| Jazz |
A Big Band with a Big Imagination: Pete McGuinness and the Modern Rebirth of Jazz Tradition
For more than two decades, the Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra has been on a mission to do more than simply play the standards. It reanimates them. On their latest album, Mixed Bag, the ensemble breathes vivid new life into the works of Cole Porter, Thelonious Monk, and others, anchoring jazz’s storied past firmly in the present. But this is no mere nostalgia trip. Alongside these reinventions, the group contributes original compositions that pay homage to the big band tradition while sounding unmistakably of today.
At the center of this ambitious undertaking is Pete McGuinness, a three-time Grammy-nominated conductor, composer, arranger, and vocalist. His eclectic sensibility threads through the album’s wide-ranging repertoire, from high-octane swing to lush bossa nova, from intimate ballads to bracingly modernist arrangements. Each piece is both a nod to the canon and a challenge to it, the work of a bandleader who knows the rules and chooses when to elegantly break them.
The musicians who make up the Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra are drawn from the upper echelons of New York’s jazz scene, seasoned soloists, stalwarts of other renowned big bands. But McGuinness is quick to point out that they are more than just an all-star lineup. “These players are dear friends,” he says, “many of whom I’ve known since my early days gigging in Manhattan clubs in the late ’80s. They bring not just brilliance, but deep personal connection to the music.”
It’s this intimacy, between musicians, between eras, that defines the album’s unique spirit. While the ensemble honors the jazz tradition, it also functions like a kind of living museum, offering listeners an experiential education in the art form’s rich language. And as the orchestra approaches its twentieth anniversary, Mixed Bag feels like both a milestone and a declaration.
McGuinness’s arrangements are meticulous, his orchestrations finely detailed, each line, each modulation, each swell of the horns considered and shaped. The group’s ability to shift fluidly across styles speaks to an encyclopedic understanding of jazz’s vast landscape. It’s no surprise, then, that Mixed Bag marks the orchestra’s most ambitious recording to date, with the guiding hand of producer John Fedchock, a celebrated trombonist in his own right whose résumé includes stints with legends like Woody Herman and Lionel Hampton.
Indeed, the list of connections among the orchestra’s members reads like a who’s who of modern jazz: Maria Schneider, Jimmy Heath, Buddy Rich, Toshiko Akiyoshi. And yet, this ensemble is no derivative tribute act. With every phrase, it insists on relevance, on reinvention. McGuinness himself contributes vocals to several tracks, his voice offering a bridge between eras, warm, expressive, and evocative of a time when big bands ruled smoky dance halls, yet somehow utterly contemporary.
He’s more than a bandleader here; he’s a dramatist, a teacher, a keeper of the flame. His trombone lines are rich with intention, and his singing, never ornamental, serves the storytelling. That narrative impulse runs through the entire album. In the world of Pete McGuinness, arrangements are conversations, solos are monologues, and the orchestra is a collective voice, articulate and alive.
To listen to Mixed Bag is to engage with jazz not as history but as living language. At a time when genre lines are increasingly blurred and musical traditions risk dilution, McGuinness and his ensemble offer clarity of purpose. They’re not just preserving a legacy, they’re expanding it.
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, May 8th 2025
Follow PARIS-MOVE on X
::::::::::::::::::::::::
Buy the CD on Pete McGuinness’ website
Buy the CD on the Summit Records’ website
Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra – Mixed Bag:
COMPOSERS: Pete McGuinness, Cole Porter, Chris Rogers, Johnny Green, John Lewis, Thelonious Monk, Johnny Mandel
Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra:
Pete McGuinness – leader/composer/arranger/vocalist
Saxophones/ woodwinds: Dave Pietro, Mark Phaneuf, Tom Christensen, Rob Middleton, Dave Riekenberg
Trumpets/ flugelhorns: Jon Owens and Tony Kadleck (split leads), Hollis “Bud” Burridge, Chris Rogers
Trombones: Bruce Eidem, Mark Patterson, Matt Haviland, Jeff Nelson
Violin: Hiroko Taguchi (concert mistress), Whitney LaGrange, Annaliesa Place, Caleb Burhans
Viola: Todd Low, Angela Pickett
Cello: Melissa Westgate, Alon Bisk
Flute: Steve Kenyon
French horn: Chris Kome
Rhythm section:
Pete McCann – guitar (tracks 5 and 7)
Mike Holober, Bill Charlap – piano
Mark Wade – bass
Scott Neumann – drums
Tracklist:
From This Moment On
Rebecca
The Dark Hours
Lilac Blues
Down The Rabbit Hole
Body And Soul
So In Love
Django
‘Round Midnight
The Sly Fox