The Chris McDonald Orchestra

The Chris McDonald Orchestra: Big Band Hymns / Big Band Christmas

by Jack Bowers
November 1, 1999

Big band hymns? If you’re thinking there’s no way the two can be compatible, much less swing, there’s no doubt you’ve not yet heard these sacred anthems remodeled in contemporary big–band arrangements by the conspicuously talented Chris McDonald. If the mind is receptive, it won’t take much more than the first few bars of “I’ll Fly Away” to convince you otherwise. Regardless of the material on which he is working, McDonald is quite simply a marvelous big–band arranger whose every ...