Magic City Jazz Orchestra Lawler, trombonist Charlie Ard, saxophonist Neil McLean, arranger Steve Sample, Sr and pianist Ray Reach. SuperJazz has spawned a number of spin-off groups, such as the Night Flight Big Band and the Magic City Jazz Orchestra. In 1998, Ray Reach, then director of the UAB Jazz Ensemble and founding director of the Magic City Jazz Orchestra, contacted New York saxophonist Lou Marini in order to hire him to be guest artist and clinician for the annual "Weekend of Jazz" festival at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Mr. Marini subsequently came to Birmingham, where he conducted jazz workshops and
Complete Charlie Parker on Dial Complete Charlie Parker on Dial Complete Charlie Parker on Dial is a 1996 box set release of jazz saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker's 1946-1947 recordings for Dial Records. The box set, released by Jazz Classics, features 89 songs, including alternate takes and notes composed by jazz historian and Parker biographer Ira Gitler. John Genarri, author of the book "Blowin' Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics" singles out the recording of "Lover Man" on this album, noting that "[t]his wrenching, anguished version...has been called Parker's most poetic statement on record" though, says Gennari, Parker himself viewed it as substandard and