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MP3 Jens Wendelboe's Big Crazy Energy New York Band - Inspirations, Vol.1
9 MP3 Songs in this album (54:58) !
Related styles: Jazz: Big Band, Jazz: Progressive Jazz, Type: Improvisational
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FUN AND SOPHISTICATION IN JENS WENDELBOE’S BIG CRAZY ENERGY NEW YORK BAND’S NEW CD “INSPIRATIONS”
“Wendelboe … has earned a place near the head of the class among contemporary big-band composers and arrangers.” — Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
On Inspirations, the latest release by trombonist-composer Jens Wendelboe’s Big Crazy Energy New York Band, entertainment and intelligence go hand in hand. A genre-busting musical polymath who’s equally at home in jazz, classical, and pop music, Wendelboe on this CD pays homage to the jazz and pop music that he have shaped his vision of big band jazz. It’s a conception that sets feet tapping and uplifts the spirit, even as it engages the mind and challenges the players in his band. Whether they’re playing Lennon and McCartney, Joe Henderson, or one of Wendelboe’s own unfailingly lyrical originals, the Big Crazy Energy New York Band delivers music that’s good for the body and soul. The CD, produced by Wendelboe and co-produced Steven Jankowski, will be released February 16, 2010 on Rosa Records.
When he’s not jetting off to play at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo, tour with Blood, Sweat, and Tears, or serve as musical director for pop diva Donna Summers, Wendelboe devotes himself to composing and arranging for the jazz orchestra he’s fronted since 1984, when he first moved to New York from his native Norway to study composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Previous releases by the band have focused on jazz classics and Wendelboe’s own tunes. Inspirations includes Wendelboe’s jazzy recasting of Lennon and McCartney’s “A Day in Life,” Billy Cobham’s jazz-rock fusion flagwaver, “Pleasant Pheasant,” and lesser known jazz gems like Joe Henderson’s “Out of the Night” and Scott LaFaro’s “Gloria’s Step.” Wendelboe’s originals range from “Seasons Wander,” an introspective ballad showcase for vocalist Deb Lyons, to the soul jazz stylings of “Boone Dog Café” to “I Know, Later,” a dedication to his son written in 3/4 time. As writer Steven Loewy points out, “As a composer, Wendelboe layers sounds with hard-driving, tight playing, while exhibiting a characteristic exuberance and sense of humor. The pieces, while fully ensconced in the big band tradition, reflect his diverse training and interests, sometimes borrowing rhythms and motifs from rock and classical genres.”
Wendelboe’s arrangements display a classical composer’s attention to melody, counterpoint, and orchestral color, a pop musician’s knack for catchy riffs and punchy rhythms, and a jazz connoisseur’s knowledge of the music’s tradition. For instance, Wendelboe opens “Gloria’s Step & More” with a dense Stravinsky-like fanfare played by the massed horns, and later in the piece, orchestrates pianist Bill Evans’ solo from the composition’s original recording on Sunday at the Village Vanguard. The traditional “Dear Old Stockholm,” a long-time favorite with jazz musicians, also features a nod to a previous jazz master, with a saxophone-section arrangement of Miles Davis’s solo on his 1952 Blue Note recording of the tune. “Boone Dog Café” features a blend of Jazz Messengers horn arrangements, greasy organ-combo jazz, and contemporary synthesizer touches. “Ear Trumpet” and “Seasons Wander” cradle its fetching melodies in luscious, velvety harmonies. Perhaps the album’s tour de force is “A Day in Life,” which transforms the Beatle’s magnum opus into a multi-part jazz suite bursting with orchestral colors, riffing call and response, lyrical counter melodies, and shifting rhythms.
With Wendelboe conducting, the band and its soloists bring Wendelboe’s charts to exuberant life. “Pleasant Pheasant” jumps out at the listener with its tight, aggressive section work crackling over a hard, funky beat, while saxophonists Mark Fineberg and Ken Gioffre engage in a classic tenor battle. Wendelboe himself displays elegant muscle during his solo, maneuvering the driving tempo with racing lines, big, swinging riffs and a sweet tone darkened by the occasional growl. Wendelboe also shines on Joe Henderson’s very hip “Out of the Night,” in a fleet, sassy solo that’s vibrant and optimistic. The ensemble’s smooth section work and sensitive dynamics provide a jewel-like setting for vocalist Lyons, whose rich alto voice brings depth and sparkle to the evocative lyrics by Gloria Rosa.
Few performers today can boast a resume as lengthy as Wendelboe’s. He’s performed before huge audiences in the U.S., Europe, and Japan as musical director for disco/soul diva Donna Summer. He’s also played a private New Year’s Eve concert for his Majesty King Mohammed the 6th of Morocco. He has scored music for the long-running television soap opera, The Guiding Light, and composed award-winning chamber and symphonic classical works. In 2006, he became the newest member of ’60s pop super group Blood, Sweat, and Tears. He must have crazy energy indeed, because for 26 years, in addition these activities — and others such as performing in musical theater orchestras and teaching — Wendelboe has fronted the Big Crazy Energy New York Band, some of whose members have been with him from the beginning. “With a resume as fat as that of Jens (pronounced Yens) Wendelboe,” Steven Loewy writes, “you might think he should be a household name. And you''d be right, of course, except that the accomplished Wendelboe, who now lives in the United States, had the misfortune (at least from a worldwide jazz perspective) to make his mark in relatively tiny and isolated Oslo, Norway.”
Household name or not, Jens Wendelboe and the Big Crazy Energy New York Band shake the jazz big band tradition to its foundations on the wide-ranging and entertaining Inspirations.
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