West-Coast guitarist and jazz legend Doug MacDonald is an artist so consistent, so correct, so precise, while at the same time so swinging that —as far as any jazz lover is concerned— he should just keep on releasing album after album, until virtually every known jazz song has been recorded… perhaps even with several alternate versions.

The most recent release is Big Band Extravaganza (available January 31, 2023 on the Dmac Music label).

He and seventeen supremely talented fellow musicians play together with such a high standard of quality that they just might give the term “good taste” a good name again. These are elegant, sophisticated, playful performances of Doug MacDonald’s big band vision. It’s an extravaganza in the best sense of the word. The album consists of MacDonald’s arrangements and originals along with one standard (an optimistic rendition of the Gershwins’s “But Not For Me”).

If you are clever enough to plan your Valentine’s Day soundtrack ahead of time, you might consider adding this album to the playlist. If music be the food of love, these tracks are a gourmet feast.