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Marty Ehrlich: The Long View

The Long View came out of a collaboration between Marty Ehrlich and his friend, the renowned painter Oliver Jackson, during a ten-week Harvard University residency in 2000. Inspired by Jackson’s work since the 1970s, Ehrlich sees his impressionistic paintings as "a visual counterpoint to what I have imagined in sound.” Although the music was developed to interact in exhibition with Jackson’s paintings, The Long View – comprised of six movements and a short postlude – stands on its own. Besides being inspired by Jackson’s six paintings, there is no direct correlation between them and Ehrlich’s compositions.

Twenty-one outstanding musicians contribute to The Long View, not all of them on every movement. On the different parts Ehrlich plays flute, soprano, alto, tenor sax and bass clarinet. The music constantly shifts, winding back and forth between various styles, textures, harmonies, and at times Roscoe Mitchell- or Ornette Coleman-inspired free jazz. Meat and potato blues slides into butt-kicking funk, on into hard swing and screaming collective improvisation. Several beautiful solos glue together the creative orchestral interplay of the instruments, all adding up to a unique listening experience.

Three movements (I, III and VI) feature eleven horns, with I and VI including bass and drums. Movement II spotlights Ehrlich’s soprano sax teamed with a string quartet of violin, viola, cello and bass. The album concludes with Postlude, a delicately interwoven duet between Ehrlich’s tenor sax and bass clarinet alongside Wayne Horvitz's piano.

Marty Ehrlich writes in the album liner notes that his “compulsion was to give expression to the place where beauties that should not be forgotten and beauties that have yet to be imagined collide, coexist and transform.” The Long View accomplishes that goal in spades.

Track Listing

1. The Long View: Movement I 12:07 2. The Long View: Movement II 12:12 3. The Long View: Movement III 8:49 4. The Long View: Movement IV 8:52 5. The Long View: Movement V 8:29 6. The Long View: Movement VI 10:48 7. The Long View: Postlude 2:25

Personnel

Marty Ehrlich

woodwinds

Marty Ehrlich: Flute, Bass Clarinet, Tenor, Alto, and Soprano Saxophones; Mark Dresser: Bass; Mark Helias: Bass, Conductor; Andy Laster: Clarinet, Baritone Saxophone; Sam Furnace Flute, Alto Saxophone; Wayne Horvitz: Piano; Ray Anderson: Trombone; Clark Gayton: Trombone; Eddie Allen: Trumpet; James Zollar: Trumpet; Marcus Rojas: Tuba; Mark Feldman: Violin; Eddie Bobe: Bongos, Cowbell; Erik Friedlander: Cello; Robert DeBellis: Bass Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet; J.D. Parran: Contrabass Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone; Pheeroan akLaff: Drums; Bobby Previte: Drums, Bass Drums, Tambourine; Michael Sarin: Drums; John Clark: Horn; Ralph Farris: Viola; Ned Rothenberg: Bass Clarinet, Alto Saxophone.

Album information

Title: The Long View | Year Released: 2003 | Record Label: Unknown label

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