Impulsive! (Stunt Records/Sundance Music)
Eliane Elias, Bob Brookmeyer & The Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra
Released September 4, 2001
Grammy Nominee Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2002
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kiTOhckdx5Zo0wWEsm3KzlqvThWOJ905c
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6BMAHYkOS1retEZzqYJ5Pz?si=XYW4uG0-QK-wmuO8m2nFtw
About:
“Impulsive!” is – in spite of careful preparations – worthy of its title: the language of jazz is global, and Eliane Elias’ music is complex and melodious all at once, and always just as infectious as she herself is charming, with a mixture of sweetness and determination.
Here we have six of her pieces of music to fall in love with – and it will also be hard not to fall in love with the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra and its great musicians and with Bob Brookmeyer’s compelling orchestrations.
Track Listing:
1. Just Kiddin’ (Eliane Elias) 7:31
2. So in Love (Eliane Elias) 8:42
3. Moments (Eliane Elias) featuring: Henrik Bolberg Pedersen 9:13
4. The Time Is Now (Eliane Elias) featuring: Jonas Johansen / Thomas Ovesen 11:48
5. One Side of You (Eliane Elias) featuring: Thomas Ovesen 7:52
6. Impulsive! (Eliane Elias) featuring: Tomas Franck / Jonas Johansen / Uffe Markussen / Ethan Weisgard 10:02
Personnel:
Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra
Bob Brookmeyer: conductor, arranger, valve trombone
Benny Rosenfeld, Jesper Riis, Palle Bolvig, Henrik Bolberg Pedersen, Jens Winthe: trumpet, flugelhorn
Vincent Nilsson, Steen Hansen: trombone, baritone horn
Kjeld Ipsen: trombone
Klaus Lohrer: bass trombone Nicolai Schultz: soprano & alto saxophones, flute, alto flute
Michael Hove: soprano & alto saxophones, flute, clarinet
Uffe Markussen: soprano & tenor saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet
Tomas Franck: soprano & tenor saxophones, clarinet
Axel Windfeld: bass trombone, tuba
And…
Eliane Elias: piano
Thomas Ovesen: acoustic & electric basses
Jonas Johansen: drums
Nikolaj Bentzon: keyboards, synthesizer
Anders “Chico” Lindvall: guitar
Ethan Weisgard: percussion
Recorded February 23 – 26, 1997, at Studio 3, Broadcast House, Copenhagen, Denmark
Producer: Finn Kragerup
Executive-Producer: Peter H. Larsen
Engineering and Mixing: Lars Palsig
Photography: Jan Persson
Review:
The compositions on Impulsive! are by Brazilian–bred Elias, the charts by Kansas City’s Bob Brookmeyer, and they — and the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra — form an impressively cosmopolitan team. Orchestrally speaking, Brookmeyer gets the most out of each of Elias’ half–dozen charming melodies, sketching them in bold and brilliant colors, while the DRJO plays them with its usual unruffled proficiency and flair. If the arrangements sound as though they’d been fashioned with the DRJO in mind, perhaps that’s because Brookmeyer was then (1997) its chief conductor, leaving that position the following year in the capable hands of pianist / composer Jim McNeely. Brookmeyer adds insouciantly swinging solos on “So in Love” and “The Time Is Now,” sharing honors with Elias whose perceptive improvisations enliven every number. Others who respond with alacrity when their name is called include trumpeter Henrik Bolberg Pedersen (“Moments”), bassist Thomas Ovesen and drummer Jonas Johansen (“The Time Is Now”), Ovesen again (the delightful ballad “One Side of You”), Johansen, percussionist Ethan Weisgard and tenors Tomas Franck and Uffe Markussen (“Impulsive!”). In spite of Elias’ Brazilian roots, the Latin influence predominates only on “The Time Is Now,” with the other selections planted firmly in the harmoniously rich soil of contemporary American big–band Jazz. Often, one’s most pleasant musical experiences are those that are the least expected, and Impulsive! certainly warrants such a description. One could of course wish for more solos by the aways engaging Brookmeyer, but short of that, not much could be done to improve upon the album as a whole (sound quality is topnotch, playing time adequate). As one who blushes to admit that he had heard Elias’ name but not her music, except in passing, I must confess that she now has at least one more ardent champion here in the States.
Jack Bowers (All About Jazz)
