Aarhus Jazz Orchestra Presents Lars Moller's ReWrite of Spring, Featuring David Liebman and Marilyn Mazur

There have been a few jazz rethinkings of Stravinsky's landmark "Rite of Spring" but none so thoroughly reworked and rethought as Lars Moller's ReWrite of Spring (DaCapo 8.226117-18) which fills two CDs with a studio version and a live version. The Aarhus Jazz Orchestra plays with a marvelous discipline and artistry under Lars' conductorship. David Liebman's soprano and Marilyn Mazur's percussion take on some prominent roles and they rise to the occasion wonderfully.

17 fine musicians make up the Aarhus outfit. They are put through their paces with great results.

The composition ultimately is the main premise here, understandably. Moller is a jazz composer of genuine talent. Whether you know the original "Rite" like the back of your hand or not much at all, the music speaks for itself here in all its throaty complexity. Those who know the Stravinsky will hear motifs emerging from the carpet of big band sounds and so have an inside track of what Moller is up to. But then the results are so engaging in a modern vein that those with big ears will doubtless not fail to appreciate what is going on regardless.

The live version has a bit more time (ten minutes, to be exact) for solo space that Liebman and Mazur take advantage of with the excellence one expects from them.

In the end the idea of a complete "ReWrite" of the "Rite" is a good one. You in effect get a wholly new, wholly modern jazz oriented work that transposes the excitement of the original to a present-day big band context. Moller knows his band, the instrumentation and the players involved well and scores the music with a post-Evans insight into the varied colors, textures and potential power he has at his disposal.

It is a triumph for all, nearly breathtaking in its strength and breadth, performed with magnificance and filled with compositional brilliance.

Strongly recommended!

Michael Formanek, Ensemble Kolossus, The Distance

If you are like me and have been following composer-bassist-bandleader Michael Formanek and his music with interest but not as closely as perhaps one should, you are in for a rather shocking surprise. His debut recording of the 18-piece big band Ensemble Kolossus, The Distance (ECM 2484) is a milestone in contemporary modern jazz composition. Mark Helias conducts the ensemble in a program of beautifully advanced music. Formanek cites a wide array of creators that have influenced the ultimate sound of the unit, from Messiaen's organ music to the large ensemble sounds of Mingus, Sun Ra, Threadgill and Braxton.

Along with Formanek is an unusually full rhythm section of piano, bass, marimba, guitar and drums, all of which get put to important usage throughout.

Chris Speed on sax and Ben Gerstein on trombone have stellar solo roles, but then Formanek and others do as well. The massive full-blown sound of the ensemble cannot be denied. It is powerhouse music.

The ultimate effect is impressive. There is great compositional detail in the arrangements and the outcome has originality and great expressive thrust. It is quite simply a tour de force of ultra-modern jazz big band music, one of the seminal jazz composition triumphs of the present. It is both a summation and a cogent furthering of where we have been going in serious jazz composition in the past decades. Get it without fail!