Jazz

If your tastes lean toward the venerable strains of early big band, think Tommy Dorsey at his most polished, then the Eyal Vilner Big Band will likely feel like a natural fit. The ensemble plays with undeniable authority: reeds move in tight, velvety unison, brass sections bloom with burnished precision, and the rhythm section maintains a buoyant, dance-floor elasticity. What one should not expect, however, is reinvention. This is revivalism, pursued not as a springboard but as a destination.

The thematic material draws directly from idioms that were explored exhaustively by big bands from the 1920s through the 1940s, riff-based shout choruses, crooner-ready ballad interludes, buoyant two-beat swing designed for crowded ballrooms. The surprising element is not the stylistic fidelity itself, but the fact that Vilner’s original compositions adhere so strictly to the established template, resisting even subtle gestures toward contemporary harmonic language or structural expansion. In an era when many large ensembles blur genre lines or experiment with modern textures, this project remains firmly time-capsuled.

Vilner has been explicit about his orientation. His work is rooted in the period when the big band was not merely artistically central but socially ubiquitous, music inseparable from dance. “I consider Lindy Hop and vernacular jazz dances to be an essential component of jazz’s roots,” he has explained. “When I began exploring and learning these dances, I felt it completed the picture and gave me a deeper understanding of the music, its tradition, its history and the community from which it emerged. Jazz music and jazz dance are inseparable; they evolved together, influencing and inspiring one another. Immersing myself in this facet of African American culture helped me better understand the music I fell in love with as a teenager.”

That philosophy is audible throughout the album’s 18 tracks. A brisk, riff-driven opener builds through carefully layered sections before resolving in a triumphant brass swell; a mid-tempo number pivots around a clarinet lead that could easily soundtrack a polished ballroom routine; the ballads favor lush voicings and predictable harmonic turns that prioritize atmosphere over surprise. The craftsmanship is beyond dispute. The musicians are superb, the arrangements impeccably balanced, the ensemble cohesion admirable.

And yet the central artistic question remains: to what end? Is the album an act of preservation, an archival homage rendered with loving precision? Or does it aspire to contribute something new to the big band canon? The answer appears to favor the former. For some listeners, that will be precisely the point. In an age of relentless stylistic fusion, there is a certain integrity, even defiance, in committing wholeheartedly to tradition without concession.

Still, the absence of even modest contemporary inflection stands out when placed alongside modern large ensembles that reinterpret swing vocabulary through expanded harmonies, cross-genre dialogue or rhythmic experimentation. By comparison, Vilner’s approach can feel less like reinterpretation than reenactment.

The album may well delight devotees of vintage swing nights and tea dances, audiences who value the communal joy of movement as much as the intricacies of improvisation. For listeners who define jazz primarily as a forward-leaning, exploratory art form, however, the project may feel more adjacent to jazz-pop nostalgia than to the restless evolution associated with the music’s most transformative chapters.

Ultimately, the divide is aesthetic rather than technical. This is meticulously rendered, energetically performed music, animated by deep respect for its sources. Whether that devotion registers as cultural stewardship or creative stasis will depend largely on what one seeks from a contemporary big band recording: the comfort of revival, or the friction of renewal.

Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News

PARIS-MOVE, March 2nd 2026

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Musicians :
Eyal Vilner – alto sax, clarinet, flute, conducting, arrangements
Imani Rousselle – Vocals (4, 6, 11, 13)
John Lake – lead trumpet (1-15)
Brandon Lee – trumpet
Bryan Davis – lead trumpet (16)
Michael Sailors – trumpet (16)
James Zollar – trumpet (16)
Ron Wilkins – trombone & bass trombone
Robert Edwards – trombone (16)
Mariel Bildsten – trombone (16)
Bill Todd – alto sax (16)
Jordan Pettay – alto sax (16)
Julieta Eugenio – tenor sax (1-15)
Evan Arntzen – tenor sax (16)
Michael Hashim – tenor sax (16)
Josh Lee – baritone sax (1-15)
Eden Bareket – baritone sax (16)
Jon Thomas – piano (1-15)
Jordan Piper – piano (16)
lan Hutchison – bass
Eran Fink – drums

Track Listing :

1. Chicken An’ Dumplings (Bryant) (3:17)

Soloists: Eyal Vilner, Ron Wilkins, Brandon Lee, Jon Thomas, Eran Fink

2. Bumpy Tour Bus (Vilner) (1:49)

Solos: Julieta Eugenio, Brandon Lee, Jon Thomas

3. Swingin’ Uptown (Vilner) (2:51)

Soloists: Brandon Lee, Brandon Lee, Eyal Vilner, Julieta Eugenio,

Eyal Vilner, Ron Wilkins, Josh Lee, Ron Wilkins, Eran Fink

4. Tell Me Pretty Baby (Eckstein, Outcalt, Valentine) (4:42)

Soloists: Ron Wilkins, Eyal Vilner, Brandon Lee

5. I Want Coffee (Vilner) (1:59)

Soloists: Julieta Eugenio, Jon Thomas

6. Is You Is or Is You Ain’t (Jordan, Austin) (3:59)

Soloists: Julieta Eugenio

7. Tea For Two (Youmans, Caesar) (2:40)

Soloists: Eyal Vilner, Brandon Lee, Ian Hutchison, Jon Thomas

8. Lobby Call Blues (Vilner) (2:14)

Soloists: Jon Thomas, Eyal Vilner

9. Blue Skies (Berlin) (2:21)

Soloists: Julieta Eugenio, Ron Wilkins, Eyal Vilner (cl)

10. Don’t You Feel My Leg (Barker, Barker, Williams) (4:40)

Soloists: Brandon Lee, Jon Thomas, Josh Lee

11. I Love The Rhythm in a Riff (Eckstine, Valentine) (1:51)

Soloists: Imani Rousselle

12. I Don’t Want to be Kissed

(By Anyone Else But You) (Spina, Elliot) (3:07)

Soloists: Eyal Vilner, Ron Wilkins

13. Swing Brother Swing (Bishop, Raymond, Williams) (2:26)

Soloists: Imani Rousselle, Eyal Vilner, Julieta Eugenio, Josh Lee

14. Coffee Bean Stomp Jubilee (Vilner) (2:49)

Soloists: Jon Thomas, Eyal Vilner, Ron Wilkins, Julieta Eugenio,

Brandon Lee, Josh Lee, Eyal Vilner

15. Hellzapoppin’ (Previn) (2:18)

Soloists: Jon Thomas, Eyal Vilner (cl)

16. Afternoon at Smalls (Vilner) (5:03)

Soloists: Rob Edwards, Jordan Piper