Maria Schneider & Dawn Upshaw - Winter Morning Walks

Styles: Jazz, Big Band 
Year: 2013
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:11
Size: 127,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:34)  1. Perfectly Still This Solstice Morning
(1:54)  2. When I Switched On a Light
(3:51)  3. Walking by Flashlight
(2:45)  4. I Saw a Dust Devil This Morning
(3:57)  5. My Wife and I Walk the Cold Road
(2:20)  6. All Night, in Gusty Winds
(1:25)  7. Our Finch Feeder
(2:24)  8. Spring, the Sky Rippled with Geest
(6:05)  9. How Important it Must Be
(4:27) 10. Prologue
(4:48) 11. The Dead in Frock Coats
(3:49) 12. Souvenir of the Ancient World
(6:10) 13. Don't Kill Yourself
(4:35) 14. Quadrille

Maria Schneider proved her genius as a composer and arranger beyond any doubt with Concert in the Garden (ArtistShare, 2004), and she did it again on her second masterpiece of orchestral jazz, Sky Blue (ArtistShare, 2007). With Winter Morning Walks, Schneider introduces her first works with major orchestras, the Australian Chamber Orchestra on the nine part "Winter Morning Walks," and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra on "Carlo Drummond de Andrade Stories," both in partnership with soprano Dawn Upshaw. "Winter Morning Walks," puts music to the poetry of Ted Kooser, the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2004 to 2006. These short, clear, simple and profound pieces were composed during his recovery from cancer treatment. Upshaw's vocals soar.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra along with long time Schneider compatriots Frank Kimbrough (piano), Scott Robinson (reeds), and Jay Anderson (bass) caress the words, inject small surprises inside the pastel string washes, violins and violas whispering like soft breezes through the prairie grass, making the canopies of the tall trees sing. After the subtle magnificence, the hushed beauty of "Winter Morning Walks," it's probably best to take a break, or to perhaps listen to the work again. It is an experience to be savored before moving on to "Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories." Carlos Drummond de Adrade (1902 to 1987) was one of Brazil's greatest poets. His writing was most often rooted in the everyday, often featuring contrasts between moods of darkness and light. The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra features a broader palette of colors, with the strings joined by woodwinds and brass embracing the vocals. The backdrop behind Upshaw is more colorful here, though the moods are often darker. "The Dead in Frock Coats" throbs with a deep, aching melancholy; while "Don't Kill Yourself" floats back and forth between whimsey and deep despair, narrated by the poet's street-wise and somewhat detached yet sympathetic even loving voice.

Winter Morning Walks features two major works by a major artist. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis has long been an advocate for Duke Ellington as the greatest composer/arranger that the United States ever produced. That's a hard point to argue against. We may now, with the release of "Winter Morning Walks" and "Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories," have to acknowledge Maria Schneider as our greatest "living" arranger/composer. ~ Dan McClenaghan https://www.allaboutjazz.com/winter-morning-walks-maria-schneider-artist-share-review-by-dan-mcclenaghan.php

Personnel: Winter Morning Walks: Maria Schneider: composer; Dawn Upshaw: vocals; Jay Anderson: bass; Frank Kimbrough: piano; Scott Robinson: alto clarinet, bass clarinet; The Australian Chamber Orchestra. Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories: Maria Schneider: composer; Dawn Upshaw: vocals; The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Winter Morning Walks

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Tineke Postma - The Dawn of Light

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2011
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:35
Size: 129,9 MB
Art: Front

(6:38)  1. Canção de Amor (Suite I Na Floresta do Amazonas)
(7:10)  2. Falling Scales
(4:19)  3. Before the Snow
(5:37)  4. Leave Me A Place Underground
(6:59)  5. The Observer
(5:47)  6. Off Minor
(4:22)  7. Newland
(4:49)  8. The Man Who Stared At Coats
(4:37)  9. Beyond Category
(6:12) 10. Tell It Like It Is

Since her 2004 debut as a leader, Dutch saxophonist Tineke Postma has released records almost like clockwork every alternate year, with The Traveller (EtceteraNow, 2009), as strong a statement as she's made, featuring a quartet of Americans including drummer Terri Lyne Carrington constant companion since Postma's sophomore For the Rhythm (Munich, 2005). The Dawn Of Light returns to an all-Dutch lineup for the first time since First Avenue (Munich, 2004), with the exception of Grammy Award-winner Esperanza Spalding, whose sweetly appealing voice helps keep the irregularly metered "Leave Me a Place Underground" eminently accessible.  The Dawn of Light reunites Postma with keyboardist Marc Vanroon and bassist Frans van der Hoeven from 2007's A Journey That Matters (Foreign Media). Gigging together since 2006, this is the first time Postma has recorded with this group, which also features drummer Martijn Vink, last heard with her on First Avenue. If artists like drummer Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg put The Netherlands on the map in the 1960s with their New Dutch Swing, then this new generation of Dutch players is equally forward-thinking, but even more liberal when it comes to the palette from which they work, and the styles from which they draw. 

On this largely acoustic session, which features six Postma compositions written specifically for the group, the aptly titled, tempo-shifting "Beyond Category" one of two tracks written by van Roon goes against type, mixing the keyboardist's Fender Rhodes with some retro synth textures; even van der Hoeven turns on, feeding his double bass through an octave divider for a short but commanding solo in the relatively short track's final moments. The Dawn Of Light may have more limited instrumentation than A Journey, which ran the gamut from quartet to octet, but the greater chemistry of this consistent lineup is apparent from the opening moments of Postma's free-spirited interpretation of Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Canção de Amor." Blending instantaneous spontaneity, rubato lyricism reminiscent of pianist Keith Jarrett's 1970s American Quartet, and lithe contrapuntal elegance all supported with simmering energy by van der Hoeven and Vink Postma's alto solo sets an early high bar which van Roon, on acoustic piano, matches and then raises. Postma's compositional skills continue to develop, whether it's on relative sketches like "Falling Scales," where she provides little more than a roadmap, or the episodic "The Observer," which ebbs and flows in dynamics and tempo, Postma's soprano soaring into fluttering passages that occasionally reach into the stratosphere piercing but pure leading to a stop-and-start piano solo that van Roon mixes with the occasional synth line. Postma recently participated on Terri Lyne Carrington's all-female Mosaic Project (Concord, 2011), which deserves to give her some additional and deserved North American exposure. 

But as strong a performance as the saxophonist turns in there, it's in the context of her own music that her growth is most palpable. Rendering accessibly melodic music with an intrepid spirit that's unafraid to let the music unfold where it may, The Dawn of Light is Postma's most integrated and fully realized album to date; and with the saxophonist still only in her mid-thirties, only time will tell where she goes next. ~ John Kelman  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-dawn-of-light-tineke-postma-challenge-records-review-by-john-kelman.php#.VEAIWBawTP8
 

Personnel: Tineke Postma: alto and soprano saxophones; Marc van Roon: Steinway grand piano, Korg MS 20 synthesizer, Fender Rhodes Mark I; Frans van der Hoeven: double bass; Martijn Vink: drums; Esperanza Spalding: vocals (4).

The Dawn of Light

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