As if the sound of this Virginia-based nonet weren't big enough, Fight the Big Bull have invited New York arranger and trumpeter Steven Bernstein to add his brand of chunky jazz to the mix in this new release that has the best of both the improv and compositional worlds in some very inspired free blowing and some cunningly composed and arranged charts.
An ensemble this large can be tricky in free improv, unless the musicians are intimately familiar with one another, and this is obviously the case here, judging from the cohesive playing throughout the disc.
While Bernstein (of the Lounge Lizards, Sex Mob and Millennial Territory Orchestra) is a catalytic force on this disc, eight compositions are evenly distributed between him and guitarist/leader Matt White, while a ninth tune, "Jemima Surrender," was penned by Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm during their days with the Band.
The nine tracks feature material that ranges from some delicately textured writing as in "Mobile Tigers," which seems to float and come to be as if borne by a calm, steady breeze, and more funky tunes like "Mothra," in which all the power of a big band is bought to the fore. The latter composition has the tasteful building of an engaging, complex piece that makes as much use of the possible volume of the nonet as it does of the varied colors and textures of the instruments (saxes, trumpets, trombones, guitar, bass, drums and percussion). Its funky groove after a minimalist introduction provides a springboard for some of the disc's best solos.
Bernstein's arrangement of "Jemima Surrender" is impressive for it color contrasts, a pulling-out-all-the-stops example of what an arrangement can do for a familiar composition, transforming it into a new piece. Also, as a trumpeter, Bernstein adds a wild second line to the already very able voice of fellow trumpeter Bob Miller.
The title tune is very spare, making maximum use of each instrument in this multi-voiced orchestra, and contains a memorably fluid tenor solo. We get some Ellingtonian touches in "Gold Lions,'" and some Mingusian flavors in the shifting tempi and textures of many of these pieces, although there's also some rocking out in "Gold lion," in a kind of Ellington-meets-the-Rolling-Stones moment. Another rock moment happens in the Bernstein-penned "Martin Denn," and the closer, "Rockers" is an equally eclectic, multi-textured, yet cohesive and coherent piece that shows these musicians are on the same wavelength.
Electronics meet acoustics in the cello, guitar/bass opening of the suite called "Eddie and Cameron Strike Back/ Satchel Paige," which is, again, Ellingtonian in its formal and in some of its tonal concepts, but which contains a large portion of newness, with the percussive lines, the rhythms and the presence of some of the freest playing on the album.
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