Peter Erskine & The JAM Music Lab All-Stars: Vienna to Hollywood - Impressions of E.W. Korngold & Max Steiner

Straightahead / Mainstream
premiera polska: 2025-07-15
kontynent: Ameryka Północna
kraj: USA
opakowanie: Digisleeveowe etui
opis:
Editor's Info
Peter Erskine and Vienna's JAM Music Lab All-Stars celebrate the music of two iconic Viennese composers who, after moving to Hollywood in 1929 & 1934, transformed the dynamics of film as they set the standards for movie scoring. Through their work on Gone With the Wind, King Kong, and many dozens more, their role in shaping popular culture since is legion. First exposed to the music in the late '70s as he was touring with Weather Report, Erskine heard Joe Zawinul playing a beautiful melody and learned it was by Korngold, a fellow Viennese composer. He was moved to search out transcripts and recordings ever since. With his artist-in-residency at Vienna's cutting-edge JAM Music Lab University, his desire to reimagine this music in an improvised jazz setting finally became a reality.

DownBeat
Erskine's second collaboration with an all-star ensemble from the Vienna-based JAM Music Lab pays tribute to two Austrian composers who escaped Nazi terror, fled west and ended up creating the template for Hollywood film scoring. Principal arrangers Erskine and pianist Danny Grissett have taken some liberties with these old-school film cues, like adding an Afro-Cuban percussive undercurrent and swinging solo section on "March of the Merry Men" (from 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood) or turning "Old Spanish Song" (from 1940's The Sea Hawk) into an effervescent waltz-time swinger with harmonica ace Bertl Mayer carrying the melody.
Erskine's inimitable touch with brushes underscores the gentle piano trio number "Sterbelied," a melancholy requiem that also showcases Grissett's lyricism, and fuels an easy swinging rendition of Korngold's "The Boys Go Out to Play" that features L.A. session man Bob Sheppard on a flute solo.
The most recognizable song here is Steiner's "A Summer Place," from of a 1959 film of the same name. The two Korngold classical pieces showcasing a string quartet and the haunting "Ghost Note," a solo violin piece by Alyssa Park against an ambient backdrop, seem out of place with the rest of the program.
by Bill Milkowski

The New York City Jazz Record
...Erskine and the Jam Music Lab All-Stars demonstrate virtuosity, versatility and a keen attention to detail...creating a fitting tribute to the most influential figures in 20th-century music.

muzycy:
Herwig Gradischnig - saxophone (1,3,6,9)
Thomas Gansch - trumpet (1,3)
Bertl Mayer - harmonica (1,3,11)
Bob Sheppard - flute (4)
Judd Miller - EVI (5,11); sound design (12)
Andreas Varady - guitar (1,3,4,6,7,8,9,11)
Danny Grissett - piano
Thatiana Gomes - double bass (4,6,9,10)
Fabricio Pereira - double bass (1,2,3,7,8,11)
Peter Erskine - drums; percussion (7,9)
Flip Phillip - vibraphone (4,5,8,9); percussion (9)
Brian Kilgore - percussion (1)
Alyssa Park - violin (12)

String Quartet (5,10):
Kristina Šuklar - 1st violin
Anastasia Lindberg - 2nd violin
Mario Gheorghiu - viola
Julia Schreyvogel - cello

(courtesy of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra)

utwory:
1. March of the Merry Men 7:09
2. Sterbelied (from Lieder des Abschieds, Op. 14) 6:12
3. Old Spanish Song 5:32
4. The Boys Go to Play 5:04
5. Concerto Miniature (theme from Violin Concerto 2nd mvt.) 1:09
6. Romance (Violin Concerto, 2nd mvt.) 5:13
7. Tara's Theme 4:48
8. Belle Watling 6:27
9. Johnny Belinda 3:33
10. String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 26 (Larghetto) 9:53
11. A Summer Place 4:54
12. Ghost Coda (theme from Violin Concerto, 2nd mvt.) 1:09

wydano: 06 June 2025
nagrano: at 4tune audio productions, Vienna, Austria, on January 24-26, 2024

more info: www.originarts.com