Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Pierre D: China Jungle

105

Pierre D: China Jungle

Pierre D: China Jungle
Cross Cultural. From the opening notes, the New Jungle Orchestra (NJO) goes up on two wheels and fearlessly spins through a novel collection of compositions by Pierre Dørge and his band members and associates. At first blush, one would read the composition titles and conclude what Louis Armstrong did after having head Bebop: that this was all Chinese Music. Nothing could be further from the truth. China Jungle is a densely composed collection that exhibits all that is good and progressive in big band music in the late 20th Century.

Scandanavian Supremacy. Europe, most particularly Scandinavia, has produced a legion of fine big bands. The Danish label dacapo has made a point of documenting the music of the bands from Denmark. In addition to the New Jungle Orchestra, dacapo also records the Danish Radio Big Band, The Copenhagen Art Ensemble, as well as smaller groups like the Svend Asmussen Quartet. Dacapo is distributed by the effectively ubiquitous Naxos International . The Stateside contingency, Naxos of America, the exclusive American distributor of dacapo titles, was recently named America’s Number One Independent Classical Music Distributor.

Sustained Excitement. China Jungle was conceived during a NJO trip to Shanghai as a part of the Beijing International Jazz Festival / 1996 Shanghai International when Chinese harpist Yu Jun asked and was granted a performance with the band. This questional collaboration, one that could have gone horribly wrong and would have never been committed to disc, turned out to be quite interesting and entertaining. Recommended for BB enthusiasts.

Track Listing

Peking Jungle; china Jungle; Dragon Dance; Feng Huang, Magic Mystery Moon; Fou Fou Zong; Yuyuan Garden; Lions of Shanghai; Kunninggong; Sunshine Highway; Clear as a Bell; Siberian Tiger; the Master Comes; Lang Tung Ting; Welcome to China Jungle. (Total Playing Time 62:39).

Personnel

Pierre D

Album information

Title: China Jungle | Year Released: 1999 | Record Label: Dacapo Records

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

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

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.