wisconsin-Eau Claire, among others. That Doesn't Even Look Like You, the latest in a series of almost two dozen splendid recordings dating at least to 1995, does nothing to besmirch the ensemble's ...
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