
Blauklang (ACT Music)
Vince Mendoza
Released September 9, 2008
Grammy Nominee for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2009
YouTube:
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Spotify:
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About:
In jazz, the color blue provides many a red thread. And it’s no coincidence that this CD opens with the music of a classic whose title already reveals its true colors: “Kind of Blue”, the most successful jazz album of all time. “All Blues”: He literally immerses us in the blue sea of melancholy. If you put blue and sounds together, it reappears, the blues.
The idea for Blauklang (ACT 9465-2) goes back to a painting by the famous German artist Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902-1968), which is part of Siggi Loch’s ACT ART COLLECTION. In close cooperation with Bernd Hoffmann from WDR, this idea then became reality. Already in its name – blue sound- the painting refers to synaesthetic relationships between music and art. Nay’s abstract work, which relies on the effects of color, has now been taken on by an outspoken “tone painter”, Vince Mendoza. Mixtures of tone colors and hues, the superimposition of different moods characterize a large part of his compositions. Mendoza masters the sovereign play with light and shadow, with light and dark. The title of his album Sketches (ACT 9215-2), recorded with the WDR Big Band, sums up one aspect of his working method: he is always fascinated by putting together sketches into a musical picture arc. to compose suites. As much as he loves detail, he also appreciates the large arches.
Once again he succeeds in striking the right balance between aspiration and appeal. Giving the sophisticated a popular touch: this ability has made Mendoza a sought-after figure in jazz and pop (Björk, Sheryl Crow, Joni Mitchell, Ute Lemper, Elvis Costello, Dianne Reeves, the Yellowjackets, Michael and Randy Brecker, Jens Winther, Joe Zavinul). The composer and arranger, who had his breakthrough with the Jazzpaña project (ACT 9212-2), works with the most renowned ensembles: be it with the WDR Big Band, with orchestras in London, Paris and Berlin or as principal guest conductor of the Dutch metropolis orchestra.
Blauklang (ACT 9465-2) completes an ACT trilogy in collaboration with Vince Mendoza and WDR, which began in 1992 with the Grammy-nominated Jazzpaña (the first ACT production ever) andcontinued with sketches . At the same time, it is a work that, like the album Blue Corner (ACT 9228-2) by Jasper van’t Hof, was created at the suggestion of Siggi Loch, who, as a passionate art collector and especially a friend of the color blue, repeatedly builds bridges between music and visual arts seeks. So now blue sound .
The scene of the recorded world premiere of Blauklang formed the appropriate “frame”:The Traumzeit Festival in Duisburg’s north landscape park sees itself as a “festival for the senses” that cultivates the crossing of borders, one that transcends genre, style and art, appealing to ears and eyes alike. Mendoza’s exclusive work for Traumzeit was created on the basis of Nay’s “Rhythmic Pictures” created in the early 1950s, which were shown in a slide show in Duisburg. The color tones and timbres were realized by a top-class ensemble that was put together exclusively for this occasion: Nguyên Lê, Markus Stockhausen, Claudio Puntin, Steffen Schorn, Frank Sackenheim, Arkady Shilkloper, Jon Sass, Lars Danielsson, Ulla van Daelen, Peter Erskine , Christopher Dell and the String Quartet RED URG 4. The Bluesounds suite is complemented by two other original compositions ( “Habanera” and “Ollie Mention”), a Catalan folk song (“Lo Rossinyol”) and by music from another Miles Davis classic, from “Miles Ahead”: “Blues For Pablo”, a tribute to Pablo Picasso. Miles Davis, the painting trumpeter, had always been fascinated by its colours, but also by the rhythm and movement of his pictures; and Picasso’s process of painting and overpainting, of layering colors is something he saw in the arranging of a Gil Evans. An art that Vince Mendoza continues with his own palette. By the way: Picasso’s most famous period was known to be – the Blue…
Track Listing:
1. All Blues (Miles Davis) 7:55
2. Lo Rossinyol (Traditional) 4:26
3. Habanera (Vince Mendoza) 4:56
4. Blues for Pablo (Gl Evans) 5:56
5. Ollie Mention (Vince Mendoza) 7:30
6. Bluesounds Movement I (Vince Mendoza) 2:58
7. Bluesounds Movement II (Vince Mendoza) 5:59
8. Bluesounds Movement III (Vince Mendoza) 5:21
9. Bluesounds Movement IV (Vince Mendoza) 6:02
10. Bluesounds Movement V (Vince Mendoza) 4:53
11. Bluesounds Movement VI (Vince Mendoza) 7:32
Personnel:
Vince Mendoza: conductor
Nguyên Lê: guitar
Markus Stockhausen: trumpet
Claudio Puntin: clarinets, saxophones
Steffen Schorn: clarinets, saxophones
Frank Sackenheim: saxophones
Arkady Shilkloper: french horn
Jon Sass: tuba
Lars Danielsson: bass
Ulla van Daelen: harp
Peter Erskine: drums
Christopher Dell: vibraphone
String Quartet RED URG 4
Recorded July 7, 2007, at Studio 2, Funkhaus Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Cologne and live at Traumzeit-Festival, Duisburg, by Christian Cluxen and Sebastian Roth
Mixed and Mastered by Rich Breen
Produced by Dr. Bernd Hoffmann, WDR 3
Executive Producer: Siegfried Loch
Review:
It’s
been nearly a decade since composer/arranger Vince Mendozareleased the sweepingly
orchestral Epiphany (Zebra, 1999), but he’s been anything but
inactive. The arranger/orchestrator of choice for artists including quirky
popstress Bjork and her hit album Vespertine(Elektra, 2001), and
Joni Mitchell—reinventing the iconic singer/songwriter’s vast songbook on Both
Sides Now (Reprise, 2000) and Travelogue (Nonesuch,
2002)—he’s remained a vital part of the jazz sphere with his vivid big band
arrangements for trumpeter Randy Brecker’s Some Skunk Funk (Telarc,
2006) and his exciting rework of Joe Zawinul’s Weather Report orchestrations
for the WDR Big Band on Brown Street (Heads Up, 2007), the
keyboardist’s final album before his passing.
As strong an arranger/orchestrator as Mendoza is, his high visibility projects
make it easy to forget his distinctive compositional voice. Blauklang—his
seventh album as a leader and the conclusion of a trilogy that began with the
Arif Mardin collaboration Jazzpana (ACT, 1993) and solo
effort Sketches (ACT, 1994)—features imaginative arrangements
of music from Miles Davis (“All Blues”), Gil Evans (“Blues for
Pablo”) and the public domain (the traditional “Lo Rossinyol”).
But it’s his own writing that makes this album’s unique collective—including
string quartet, harp, tuba, French horn, reeds, trumpet, guitar, bass, drums
and vibraphone—such a profound addition to his discography. With the exception
of the similar but equally strong Start Here(World Pacific, 1990)
and Instructions Inside (Manhattan, 1991), each release
illuminates a different aspect of Mendoza’s inestimable talent, while
continuing to augment a significant and instantly recognizable body of work.
Mendoza calls upon friends old
and new, with Nguyen Le returning from Sketches to contribute
his own special mix of harmonic and coloristic breadth. The guitarist is one
of Blauklang‘s primary voices, elegant on a gently swinging
“All Blues” while demonstrating a more aggressive fusion attitude on
the powerful closer to Mendoza’s six-movement “Bluesounds” suite. An
orchestral player capable of supporting the textural aspects of Mendoza’s
delicately evocative “Habanera” and subtly lyrical “Ollie
Mention” while pushing the more forceful parts of “Movement II”
and “Movement VI” of “Bluesounds,” Peter Erskine makes it
perfectly clear why he has been Mendoza’s drummer of choice dating back
to Vince Mendoza (H.I.T. Avenue, 1989). Trumpeter Markus
Stockhausen, clarinetist/saxophonist Claudio Puntin, French hornist Arkady
Shilkloper and bassist Lars Danielsson are newcomers to Mendoza’s universe, but
are all established names who mesh comfortably with it while, at the same time,
bringing something new to expand its boundaries.
Mendoza’s boldly unclassifiable writing relies on complex counterpoint and
challenging meters (“Movement II”), near-ambient stasis and
electro-centric textures (“Movement I”), and beautifully layered
harmonies and neoclassical leanings (“Movement III”). Blauklang may
revolve around blue as a distinct musical color, but it’s far more than homage
to the traditional concept of the blues in jazz. Instead, deeply substantive
yet wholly accessible, Mendoza daringly expands the vernacular by including
elements of abstract impressionism, romanticism and a highly unorthodox palette
to position him as the clear and natural successor to the late Gil Evans.
John Kelman (All About Jazz)