Bman's Blues Report

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, If A White Horse From Jerusalem , by The CNY Jazz Orchestra and it's an interesting mix of Big Band, Coltrane with Jewish and Arabic scalar, rhythmic and  harmonic materials. Opening with Ahava Raba , Eddie Severn, Scott Harrell, Rob Robson and Paul Merrill blazing on trumpets and the smooth sound of David Liebman on soprano sax and Charles Pillow on clarinet. The addition of Seth Carper, Mike Dubaniewicz, John Jeanneret and Frank Grosso  on sax, Rick Montalbanl on piano, Spencer Phillips on bass and Larry Luttinger on drums for the full ensemble. Real Klezmer rhythm on Ki Lo Noeh / Maqam Saba Liebman and Luttinger set the pace with reed backing and trumpet and trombones (Bill Palange, Greg McCrea, Angelo Candela and Mark Anderson) create musical tension, then soloing over the tight rhythm of Phillips and Luttinger. Very cool. Bernstein's classic composition, Somewhere ,  is really lushly orchestrated a...