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Maria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords
by Jerome Wilson
Composer Maria Schneider has long been writing and speaking about the dangers of the omnipresent digital universe, intellectual property theft, gathering and manipulation of personal data by big tech companies, the unchecked proliferation of false and misleading material, and so on. Those concerns form the basis of her latest musical project, Data Lords, a 2 CD set examining the conflicting realities of the digital and real worlds. The two CDs are labeled The Digital World" and Our Natural ...
Continue ReadingMaria Schneider: Data Lords
by Doug Hall
Maria Schneider, jazz pianist, orchestral composer and 2019 NEA Jazz Master, has just released a new double-album, Data Lords (artistShare, 2020), which creates poignant musical imagery about our data-driven world. Schneider, who has been an active advocate for musicians' rights and copyright, has followed-on this impact, citing big data" companies as manipulators of music, culture and privacy. This collection of uniquely and emotionally rendered original compositions addresses the conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, featuring Schneider's orchestra of ...
Continue ReadingMaria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords
by Karl Ackermann
The skillfully designed cover art tells part of the story; a leaf--half as nature intended--the remainder, a circuit board doppelganger. The pastoral soundscapes associated with the music of Grammy-winning composer/bandleader Maria Schneider belie her activist alter-ego. An outspoken critic of copyright protections, prejudicial revenue schemes and the abuses of big data," Schneider has authored op-eds and testified before the US Congress. She ventures onto unfamiliar terrain, coalescing her passions on a masterwork double album, Data Lords. The two ...
Continue ReadingMarshall Gilkes, Marilyn Maye and more
by Joe Dimino
The legendary singer Marilyn Maye kicks off this week's Neon Jazz in pure style with a classic song and a clip from her live 90th Birthday performance in Kansas City on Veteran's Day 2018. We catch up with new work by the great John Petrucelli off his 2018 CD Presence and move on into the great Marshall Gilkes and the WDR Big Band. Then, we look into the world of two cats that had a huge impact on Marshall and ...
Continue ReadingDan Bilawsky's Best Releases of 2018
by Dan Bilawsky
Every little bit of the year 2018 will soon take form as memory--first recent, then distant--but the fine music gifted to us in those twelve months will be forever present, living on in ears, hearts and minds. I had the pleasure of hearing north of 400 albums this past year, and I had the privilege of reviewing more than 75 of those for All About Jazz. These are the bunch from that review list that left the strongest impression. (Note: ...
Continue ReadingMarshall Gilkes / WDR Big Band: Always Forward
by Jack Bowers
This is the second album on which Maryland-born trombonist Marshall Gilkes (pronounced Jilks") has collaborated with Germany's superlative WDR Big Band, a world-class ensemble with whom he has also served as a member of the trombone section. This time around, Gilkes not only gets to solo but to conduct, compose (eight numbers including the three-part Denali Suite") and arrange (all of the album's ten selections). If that calls to mind a tour de force, give yourself a ...
Continue ReadingMarshall Gilkes & The WDR Big Band: Always Forward
by Dan Bilawsky
Ever onward for Marshall Gilkes. After snagging a Grammy nomination for Köln (Alternate Side Records, 2016)--a collaborative venture with the WDR Big Band (of which he was a member from early 2010 to the close of 2013) and one of the standout large ensemble releases of recent years--this sought-after trombonist-composer could have easily retreated to smaller scenarios and sideman work. But the very nature of his being as a musician--the urge to keep forging ahead--brought him back to the big ...
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