Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » The Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra: In Progress

188

The Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra: In Progress

By

View read count
The Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra: In Progress
The Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, a hard-driving local house band from Seattle, debuts with this album sculpted in the finest big band tradition. Led by saxophonist and composer Jim Cutler, the sixteen-piece big band features the best talented musicians from the Puget Sound area. The thirteen lively big band arrangements here are entirely comprised of new original compositions from Cutler and trumpeter Daniel Barry, except for John Coltrane's "Dear Love.

The repertoire conveys a modern swing rhythm, drawing upon stylish and sophisticated arrangements and developing a unique big band sound for this orchestra. There's plenty of exciting material to choose from, beginning with the opening "Mack's Place, a piece that, as Cutler writes, encapsulates in one chart everything the band can do: "this tune has it all. The music turns south with the Latin-shaded "Milk Way Mambo and then opens up with two of the best hard-swinging numbers in "Alan Weight Speaking and "Get In The Game, the former featuring some flugelhorn magic by Mike Hines and the latter another solid tenor solo by the leader.

Shifting direction a bit, Cutler's band provides a rather sultry encounter with the Brazilian-flavored "Encontro das Agua. For a taste of a little passion play, you need to check out "Checkered Demon, featuring a dynamite tenor passage by Richard Cole (not to be confused with altoist Richie Cole). Finally in closing out this recording, you have the hot, spicy and partly jungle jingle sound of "View from The Top, and the brief but beautiful light finale, "Twilight Dawned.

Jim Cutler fashions a terrific, rhythmically rich big band effort that's far more accomplished than its title might imply. This impressive and engaging set of sensational charts makes for one excellent musical experience and an outstanding debut.

Track Listing

Mack's Place; Milky Way Mambo; Alan Weight Speaking; Get In The Game; Encontro Das Aguas; Dreamcatcher; Dear Lord; In Progress; Autumn Mist; The Checkered Demon; May Day; View From The Top; Twilight Dawned.

Personnel

Jim Cutler
saxophone

Jim Cutler: leader,tenor, flute and clarinet; Steve Treseler, Vanessa Sielert, Richard Cole, James DeJoie, Lisa Gordanier, Chris Fagan, Paul Gillespie: reeds; Chris Amemiya, Steve Kirk, Chuck Wiese, Nelson Bell, Emily Asher: trombones; Dennise Haldane, Mike Mines, Al Kieth, Daniel Barry, Peter Greene: trumpets; Steve Rice: piano; Philip Demaree: bass; Greg Williamson (4,7,10,12), Chris Monroe (1,3,8,9), Scott Ketron (2,5,6,11): drums; Brian Kinsela; piano (4,7,10,12); Susan Pascal: vibraphone, marimba.

Album information

Title: In Progress | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Pony Boy 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

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

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.