Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine: Everything Under The Sun

Review by Jack Bowers from All About Jazz. 

San Diego–based Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine is quite well–named. Perhaps an even better name would have been “everything but the kitchen sink.” The band is all over the map in a session that is evidently designed to showcase its many talents for the purpose of securing gigs. Along the way, the BBJM touches bases with Louis Prima (twice), Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Johnny Mandel, Kool & the Gang, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, John Williams (the theme from Superman, beautifully played by high–flying trumpeter Jeff Beck) and a number of others. Beck returns to the stratosphere with fellow trumpeter Doug Meeuwsen on Ray Santos’ “Sunny Ray Mambo” (which really cooks).... (Read More)