Live In Studio Saint Louis Big Band

Album info

Album-Release:
2009

HRA-Release:
25.03.2022

Album including Album cover

I`m sorry!

Dear HIGHRESAUDIO Visitor,

due to territorial constraints and also different releases dates in each country you currently can`t purchase this album. We are updating our release dates twice a week. So, please feel free to check from time-to-time, if the album is available for your country.

We suggest, that you bookmark the album and use our Short List function.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Yours sincerely, HIGHRESAUDIO

  • 1 Sister Sadie 06:23
  • 2 All of Me 05:07
  • 3 Spain 05:13
  • 4 Manteca 03:04
  • 5 It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) 04:52
  • 6 Four 03:41
  • 7 Come Fly With Me 03:35
  • 8 Fly Me to the Moon 02:35
  • 9 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy 05:48
  • 10 Caravan 03:48
  • 11 Birdland 03:52
  • Total Runtime 47:58

Info for Live In Studio



The Saint Louis Big Band conducted by Antonio Solimene it is an orchestral formation that fully respects the classical structure of the big band: 5 Sax, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, Rhythmics (piano, guitar, bass and drums) and 1 voice.

The repertoire of the ensemble, of a jazz type, touches most of the expressions and changes that have characterized African-American music since the beginning of the last century, proposing some of the most beautiful pages of orchestral jazz literature, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie. The elaborations of contemporary arrangers of the American area, Sammy Nestico, Don Sebesky and Bob Mintzer, are privileged.

After about a year of life, the first album of the Saint Louis Big Band of Saint Louis College of Music, entitled "Live in the studio" has finally arrived, 11 songs that try to photograph the stylistic characteristics of the repertoire, from swing to Latin passing through the funky.

The main objective was to communicate the energy that comes out during the live performances of this formation. It is no coincidence that it was decided to record live, all together, hence the name "Live in the studio".

The track list is an escalation of well-known pieces from the orchestral repertoire, reworked by contemporary American arrangers such as Mike Tomaro, Sammy Mestico, Willie Maiden and, perhaps, primus inter pares, Gil Evans. The stylistic variety seems to be borrowed from the Canadian master, the reflection on scores that move lightly and dynamically around the soloist, animated by a writing that never contradicts the spontaneity of improvisation. Starting from these reflections, the electric element takes shape in the rhythm, a real point of detachment from the classicism of blue, constant in the album and emphasized in an enveloping way in "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" where the counterpoints of bass and rock guitar solos give life to a space of essential virtuosity and melodic textures marked by phrasing of warm expressiveness. Evergreens of the calibre of "Spain", "Caravan" and "It don't mean a thing" are performed with warmth and energy both in the engaging timing and in the almost always linear solos, imparting a new liveliness compared to the originals, along soft lines of great freedom of expression. The same can be said of the swinging reinterpretations of "Four" and of the salsa of "Manteca", distinguished by a brilliant imprint in the counter-tempos according to a positive morphology that seems to be the essential coordinate of the entire album. Marta Capponi's voices are luminous in their tonal choices and mellowness, elastic and gritty in "Fly Me To The Moon", and Marco Villan's, who interprets a classic of vocal jazz such as "Come Fly With Me" with ascending pathos; not an easy choice, even a bold one if you think of the vocalists who have interpreted the two tunes...

Re-reading pieces of such artistic value with authenticity is an arduous task that requires great innovative effort. With this in mind, SLBB has produced a sophisticated, linear and creative work, which lives up to its claim and is the result of great teamwork and undisputed technical skills. In the best moments, the ensemble displays harmonic awareness and an original conception outside any original genre that becomes an opportunity to invent lights, colours, sparkling games, allusive plots.

The band's intention is to investigate new timbral worlds without any awe of the intense sounds of Chick Corea, Miles Davis or Joe Zawinul. On the contrary, they substantiate them in instantaneous, swirling pictures, adapting their meaning to their own aesthetics, to the point of turning them upside down, so much so that there no longer seems to be any semantic or stylistic gap between written and improvised. A winning bet, we imagine, that finds in the last track, "Birdland", its chromatic, sinuous and vibrant apex, to be listened to in order to never lose the deep and new sense of the blue notes of an Italian "Live in Studio" really like few others.

Saint Louis Big Band

No biography found.

This album contains no booklet.

© 2010-2024 HIGHRESAUDIO