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The UMO Jazz Orchestra: Kari Heinil
by Jack Bowers
Finland’s UMO Orchestra looks inward on this album, recorded about four years ago in Helsinki, with ten of its dozen selections and all arrangements by present or former members of the ensemble. There’s a lot of good music on offer, but one must readily concede that it’s an acquired taste. In other words, UMO is emphatically cutting–edge and makes few concessions to the big–band models that have preceded it. Thankfully, those few concessions do include melody, harmony and rhythm (this ...
read moreThe UMO Jazz Orchestra: One More Time
by Jack Bowers
What can one say when the composer is widely acclaimed, the orchestra world–class, and the music (in his opinion) well–written and arranged but singularly unexciting? Well, he could begin by noting that One More Time, the UMO Jazz Orchestra’s collaboration with composer / trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and vocalist Norma Winstone, is far better than its earlier album for A–Records, Electrifying Miles (AL 75153), with another guest trumpeter, Tim Hagans. This one is at least listenable — but not much more ...
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