Album Review: Together from Randy Brecker and Mats Holmqust with the UMO Jazz Orchestra
Album Review: Together from Randy Brecker and Mats Holmquist with the UMO Jazz Orchestra
Label: Summit Records
Website: www.matsholmquist.com and www.randybrecker.com
Inspired by the jazz improvisations of Stan Kenton and Chick Corea, trumpet player Randy Brecker and arranger Mats Holmquist collaborate with the 18-piece UMO Jazz Orchestra from Finland for Together from Summit Records. The jazz instrumentals have a modern flare with influences of vintage swing and Big Band magnetism. Oscillating between rambunctious interplay and fluid swells, the music shows the band's agility and instinct to elaborate from each other's phrases. From a single instrument's chord pattern, other threads emerge forming a tapestry that is never-ending. Beefy arrangements are produced as each instrument adds to the compositions, extending the overall body of work.
Instruments bounce off of one another, adding whorls and trills producing an ornate interweave through "Crystal Science." This approach to making music gives each musician a chance to participate in the collaborative. The meandering movements of Brecker's trumpet puffing, twirling, and soaring along "My Stella" is embellished by the subterranean motifs of the piano and woodwinds, thereby making several actions happen at once. Ordinarily, the listener's attention would be diverted into different directions but the composition keeps to a single focus, as outrageous as that may sound, so listeners are grounded to the center of the piece. Much like in a ballet where several performers on the stage are prancing about, it is the main performer from which all other performers branch off from that draws the listener's focus.
A variety of billowing notes surge as they are strung along "Humpty Dumpty" while "Always Young" harnesses a relaxing mood as the horns reverberate softer tones, taking a reclining stance through the piece. Contrasting this smoothness, "One Million Circumstances" corrals the bold toots of the horns and the brisk progressions of the bass and drums. The activity level is high while keeping the listener's focus on the central theme. "Never Let Me Go" shows a different dance played by the musicians as the languid strokes of Brecker's trumpet are met with the lose and flaccid swirls of the woodwind instruments. It's a pensive piece that shows another side of the musicians.
Led by Mats Holmquist, Brecker and the UMO Jazz Orchestra play with the ingenuity of an infinite imagination and the self-expression of nimble minds at work. The arrangements are standards that Holmquist has reworked and amended, showing that even standards have a never-ending twine.
Label: Summit Records
Website: www.matsholmquist.com and www.randybrecker.com
Inspired by the jazz improvisations of Stan Kenton and Chick Corea, trumpet player Randy Brecker and arranger Mats Holmquist collaborate with the 18-piece UMO Jazz Orchestra from Finland for Together from Summit Records. The jazz instrumentals have a modern flare with influences of vintage swing and Big Band magnetism. Oscillating between rambunctious interplay and fluid swells, the music shows the band's agility and instinct to elaborate from each other's phrases. From a single instrument's chord pattern, other threads emerge forming a tapestry that is never-ending. Beefy arrangements are produced as each instrument adds to the compositions, extending the overall body of work.
Instruments bounce off of one another, adding whorls and trills producing an ornate interweave through "Crystal Science." This approach to making music gives each musician a chance to participate in the collaborative. The meandering movements of Brecker's trumpet puffing, twirling, and soaring along "My Stella" is embellished by the subterranean motifs of the piano and woodwinds, thereby making several actions happen at once. Ordinarily, the listener's attention would be diverted into different directions but the composition keeps to a single focus, as outrageous as that may sound, so listeners are grounded to the center of the piece. Much like in a ballet where several performers on the stage are prancing about, it is the main performer from which all other performers branch off from that draws the listener's focus.
A variety of billowing notes surge as they are strung along "Humpty Dumpty" while "Always Young" harnesses a relaxing mood as the horns reverberate softer tones, taking a reclining stance through the piece. Contrasting this smoothness, "One Million Circumstances" corrals the bold toots of the horns and the brisk progressions of the bass and drums. The activity level is high while keeping the listener's focus on the central theme. "Never Let Me Go" shows a different dance played by the musicians as the languid strokes of Brecker's trumpet are met with the lose and flaccid swirls of the woodwind instruments. It's a pensive piece that shows another side of the musicians.
Led by Mats Holmquist, Brecker and the UMO Jazz Orchestra play with the ingenuity of an infinite imagination and the self-expression of nimble minds at work. The arrangements are standards that Holmquist has reworked and amended, showing that even standards have a never-ending twine.
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