Maria Schneider and the Clasijazz Big Band at the Barcelona Jazz Festival

Maria Schneider & Clasijazz Big Band
Paral·lel 62
56th Festival de Jazz de Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
November 6, 2024

Maria Schneider performed at the Barcelona Jazz Festival for the seventh time in its history, accompanied this time by the Clasijazz Big Band, a brave and successful musical project born in a place far from the nerve centers of jazz: the city of Almería, in southern Spain.

Schneider, who as usual was talkative, expressed her joy at the three-week tour she was undertaking with a brilliant orchestra that mixes extreme youth with old hands and which on this occasion had some special guests. Among its regular members is the Catalan trombonist and vocalist Rita Payés, who shone especially at the end of the evening, in the encores of two standards. The first, "Over the Rainbow," was magnificently arranged by Schneider so that Payés' fragile voice, endowed with a delightfully broken timbre, stood out above the dense orchestral mass. This feat is not easily achieved and was not always the case during the concert. In the second, a beautifully airy instrumental reading of "My Ideal," Payés used the trombone to pour out on the audience her velvety sound and her command of the lower registers. It was a penetrating, moving ending, with the performer overcome by emotion, but that was by no means the only moment of the night when sensitivity was on edge.

Towards the middle of the concert, Francisco Blanco "Latino," leader of the Sedajazz collective, put down his panoply of saxophones to address the audience. With the authority conferred upon him by his status as one of the affected, he expressed his thanks for the help received after severe flooding devastated some areas of Valencia, killing over 200 people. His speech ended with a minute of silence for the victims of the deadly floods, followed by the performance of a hopeful "Walking by Flashlight," recorded on Schneider's The Thompson Fields (ArtistShare, 2015), in which his baritone sweetly delved into the song's cotton-like lyricism. Next, Pablo Mazuecos, the creator of the Clasijazz Big Band, spoke, sharing his emotion on the immense achievement of carrying out this project with Schneider, whom he described as a "huge composer...," a phrase he could not finish as his voice broke and he burst into tears of uncontrollable joy.

And Mazuecos is not lacking in pride, nor is he wrong: Schneider is part of the current Olympus of jazz orchestration and has created an unmistakable personal brand whose influence is increasingly palpable in various formations that are inspired by her simultaneously dense and light sonic tapestries. Still, evolution of the Windom, Minnesota native extends beyond that of her music. It has gone hand in hand with personal growth and experiences that have brought to the surface the diverse concerns and criteria that spur her. These sophisticated musical artifacts convey the anxieties of an individual subsumed in a global maelstrom: a sometimes unnerving, sometimes disappointing, often disturbing reality dominated by ways and procedures that are questionable, if not downright socially irresponsible or criminal. This was the case of "Don't Be Evil," included in Schneider's CD Data Lords (ArtistShare, 2020), which co-opted Google's own motto to denounce what Big Data companies are doing to us as a society. In her spoken introduction to the theme, she made some remarks about the current political situation, a mere 12 hours after Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election. In strictly musical terms, the orchestra enhanced the fury and sarcasm of a piece that strayed far from the impressionism and subtly rounded contours that are a hallmark of Schneider's style. It was not hard to imagine Carla Bley nodding with satisfaction, wherever she is. Jaume Llombart's electric guitar and Miguel Moisés' trombone, the latter with very gratifying avant-garde manners, offered outstanding interventions in a composition that acts as an excellent example of the bandleader's "alternative side"—maybe less present but equally important—as a composer and arranger.

At other times, Schneider's compositions become undisguised tone poems that narrate epic or intimate personal stories. Her detailed explanations helped to unravel some of them, such as "Hang Gliding," which illustrates a thrilling adventure in her beloved Brazil, or "Cerulean Skies," in which she pours out her early ornithological vocation to describe the migration process of tens of thousands of birds from Central and South America to Central Park in New York City. "Hang Gliding" was notable for the way that Bruno Calvo's flugelhorn, in one of the best solos of the night, seduced with echoes of Art Farmer and Kenny Wheeler. Pedro Cortejosa's tenor sax, delivering a long and passionate speech à la Michael Brecker, also stood out especially. In "Cerulean Skies" Enrique Oliver's tenor reflected the sexual urge of Schneider's avian inspiration with a well-constructed solo that used harmonics and a growing, sensual legato. In sharp contrast, Philippe Thuriot silenced the entire volatile flock with his accordion in a delicate fragment accompanied by his own whistling. With intense twilight tones, this fascinating moment took the audience to a haven of tranquility within a piece of imposing lines that would give rise to splendid interventions by Bori Albero's double bass and Irene Reig's alto saxophone.

There was much more to that night, full of diverse sensitivity. The opening "Green Piece," a composition from Schneider's first album as a leader, Evanescence (Enja Records, 1994) featured an outside solo by Tete Leal on alto while "Dança Ilusória," the third movement of a suite included on her album Concert in the Garden (ArtistShare, 2004), highlighted Schneider's indebtedness to the harmonies of Brazilian music and the decisive influence of Gil Evans. The rhythm section shone with a highly motivated and precise Andreu Pitarch on drums, the rich sound and skillful fingering of Albero's double bass, and Daahoud Salim's extraordinary piano. The latter combined melodic subtlety and rhythmic energy in multiple contexts. Located between the three of them and the contingent of reeds and brass, classically trained Thuriot's accordion colored, questioned, and debated tirelessly with the rest of the band, playing an essential role that, as established on record by Gary Versace proves to be a differential factor in Schneider's sound world.

There are concerts, the emotional intensity of which notwithstanding, so thoroughly captivate an audience that they truly ask for more, not out of routine but out of genuine necessity. This was one of them, and thanks to the generosity of the orchestra we were able to enjoy the two encores already detailed. In them, the bandleader demonstrated—as if it was needed—her mastery in the conjugation of all the musical tenses. For two extensive but short hours, Schneider showed her passionate, dedicated way of conducting an ensemble, presenting once again her enormous art and that exquisite power endowed with solid conceptual foundations that distinguish her work and make her such a singular figure.

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