Miniature

Kenton: Concerts in Miniature

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 15, 2015

In early 1952, money was tight for Stan Kenton. The musical experiments of his massive 39-piece Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra in 1950 had taken a toll on his wallet. What's more, the music didn't go over well with audiences, who found the classically influenced arrangements largely a bore. Kenton reconfigured his band in early 1952 and commissioned arrangements by Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan, Bill Holman and others. But he needed to get the word out. The NBC radio network ...
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Tomas Fujiwara Exploring the Drums' Potential as an Orchestra in Miniature

Source: Michael Ricci
May 2, 2010

The drummer Tomas Fujiwara works with rhythm as a pliable substance, solid but ever shifting.

Over the last five years he has established a busy profile on the experimental end of the jazz spectrum, where such perspective is vital; before that he was a cast member of “Stomp," the polymorphously percussive Off Broadway show. His style is forward-driving but rarely blunt or aggressive, and never random. He has a way of spreading out the center of a pulse while setting ...
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