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Album Review

United Women's Orchestra: UWO

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 1999

This is the earlier of two CDs by Germany’s forward–leaning United Women’s Orchestra; for an appraisal of its more recent release (The Blue One), see the June ’99 big–band reviews. This is uncompromisingly sophisticated music in a Charles Mingus/Gil Evans/Maria Schneider groove, and not for the faint of heart. The compositions — by co–leaders Leach (four) and Fuchs (three) — are richly textured and absorbing tone poems, unsparingly swathed in polyrhythms and counterpoint, and the UWO unravels them flawlessly. Leach ...

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Album Review

United Women's Orchestra: The Blue One

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 1999

The Blue One is the debut recording by the well–schooled United Women’s Orchestra, a forward–leaning all–female ensemble from Cologne, Germany. Co–leaders Christina Fuchs (three) and Hazel Leach (four) composed and arranged all of the songs, and they shadow closely the groundbreaking endeavors of such respected contemporaries as Carla Bley and Maria Schneider. All of the musicians save Leach and guest vocalist Christine Duncan are from Germany; Leach came to the UWO from Arnhem in the Netherlands, while Duncan hails from ...