Customer Reviews

Danny D'Imperios Big Band Bloviation

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Danny D'Imperio is a jazz drummer of great experience who favors the small group bop and hard bop styles. He also has considerable big band experience with bands such as Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman and the Buddy Rich ghost band (a great honor, one would imagine!) He has put it all together in this fine CD by assembling a cracking big band of NYC area heavyweights to blow some hot be-bop charts.

Many big bands are built on the talents of a gifted composer/arranger, but this band is somewhat different. There are certainly some decent charts here, but they are not the focus. Rather, the spotlight here is on the band's exceptional soloists and the charts are opened up considerably to allow them plenty of room to blow. The two soloists who stand out for me are baritonist Gary Smulyan and pianist Barry Harris who guests on 3 charts. But their superb performances do not detract from the other fine soloists who include altoist Gary Pribeck, tenorist Eric Alexander, guitarist Peter Bernstein, trombonist John Mosca, as well as trumpeters Dave Stahl, Chris Persad, Joe Magnarelli and Greg Gisbert. All make their mark. D'Imperio takes no solos but is content to sit back and drive the band through these hard-swinging charts.

The CD begins with the biting trumpet feature "Three More Foxes" by Willie Maiden and continues for the most part with strong bop and blues based originals which come from the centre of the jazz tradition. The eight charts are by eight different arrangers and two of my favorites are Ray Brown's arrangement of Sam Jones' "Del Sasser" and Alan Broadbent's original blues (from the Herman book) "Adam's Apple." Trumpeter Dave Stahl blows beautifully in all registers on Don Sebesky's lovely arrangement of "Danny Boy" (the CD's only ballad).

The recording quality is bright and clear with lots of "up front" presence. The rhythm section is very well recorded. Strangely, Dave Stahl's lead trumpet seems off-mike on some of the shout choruses, so that they never quite reach their full impact. The dynamic level of the band vaires little from chart to chart.

This enjoyable CD is recommended to big band fans who have an ear for be-bop and hot jazz soloists.

It seems that the small band experience of this group often made it difficult for them to use the full power of a "big band." I often thought I was listening to a really talented quintet instead of a big band. In some pieces, of course, the full power of the "big band" came through such as in Danny Boy. It's a great group but I wish that their arrangements were more oriented to using the full power of the band on all the cuts.