Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra: Portraits and Places

Origin Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Portraits and Places

Great jazz orchestras are harder to find these days than the proverbial hen’s tooth. The general public no longer desires to hear the music that made the Big Band years so fantastic, and established talents such as Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Kenton and so many others. Groups like those are no longer cost-effective to work or tour with. 

Thankfully, a market still exists for the smaller combos that jazz clubs and CD sales can support, but the excitement of those larger, grooving organizations has become only an occasional joy.

Which is why, when such a unit has been assembled, by artists who miss them as much as we do, we’ve got to pay attention and get the word out as quickly as possible. After all, we don’t want the effort to become just another memory. 

This fantastic release by the Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra is not to be missed.

Twenty swingers participated in this gem: six in the reed section, nine in the brass sections, and three in the rhythm section, along with a couple of vocalists. Reeves doubles as conductor.

He also composed and/or arranged most of the charts, and they’re all swingers. The melodic lines are clever, with enough thematic “quotes” to keep listeners on their toes, and there’s lots of “space” for solo work. It’s all super.

It’s easy to tell when artists enjoy what they’re playing, and these guys clearly had a ball during this session. Don’t you dare miss this release ... and let’s hope that others will follow in the future.

Scott Reeves Quintet: Shape Shifter

Miles High Records
By Ric Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 9.3.09
Buy CD: Shape Shifter

Chicago-born Scott Reeves is an innovative musician, composer, arranger and educator. He began playing the trombone when he was 10, having been turned on by Count Basie's bands of the 1950s and '60s. After earning a master's degree in music from Indiana University, he worked with a number of Midwest bands.

Reeves has been on the faculty of a number of major institutions, including Juilliard, the University of Southern Maine and City College of New York. He also has written several books that are widely used in schools; after moving to New York in 1999, he played with a number of name groups.

He currently leads two bands: Manhattan Bones, which has four trombones and a rhythm section; and the quintet featured on this album (which uses the same rhythm section).

Although Reeves is best known as a trombonist, he doesn't play that instrument here. On seven of the nine tracks, he uses an alto flugelhorn, which is pitched a fifth lower than the standard version; as Reeves describes it, the tone is a combination of a valve trombone, French horn and regular flugelhorn.

On the other tracks, he switches to an alto valve trombone (the standard instrument, with one-third of the tubing cut off).

Whatever. They both sound great.

Reeves composed and arranged all the tunes. The result is relatively complex, “thinking man's jazz” that is melodic and swings nicely.