Track Listing

1. Hang Gliding
2. Nocturne
3. All�gresse
4. Dissolution
5. Journey Home
6. Sea of Tranquility

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112863 in Music
• Released on: 2000-09-12
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
There have been very few orchestral composers in jazz who achieved creative success, if only because such a combination of talents--from logistics to force of will to the openness to input from the players--is wildly rare. Maria Schneider, once a protégée of Gil Evans, has been demonstrating those talents since her orchestra's debut in 1994, Evanescence. The vagaries of big bands make working relationships particularly important, and Schneider is attuned to every nuance and timbre of her musicians. It shows in the superb sectional play, the sensitivity to dynamics, and the gorgeous combinations of alto flutes, English horn, clarinets, and piccolo trumpet. Each of Schneider's pieces here is a full-fledged composition, a rich tapestry filled with subtle shifts in voicing, airy highs or welling depths, and frequent surprise. Her expressive range is vast, from the opening "Hang Gliding," air-borne on a Brazilian beat, to the unfolding mysteries of the 21-minute "Dissolution," including reed writing that creates the illusion of strings.

At the same time, she's developed a distinctive tonal language that suggests a suite of linked pieces. Each work features just one or two soloists, and there's an uncanny relationship between the writing and improvising, including Frank Kimbrough's crystalline piano on "Nocturne," a piece that suggests Evans's writing for Sketches of Spain, and Ben Monder's acutely focused, energetic guitar on "Journey Home." The piquant "Allegresse" is a continuous evolution of relations between the orchestra, Ingrid Jensen on flügelhorn and harmon-muted trumpet, and Rich Perry on tenor saxophone. --Stuart Broomer

From Jazziz
In the career of almost every major artist, there comes a time when she turns a corner and finds herself at a new vista, a place where past efforts fall into perspective and the future is no longer an uphill climb. Many listeners will say that Allégresse (Enja), the third album from the composer-conductor Maria Schneider, marks such a step.

Nothing comes closer to that goal than "Hang Gliding," the album opener, in which Schneider attempts to convey her initiation into the sport during a visit to Rio de Janeiro.

I've listened to "Hang Gliding" a dozen times without growing even a little bored. Rather, I'm mesmerized by Schneider's decision to write the piece in 11/4. Effectively this becomes a half-measure of six followed by a half-measure of five. The little jolt at the end of each bar propels the piece from within. I'm hooked on how she shifts the theme's accents to sometimes interlock with and sometimes counter the beat itself. It adds a wholly accessible level of complexity that deepens the experience. And I smile at the solos by trumpeter Greg Gisbert and tenor saxist Rick Margitza - as much for the textured pastels that frame them as for the solos themselves.

Indeed, one of Schneider's greatest strengths is her ability to write behind the soloists and shape their impact.

The album's longest and most ambitious work is the 20-minute "Dissolution," written on commission for Pilobolus, the internationally renowned dance troupe. Schneider credits the collaboration with Pilobolus in helping her to reach that new vista around the corner.

--Neil Tesser, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Music of startling beauty and huge accomplishment
Maria Schneider has rightly been accorded the highest accolades for her arranging abilities, consistently winning top jazz readers and critics polls. Until this spectacular recording, her composing and band-leading abilities have lagged slightly behind. Allegresse changes all that.

She's managed to retain--even extend--the brilliance of her arrangements while adding riveting compositions and consummate band leadership. And what a band it is! This strikes me as the most fluid, most accomplished, most consistently brilliant big band ever. Featuring some of the absolute best players at their positions, especially Frank Kimbrough, my current favorite pianist; Ben Monder, perhaps the best of the younger guitarists; Tony Scherr, a masterful acoustic and electric bassist; and Jeff Ballard, a percussionist of the very first rank, the band also includes lesser-known but equally accomplished players like Rich Perry, Rick Margitza, Charles Pillow, and Scott Robinson (winds); and Dave Ballou and Greg Gisbert, trumpets. They tackle the difficult and tricky charts with uncanny fluidity combined with a kind of offhand bravado that is never less than interesting and often approaches pure genius.

I confess, big band is among my least favorite types of jazz. Too often I find a kind of slickness and empty virtuosity replaces true feeling and emotional depth. Not here. Technical playing of the absolute highest accomplishment effortlessly melds with vast panoramas of musical coloration and hugely evocative compositions stunningly arranged to produce a listening experience of the first order.

This is glorious music of great feeling and beauty.

Maria Schneider's Best!
I was very impressed by Scheider's previous CD's on Enja, "Evanessence" and "Coming About," but I found them hard to really love. There is a slight "clinical" feel to them and in places the music is almost frightening in its intensity ("Bombshelter Beast" on Coming About, for example). I put off buying Allegresse for a while because of my experience with these two CD's. I knew I would have to wait for a time when I was ready for some really challenging music.
I should not have delayed getting this CD, however. Allegresse is a beautiful album, which I played three times on the day it arrived. Schenider's characteristic complexity is still here, but overall the music is warmer and more appealing. The hard edges have given way to softer pastels and the music seems to have more "room to breathe." There is still plenty of bite, however, and there are some intense passages, most notably on Dissolution, which feaures excellent soprano sax by Tim Ries.
Schnieder is not so much a writer of memorable melodies, but a weaver of textures which keep unfolding throughout these long pieces, of which "Journey Home" is my personal favorite. The soloists are all excellent, but it is the ensemble sound which remains in the listener's mind. There is so much music here that it will take you many listens to fully explore its riches. This is easily Maria Schnieder's best and most appealing CD to date. Highly recommended.

Magnificent jazz orchestral composition and playing
Schneider's two previous cds were good to very good, but this new one is simply magnificent. She utilizes the depth and breadth of her jazz orchestra to weave a wonderful inter-twined fabric of melodies and harmonies. She just doesn't double or triple lines to add power, but rather sets off a complex weave that continues to fascinate me with each repeated listening. The playing is generaly gentle and soft but demands to be listened to in order to reveal new things with every playing. Like some of Mingus' best work, it's like a magician's hat that keeps offering up more and more and more -- whether coloured scarves, birds or flowwers -- take your pick. Of the thouseand or so jazz cds I own, this has quickly jumped into my top ten list.