Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » John Daversa Jazz Orchestra Featuring Justin Morell: All...

5

John Daversa Jazz Orchestra Featuring Justin Morell: All Without Words: Variations Inspired by Loren

John Daversa Jazz Orchestra Featuring Justin Morell: All Without Words: Variations Inspired by Loren
Trumpeter John Daversa takes the biggest artistic challenge of his career with All Without Words: Variations Inspired by Loren. It is a large scale orchestral piece—a "jazz with strings" affair if it needs a label—that goes well its seminal predecessors in the style, to wit a pair of Charlie Parker With Strings albums (both bearing the same title), initially released on EmArcy, and reissued together later on a CD compilation (plus extra tracks) in 1995 on Verve; and trumpeter Clifford Brown's Clifford Brown With Strings (EmArcy, 1955).

The Brown and Parker sets seemed an attempt at making "nice music" featuring mostly familiar popular tunes, spruced up and sweetened with strings to make the sound more palatable, perhaps, to those who might not dive into a small ensemble jazz recording by Parker with Dizzy Gillespie or Clifford Brown with Richie Powell and Max Roach. That is not a knock on the Parker and Brown "strings" albums; Parker's is excellent, essential even, while Brown's is very good. But in retrospect, it still feels like those early efforts lacked a bit of meat on the bones of the more modern recordings in the "with string" style, such as trumpeter Wallace Roney's Misteriosos (Warner Brother, 1994) and Bob Belden's Black Dahlia (Blue Note, 2001).

A big chunk of that meat on the bones on All Without Words: Variation Inspired By Loren comes from guitarist Justin Morell's concept and his compositions. Daversa started the ball rolling on the project when he asked Morell—his friend and longtime musical running mate—to write a large scale orchestral jazz piece. Morell came up with a paean to his nonverbal autistic son, Loren, a work that became a lush examination of the trials and tribulations— and the joys—of raising a special child.

Beyond the difficulties Justin Morell faced, what the music manifests, above all else—with its full orchestra of strings and woodwinds, percussion and a choir—is the pure and unconditional love that goes into challenges facing the caretaking involved with Loren.

The twelve tunes presented here are masterfully arranged. The orchestral setting never overpowers the message or sound, and Daversa's trumpet, out front, is soulful and empathic, serving as the narrator of Loren and Justin Morell's journey.

There have been great orchestral jazz albums in the past: Charlie Parker's early 1950s shot across the bow, of course, and the previously mentioned Wallace Roney and and Bob Belden discs; saxophonist Art Pepper's Winter Moon (Galaxy Records, 1981), alto saxophonist Paul Desmond's Desmond Blue (RCA Victor, 1962), and the Claus Ogerman/Michael Brecker collaboration Cityscape (Warner Brothers, 1982). All Without Words: Variations Inspired By Loren rises to that level of great artistry and beauty.

Track Listing

Loren's Theme; Searching but Never Finding; Two Steps Forward; Seeing It Again for the First Time; The Urgency of Every Moment; Invisible Things; Walking in Our Own Footsteps/The Circle Game; The Smallest Thing; A Day Is Forever/Like Any Other; Three Roads Diverged; Learning What It Means to Be; It's Enough to Be Here, Now.

Personnel

John Daversa
trumpet
Tai Cohen
piano
Troy Roberts
saxophone
Melvin Butler
saxophone
Matt Clarke
clarinet
Scott Flavin
composer / conductor
Amanda Quist
composer / conductor
Abby Young
composer / conductor
Lev Garfein
violin
Additional Instrumentation

Scott Flavin, orchestra conductor; Amanda Quist, choir conductor; Abby Young, concertmaster. Violin I: Abby Young; Gregory Carreno; Violin II: Svetlana Salminen; Yuhao Zhou; Orlando Forte; Katarina Nazarova; Julia Jakkel; Viola: Matt Nabours; Vishnu Ramankutty; Ross DeBardelaben; Cello: Brent Charran; Shea Kole; Tadao Ito; Bass: Brian Powell; Ethan Olaguibel; Winds: Jennifer Grim: flute; Alyssa Mena: flute, alto flute; Troy Roberts: soprano and tenor saxophone; Melvin Butler: soprano and tenor saxophone; Frankie Capoferri: clarinet, bass clarinet; Richard Todd: horn; Stan Spinola: horn; Antoni Olesik: timpani, vibraphone, glockenspiel, marimba; Choir: Emily Finke: soprano; Safia Zaman: soprano; Alexandra Colaizzi: alto; Kate Reid: alto; Sidney O’Gorman: tenor; Noah Zaidspiner: tenor; Thandolwethu Mamba: bass; Dylan Melville: bass.

Album information

Title: All Without Words: Variations Inspired by Loren | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Tiger Turn

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.