The IBLBBJM (wow!) has been part of the Southern California jazz scene for nearly 40 years, and they sound like it. There is no floundering, only unbridled confidence and precision that I mentioned in the DJO review.
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Joe Lang reviews Tasty Tunes for Jersey Jazz Magaine.
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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.
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This latest release from the San Diego Big Band, Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine sounds like fun.
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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.
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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.
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