Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
The All Angles Orchestra is a 15-piece ensemble that forces the classical and jazz worlds to collide. The combination of orchestral woodwinds, a string quartet, a mix of brass instruments, and a jazz rhythm section allows the group to produce a wide variety of amazing colors and textures, serving as the perfect creative vehicle for a few young jazz composers on the rise. One of those is Mike Conrad, the leader and conductor of the ensemble, an Iowa native and a product of the University of Northern Iowa Jazz Studies program who is currently on the faculty at the University of Northern Colorado. The group’s debut disc, “New Angle,” features Alex Sipiagin, the incredible trumpet player and veteran of groups like the Dave Holland Big Band, the Michael Brecker Quindectet, and Mingus Dynasty.
Like Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers from another era, Steps Ahead is a longstanding institution of higher learning that has graduated a plethora of promising young talent over the course of four decades. The band formed in 1979 by vibraphonist Mike Mainieri and tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker as a gigging vehicle for the 7th Avenue South nightclub in New York. Through the ‘80s, ‘90s and into the new millennium, the band has toured and recorded regularly, with Mainieri being the one constant in an ever-changing lineup. With “Steppin’ Out,” the group’s collaboration with the WDR Big Band of Cologne, Mainieri is able to realize some classic Steps Ahead compositions in new surroundings, courtesy of the WDR’s Brooklyn-born conductor and arranger Michael Abene, who has overseen similar collaborations with the likes of Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Mike Stern, and Maceo Parker. The latest lineup features Bill Evans on sax, Chuck Loeb on guitar, Steve Smith on drums and Tom Kennedy on bass.
Also this week, Grammy-winning pianist and arranger Bill Cunliffe introduces a new jazz orchestral sound, combing jazz and works by Bach, Falla and Prokofiev on “Bachanalia”.
Saxophonist Grant Stewart pares down his ensemble to a reeds/bass/drums trio with “Roll On”.
Saxophonist Walt Weiskopf offers up a classic blowing date on “Fountain of Youth.”