If you aren’t having the time of your life when listening to Dale Head, well, you just need to lighten up. His 2015 release, Swing, Straight Up, was a powerhouse big band album that attracted Grammy consideration on three of the songs contained.
   He keeps the big band format on Swing on the Rocks with his Mindwinder Orchestra. The big surprise is the guest appearance of the great Paul Shaffer who told Dale that this album would “blow their minds.” He was correct.
   Swing on the Rocks is a sweet title because the album does indeed swing all over these rock tunes from Ted Nugent, Van Halen, the Police, the Eagles, Van Morrison, the Edgar Winter Group, Aerosmith, Paul Simon, and more.
   Truth be told, the only one of the above-mentioned that I ever liked at all was Van Morrison. But Dale Head gives these songs a cooler treatment than they ever experienced before and I came to love them all.  To keep things honest, Billie Holiday is tossed in beautifully plus we get to experience one terrific Dale Head original.
   The album opens with Ted Nugent’s Hey, Baby. Steve Dunne’s guitar and Paul Shaffer’s piano and B3 organ are raw and swinging. All I could think was “But I don’t like Ted Nugent!” Listen to Dunne’s blistering guitar and the power of the horns and tell me you aren’t smiling. Dale himself sings with an audible smile, as well. He knows how to treat a song.
   Van Halen’s Little Dreamer never sounded like this. While you may remember David Lee Roth’s original vocals, Dale’s delivery is so much cooler, so much Jazzier. So much more swing. Chad Quist delivers the great guitar work and the big band pushes the power of the song.
   Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic was excellent in the original recording. Dale and the Mindwinder Orchestra keep the original gentle swing and Dale sings the tune with a devoted reverence for the original. Then Dale treats us to a fine flugelhorn solo, beautifully done.
   Dale recalls a cognac with Joe Williams in 1985 and was told to “tell the story” of the pieces he chose to perform. He has fulfilled that counsel with dedication and purpose. Maybe this is why Dale’s treatments so often surpass the originals.
   Billie Holiday’s God Bless the Child fondly recalls the Blood, Sweat & Tears version. This was such a sweet delivery of such a powerful song. Then the band breaks into a Latin swing with fantastic horn work from Trombone solo: Al Bent and Mike Rinta on trombones, Dave Lyn Scott and Steffen Kuehn on trumpets, and Alex Murzyn on alto sax. Good Lord, this was fine, fine stuff.
   Fiona Apple’s Criminal from 1997 was a strong retelling of Apple’s confessional but replaces the heavy bass and drums drive with an even more driving horn section. This one eats you alive.
   Frankenstein is from the Edgar Winter Group’s 1972 album, They Only Come Out at Night. Edgar Winter was a smoking keyboardist but Dale brings in Paul Shaffer and a massive horn section to take Winter’s instrumental to swing town. Jeff Sanford starts off the solos on alto sax, followed by Steffen Kuehn’s trumpet and Erik Hughes on trombone. Things get monstrous with the duel between guitarist Chad Quist and Paul Shafer’s keyboards. Dale steps in with scat as Andy Fraga’s drum work is laying down the thunder. I wish the 15-year-old me had been able to enjoy this version.
   Dale Head wrote Paranoia in 1995. There are cool corps progressions and hot solos from Chad Quist and Paul Shaffer. The menacing guitar and the drive of the bass and drum with Dale’s frenetic scat paint a dark image of the mental state. It is one tight tune.
   Murder By Numbers comes from the 1983 album Synchronicity. Sting himself said the song was about the evil deeds of politicians. “Murder is the sport of the elected.” The lyrics detail the ease of getting oneself into the mindset of committing murder. Dale delivers the song in a film noir atmosphere with his cool scat and excellent trumpet solo.
   Thirteen Women was the 1954 tune originally titled Thirteen Women (and One Man) and was about the dangers of the Hydrogen bomb and survival of only the singer and 13 women. It is presented in melodramatic intensity with baritone saxman Byron Colborn. Dale’s vocals are smartly enunciated in his unique style.
   Paul Simon’s Baby Driver appeared on the 1970 Simon and Garfunkel album Bridge Over Troubled Water. The Simon and Garfunkel version was a bit rockabilly but Dale Head gives a more boogie-woogie treatment. And it works. Jeff Sanford and Byron Colborn bounce the sax solos with high energy and great fun. Some cool time changes depict the varying speeds as producer and engineer Andy Greenberg acts as the voice of the race announcer.
   Aerosmith’s Walk This Way was a 1975 rocker original and got a hip-hop revision with Run DMC in 1986. Dale brings up the heavy horns to turn it into a funk piece of bone-crushing proportions. Steve Dunne works a great guitar and Dave Bass gives a great piano addition. The horns push the tune relentlessly and Dale seems to be having the time of his life.
Wasted Time from the Eagles follows. Dale is joined in a duet by Jean Fox. What a great choice. She is an excellent partner with Dale and the big band orchestration carries the song so extremely well.
   The penultimate song on the album is I Know a Little written by Steve Gaines for the Southern-rock band Lynyrd Skynard in 1977. I couldn’t believe it was the same song. Dale took a simple song and made it a big band aficionado’s delight. It swings and swings hard. “I know a little about love and, baby, I can guess the rest.” Fun stuff.
   Rush’s New World Man is brilliantly reworked. It keeps the cool Geddy Lee bass line but the horns get to carry melody and Dale gives the vocals a straight-up delivery. The song opens with a NASA transmission of the Apollo 11 flight and closes with the same. For a space egg-head like me, it was the coolest possible way to open and close the piece. Also an excellent way to close the album.
   Dale Head never disappoints. Whether he is reworking Jazz standards or rock and pop tunes, he makes them swing and breathes his own life and will into the songs—often giving a different or expanded message for the time and space that we occupy. He turns the big band format into a Greek chorus of our modern drama. All done with a smile and a wink.
 
                            ~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl

   I first came to know the work of Gary Lindsay with his arrangement of Arturo Sandoval’s album, I Remember Clifford, a CD that remains among my most-often-played stack and for which he received a Grammy nomination in Jazz arranging.
   Lindsay’s arranging was in full swing long before that excellent album, however. He had arranged for big bands and has performed on alto saxophone for the biggest names you care to name—like Jaco Pastorius and the Brecker Brothers. His is also the director of the Master's in Music program in Studio/Jazz Writing and the Doctoral program in Jazz Composition at the University of Miami. It doesn’t get much better than that.
   He also writes, arranges, and performs for the Miami Saxophone Quartet and the South Florida Jazz Orchestra. Enviable gigs, one and all.
   Having released two previous albums, the South Florida Jazz Orchestra has now released The Music of Gary Lindsay: Are We Still Dreaming on Summit Records. It is the very first album dedicated entirely to Lindsay’s amazing big band arrangements and it includes some of South Florida’s hottest Jazz artists as well as those from New York. The album is the perfect storm of performers and compositions/arrangements with excellent production from trombonist John Fedchock.
   Moment in Time is the lead-off number. It is an original by Lindsay himself and features a cool flugelhorn solo from New York’s Alex Norris. There is a definite Brazilian feel to the piece. Pay attention to the guitar work of John Hart. Moment in Time could very well be used by the Miami Tourism Bureau as a soundtrack to welcoming visitors to the Miami area. It is warm and sunny and lively, just like South Florida.
I confess. I say that as a native Florida boy raised in South Florida.
   Spring is Here/Up Jumped Spring is a fantastic medley of Rodgers & Hart and Freddie Hubbard. It features Julia Dollison on vocals who can sweep the vocal spectrum with ease. Dante Luciani delivers a smoking trombone and Phil Doyle nails the tenor sax bit in the Hubbard section. As vibrant as the colors of Spring, the medley is splashed with multi-faceted hues of sound and lyric. The seamless transition from Rodgers to Hubbard is a moment to savor.
   Toward Hope is the second original from Gary Lindsay. It has a slow, sweet introduction with Rick Margitza’s tenor sax playing over Martin Bejerano’s piano. It opens as a semi-classical piece that slowly evolves into large ensemble Jazz. I especially enjoy the way Margitza interweaves the counterpoint. This is beautifully written and exactingly performed.
   Nicole Yarling is the guest vocalist on Easy Living, the 1937 standard by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin. It is full of imagery from languid life in the South and Yarling adds mightily to that feel. Her effortless scat and impassioned delivery are brilliant. Greg Gisbert has the trumpet solo and is just so very, very good.
   John Yarling sits the drum throne and is impressive throughout. Give him a good listen and as well as director Chuck Bergeron on basses. This is a fine rhythm section. That carries well into Better Days Ahead where Bergeron and John Hart work the Pat Metheny tune so well.
   Lindsay admits to being a Metheny fan and got to play the arrangement with Metheny when he performed at the university. Incidentally, Pat Metheny had the distinction of being the youngest instructor (age 18) at that illustrious Jazz school.
Are We Still Dreaming, the title song, once again features Julia Dollison with the wordless vocalizations and also once again guitarist John Hart. Gary Lindsay wrote the tune that was inspired by trumpet artist Kenny Wheeler. The dreamlike vocal impressions and Hart’s stirring guitar alongside Gary Keller’s sax leads are intoxicating. There is a good reason this is the title track. Just wonderful.
   The album closes with two tracks set at a high bar. ‘Round Midnight and UMMG.
   Thelonious Monk’s ‘Round Midnight was arranged by Lindsay in 1977 as a master’s degree project and was inspired by the Stan Kenton style. You can hear it, too. Latin Grammy Award-winner Ed Calle is the featured soloist on sax. It is amazingly delivered by Calle and the arrangement is wonderful. I loved this.
   Billy Strayhorn’s UMMG (Upper Manhattan Medical Group) works on so many levels. It is faithful to the Strayhorn original but it carries a unique voice of its own. Four artists are featured on UMMG: Mike Brignola on baritone sax and Major Bailey on bass trombone, pianist Martin Bejerano and trumpet master Jason Carder. Each one deserves the spotlight. Lindsay’s arrangement of UMMG is an exquisite retelling of the Strayhorn story.
   Indeed all of The Music of Gary Lindsay: Are We Still Dreaming is a wonderful telling and/or retelling of a remarkable story—the story of Gary Lindsay, an excellent musician, an imaginative composer, and a gifted arranger. Chuck Bergeron and the South Florida Jazz Orchestra are just the ones to tell that amazing tale.
 
 
       ~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl