Without bowing to genre restrictions, Gabriel Zucker's indie jazz orchestra The Delegation combines free jazz, chamber forms, avant song structures and experimental layering & transitions, as his large work in four sections of three movements each, explores time and the competing impulses of a backwards-looking nostalgia and a forwards-looking futurist belief in progress; innovative & stunning!
Format: 2 CDs Condition: New Released: 2021 Country: USA Packaging: Digipack - 3 panel Recorded at Systems Two, in Brooklyn, New York, on December 2nd and 3rd, 2017, by Max Ross; and at Oktaven Audio, in Mount Vernon, New York, on November 20th, 2019, by Ryan Streber.
Personnel:
Gabriel Zucker-piano, compositions, lyrics, vocals, electronics
4. IV. Someone To Watch You, Parts 1-3 (September) 9:39
5. V. Stage Whisper (Or, The Inability To See The Present In The Present) (October) 6:01
6. VI. Confidence White (November) 10:02
CD2
1. VII. Songbird 5:55
2. VIII. Requiem #2 (Well) 13:13
3. IX. Shallow Times 5:59
4. X. Such Closer #2 5:21
5. XI. Requiem #3 (Future) 9:10
6. XII. How To Know, Forever (Evasiveness) 7:34
sample the album:
descriptions, reviews, &c.
"The latest release from polymath and musical maximalist Gabriel Zucker is a sprawling and ambitious achievement that defies categorization, featuring complex mixed-meter jazz, virtuosic chamber music, electronic soundscapes, and indie art rock -- performed with emotion and urgency by Zucker's virtuoso large ensemble The Delegation.
Written primarily between 2015 and 2018, during several stints Zucker spent living and performing in England and throughout Europe, the record reckons with time, and with the competing impulses of a backwards-looking nostalgia and a forwards-looking futurist belief in progress. Leftover Beats is built on a dialog between two different ensembles: Several movements are performed by a chamber ensemble, while the rest feature a larger ensemble of horns, rhythm section, and voices more firmly rooted in jazz.
The work is split into four sections of three movements each. Past is manic and alive, culminating in contrapuntal chamber-music romanticism. Autumn 2016 focuses mainly on November; the night of the election is grotesquely illustrated. Present feels subdued and chastened in its aftermath. Future is a dreamscape of synthesizer and sound collage nightmares punctuated by a Mahler-esque climax in "Requiem III", before we close on Zucker's solo piano in "How to Know, Forever", drifting off into the sands of time."-ESP-Disk"
"Gabriel Zucker's indie jazz orchestra was born at the Banff Jazz and Creative Music Workshop. Combining an array of disparate influences into a unique and emotionally immediate sound, The Delegation has performed throughout North America and Europe, and Zucker's compositions for the group have received awards from ASCAP and the American Composers Forum JFund grant. The group's singular musical philosophy has been profiled at length by the Ottawa Citizen, Jazz Speaks, and the American Composers Forum.
In 2016, The Delegation brought its unique concept to life with the release of Evergreen (Canceled World), Zucker's maximalist 12-movement composition that serves as the band's sprawlingly ambitious debut record, on ESP-Disk'. The record was awarded 4.5 stars in Downbeat and 4 stars in All About Jazz."-Gabriel Zucker Website
"Sometimes you just need to kick back with some serious music. Pianist and composer Gabriel Zucker's latest effort is a double album that covers a dramatic span of musical styles, from big band sounds, avant jazz, art song, chamber music, and tripped-out rock. Both experimental and expansive, Leftover Beats From The Edges Of Time also features 17 musicians, though not all appear on every single track. This lineup is stellar, with Adam O'Farrill, Anna Webber, Yuma Uesaka, Joanna Mattrey, Mariel Roberts, Kate Gentile, and Matteo Liberatore among others.
Perhaps the most stunning aspect is Zucker's unabashed and continuous use of complexity. Instead of one melody or theme at a time, he often employs two or three, even behind the vocalists. But this all-out approach is tempered and controlled by Zucker's charts. One clearly gets the sense that this chaos is accomplishing exactly what he wants. In the perpetual changes and disciplined weirdness, one can even hear echoes of Henry Cow and U Totem.
There is so much to unpack over this album's 90 minutes, that I can say no more than to grab this one as soon as it is out in late September. This is dense, modern orchestral music on steroids. Two thumbs way up.
As a final note, Zucker is a pretty smart guy - he graduated summa cum laude from Yale double majoring in ethics, politics, & economics and music, and he holds a masters degree in applied statistics from Oxford. For the latter, he focused on applications of machine learning to social policy administration.
You can hear the math if you listen carefully."-Mike, AMN Reviews