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Enrico Pieranunzi & Bert Joris: Chet Remembered
by Chris May
Chet Remembered is the second disc the pianist Enrico Pieranunzi has recorded with a big band in as many years. Both are what used to be called “concept albums." 2022's offering, Blues & Bach (Challenge), was made with the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, and celebrated the compositions of John Lewis, mainly those Lewis recorded with the Modern Jazz Quartet. It is a lovely disc. Lovely, too, is Chet Remembered, made with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, conducted by ...
Continue ReadingSimone Zanchini: The Music Of Nino Rota
by Howard Mandel
"I'm a musician who plays accordeon, not an accordeonist who plays jazz," says Simone Zanchini, proud of a distinction that is substantiated by Nino--his 25th album in the 20 years since his recording debut. Using vast resources drawn from the panoply of music he's studied, discovered, invented and developed for his too often stereotyped and maligned but in truth magnificent instrument, Zanchini embraces and transforms half a dozen already complexly compelling works of the great Italian soundtrack composer Nino Rota, ...
Continue ReadingJim McNeely/Frankfurt Radio Big Band: Rituals
by Jack Bowers
The first thirty-three minutes or so of Rituals, the latest album by the excellent Frankfurt Radio (hr) Big Band, is an homage to Igor Stravinsky's symphonic suite The Rite of Spring, which premiered in Paris in 1913, reimagined “in the Stravinsky spirit" by the group's director, Jim McNeely, in a big-band framework and featuring the acclaimed American tenor saxophonist Chris Potter. The first three movements are designated “Adoration," the next two “Sacrifice," and McNeely has added a sixth, “Rituals Rebirth," ...
Continue ReadingJim McNeely Frankfurt Radio Big Band feat. Chris Potter: Rituals
by Angelo Leonardi
Commissionata dall'Alte Oper Frankfurt a Jim McNeely nell'ambito del festival dedicato a Stravinsky del 2013, quest'originale esecuzione de “Le Sacre du Printemps" è stata registrata due anni dopo in studio e viene pubblicata solo ora. Assieme all'arrangiatore di Chicago, i protagonisti sono Chris Potter al sax tenore e soprano, e la Frankfurt Radio Big Band. La presenza di una figura solista chiarisce da subito che non si tratta di una rivisitazione de “La sagra della primavera" ma ...
Continue ReadingDave Douglas: A Single Sky
by Martin Longley
Here is yet another facet of Dave Douglas, an artist who is constantly seeking fresh discoveries. This album benefits from the full forces of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band (FRB), brashly realizing the composer's large lyricism. Douglas now turns his auteur skills to writing inflated-scale compositions, although his own soloing role is not diminished. His features are frequently the kernel of the operation. The FRB are conducted and arranged by Jim McNeely and the most familiar player ...
Continue ReadingDave Douglas: A Single Sky
by Troy Collins
On his first big band recording, award winning trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and Greenleaf Music label founder Dave Douglas is joined by the Frankfurt Radio Bigband, conducted by composer/arranger Jim McNeely, with whom Douglas studied in the mid-1980s. Presenting a previously unheard facet of Douglas' artistry, A Single Sky features new compositions written expressly for big band, as well as McNeely's nuanced arrangements of a few of Douglas' older tunes, which sheds new light on his earlier work without obscuring the ...
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