Florian Ross Big Company: Ties & Loose Ends
ByThere are several good reasons for that title, which Ross fully explains in the liner notes. And while he's no one-man band (seventeen others are involved), Ross not only wrote eight of the album's eleven numbers and arranged everything, he also chose the musicians, produced the album, mixed and mastered its various tracks, designed the jacket cover and took the photographs that are displayed inside and out. One assumes he also swept the studio and turned out the lights afterward. As Ross loves classical and popular music as well as jazz, he has augmented his own compositions with luminous arrangements of Maurice Ravel's graphic prelude to "Le Tombeau de Couperin," Modest Mussorgsky's tranquil "Une Larme" and Victor Young's elegant standard from the Great American Songbook, "My Foolish Heart."
Ross's themes are by and large "earnest contemporary," comparable to music being written these days by the likes of Maria Schneider, Dave Cavanagh, Darcy James Argue, Carla Bley, Kenny Werner, Dave Chisholm and others. Nothing is amiss until track nine, "Eleanor," on which Ross employs an amplified and distorted voice to undergird the ensemble and Phillip Bramswig's guitar. Well-meant, no doubt, but largely incoherent and thus pointless. Alas, Stefan Schmid's squawking tenor solo only adds to the confusion. Elsewhere, matters are far more balanced and agreeable, starting with Ross's "Doors Closed" and continuing through "Cycling," "Running Walls," "Prickly Pear," Meditation in D," "Slow Motian" and "Rosa Cantina." Each of those essays is rewarding, with perceptive solos along the way by Schmid, soprano Frank Vaganee (who leads the splendid Brussels Jazz Orchestra), alto Christoph Mockel, tenor Wolfgang Fuhr, baritone Marcus Bartelt, trumpeters Matthias Bergmann and Menzel Mutzke, trombonists Klaus Heidenreich and Peter Schwatlo, pianist Lucas Leidinger and bassist Dietmar Fuhr. The rhythm section is dependable, albeit slightly under-recorded at times.
When all is played and done, not a bad start for someone who waited more than forty years to record his first big-band album. Surely, Ross must have enough fresh charts set aside for another album (or more).
Track Listing
Doors Closed; Tombeau de Couperin: Prelude; Cycling; Une Larme; Running Walls; Prickly Pear; Meditation in D; Slow Motian; Eleanor; Rosa Canina; My Foolish Heart.
Personnel
Florian Ross: leader, composer, arranger; Jan Schneider: trumpet; Volker Deglmann: trumpet; Menzel Mutzke: trumpet; Matthias Bergmann: trumpet; Frank Vaganee:alto, soprano sax; Christoph Mockel: alto sax; Stefan Schmid: tenor sax, clarinet; Wolfgang Fuhr: tenor sax; Marcus Bartelt: baritone sax; Klaus Heidenreich: trombone; Peter Schwatio: trombone; Felix Fromm: trombone; Ingo Lahme: trombone; Phillip Bramswig: guitar; Lucas Leidinger: piano; Dietmar Fuhr: bass; Fabian Arends: drums.
Album information
Title: Ties & Loose Ends | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Fuhrwerk Musik
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Instrument: Composer/conductor
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