One Man Band

The First Decade by The Bob Mintzer Big Band is a collection from the leader's seven critically acclaimed big band albums on the DMP label. Bob Mintzer's unique writing and arranging for the big band led CD Review to call his band "the best big band ever".

Good '86 big band set led by tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist Bob Mintzer, a fine player and arranger. These recordings are in a conventional format, with polished ensemble sections and good, occasionally great solos. They are well produced and mastered.

Abandoning their attempts to record an album with a full five-piece band (the sessions were finally released in 2005), John Fiddler and Peter Hope-Evans returned to basics with an album titled for precisely what it is: a two-man band…

Honus Honus (aka Ryan Kattner) has devoted his career to exploring the uncertainty between life’s extremes: beauty and ugliness, order and chaos. The songs on Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between, Man Man’s first album in over six years and his Sub Pop debut, are as intimate, soulful, and timeless as they are audaciously inventive and daring.

While pianist-arranger-composer Toshiko Akiyoshi headed a fine big band in New York after moving cross-country in 1982, the orchestra that she led in Los Angeles in the 1970s was arguably her greatest accomplishment. The three-CD Mosaic Select set Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band collects all of the music originally released on the RCA albums Kogun, Long Yellow Road, Tales of a Courtesan, Insights, and March of the Tadpoles. With such major players as Akiyoshi’s husband Lew Tabackin on tenor and flute, trumpeters Bobby Shew and Don Rader, trombonist Britt Woodman and altoist Gary Foster among the many soloists in the all-star band, the orchestra could swing as hard as any of its competitors. In addition to the more boppish pieces, Akiyoshi often wrote works that displayed her Japanese heritage, utilizing Eastern harmonies and instruments along with her husband’s flute. Many of the highpoints of her career are on this perfectly conceived Mosaic release.

Mark King's 1999 solo album One Man features ten tracks written the year after his group Level 42 disbanded. These songs reflect the emotional depth King gained as a result of leaving his band and maturing as an artist. A reflective but accessible work, One Man is an individual artistic statement.