CD Review: Alchemy Sound Project - Further Explorations

Erica Lindsay (ten); Sumi Tonooka (pno); Salim Washington (ten/ob/fl/bs clt); David Arend (bs); Samantha Boshnack (tpt); Willem de Koch (tmb); Max Wood (dms).

(Review by Dave Brownlow)

A programme of music from five composer/performers – supplemented by two other players for the recording – attempting to explore the common ground between the diverse traditions of classical music and jazz. In the past, such luminaries as Dave and Howard Brubeck, John Lewis, Gunther Schuller, George Russell, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Bill Evans and even Bird himself have attempted to blend the two styles, ie “The Third Stream”, with varying degrees of success.

 Here, the five core members of this project were brought together by the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute at Columbia University to encourage jazz composers to explore writing music for the symphony orchestra at an extensive week-long course with other leading musicians.

“The result is an artful and boundary-stretching amalgam of jazz and classical ideas that show off the chemistry formed during the bandmates brief but enlightening time studying together ; the concept is about blurring these lines, hybridising jazz elements with classical music” is what it says on the tin…

Ten compositions (two from each contributor) ranging in mood/style from the thoughtful, atmospheric, meditative, soulful, to the progressive/contemporary, bold and experimental. The musicians, all talented players, have produced a debut CD where the jazz/chamber music integration is well conceived and finely executed providing a thoroughly absorbing set for those devotees of contemporary ‘Third Stream’ music.

Available now on Artists Recording Collective ARC – 2666 or from

www.alchemysoundproject.com.

Dave Brownlow.