Big Band Storybook

Big Band Storybook

Bruce Von Stiers

The Birdland Jazz Club & Theater hosts performances by just artists as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Vince Giordano, the Melissa Aldana Quartet and the Emma Smith Quartet. But every Friday night, there are performances by one specific band. They can almost be considered the house band, but not quite. The name of the band is the Birdland Big Band.

The band is a sixteen-piece orchestra with its foundation deeply rooted in the Big Band era. While their style can be reminiscent of Count Basie, the band also embraces newer, contemporary jazz music.

In 2018, the band had a critically acclaimed album, Birdland Big Band Live.

The band recently released another album that has garnered a lot of attention and quite a bit of acclaim. The title of this new album is Storybook - The Music of Mark Miller. The album was released on the Birdland Records label.

Miller has been the lead trombonist for the band. He began to play with them around 2012 after years of solo work and collaborations. Some of those collaborations were with artists such as Jennifer Hudson, Josh Groban, Veronica Swift and Tito Puente Jr.

In addition to playing trombone, Miller is the resident composer and arranger for the band. It seems that the band thought well enough of Miller to record an album dedicated to his musical talent. Miller provided the arrangements for all of the songs on the album.

The band has an amazing array of musicians. Chris Smith is the drummer and Noriko Ueda is on bass. Kenny Ascher and Adam Birnbaum play the piano. Trumpet players for the band are Raul Agraz, John Walsh, Brandon Lee, Glenn Drewes and Max Darche.

On trombone there is James Burton III, Ron Wilkins and Sara Jacovino. James Borowski is on bass trombone. And Mark Miller also plays trombone on the album.

There is Nathan Childers and David Dejesus on alto sax. Dejesus is also the musical director for the band and plays the flute. On tenor sax there is Sam Dillon and Troy Roberts. Dillon also plays the flute. Nathan Childers plays the flute, along with alto sax. Jason Marshall plays the bari sax.

The album also has three tracks with vocals. Those vocals are done by Nicole Zuraitis.

The title track, Storybook, is first up. It is a mild tune with great saxophone and trumpet.

Water Lily is a moderately paced song with great sax and piano. The band does a nice job with this Kenny Barron song.

The Walter Gross and Jack Lawrence song, Tenderly, is nicely done here. The vocals by Nicole Zuaritis are right up with Sarah Vaughn and Rosemary Clooney, both of whom recorded the song.

Mark Miller composed Chorale and Alleluia. It starts out a bit dark, then moves into a more majestic sound. And then the song moves into a head bopping beat with strong tenor sax and great piano.

Sail Away is a song by Tom Harrell. It has been recorded by artists such as Ali Ryerson. It is nicely done here, with Glenn Drewes on flugelhorn.

WTF was also composed by Mark Miller. It features some pretty decent sax, drums and trombone solos.

Close Your Eyes is a Bernice Petkere song that has been recorded by greats vocalists such as Sarah Vaughn and Brenda Lee. Nicole Zuraitis does a wonderful job with the vocals on the song.

A drum solo starts out the song, Concierto de Aranjuez. Then Glenn Drewes kicks in with the flugelhorn. This is a short song that has some majestic sounding parts that the band does especially well.

Chick Corea had so many great songs. Spain is one of them. On the rendition of the song for this album, there are good solos, including a soprano sax solo by Nathan Childers.

The Doubledown was another song written by Mark Miller. It features the trombone and bari sax.

Nonsense was written by Mark Miller and Nicole Zuraitis. It is a fun and energetic song featuring vocals by Nicole and trombone by Ron Wilkins.

Storybook is an album that has a big band essence with a little modern flair. I liked the original compositions, and I thought the song arrangements were well done. I enjoyed the arrangements on both the Chick Corea song and the Kenny Barron song. And I especially liked the two songs that provided an outlet for Nicole Zuraitis's vocals.

Storybook – The Music of Mark Miller can be found at most major music retailers and streaming services.

The Birdland Big Band doesn't have an independent website. But you can find out a lot about the band and the dates and times they perform at the Birdland Jazz Club & Theater. That website is https://www.birdlandjazz.com/

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