Featured article in Discover San Diego Magazine
By Rick Melody
Featured
We hope that your big band will go on for another 40 years to bring joy and swing in these dark times...
“Big Band Jazz Machine has been a constant, a jovial, swinging ensemble that packs a punch. They are a tight unit with crisp, punchy accents over 12 selections including 6 vocals… We also enjoyed “Gimme That” written by saxophonist Andrew Neu, and “Bass: The Final Frontier” featuring guest Nathan East on bass.”
Ira’s latest interview!
This is the sixth release by the Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine, which has been based in southern California for the past 40 years. I reviewed their last CD, Tasty Tunes, in the June 2018 issue of Jazz Journal (Tall Man Productions 005). As Bob Mintzer pointed out at the time, ”Ira Liss is one of those special folk who keep the big band idiom alive and kicking.”
We opened the show today!!! Mother's Day in the UK!!
Veteran Big Band leader Ira B. Liss puts together a hard swinging album with his 23+ member team along with some fun guests.
This is a fantastic big band jazz album with a swing-feel coming from a thick ensemble and you can enjoy without any need for convincing.
"Mazel Tov Kocktail" delivers everything any big band fan would be looking for. The sound is always tight, the Arrangements are fresh and new and the execution by the seasoned members of this Band is perfect.
Despite the dire situation [coronavirus pandemic], musicians nonetheless give the rest of us hope. Despite the lack of gigs, many of them have stayed busy, among them Ira B. Liss and his Big Band Jazz Machine. Ira and his crew recorded and have just released Mazel Tov Kocktail!, a CD worthy of the congratulation as well as the exclamation mark.
Host Dave Drexler brings you weekly interviews with the leaders in the local and national arts scene as well as an insider's look at the full range of creative endeavors from the county's musicians, painters, actors and writers.
Interview in the beginning part of the show.
In his spirited, insightful liner notes for Mazel Tov Kocktail!, the bold, deliriously hard swinging, sultry and sensual sixth album by his Big Band Jazz Machine, Ira B. Liss quotes the legendary Glenn Miller: “A band ought to have a sound of its own. It ought to have a personality.”
The music on this album is quite varied with six arrangers who contributed to the compositions, including three by Dan Radlauer, the band's regular composer. He has composed for television, film and more than a thousand commercials.
Mazel Tov Kocktail! is the big band’s sixth recording and continues to build on their creative vision for a variety of tastefully-rendered material, including many fresh and exciting new compositions such as the spirited opener “Gimme That” by Andrew Neu and featuring him on tenor sax.
Six, mainly original, instrumentals and six vocal covers by Janet Hammer and Carly Ines. Carly, who's also in the trombone section, sings Chick Corea's High Wire, Love You Madly and Joy Spring. Janet lends her vocal chords to You'd Better Love Me While You May, I Wish You Love and Where or When. Both singers are the real deal.
Each arrangement that peels off this CD is like a plump, juicy piece of sweet fruit. I enjoy the variety of jazz styles that they celebrate. One minute they celebrate Duke Ellington’s popular “Love You Madly” and they follow that with “Bass, The Final Frontier” that features the funky, exciting, electric bass of Nathan East.
The Southern California sensations Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine return with a dozen new, swingin’ tunes, and they’ve got some esteemed guests on hand to help flesh out the fun.
It’s not often that a group reaches a 40th Anniversary together, but Ira’s rousing rollicking big band jazz group has done just that…
Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with San Diego-based Jazz Big Band Leader Ira B. Liss.. We talked to him in mid_January 2021 about his latest 2021 CD with the Big Band Machine – Mazel Tov Kicktail - A Celebration of 40 Years. This sixth full length album from The Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine and is full of action.
What started out as a way to have a high school music teacher give his charges a way to hone chops and blow off steam has become a SoCal institution now celebrating it's 40th year of madly swinging.
Mazel Tov Kocktail!, the newest recording by the Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine, is a swinging, rollicking collection of new and standard big band numbers performed by a tight-knit group of top-notch musicians.
Discover great new music this weekend with our weekly roundup of new songs and albums! This week’s New Release Cheat Sheet features new music by Sibusile Xaba, Wynton Marsalis, Apifera and more.
Ira B. Liss first formed the Big Band Jazz Machine in 1979 as a vehicle for students in Southern California - especially in the San Diego area – to polish up their skills. Now he produces and conducts his 6th recording, and the sound and the verve just heighten!
Listen again to the programme first broadcast on Coastal Sound Radio on January 13 featuring The Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine, Pete Rugolo & His Orchestra, Patrick Williams, The Mike Barone Big Band, Big Beat Jazz, The Interplay Jazz Orchestra and many more...
Guest stars on the Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine’s new album include famed local bassist Nathan East
Bass, The Final Frontier is on the JAZZIZ Editors’ Choice Playlist!
The group’s album features bass great Nathan East. A recording with country-music star and Eagles’ member Vince Gill is also in the offing