Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Tim Hagans: The Avatar Sessions: The Music of Tim Hagans

298

Tim Hagans: The Avatar Sessions: The Music of Tim Hagans

By

View read count
Tim Hagans: The Avatar Sessions: The Music of Tim Hagans
Over the past three-and-a-half decades, trumpeter Tim Hagans has worked with the most accomplished big bands in the world. Time spent with Stan Kenton, Thad Jones, Maria Schneider and Bob Mintzer has often placed him at the epicenter of large group creativity. These associations, along with many others, have helped him flesh out his own unique compositional style. The Avatar Session is a showcase for this writing, which encompasses everything from lush, hazy ballads and bebop tributes to funky, riff based anthems of post-modern design.

The Norbotten Big Band—with whom Hagans has collaborated since 1996— brilliantly brings his creations to life. When this group tours Europe they often invite guests along for the ride and Hagans often writes music specifically for the honored artist. In bringing trumpeter Randy Brecker, drummer Peter Erskine, saxophonist George Garzone, saxophonist Dave Liebman and bassist Rufus Reid into the mix here, Hagans augments an already impressive group, allowing the music to take shape around the artists who inspired these works.

While the character of the music and the featured soloists change from track to track, Erskine's drumming is a key factor on many of the performances. On "Buckeyes," he manages to fill the gaps between the angular/broken riffs and provide some supportive swing, while still retaining some creative energy for soloing. Garzone and Hagans are featured prominently here and the wild, overlapping exchanges between all three men brings some organized chaos into the mix.

Hagans and Brecker heat things up on "Boo," as they team up or trade short little licks and solo bursts which are separated by a boogaloo/funk riff from the band. "Box of Cannoli" is full of different musical moods, including muted brass coloring, a focus on the piano trio—with some fine work from pianist Daniel Tilling—and some aggressive drum soloing. Hagans' harmonies seem to hang in the air on "Here With Me"—an expressive tune featuring Liebman on soprano saxophone.

"Palt Seanuts," a bop-inspired feast with trumpet and saxophone leading the charge, decompresses with some deep chords and angular bass licks before the parade of solos takes off. Erskine's solo comes last, and he appropriately ends his spot with a quote from Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts." "Rufus at Gilly's" gives Reid a platform to demonstrate his technique and creativity. Some searching bass work creates a spooky atmosphere, and Reid's use of ringing harmonics, richly bent notes and sliding sounds make the music all the more intriguing.

With The Avatar Sessions, Hagans manages to synthesize his lifelong big band experiences to create something new, showcasing the A-list jazz guests on an album that also highlight the impressive talents of the Norbotten Big Band.

Track Listing

Music Composed & Arranged by TIM HAGANS Tracks: Movement I 14:46 Movement II 12:01 Movement III 12:51 Movement IV 16:16 Movement V 11:50

Personnel

Tim Hagans
trumpet

TIM HAGANS, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpet (Solo on Movements III, IV & V) Ensemble I: FIETE FELSCH, lead alto saxophone, flute (solo Movement IV) FRANK DELLE, tenor saxophone, clarinet INGOLF BURKHARDT, trumpet, flugelhorn STEVE WISEMAN, trumpet, flugelhorn CLAUS STÖTTER, trumpet, flugelhorn (solo Movement III) KLAUS HEIDENREICH, trombone (solo Movement V) Ensemble II: PETER BOLTE, alto & soprano saxophone (solo Movement III) STEPHEN MEINBERG, trumpet, flugelhorn (solo Movement III) DAN GOTTSHALL, lead trombone (solo Movement III) DANIEL BUCH, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet (solo Movement II & III) Ensemble III: CHRISTOF LAUER, tenor saxophone THORSTEN BENKENSTEIN, lead trumpet, flugelhorn STEFAN LOTTERMAN, trombone (solo Movement III) INGO LAHME, bass trombone Ensemble IV JUKKIS UOTILA, drums ED HARRIS, guitar INGMAR HELLER, acoustic bass (solo Movement II) VLADYSLAV SENDECKI, piano (solo Movement I) MARCIO DOCTOR, percussion (solo Movement IV) HRÓLFUR VAGNSSON, Sound Design & Editing RUDOLF GROSSER, Sound Engineer Producers for NDR: AXEL DÜRR, STEFAN GERDES Recorded September 25 - 29, 2017 at Hamburg, NDR Studio 1 Painting on cover by PETER JOSYPH

Album information

Title: A Conversation | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Waiting Moon 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.