NEWYORKESTRA Big Band: Urban Soundscapes

NEWYORKESTRA Big Band

Urban Soundscapes

SEA BREEZE SB 2134

Featuring the music of Rob Middleton & Pete McGuinness, Steve Kenyon & Andy Middleton

Out of the Frying Pan; Digital Life; As Always; One Finger Snap; Sink or Swim; Portland Painter; The Night Shift; Gregory is Here; Eighty One/It's About That Time (68.34)

Steve Kenyon, Sheila Cooper, Andy Middleton, Rob Middleton, Jay Branford, reeds; Mike Ponella, Craig Johnson, Rick Savage, Bill Mobley, trumpets; Bruce Eidem, Pete McGuinness, Mark Patterson, Jeff Nelson, trombones; Mike Holober, keyboards; Andy Eulau, bass; Scott Neumann, drums + Special Guest Bobby Senabria, percussion

The house of US Big Band recordings, Sea Breeze, presents yet another aggregation of young players delivering arrangements that have a similarity to those of Gil Evans, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Maria Sneider.

Apart from their ability to play these complex charts to perfection, every last one of them takes a solo - which is quite unusual for a big band.

Of the nine pieces recorded here, six come from within the band and the remaining three are One Finger Snap by Herbie Hancock, Gregory is Here by Horace Silver and the double-header Eighty One/It's About That Time by Ron Carter and Miles Davis. I have to say these last three pieces stand out as exceptional in the band's repertoire.

This is Modern Jazz at its best, which is what you might expect from the Big Apple.

by Al Merritt