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Mark Hetzler: Blues, Ballads, and Beyond: Influences Outside the Concert Hall
ByHetzler presents the trombone in a variety of formats from the space poetry of Michael Colgrass' "Mystic with a Credit Card" to Robert Suderburg's crepuscular "Night Set of Trombone and Piano." Dennis Llinas pairs the trombone with vides approaching an interesting alchemy of jazz and chamber music. Enrique Crespo's "Improvisation No. 1" is a solo excursion into the brass dynamics of is instrument replete with serious musical thought tempered by a sly sense of humor. Brian Lynn's fanciful "Doolallynastics" is pure joy expressed this deadly serious camp and vocals raspberries. This may be the trombone's true temperament, one of defiance and levity.
Hetzler closes his collection with a "Sonata" by Dr. Jack Cooper. Cooper, Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Memphis, garnered impressive positive attention for two recent projects, the monumental Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra (Planet Arts Records, 2014) and bright and innovative The Mike Waldrop Big Band's Time Within Itself (Origin, 2015) featuring Cooper's superb charts. Hetzler approaches Coopers three-section composition overtly with confidence and fertile imagination. The opening section "Mambo" features Hetzler against piano, bass, and percussion. "Solo" is exactly that, Hetzler alone, once more, exploring both smooth crevasses and rough edges of contemporary musical thought. Things are wound up in the coda, "Naningo," an anxious and moody exposition of staccato notes and brisk skipping time. For a rather specialized release, Hetzler's Blues, Ballads, and Beyond: Influences Outside the Concert Hall does for the trombone what Matt Hiamovitz's Orbit: Music for Solo Cello (19452014) (Pentatone, 2015) did for that instrument.
Track Listing
Mystic with a Credit Card (Michael Colgrass); Javier’s Dialog (Dennis Llinas); Improvisation No. 1 (Enrique Crespo); Sonata for Trombone and Piano (Daniel Schnyder); Night Set for Trombone and Piano (Robert Suderburg); Doolallynastics (Bryan Lynn); Sonata (Jack Cooper).
Personnel
Mark Hetzler
tromboneMark Hetzler: trombone; Vincent Fuh: piano, keyboards; Buzz Kemper: narration; Anthony Di Sanza: precussion; Steve Kieve: marimba; Joseph Murfin: vibraphone; Brett Walter: vibes and gongs; Martha Fischer: piano; Todd Hammes: drums; Nick Moran: bass; Yorel Lashley: congas.
Album information
Title: Blues, Ballads, and Beyond: Influences Outside the Concert Hall | Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Summit Records
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