The Nagel Heyer Allstars - Uptown Lowdown + Bonus (1999)

A Jazz Salute To The Big Apple

It took a German recording team to enable trumpeter/arranger Randy Sandke to assemble this all-American, 12-piece ensemble for a panorama of New York-inspired tunes, recorded in the Big Apple in the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse as part of the 1999 JVC Jazz Festival. In doing so, he raided the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, as well as several independent history-minded players in the area, and emerged with a band that fires off the numbers with crisp virtuosity in any idiom called for. Thankfully, there is also more than enough gusto in the playing, due in no small part to the live festival recording situation. "The Harlem Medley," a lengthy leadoff stream of delicacies from the land of Ellingtonia, gets close enough to the Ellington sound to convey the idea without being slavishly imitative or ghostly. From there, the band doubles back to Dixieland, works its way up to swing, and slides without a glitch into bebop "Scrapple From the Apple", a Mingus shuffle blues "Nostalgia in Times Square", transitional Coltrane "Grand Central", and some Monk "52nd Street Theme", before being deposited back in Harlem by -- naturally -- the “A” Train." In between the main tour stops, Concord Jazz teammates guitarist Howard Alden and clarinetist Ken Peplowski serve up another of their fluid duets on Irving Berlin's "Slumming on Park Avenue." Other high points include clarinetist Allan Vaché wailing in the trad flagwaver "Chinatown" and trumpeters Sandke and Warren Vaché duking it out on "42nd Street." In all, a well-recorded souvenir of what sounds like a heartwarming local celebration. ~ by Richard S. Ginell, AMG. 

Nagel Heyer Records, nagel heyer 2004, 2004
Nagel Heyer Records, Digital DL, 2021
Recorded 16th June, 1999 Live at Sylvia & Danny Kaye Playhouse, NYC 

Musicians:
Randy Sandke, Warren Vaché - Trumpet
Wycliffe Gordon - Trombone
Joe Temperley - Saxophone
Ken Peplowski - Saxophone, Clarinet
Scott Robinson - Saxophone, Flute
Allan Vaché - Clarinet
Eric Reed - Piano (#1-6,11-13,15)
Mark Shane - Piano (#7-8,10,14)
Howard Alden - Guitar
Rodney Whitaker - Bass
Joe Ascione - Drums 

Tracks:
The Harlem Medley:
01. Echoes Of Harlem {Duke Ellington} /
Drop Me Off In Harlem {Duke Ellington, Nick Kenny} (3:07)
02. Jungle Nights In Harlem {Duke Ellington} (3:37)
03. Boys From Harlem {Duke Ellington} (3:33)
04. Sugar Hill Penthouse {Duke Ellington} (2:31)
05. Blue Belles Of Harlem {Duke Ellington} (3:07)
06. Harlem Speaks {Duke Ellington} (5:28)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
07. Chinatown {Jean Schwartz, William Jerome} (3:09)
08. Rose Of Washington Square {James Hanley, Ballard MacDonald} /
Broadway Rose {Martin Fried, Otis Spencer} (6:43)
09. Slumming On Park Avenue {Irving Berlin} (5:13)
10. 42nd Street {Al Dubin, Harry Warren} (5:59)
11. Scrapple From The Apple {Charlie Parker} (5:48)
12. Nostalgia In Times Square {Charles Mingus} (8:14)
13. Grand Central {John Coltrane} (8:31)
14. 52nd Street Theme {Thelonious Monk} (4:42)
15. Take The "A" Train {Billy Strayhorn} (7:46) 

Bonus Track
16. What's New? {Johnny Burke, Bob Haggart} (5:09) 

Total Time: 82:45 

Credits:
Producer - Charlie Bertini
Director, Arranger - Randy Sandke
Executive-Producer - Hans Nagel-Heyer, Sabine Nagel-Heyer
Recording Engineer - David Baker
Recording Assistant - Katsuhiko Naito
Mixing Engineer - Ben Ahrens
Photography - Alan Nahigian, Ed Berger 

Bonus Track [What's New?]