Gary Smulyan

Dial and DeRosa: Keep Swingin'

by Jack Bowers
March 30, 2024

Keep Swingin', a splendid new album from pianist Garry Dial and drummer Rich DeRosa, features “the music of Charlie Banacos." Charlie who? you may ask. And the answer is, there are jazz educators, and then there was Charlie Banacos, whose talent and ingenuity in the classroom influenced and inspired countless jazz musicians for more than fifty years. During that time, he designed more than a hundred courses of study and wrote half a dozen books on composition and improvisation.

John Lang: Earotica

by Jack Bowers
December 13, 2023

There's something special about a nonet: small enough to have its own personality, yet large enough to sound at times akin to a full-size big band. Bassist John Lang leads a first-class nonet on Earotica, his fourth album as leader. Having given Lang's last disc a rather lukewarm appraisal almost two years ago, it is a pleasure to note that his new album is superior in every respect. Gone are the desultory funk and rock beats, replaced ...

Mark Masters: Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook

by Angelo Leonardi
May 18, 2021

Ringraziando il cielo nascono ancora dischi come questo. Opere che evocano gli anni cinquanta, quando il jazz rifletteva un mondo che guardava al futuro con speranza. Un disco retrò dunque? Solo se lo si guarda superficialmente. L'omaggio di Mark Masters al songbook di Alec Wilder con Gary Smulyan protagonista, non è esercizio stilistico o lavoro di routine ma un percorso fresco e smagliante, caratterizzato dalle dinamiche orchestrazioni di Masters e dai trascinanti interventi del sax baritono. Un'opera i cui i ...

Gary Smulyan, Bebop in the Time of Coronavirus

by David Bixler
August 26, 2020

Baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan, known for his tenure with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, has released a new recording entitled Our Contrafacts (SteepleChase Records) with bassist David Wong and percussionist Rodney Green. This week Gary chats about his bout with the coronavirus and shares his thoughts on the pandemic that is re-shaping the world we know (or knew) as musicians. ...

The Mark Masters Ensemble: Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook

by Pierre Giroux
August 8, 2020

Alec Wilder was born in 1907 and died in 1980, and might well have been described as an eccentric renaissance man. He composed opera, musicals, film music, popular songs, and chamber music, along with publishing in 1975 one of the most read books on popular music: American Popular Song: the Great Innovators 1900-1950. The Mark Masters Ensemble is a tight knit and imaginative Octet which can stake their claim on mining the gold contained in Alec Wilder's popular ...

The Mark Masters Ensemble: Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook

by Jack Bowers
July 28, 2020

Night Talk, the eighth album by celebrated arranger Mark Masters' superb West Coast-based ensemble, is subtitled “The Alec Wilder Songbook Featuring Gary Smulyan." Indeed, Smulyan's is an impressive solo voice (but hardly the only one) in an eloquent songbook that appraises eight of Wilder's tasteful compositions, including a pair of his best-known melodies, “Moon and Sand" and “I'll Be Around." As Masters arranged every number for his hand-picked octet, nothing more need be said about that save ...

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer

by Angelo Leonardi
August 24, 2015

Questo disco ci è giunto con un po' di ritardo ma va assolutamente segnalato. È infatti uno dei migliori dischi dell'anno nonchè un omaggio al genio orchestrale di Bob Brookmeyer. Forse non tutti sanno che lo storico trombonista, partner negli anni cinquanta di Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan e Jimmy Giuffre, è stato uno di massimi orchestratori moderni: nel 1966 partecipò alla fondazione della Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, scrivendo decine di partiture, e nel 1990 ne divenne il direttore, quando la ...

Gary Smulyan at Le Duc

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 2, 2017

There's nothing quite like a bad-ass baritone saxophone. Baritones tend to divide into two camps on the leadership side. There's the Gerry Mulligan approach, which sounds muscular and mannered. And there's the Pepper Adams school, an unchained approach that leaps on you like a panther. This low-register, uninhibited and gruff sound has its roots in the late 1940s with Leo Parker, Serge Chaloff, Harry Carney and Paul Williams but evolved in the late '50s with Adams's synthesis. I love Adams ...
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Jazz Returns To Baba Louie's Backroom On Aug. 3, As Pittsfield Program Features Gary Smulyan, Noah Baerman

Source: Ed Bride Associates
July 20, 2012

Berkshires Jazz Culminates First Fridays Artswalk With Two Extraordinary Guest Artists As part of its year-round commitment to ‘live’ jazz, Berkshires Jazz has scheduled a double bill on Aug. 3, featuring baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan and pianist Noah Baerman. It will take place in the intimate setting of the backroom at Baba Louie’s Sourdough Pizza, where Berkshires Jazz has instituted a jazz series to follow Pittsfield's monthly “First Fridays Artswalks". The guest artists will be backed by the Berkshires Jazz ...
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Litchfield Jazz Festival Announces 2012 Artist-in-residence, Baritone Saxophonist Gary Smulyan

Source: Lindsey Turner
June 9, 2012

Goshen, CT — Litchfield Jazz Festival announces the 2012 Artist-in-Residence for the 17th Annual Litchfield Jazz Festival. The honor goes to baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan. Known as a master of bebop, Smulyan is one of the major voices on his instrument today. Winner of six Grammy Awards, his latest honors include winner of the 2009 and 2010 Jazz Journalist Award for Baritone Saxophonist of the Year, the 2009 Down Beat Critics Poll for Baritone Saxophone, and the 2011 Down Beat ...
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Enter the "Gary Smulyan - Smul's Paradise" Giveaway at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz
March 23, 2012

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Rockwired.Com's 'All New Jazzed and Blue - Profiles in Blues and Jazz' Profiles Grammy-Winning Baritone Saxophonist Gary Smulyan and His Latest Release "Smul's Paradise"

Source: Rockwired Media LLC
January 29, 2012

The weekly online radio series Jazzed and Blue: Profiles in Blues and Jazz is back and is now available for download at Rockwired.com and features an exclusive interview with Grammy-winning baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan regarding his brand new release Smul's Paradise. In the opening segment, Smulyan discusses the inspiration behind the tracks of his new CD, working with Mike LeDonne, Peter Bernstein and Kenny Washington and his affinity for the organ jazz trio sound. The second half of this edition ...
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Baritone Saxophonist Gary Smulyan Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
September 1, 2009

A baritone saxophonist who plays like Bird? And harvests more than a half-dozen Grammy awards in the process? That seeming contradiction characterizes the great successes of Gary Smulyan, one of today's most in-demand jazz performers, educators, and recording artists.

AAJ Contributor Edward Bride spoke with Smulyan recently, and the saxophonist provides insight into his unique sound and approach, one less inspired by the great baritonists and more by alto legends like Charlie Parker and Phil Woods.

Check out Gary Smulyan: ...
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