NEWS

Next year’s Bodhi Tree concert series looks to showcase the best that San Diego has to offer, with homegrown musicians performing to raise money for local charities — and the lineup has just been announced for the 2019 season.

Liss and his big band have been making music since 1979. And ever since its inception, the Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine has kept big band music thriving in Southern California and has been recognized by established publications such as Jazz Journal and Jazz Weekly for great arrangements, lively performances, and stellar jazz soloists.

With Tasty Tunes, Ira B. Liss proves that the big band survives well into the 21st century and, at least under his leadership, is thriving in inspiration and creativity.

Wow. A fixture in the Southern California scene for 38 years, when this Big Band kicks off with a volcanic "You Don't Know What Love Is," one simply goes along for the equivalent of a Formula One ride with this Big Bad Band with Eric Richards' heated arrangement, a full speed ahead alto sax solo from Christopher Hollyday, and blistering trumpet from Peter Green, before pianist Steve Sibley's reflective piano break.

This is the fifth release by the Ira B. Liss Big Band, which has been based in southern California for the past four decades. To the plethora of soloists he usually has at his disposal the leader has added guest stars Eric Marienthal, Bob Mintzer and Holly Hofmann to bring a little extra magic to charts by Tom Kubis, Mike Abene, Mike Crotty and Peter Herbolzheimer.

Leading a big band dedicated to a “new” big band tradition, Ira B. Liss leads a collection of hard hitting So Cals including Bob Mintzer/ts, Eric Marienthal/as, Holly Hoffman/fl and Dean Brown/g.

...This is, plain and simple, a gathering of first rate players soaring on fresh, stimulating, and often challenging arrangements.

...The wide array of material makes this a rather unique performance.

Right out of the gate, this big band races into the sound space with the fastest renditions of "You Don't Know What Love Is" that I've ever heard. It was an exciting production with arrangements full of ebullition.

This latest release from the San Diego Big Band, Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine sounds like fun. 

This is the Jazz Machine's fifth endeavor, demonstrating the orchestra's prodigious faculties still in progress. Liss' performance credits encompass working with such jazz luminaries as Harry Connick, Sr., Shirley Jones, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Thad Jones, and Louie Bellson. He has carved out a niche for his band in the ballroom jazz forum that won't be waning any time soon.

Tasty Tunes is the fifth CD by Ira B. Liss' stalwart San Diego-based Jazz Machine, which was formed almost forty years ago, in 1979—a span that, when reckoned in big-band years, is much closer to a century or more. While other bands have come and gone the Jazz Machine has adamantly stayed the course, presenting dynamic big-band jazz to its southern California audiences without watering down the leader's guiding principle, which is to ensure that the music is always creative and swinging. 

‘Tasty‘, yes but also spectacular music making by some of the most important big band devotees playing today.