Album Review: Across the Field from Visions Jazz Ensemble
Album: Across the Field
Artist: Visions Jazz Ensemble
Label: Patois Records
Website: www.visionsjazzensemble.com
Led by trumpeter Sam Butler and tenor saxophonist Garrett Fasig, the Visions Jazz Ensemble embarked on an ambitious task to turn a collection of college fight songs into modern jazz tunes on the ensemble's 2024 release Across the Field. Produced by Brent Wallarab, Wayne Wallace, and Greg Reynolds, Butler and Fasig corralled a group of graduate music students from Indiana University, the duo's alma mater, and formed the ensemble, embarking on a quest to celebrate and revitalize jazz music's roots anchored in college anthems.
Starting the program with “Tiger Rag,” arranged by Butler, the tune was written and first recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917. The composition has a big band bang with crackling horns, bopping bass lines, and bursting drum cymbals. Fiery and explosive, the instrumentation has a coliseum breadth modulated for modern likings.
The Naval Academy’s classic anthem “Anchors Aweigh” sees the ensemble transition its traditional march into a straight-ahead jazz romp, filled with champagne-embossed froth, as trotting keys are punctured by bubbly horns. "Indiana, Our Indiana," is an anthem, home to Indiana University. The score wields eerie horns resembling a funeral procession, sinking deep into the soul of the listener as Recktenwald's trumpet wafts a sepulchral wail.
Maintaining a somber tone, "Across the Field," a signature piece representing Ohio State University, infuses a reflective impression on the instrumentation, creating an intimacy with the listener. Purdue University’s “Hail Purdue” features some wispy playing by Fasig ambling a lyrical stride. Fasig also re-imagines University of Michigan’s “The Victors” as an up-tempo, modal jazz tune, arched in blazing horns, sizzling keys and stout drumbeats.
Butler transforms Notre Dame’s trademark tune “Victory March” into a waltz, featuring solos from Fasig on tenor saxophone and Ventura on piano, making for a light and flouncy saunter studding the progressions. The slow and steady horns piping through “Ramblin’ Wreck,” adopted by Georgia Tech, are clasped by bopping beats that move in sync with flaring horns, constructing a marching cadence synonymous with homecoming games.
University of Southern California's “Fight On” twines a marching beat with a light bossa nova glide, radiating a bluesy ember. “Rocky Top,” based at the University of Tennessee, features Dan Ventura on piano steepled by Jeff Parker on bass trumpet, injecting a fresh sound into a traditional melody. “Glory, Glory,” the classic fight song from the University of Georgia, features solos by Parker on trombone and Butler on trumpet, encased in blazing horns strapped to curt drumbeats
“Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,” from Florida A&M, features Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, moaning and sputtering while the twirling drumbeats imbibe the track in a spirited pulse. The feast closes with the smooth gait of “On Wisconsin” pleated in serenading horns that stir a sense of camaraderie, brotherhood, and esprit de corps.
The Visions Jazz Ensemble's banquet of college fight songs from yesteryear, many of whom were written or inspired by John Philip Sousa, intimate a sense of fanfare, camaraderie, and spirit. The ensemble demonstrates that collegiate marches and parade music became grist for early jazz stock, acting as fodder for melodies from big band bashes to smooth jazz serenades. Butler and Fasig tweak old-fashioned tunes with a modern flare while keeping the hearth that kindles old-fashioned team spirit inflamed.
Musicians:
Sam Butler - trumpet and arrangements
Garrett Fasig - tenor saxophone and arrangements
Nick Recktenwald - trumpet
Jeff Parker - trombone and bass trumpet
Dan Ventura - piano
Jacob Smith - bass
Francis Bassett-Dilley - drums
Special Guest:
Wycliff Gordon - trombone on "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight"
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