Maria Schneider Orchestra

[robviti]

I'm leaving for NYC in a few hours to catch the Maria Schneider Orchestra tonight at the Jazz Standard. They'll be performing there through Sunday the 26th. I know there's been a lot of positive remarks made about her work by other board members. Hope to see some of you there. Just give a shout of "Organissimo" before the show if you want to get my attention.

BTW, I'm going to catch the Toshiko Akiyoshi Trio at Birdland tomorrow night. I love the City!

[Joe G]

Hope to see some of you there. Just give a shout of "Organissimo" before the show if you want to get my attention.

Note to B3-er: It's working!

[couw]

Hope to see some of you there. Just give a shout of "Organissimo" before the show if you want to get my attention.

Note to B3-er: It's working!

whatever happened to those t-shirts?

[robviti]

[Joe G]

Hope to see some of you there. Just give a shout of "Organissimo" before the show if you want to get my attention.

Note to B3-er: It's working!

whatever happened to those t-shirts?

I don't know. I'll get on Jim's case about it.

[Joe G]

How was the show?

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Caught both shows on the final night.

Amazing. They can do everything on the record and pull it off live. It is incredible to see how much switching is going on. There were times when someone would grab a different instrument and play just one phrase, then put it down and pick up something else. It's like Broadway pit-type switching. The other interesting thing is how little the band relies on section playing. At many points only two members of a section will be playing. And the woodwinds were never alto, alto, tenor, tenor, baritone. Scott Robinson played a ton of bass clarinet. For the first tune, it was flute, clarinet, tenor, tenor, bass clarinet. For the entire tune.

Here's the band:

Tim Ries - soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, flute, alto flute, clarinet

Charles Pillow - soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, flute, alto flute, clarinet, oboe, English horn

Rich Perry - tenor saxophone, flute

Donny McCaslin - tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute, soprano saxophone

Scott Robinson - baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet, contrabass clarinet, alto flute

Tony Kadleck, Greg Gisbert, Laurie Frink, Ingrid Jensen - trumpets and flugelhorns

Keith O'Quinn, Rock Ciccarone, Larry Farrell - trombones

George Flynn - bass trombone

Ben Monder - guitar

Frank Kimbrough - piano

Jay Anderson - bass

Clarence Penn - drums

Gonzalo Grau - cajon (set 2, no. 3 only)

Gary Versace - accordion

Luciana Souza - vocals

Maria Schneider - conductor

First set:

Three Romances:

1. Choro Dançado

2. Pas De Deux

3. Dança Illusória

Sky Blue

Hang Gliding

Second set:

El Viento

Concert In The Garden

Bulería, Soleá Y Rumba

Sea Of Tranquility

Green Piece

Green Piece had a great solo section where first Tim Ries, then Ingrid Jensen played free - sometimes spacey, sometimes hard swinging. Sky Blue is a new piece, not on any record yet. The rest of the repertoire kept fairly close to the record, but things like Donny McCaslin's solo on Bulería, Soleá Y Rumba were, of course, significantly different.

In that particular case it was interesting to hear how he took the accelerando figure that the brass play later at the climax of that section and put it into his solo earlier so it foreshadowed what was coming up, a great example of compositional thinking during a solo.

Greg Gisbert is a monster. He plays lead on a lot of the stuff, but also solos - his playing on El Viento was intense, and Clarence Penn heated things up there and elsewhere. Rock Ciccarone had a nice solo on that before Gisbert. And Ben Monder took the first solo, starting from almost nothing.

On Green Piece, Luciana Souza sang with the band, doubling one of the woodwind parts. It made a nice addition to the chart. On some of the other things Gary Versace added accordion where there hadn't been any before.

Sea Of Tranquility is a feature for Scott Robinson on baritone, which was great to hear since he has no solos on the material from the new album.

Hearing McCaslin play the solo on Hang Gliding instead of Rick Margitza was good, although Margitza really figured out a way to build things in a structured manner, saving that one super high altissimo note for a particular point. McCaslin's solo wasn't as focused. That's one time where a new soloist played on a tune. Most everything else featured the player from the recorded version.

Frank Kimbrough had a nice interlude between the second and third movements of Three Romances, very different from the recorded version. That last movement live is incredible. It builds and builds and you think they've reached the peak and then it comes down a little and then builds some more.

There are just so many colors in the band and the live feel was more intense than the record. The sound was mostly very good and everything could be heard pretty much in balance. This is the exact personnel from the record, no subs, and they really know how to work together.

This band must be seen. Do not pass up the next opportunity.

Mike

P.S. - got to say something about Maria, who has developed a wonderful style of conducting - jazz conducting - very little is borrowed from the classical approach. She has a whole system with hands, fingers, arms. And then when she's not conducting, she is sitting or kneeling, listening with total focus - which is very refreshing from most musicians who seem to tune out when they're not actively performing. And of course, she is the m.c. too with humorous stories, moving dedications, and gracious thanks to the musicians, the club, and the audience.

BTW, the house was packed both sets. A little flyer on the tables explained about the new ArtistShare system and the mariaschneider.com website. CDs and books were being sold at the bar - also, the rare live CD (Days Of Wine And Roses) will eventually be sold on the website, she said.

[robviti]

thanks for the in-depth review michael. i was there for the first two sets friday night, and all i can say is that it was magical. i also spoke briefly to maria. she said she owned the masters to her recordings, so she hopes to reissue the oop titles eventually - when she has the money. she confirmed that days of wine and roses should come out next year. "just as soon as they sell the last of the wine," she said.

i also had the chance to talk to fellow board-member frank kimbrough, both at the show, and the next day when i ran into him at academy records! he said playing with maria is an intense experience, so much so that he half-jokingly complained that he couldn't get to sleep until the next morning because he was so wired. i told him i enjoyed the various projects he's been involved with (herbie nichols project, medicine wheel, etc.) and said i hoped he would come to boston in the near future. he told me he hadn't received much of a response from the former booking agent of the regattabar. "he made me feel like i'd never played a gig before," he said. i'm thinking that ryles or the folks who do some shows at the ica are worth looking into. hell, i'll even talk to the devils from the blue note group!

anyway, it was a great concert, as was toshiko akiyoshi's performance at birdland and eddie henderson's show at smoke. what a great weekend!

Edited September 27, 2004 by jazzshrink