From Big Bear Music...

ISSUE 188 WINTER 2025

IRA B. LISS BIG BAND JAZZ MACHINE

WITH COMPOSER/ARRANGER DAN RADLAUER

UNEXPECTED GUESTS - Tall Man Productions

This eighteen-piece big band out of San Diego, California does ndeed focus on their unexpected guests on this impressive release. Band guitarist Dan Radlauer’s compositions and arrangements allow both the band to play to its strengths and the guests to showcase their own specialities.

The big band itself can range across brassy swinging jazz, riffing behind Wade Culbreath’s fluid marimba on “Knock On Wood” (an original of course) or help Ghanaian roots and reggae singer Rocky Dawuni to achieve a big ballad sound on “Extraordinary Woman”. But then, by now we are already ready to expect the unexpected – the opener, “Renaissance Woman”, is a virtuoso performance by Tali Rubenstein, whose jazz recorder playing is stunning, different and extremely effective; the same kind of comment can be applied to “Reeds Between The Lines” with its funk inflected accompaniment behind Paul Hanson’s bassoon lead. Similarly, “San Joaquin” presents the accomplished mandolin playing of Eva Scow, though violinist Nora Germain’s “Violinspiration” may be rather more mainstream but is not the kind of thing heard too often these days. Nor is “Tapped Out” with Leo Manzari providing both the tap dance breaks and the raps...

More world influences come courtesy of the beautiful “Pineapple Mango” with Daniel Ho’s ukulele playing and a seven-piece Hawaiian vocal ensemble – and some fiery tenor sax by Greg Armstrong. Tina Guo plays soaring cello on “Strings In The Wind” with the band a little akin to Gil Evans’, and this lovely set of unexpected twists and turns draws to a close with “French Fries”, featuring French horn by Chris Castellanos.

NORMAN DARWEN