Title : LIVE
Artist : Vic Vogel & LE JAZZ BIG BAND

Recorded in the 90s, this album of 10 titles and 70 minutes  sheds limelight on why Vic Vogel’s Le Jazz Big Band has been a mainstay act of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal for 20 years.  The art of big band has evolved since its halcyon days when Ellington ruled the airwaves and Basie walked the earth, but for all that, the language of 17-plus musicians still comes out the same end of a horn.  Consider that Vogel’s career parallels the better part of big band history and you may appreciate that it is more than a hugely expressive and dynamic instrument; it is, as Vogel puts it in his notes, “…more than the sum of its parts.  It survives because it’s a team.  It’s a family.  It’s my family”.  Surely the Duke or the Count wouldn’t have said it any differently:  Then as now big band brings out the best character in a player, brings the artist closer to maturity and through them, indeed, becomes more than the sum of its parts.  Speaking of Edward Kennedy Ellington, listen to the superb tone of soloist Janis Steprans’ tenor against the languid Vogel arrangement of Mood Indigo.  As good as he plays however, Steprans is just another face in a very enviable group photo, and anywhere you drop the needle talent abounds and leads from strength to strength.  From the opening Gillespie classic Groovin’ High  to the closing Leclerc Bozo, this is a Vogel essay in the art of the big band concert, an essential addition to every jazz enthusiast’s collection.  ENJOY!!