Mike Brignola

The 14 Jazz Orchestra: Islands

by Jack Bowers
August 12, 2023

The music on these Islands is almost as sizzling as the summer weather in sun-drenched Miami, thanks to composer/arranger Dan Bonsanti's Florida-based, world-class The 14 Jazz Orchestra, whose fourth album provides yet another textbook lesson in the art of colorful and swinging big-band rhetoric. Bonsanti formed the ensemble as a rehearsal band in 2013, stocking it for the most part with former students at Miami's prestigious Frost School of Music to give teachers and students a forum ...

Dan Bonsanti and the 14 Jazz Orchestra: Islands

by Nicholas F. Mondello
August 6, 2023

"Islands" from Dan Bonsanti is a tour de force consisting of eleven unique selections, colorful textured arrangements, and outstanding ensemble and solo playing. The fare includes straight-ahead bop, to calypso, film and fusion, all presented by a highly-energized ensemble of Miami-affiliated greats and guest greats. The opener, McCoy Tyner's “Man from Tanganyika" is an ultra-rhythmic grabber, offering fine solos and polyrhythmic burn. “Islands," from Mike Mainieri's pen, is a catchy, upbeat calypso with an extravagant middle section. ...

South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza

by Jack Bowers
October 10, 2020

In 2019, the acclaimed Michigan-bred, Paris-based tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza thought he was being asked to contribute a couple of charts to the University of South Florida Jazz Orchestra's fifth recording in its fifteen-year history as a working ensemble. But when SFJO founder and leader Chuck Bergeron looked at the charts he had an even better idea, and asked Margitza to write and / or arrange everything on the album, which thus became Cheap Thrills: The Music of Rick Margitza. ...

South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza

by Pierre Giroux
October 8, 2020

The concept of a large, tightly-knit big band in a recording studio, on a concert or jazz club stage may just be a plug-in memory in today's environment. Fortunately there is the fifteenth anniversary recording of The South Florida Jazz Orchestra directed by bassist/bandleader Chuck Bergeron, entitled Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza, to remind us what a disciplined inventive big band sounds like. With the exception of George and Ira Gershwin's “Embraceable You," all the other ...

Horizons Jazz Orchestra: Plays the Music of Lee Harris: The Brite Side

by Jack Bowers
September 21, 2020

One question that springs to mind when listening to The Brite Side, a tantalizing new CD by the South Florida-based Horizons Jazz Orchestra, is: who is Lee Harris? As it turns out, Harris was a composer, arranger and baritone saxophonist who teamed with trumpeter Dennis Noday a few years back to co-found an ensemble they named Superband. Shortly afterward, Harris became ill and was unable to continue, so Noday and Superband's lead trombonist, Michael Balogh, renamed the ensemble the Horizons ...

Horizons Jazz Orchestra: Plays the Music of Lee Harris: The Brite Side

by Edward Blanco
April 16, 2020

The south Florida-based Horizons Jazz Orchestra (HJO), present their debut album, The Brite Side, performing five original Lee Harris compositions and also five standards sporting fresh new Harris arrangements, for a compelling package of big band music that is a pleasure to hear. Founded in 2016 by Stan Kenton alumnus Dennis Noday, and former baritone saxophonist & arranger (in the New York studio scene during the 1960s) Lee Harris, the group was known as the Superband before morphing into its ...

Saxophonists Frank Tiberi/Larry McKenna/John Nugent/Mike Brignola at Chris Jazz Cafe on June 8, 2007

Source: All About Jazz
June 8, 2007

read more

Saxophonist Mike Brignola in Serious Condition

Source: All About Jazz
December 1, 2002

Mike Brignola, long-time baritone saxophonist and road manager with the Woody Herman Thundering Herd, is in serious condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center, Spokane, WA, following a car accident Nov. 24, 2002. Mike was returning to his hotel following a Herd clinic and concert at Eastern Washington University. According to the Washington State Patrol report, Brignola's car stopped at a stop sign but then entered the airport spur and was struck on the side by a Toyota SUV.

Mike joined ...
read more

Update on Saxist Mike Brignola's Condition (new Spokane Article)

Source: All About Jazz

Kevin Taylor, night cops beat reporter with the Spokane newspaper, has written a great follow-up article on Mike in today's issue of the SPOKESMAN-REVIEW:

Dec. 4, 2002 Accident hospitalizes 'Heart of the Herd' News of saxophonist's injuries rocks jazz world...

By Kevin Taylor, Reporter, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA. [email protected] (800-789-0029 x5442)

Mike Brignola, long-time baritone saxophonist and road manager with the Woody Herman Thundering Herd, is in serious condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center, Spokane, WA, following a car accident ...
read more