Maria Schneider - Evanescence
Maria Schneider has spent a few years as an assistant to Gil Evans. It shows in her choice of instrumentation and voicings. Pieces like "Some Circles" and "Gumba Blue" remind of Evans' collaborations with Miles. Nevertheless she is a highly original and interesting composer and orchestrator.
"Wyrgly" which opens the album has grown on me with time. It's a bit complicated and condensed piece of music. It starts with short bursts of angular brass phrases laid above a steady pulse. The phrases are used as an intro and hint about what is going to happen. Later they are weaved a few times into the other themes. Next is what I call the shuffle part and only afterwards comes the main theme on which the tenorist Rick Margitza improvises. John Fedchock on trombone and Ben Monder on guitar close the song with inspired improvisations on the shuffle vamp.
Maria's music is always filled with surprises and changing moods. "Evanescence" which begins calmly with an optimistic, light and charming melody suddenly is developed into a serious and a bit sad improvisation of Rich Perry on tenor sax, which is played on an original turnaround of minor chords that create a feeling of infinity. Tim Hagans' solo is crossed with motifs from the first theme and the listener is kept in tension, always wondering about what would happen next.
The same sense of surprise characterizes "Green Piece". You just can't stop listening to this landscape of alternating moods and sounds cause you are looking forward to see how it develops and how it returns to the original theme. Kenny Werner plays a wonderful solo here and he is an important contributor to the success of the whole album.
Maria also learnt something from Duke Ellington. Some of the songs fit so perfectly the soloists (like "Some Circles", "Gush", "My Lament"), that I think they were written or at least chosen with the specific players in mind. She is also able of writing catchy tunes which make her music accessible ("My Lament", "Evanescence" and "Green Piece" are some examples).
My favorite songs are "Gumba Blue" and "Dance You Monster to My Soft Song". Gumba starts with the rhythmic contour of the main melody played by the percussions but you can only recognize it on repeated listening. This is actually a slow and a hip blues that is shifted into a very fast and sophisticated minor blues during the improvisations. Greg Gisbert (trumpet) Kenny Werner (piano) are doing a great job there. "Dance You Monster to My Soft Song" just wouldn't leave you indifferent. The music is so full of the best swing and drive possible that it turns you into a participant. Ben Monder's solo on guitar is probably one of my favorite on the disc.