Ingrid Laubrock: Two Works For Orchestra With Soloists

Large ensemble recordings are just not attempted these days. That is unless one is blessed with Lincoln Center's budget or you happen to be Anthony Braxton or maybe Maria Schneider. Further, to assemble a large cast of 47 musicians plus two conductors for a recording that features written classical music, free improvisation conduction, and superstar soloists is practically unthinkable. But here it is. Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock presents a Mary Shelley modern Prometheus "It's Alive" discovery.

Two Works For Orchestra With Soloists includes "Vogelfrei" and the four-part "Contemporary Chaos Practices," which is anything but a free-for-all. Laubrock, who has distinguished her writing for her Septet Serpentines, Anti-House quintet, an octet, Kris Davis' Paradoxical Frog, and her wind and brass quintet Ubatuba, is a rare combination of free improviser with a gift for composition.

The jaw dropping complexity, and at times density of this music, makes for a revitalizing listen. The classical orchestral members maintain a modern compositional sound that parts its waters for the soloists Laubrock, guitarist Mary Halvorson, pianist Kris Davis, and trumpeter Nate Wooley. The four soloists are often mentioned these days in context of not only jazz but free improvisation, and new music. Halvorson's unique guitar phrasing follows the orchestra's opening in the title track, which continues to percolate beneath her solo. Next comes Wooley and Laubrock, and the orchestra as an integrated biotic, swirling, expanding, Darwinian evolutionary stew. The second composition "Vogelfrei" carries a denser mess with an almost constant half-light. Laubrock mixes an electronic hum with vocals and ever slicing and cutting woodwinds. The music is ambitious without becoming intolerant. The improvised parts thrill without going off the rails, as do the scored sections. This is a recording you congratulate the musicians for creating and yourself for listening.