Jim Guttmann - Live at The Acton Jazz Cafe, July 16, 2010

What would you get if you crossed a banjo, an electric guitar and big band jazz with a Jewish wedding reception? One result might be Jim Guttmann and his extraordinary group of musicians performing selections from their new release,Bessarabian Breakdown. That’s exactly what a small roomful of fortunate Acton Jazz Café patrons experienced for about an hour on the evening of July 16, 2010. Guttmann—who acted as amusing emcee between songs—described the band’s sound as; “Klezmer gone ‘Deliverance’,” at which point the pianist (Art Bailey) played a snippet of “Dueling Banjos,” but in the minor tonal mode of a Klezmer tune. It was hilarious for anyone familiar with the movie and the music, which in this case seemed to be most of the house. It also set the tone for the evening: great music played with gusto and for the enjoyment of life. Many of the band members are long time collaborators with Guttmann, Grant Smith (drums) and Mimi Rabson (violin), for instance, and all are masters of their instruments and their craft. As one of my companions—a young man from Rwanda, visiting America and hearing a live Klezmer band both for the very first time—said, “They are all so good (on their instruments) that they can just have fun playing the music they enjoy.” ...MORE...

Jamie Begian Big Band - Big Fat Grin

Seventeen seasoned jazz musicians are a powerful force to wield and control, but control (and flaunt) he does as Jamie Begian leads his big band through nine engaging tracks on his new CD, Big Fat Grin. This is the band’s second release, the first being Trance in 2003. Begian, composer and guitarist, has referred to Trance as being from his development phase. Now comfortable within his own compositional style and skills he feels free to explore and exploit his talents on Big Fat Grin. Begian studied jazz guitar at the Hartt School of Music and at the Master’s level at the Manhattan School of Music. He has been actively involved in The BMI Jazz Composers Workshop (he received the BMI Workshop’s Charlie Parker Award in 2001 for “Fuzzy Math”) and Pulse, a New York-based composers' federation. Begian also studied composition with Bob Brookmeyer, virtuoso trombonist and jazz composition professor at New England Conservatory. Since 2005 Begian has been the full-time coordinator of the Jazz Studies Degree Program at Western Connecticut State University...MORE...

Jim Guttmann - Bessarabian Breakdown

Jim Guttmann is having an extraordinary career. His love of music is unbound to a specific genre; from rock in the 60s to jazz and bluegrass in the 70s to klezmer in the 80s to an unabashed mix of genres with the aptly named Mimi Rabson’s Really Eclectic String Quartet (RESQ) in the 90s and now with a new eclectic mix of his own on Bessarabian Breakdown (Kleztone Records, 2010). Guttmann is currently probably best known from his three decades of work with the New England Conservatory’s Klezmer Conservatory Band (KCB). The KCB was pivotal in revitalizing klezmer music which lay dormant since the 40s; now, as popular as ever. Guttmann has also played with legendary singer Eartha Kitt, blues harpist James Cotton, the Artie Shaw Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra...MORE...