Mike Vax & MVJO CD "Alternate Route"Jazz Connection Magazine | July 2000
MIKE VAX and MVJO, ALTERNATE ROUTE, Sea Breeze 2102Mike Vax is synonymous with sizzling and exciting big band jazz. This latest release by his New Oakland Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) called Alternate Route (Sea Breeze Jazz label), is this and much more. The former Stan Kenton high-note man turned bandleader, gives his listeners an eclectic mix of styles, sounds and rhythms. For Vax and his colleagues, this 12-track project is an alternate route of sorts musically. The music swings but the voicings are definitely pure Kenton!
Guest artists Pete Escovedo, Latin jazz percussion master, and Cami Thompson, vocalist extraordinaire, each add their particular artistry that helps keep the high energy flowing. Escovedo's driving Latin rhythm on Variations on a Brazilian Song, New Wages, and San Miguel brings lots of excitement to these tracks.
Thompson demonstrates an excellent feeling for jazz with her amazing range, vocal control and awesome scat singing on the Rogers and Hammerstein standard, It Might As Well Be Spring. The two-bar trade offs between her and Vax steals the show!
Actually, every member of this 19-piece aggregation steals the show. On reeds: Rory Snyder, Larry de la Cruz, Alex Murzyn, James Carraway and Howard Cespedes. Trumpets: Vax, Marvin McFadden, Steve Campos, Rolf Johnson and Tim Acosta. Trombones: Dean Hubbard, Troy Ostwald, Peggy Vax, Mara Fox (bass) and Neil Van Valkenburgh (bass). Rhythm section: Si Perkoff, piano; Randy Vincent, guitar; Mario Suraci, bass; and Dave Rokeach, drums. Rounding out the selections are Alternate Route (title track), Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most, I'm Old Fashioned, What A Wonderful World, Splank, Duke Ellington: Sound Of Love, Embraceable You and Music For Dancing.
Vax, who is a staunch supporter of jazz education, has marked partial proceeds from the sale of this CD to go to the Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins Memorial Scholarship Fund which will help send deserving young musicians to summer jazz camps. The bucks you invest gives you fabulous music to listen to and it helps educate fledging young musicians. What a deal!
Five stars!
— Stephen Fratallone
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