Concert Reviews:

CNY Jazz Orchestra Finds the Happy Medium

Jessica Novak, thenewshouse.com
Sunday, November 1, 2009

The CNY Jazz Orchestra with special guests Joe Riposo and Steve Brown delivered a Friday night performance that lived up to its title: "Legends of Upstate New York, Part I."

Jazz can be a tricky genre to understand and appreciate. However, the Friday, October 30 performance of the CNY Jazz Orchestra with guests Joe Riposo and Steve Brown made the art form accessible, enjoyable and even danceable.

            Though there was no dance floor for audience members to swarm, the physical appeal of the music was visible as conductor, Bret Zvacek and various soloists, including Joe Riposo would swing to the music as they created it. Their energy, complimented their precision, proving that jazz can be an intellectual art form with the same appeal as swing or pop without sacrificing musicality. The artists were careful in their attacks, releases, tone and dynamics, but also charming, entertaining and undoubtedly talented.

The CNY Jazz Orchestra was composed of five saxophone players, four trombones, four trumpets, a pianist, bassist and percussionist. The horns were lined up by instrument and stacked, stadium style on the right side of the stage, with the drum set in the middle, the bassist behind the set and the piano to the left.

The set-up was conducive to the style because it allowed each instrumentalist to be seen clearly. While in an orchestral setting, faces can be lost among the seating arrangement, in jazz; it’s essential to see the soloist. The animation of the improvisation is what brings the music to life. In the CNY Jazz ensemble, it also gave each soloist personality.

            The most entertaining was alto sax player Joe Carello. He would sway and shake with his solos adding an engaging visual element to his skillful aural technique. Also enjoyable, was conductor Bret Zvacek and drummer Larry Luttinger. Zvacek broke out his trombone for a solo while in the midst of a piece he was conducting and drummer Larry Luttinger always seemed to be relaxed, smiling and laughing though the material he was playing was extremely difficult. He was a consistent player, but still interesting, never becoming too predictable behind the set.

            However, the highlights of the show were the guests, Riposo and Brown.

            The concert was the first of the CNY Jazz Foundation’s 14^th season and was titled “Legends of Upstate New York, Part I” (the next installment will be in April 2010). The series is paying tribute to the local talent that makes the CNY jazz scene so relevant in the art form.

            Riposo is the director of jazz studies at Syracuse University and has also worked as a clinician, adjudicator, guest conductor, soloist, composer and author. He has performed in backing bands for Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and others and his performance on Friday left no question as to why he was so qualified.

            He shuffled onto the stage during the first half of the show and was instantly charming, gracious and humble. He gave the orchestra due thanks and spoke conversationally between pieces, manifesting a feeling of comfort and understanding between the stage and the audience.

            His sound was perfect from the very first note. The tone of his saxophone was pure and clear and his attacks and articulation were spotlessly clean. He was most impressive on the romantic “Body and Soul,” which he sweetly dedicated to his wife. Prefacing the number, he jokingly explained that when his wife “requested” that he play the song, it was really more of a threat, demanding he play it or he’d be “locked out of the house.” After sharing in the laughter of the audience he again dedicated the song sincerely to his wife.

            Following the intermission, Luttinger, the founder and director of the CNY Jazz Foundation and organizer of the event made the audience laugh, but also seriously consider the situation of the arts in the current economic state. He pleaded the audience to help through their support, but offset the desperation with humor saying that politics in Albany need a kind of “political ex-lax.” His technique was refreshing and entertaining. Most directors plead, talk about a raffle and quickly dismiss themselves, saying, “Enjoy the show,” while they’re thinking, “donate when you leave.” Luttinger was actually fun to listen to: both speaking and playing.

            After he stepped aside, the orchestra played a piece that was a combination of Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Bret Zvacek who fashioned an arrangement of “All My Lovin’.” The well-known melodic theme surfaced periodically throughout the number, and worked well within the new creation.

            And then, Steve Brown took the stage.

            I had been scribbling notes in my program throughout the night and at the very first sound of Brown’s blues guitar I actually wrote, “I need to fall in love with a jazz/blues guitarist. Most beautiful thing I have ever heard.”

            I think that sums it up.

            His sound, like Riposo’s was pure, clear and clean, but because of the gentle harmonics of the guitar, took on a more ethereal and awe-striking timbre. He was also soft-spoken, brief and precise in his interludes.

            Brown is well-known for his work as a composer, guitarist and arranger and recently retired from Ithaca College where we was the director of the jazz studies program and a professor of music. Like Riposo, he has also performed with an impressive catalog of artists including Chuck Mangione, Billy Hart, Jimmy Smith and others.

            I left the performance feeling entertained, but challenged by level of difficulty of the music. It was intricate, yet organic and the performers were lively, but professional. It was a pleasing combination of musical precision with free-flowing artistic interpretation and emotion. It left me feeling more satisfied than most other musical performances because of its stratification of appeals. While orchestral performances can be overwhelming with the exactitude of the music and pop bands are often too superficial to communicate anything convincing, jazz can find the medium between.

             The CNY Jazz Orchestra, Joe Riposo and Steve Brown did.

Guest Mackrel flawless at concert

Tiffany Bentley, The Post-Standard
Sunday, October 26, 2008

    Dennis Mackrel's flawless performance Saturday night with the Central New York Jazz Orchestra gave the impression the drummer had been playing with the local group for longer than just one show.     
    An internationally recognized jazz drummer, Mackrel added the dessert to an already stacked musical performance at the John H. Mulroy Civic Center in Syracuse. 
    While jazz can be an intimidating art form because of its intricate instrumentation, those who came out to see this ensemble left comfortable and unthreatened. The 428-person theater provided an intimate setting for a night of musical storytelling. 

    Mackrel's smooth transitions and sharp cymbal hits created a mood of anticipation that began with conductor Bret Zvacek's opening numbers. Zvacek's suave conducting style emulated Mackrel's seamless arrangements.     
    Mackrel's arrangement of Duke Ellington's "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)" presented familiarity to jazz enthusiasts, while his own composition of "Blues in the Two Percent" told a tale that even a new audience member could understand. 
    The theme of the song was one Mackrel compared to going on a long trip. "Ninety-eight percent of you is ready. Then there's 2 percent that wonders if you left the iron on," he joked. "When you stay in that place too long, that's when you get the 'Blues in the Two Percent.' " 
    Mackrel's presence was all about gratitude. 
    He commented on the enthusiasm of the parents who brought younger children to the show and the challenges to finding live jazz for eager young musicians to hear. His story of his mother dragging him to late-night jazz clubs at a young age just to hear the music complemented the presence of The Four Elements, a jazz quartet from the Manlius Pebble Hill School that played in the lobby during intermission. "They sounded like a record," Mackrel said. 
    This coming from a seasoned jazz drummer whose long list of credits includes the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All Star Band and the Manhattan City Orchestra would have made any musician proud.

CD Reviews:

Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
Ray Comiskey

   Heard mostly in upstate New York, this little-known big band are a revelation. Impressive writing embraces a mix of styles, but it's probably closest to the Vanguard and Thad Jones/Mel Lewis orchestras. There's nothing derivative, however, about MD/trombonist Bert Zvacek's splendidly imaginative charts for Get Smart, Eighty One, Things Happen and Shimmer, pianist Rick Montalbano's HipNotHop , or saxophonist Jean Jeanneret's All Things Considered . Jenneret's skillful conterpoint recalls Bill Holman, no less. Packed with ideas, beautifully voiced, yet always clear, focused and swinging, the band are served by crisp ensemble clarity and excellent soloists. And the closing Mister Sandman has the perfect laid-back feel of Basie's Lil Darlin' . A studio CD and a live DVD of the band, both superbly recorded, comprise the set.   



All About Jazz

Edward Blanco Discuss

      
    The Central New York Jazz Orchestra (CNYJO) is a sixteen-piece big band led by Musical Director Bret Zvacek, providing year-round concerts to the general public and performing in schools within the entire Upstate New York region. The musical arm of the CNY Jazz Arts Foundation (CNYJAF), a non profit educational organization established twelve years ago, Then, Now & Again is the group's debut and chronicles the band's development through those years. The album is part of a CD/DVD two-disc set with half of the titles recorded in November 2007, in the Persian Terrace of the historic Hotel Syracuse, and the balance recorded at Linden Oaks Studios, in Rochester, NY. 
    The music is strictly big band, with no vocals, and has just about something for everyone. As drummer Larry Luttinger, Executive Director of the CNYJAF, states “We didn't totally realize how timely and relevant our total set of tunes was until we started putting them together as a set for the recording. Your favorite jazz could be Basie, Herman, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Rob McConnell, or the Vanguard Band—there's really something for everyone on this record.” 
    The program contains arrangements and compositions from CNYJO band members, including two new charts from Zvacek and new arrangements of several jazz standards. Keyboardist Rick Montalbano, Sr. contributes one of the best big band arrangements with his energetic "Hip Not Hop,” featuring stylish solos from trumpeter Dave Blask and John Rohde on the tenor. Zvacek provides an interesting arrangement of the Miles Davis/Ron Carter tune, “Eighty-One,” on which trombonist Joe Colombo takes the solo. Trumpeter Jeff Stockham and the impressive woodwind section blow the house down on Heyward/Gershwin' classic “I loves You Porgy,” leaving no doubt that this is one serious orchestra. 
    The band does show its lighter with the light ballad “The Midnight Sun Will Never Set,” showcasing a soft and tender sax solo from Joe Carello. In stark blistering contrast, the band explodes on the up-tempo “Status Quo,” playing in high gear with solos fast and furious. More challenging are Zvacek's gentle “Things Happen” and intricate “Shimmer.” The big band session ends with Pat Ballard's delightful “Mister Sandman,” a lush ballad interpreted warmly by trumpeter Rob Robson and the rest of the band. Then, Now & Again is most definitely one of the finest sessions of pure big band jazz released this year. Containing excellent charts, world-class soloists and an orchestra of first-rate musicians, it doesn't get any better than this.

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)

Mark Bialczak, Music Critic

 
   Fans who have ventured out to the Carrier Theater or Clinton Square the last dozen years know just how good the Central New York Jazz Orchestra can be. The rest of the world can find out with the release of the CNYJO's debut CD, "Then, Now & Again. 
    Music director Bret Zvacek masterminded a vibrant 10-song performance that demonstrates big-band power, beauty and nuance. 
    The 16-piece ensemble works its wily ways with hometown compositions and arrangements. 
    Fans of their live shows know Zvacek's "Get Smarter" as a rich pop send-up to a 1960s theme song -- to dip into the soaps, let's say it's bold and beautiful -- and pianist/assistant music director Rick Montalbano's "Hip Not Hop" as hip, hopping and swinging. Recorded in a Rochester studio, the vibe's just right. 
    The band also pays tribute to first music director, the late Ray Shiner, with a sweet and soothing rendition of "The Midnight Sun Will Never Set," a Quincy Jones piece Shiner put on the CNYJO's first program. That melts into an homage to second music director, the late Calvin Custer, with a big sound and even bigger fun version of his "Status Quo." 
    The cats can all play, but Jeff Stockham's vibrant French horn on Zvacek's "Shimmer," Joe Carello's flawless sax solo on "Midnight Sun" and Montalbano's sweet piano riding atop the horn power on standard "Mr. Sandman" deliver extra pleasure.