Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Dave Douglas: Mountain Passages

373

Dave Douglas: Mountain Passages

By

View read count
Dave Douglas: Mountain Passages
A chunky stew of countless cultural influences and myriad musical forms, jazz has always stolen freely from just about anything it could get its hands on. This unfettered kleptomania has always been key to music's vibrant nature, yet at the same time has made the music itself increasingly difficult to define.

Case in point: pathologically restless trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas' Mountain Passages , the first release by his newly minted Greenleaf label. The 41-year-old Douglas, who seems intent on creating a different ensemble for every day of the year (this is the debut recording by the quintet he calls Nomad), has made a fascinating career out of rampant eclecticism; any one of his twenty-plus leader discs is more likely to contain variations on Webern or Schumann or traditional Hungarian cs'rd's than Ellington or Weill. Thus, being a Douglas recording, Mountain Passages is almost predictable in its unpredictability, from its unconventional lineup (with reedist Michael Moore, cellist Peggy Lee, tubaist Marcus Rojas, and drummer Dylan van der Scheff) to the circumstances surrounding its genesis. (The Festival at the Sound of the Dolomites in Northern Italy asked Douglas to compose music that would be "played between nine and twelve-thousand feet"—and was.)

Comprised of twelve short Douglas originals (most clock in at around four minutes or less), it's a warm, airy, lyrical album, swept with snatches of Alpine folk melodies, woozy oom-pah rhythms, swanny balladeering, Raymond Scott-like cartoon swing and leisurely free improvisation. Yet the captivating Passages also has a tightly composed, chamber music feel to it; as is Douglas' habit with small ensembles, each instrument holds an equally prominent place in the conversation. The music is at turns solemn, whimsical, darkly melancholic and plaintively gorgeous, but what exactly is it? Jazz? Well, yeah... sort of... maybe... sure. It's certainly as much jazz as it is as anything else and—like all Douglas' explorations—undeniably worth your attention.

Track Listing

Summit Music; Family Of The Climber; Gnarly Schnapps; Gumshoe; Twelve Degrees Proof; North Point Memorial; Cannonball Run; Palisades; A Nasty Spill; Purple Mountains Majesty; Off Major; Bury Me Standing; Encore - All is Forgiven.

Personnel

Album information

Title: Mountain Passages | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: Greenleaf Music

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.

Near

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.