Master director and educator Gene Aitken of the famed University of Northern Colorado's Jazz Studies Program shows off three of his best groups on "Hot IX," mixed-voice jazz quintet the Axidentals, who are accompanied by a hot jazz band on 8 songs like Duke Ellington's "Caravan," Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" and Kurt Weil's "Mack the Knife," also perform one nice a cappella cut, "Quiet Now." 3-men, 3-women a cappella ensemble Et Cetera then gives us nice covers of "Singing In The Rain," Harold Arlen's "If I Only Had a Brain" and Randy Crenshaw's "Scat Blues in C." All woman jazz quartet Sus 4 finishes with a hot accompanied cover of Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia," a moody a cappella cover of "For All We Know," and accompanied covers of "We" and Gloria Estefan's "Get On Your Feet." This is another strong, spirited collection from these 3 great UNC jazz ensembles. |
