MARK HARVEY & THE AARDVARK JAZZ ORCHESTRA – Democratic Vistas
LEO CD LR 833
Mark Harvey, director and piano and The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra (21 instruments)
Recorded between September 26th 2004 and April 29th 2017 at various venues
Democratic Vistas is intended to echo, from the title, an essay of the same name by Walt Whitman, from 1871, in which he described the corruption and moral and spiritual rot that pervaded the United States at that time and now has returned to haunt us again. Fortunately for us, Aardvark’s new album also speaks of justice, reason and sanity.
Aardvark is of course peopled by some extraordinarily capable musicians and Mark Harvey has seen the band through from its conception, more than 40 years ago. He has played with such faces as Kenny Dorham, Gil Evans, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers and George Russell.
Among the tracks we find such as ‘Perseverance Polka’ in solidarity with the suffragette movement of the 19th century and those still fighting for women’s’ rights. Wider reaching perhaps is the closing track, ‘No Walls’, delivering an unfettered exuberance stimulated by its references to Duke Ellington and through the playing of ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ made famous for me by the Benny Goodman Orchestra and its drummer, Gene Krupa, though written by Louis Prima in 1935. Can there be anything more exuberant than that?
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
LEO CD LR 833
Mark Harvey, director and piano and The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra (21 instruments)
Recorded between September 26th 2004 and April 29th 2017 at various venues
Democratic Vistas is intended to echo, from the title, an essay of the same name by Walt Whitman, from 1871, in which he described the corruption and moral and spiritual rot that pervaded the United States at that time and now has returned to haunt us again. Fortunately for us, Aardvark’s new album also speaks of justice, reason and sanity.
Aardvark is of course peopled by some extraordinarily capable musicians and Mark Harvey has seen the band through from its conception, more than 40 years ago. He has played with such faces as Kenny Dorham, Gil Evans, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers and George Russell.
Among the tracks we find such as ‘Perseverance Polka’ in solidarity with the suffragette movement of the 19th century and those still fighting for women’s’ rights. Wider reaching perhaps is the closing track, ‘No Walls’, delivering an unfettered exuberance stimulated by its references to Duke Ellington and through the playing of ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ made famous for me by the Benny Goodman Orchestra and its drummer, Gene Krupa, though written by Louis Prima in 1935. Can there be anything more exuberant than that?
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
