THE MARIA SCHNEIDER ORCHESTRA
Cadogan Hall - 17th November 2015
Cadogan Hall - 17th November 2015
Maria Schneider is remarkable : touring an orchestra this size across Europe, there are eighteen of them, is an economic and logistical feat. Financing music from sponsors across the world, is through artistShare: crowd funding before it became common. Finally, she creates beautiful music with a unique sound largely created from the way she uses the flugelhorns rather than trumpets. the flugels give the music a softness, suppleness and mellowness that is distinctive.
Schneider talks well and invites us to imagine: we heard about her childhood, the fields where she grew up, the places where you can observe birds. The evocation of Minnesota is at the heart of the latest music, she is the musical poet of the prairies. She is almost a musical Garrison Keillor. In ‘The Arbiter's of Evolution’ we are invited to imagine the mating of the birds of paradise. The gaudy plumage of the male is contrasted with the dowdy female. Scott Robinson on baritone and Donny McCaslin on tenor play the birds . This is programme music of the highest order.
‘Potter’s Song’, played by Ron Oswanski on accordion was a gentle opening to the evening. The piece is dedicated to Laurie Frink who played in the orchestra for many years.The soft sound of accordionist had an elegiac feel. ‘The Monarch and the Milkweed’ featured Greg Gisbert on flugelhorn and Marshall Gilkes on trombone, was introduced by the ecologically minded Schneider as she warned about the fate of the butterfly which depends on the declining milkweed for survival. ‘Home’ dedicated to George Wein opens with a solemn chorale and the bass trombones underpin everything. ‘The Thompson Fields’ has the piano impressionistically describing the wind rippling the plants in the fields. The clouds and storms in the Mid-West are important and ‘Nimbus’ gave Johnathan Blake on drums the opportunity to create a more menacing feeling. ‘Dance You Monster To My Soft Song’, from Schneider’s first CD twisted and turned brassily and featured George Flynn on bass trombone.
The demand for encores was satisfied by the settings of two poems by Ted Kooser who has been one of the US Poet Laureates . Originally the music was composed for the soprano Dawn Upshaw and on the concert her voice on ‘Walking by Flashlight’ was taken by Scott Robinson on flugel horn. His solo replicated carefully the meditative mood of the poem. The second encore ‘All Night, in Gusty Winds’ played against ostinatos on the piano gently concluded the concert..
There is a sense that Schneider will move further into the classical area of composing. Already there is the feeling that the jazz is a side issue, that the real purpose of her music is the creation of the singular sounds, the marvelous pictures and they are as beautiful as anything we have heard from a jazz orchestra. Soloists are accommodated and, except for the long serving pianist Frank Kimbrough, the other soloists are mainly anonymous virtuosos with vast techniques with individuality schooled out of them. This
music has already started to move away from Jazz which traditionally has been the music of the cities on the west and east coasts. Maria Schneider is producing new music from the core states of America, the farms, the big spaces, the conservatism, that part of America where most of America lives.
There is nothing in jazz quite like the music of Maria Schneider. It will be fascinating to see how she grows and develops.
Days after the concert the residue in the mind is of the beauty and the controlled soft power of the orchestra as it introduces themes and soars and swoops. Ellington gave his audiences pictures of urban America; Schneider is portraying the vast rural America.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
Schneider talks well and invites us to imagine: we heard about her childhood, the fields where she grew up, the places where you can observe birds. The evocation of Minnesota is at the heart of the latest music, she is the musical poet of the prairies. She is almost a musical Garrison Keillor. In ‘The Arbiter's of Evolution’ we are invited to imagine the mating of the birds of paradise. The gaudy plumage of the male is contrasted with the dowdy female. Scott Robinson on baritone and Donny McCaslin on tenor play the birds . This is programme music of the highest order.
‘Potter’s Song’, played by Ron Oswanski on accordion was a gentle opening to the evening. The piece is dedicated to Laurie Frink who played in the orchestra for many years.The soft sound of accordionist had an elegiac feel. ‘The Monarch and the Milkweed’ featured Greg Gisbert on flugelhorn and Marshall Gilkes on trombone, was introduced by the ecologically minded Schneider as she warned about the fate of the butterfly which depends on the declining milkweed for survival. ‘Home’ dedicated to George Wein opens with a solemn chorale and the bass trombones underpin everything. ‘The Thompson Fields’ has the piano impressionistically describing the wind rippling the plants in the fields. The clouds and storms in the Mid-West are important and ‘Nimbus’ gave Johnathan Blake on drums the opportunity to create a more menacing feeling. ‘Dance You Monster To My Soft Song’, from Schneider’s first CD twisted and turned brassily and featured George Flynn on bass trombone.
The demand for encores was satisfied by the settings of two poems by Ted Kooser who has been one of the US Poet Laureates . Originally the music was composed for the soprano Dawn Upshaw and on the concert her voice on ‘Walking by Flashlight’ was taken by Scott Robinson on flugel horn. His solo replicated carefully the meditative mood of the poem. The second encore ‘All Night, in Gusty Winds’ played against ostinatos on the piano gently concluded the concert..
There is a sense that Schneider will move further into the classical area of composing. Already there is the feeling that the jazz is a side issue, that the real purpose of her music is the creation of the singular sounds, the marvelous pictures and they are as beautiful as anything we have heard from a jazz orchestra. Soloists are accommodated and, except for the long serving pianist Frank Kimbrough, the other soloists are mainly anonymous virtuosos with vast techniques with individuality schooled out of them. This
music has already started to move away from Jazz which traditionally has been the music of the cities on the west and east coasts. Maria Schneider is producing new music from the core states of America, the farms, the big spaces, the conservatism, that part of America where most of America lives.
There is nothing in jazz quite like the music of Maria Schneider. It will be fascinating to see how she grows and develops.
Days after the concert the residue in the mind is of the beauty and the controlled soft power of the orchestra as it introduces themes and soars and swoops. Ellington gave his audiences pictures of urban America; Schneider is portraying the vast rural America.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
