From simple start, a sophisticated style
A small-town childhood in southwest Minnesota, complete with figure-skating lessons and swoops across the vast emptiness of the plains in a six-seater aircraft piloted by a dad who works in the crop business, isn't exactly a classic antecedent of a career in jazz. more stories like this
But there's nothing conventional about the career of composer Maria Schneider, whose one-of-a-kind reimagining of a big band, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, has blazed daring new trails in the jazz landscape, expressing its leader's highly personal vision with empathetic and exhilarating group interplay.
In close to two decades leading the New York-based orchestra, which formed as a group of young musicians in their 20s and has maintained a remarkably steady membership over the years, Schneider has earned acclaim as one of the most significant band leaders in the art, whose work extends well beyond jazz (let along big band) to make her a key American composer of the day. And after several nominations, she won a Grammy for her 2004 album, “Concert in the Garden."
Yet her fan base, while intense, is also quite narrow partly because - in keeping with her commitment to the road less traveled - her albums aren't available in traditional retail. Instead, she's a big proponent of the ArtistShare initiative, in which fans help fund albums that are then sold only online, resulting in smaller distribution but immensely more creative freedom and financial control.
The orchestra's concert tomorrow at the Berklee Performance Center will be its Boston premiere and will feature the American premiere of “Cerulean Skies," the 22-minute centerpiece of the group's new album, “Sky Blue," and an orchestral tour de force that swirls and billows like cumulonimbus clouds, augmented by real and simulated birdsong. (Schneider is, among other things, a birder and attuned to avian inspiration.)
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A small-town childhood in southwest Minnesota, complete with figure-skating lessons and swoops across the vast emptiness of the plains in a six-seater aircraft piloted by a dad who works in the crop business, isn't exactly a classic antecedent of a career in jazz. more stories like this
But there's nothing conventional about the career of composer Maria Schneider, whose one-of-a-kind reimagining of a big band, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, has blazed daring new trails in the jazz landscape, expressing its leader's highly personal vision with empathetic and exhilarating group interplay.
In close to two decades leading the New York-based orchestra, which formed as a group of young musicians in their 20s and has maintained a remarkably steady membership over the years, Schneider has earned acclaim as one of the most significant band leaders in the art, whose work extends well beyond jazz (let along big band) to make her a key American composer of the day. And after several nominations, she won a Grammy for her 2004 album, “Concert in the Garden."
Yet her fan base, while intense, is also quite narrow partly because - in keeping with her commitment to the road less traveled - her albums aren't available in traditional retail. Instead, she's a big proponent of the ArtistShare initiative, in which fans help fund albums that are then sold only online, resulting in smaller distribution but immensely more creative freedom and financial control.
The orchestra's concert tomorrow at the Berklee Performance Center will be its Boston premiere and will feature the American premiere of “Cerulean Skies," the 22-minute centerpiece of the group's new album, “Sky Blue," and an orchestral tour de force that swirls and billows like cumulonimbus clouds, augmented by real and simulated birdsong. (Schneider is, among other things, a birder and attuned to avian inspiration.)
Continue...
For more information contact All About Jazz.
