Editorial Reviews The CD features phenomenal players from both coasts - a who's who from New York's downtown and LA's experimental music scenes: violins - Mark Feldman (Arcado String Trio, Dave Douglas) & Sarah Parkins (Zeena Parkins, Grammy-winning Angeles Quartet); pedal steel and banjo - Marc Muller (Karen Mantler, Shania Twain); trumpet - Frank London (John Zorn, Klezmatics); woodwinds - Aaron Heick (Chaka Khan), Steve Elson (Borneo Horns, David Bowie), Will Connell (Charles Mingus) & Kurt Hoffman (The Ordinaires); bass - Conrad Korsch (Billy Joel) & Oren Bloedow (Jewel); drums - Dan Morris (Rufus Wainwright, James Carney) & Jonathan Feinberg (They Might Be Giants); vibes - Michael Webster (Tracy Chapman); and accordions - Guy Klucevsek (Anthony Braxton, Fred Frith) & Nick Ariondo ("brilliant" - Zubin Mehta). From the off-kilter Rova-esque sax riff of opener "Take The J Train" through a tabla-propelled minimalist downtown hocket ("Mom") to the drunken trumpets of the Baroque Mexican polka "Garbanzo Beans," there is a thread of whimsy. Yet the music is not afraid of beauty.... There is grandiosity too: "Venice, Italy," a programmatic (Latin) American in Venice (including a Bridge of Size); "Long May She Wave" brings to mind prog rock and Frank Zappa's Grand Wazoo; "Threnody for Kennedy and Connally" reflects the JFK assassination through a history of 20th Century jazz, with homages to Louis Armstrong, the Andrews Sisters, Thelonious Monk and Carla Bley; Newgrass goes Carribbean with "Shenandoah/Innsbruck," a pairing of the traditional American ballad and a Renaissance vocal piece sung with Appalachian minstrelsy by Dudley Saunders.
Variety Orchestra
Music Review:
Music Review
Lookin in//Lion's SharLookin in//Lions Share [Original recording remastered] [Import]
Music: Maxime Le Forestier - Master Série [Import]
UK Hip Hop: The Voice of the Streets [Import]
This Is Christmas: Complete Carols by Alfred Burt
John Kelman, All About Jazz, April 2004~ John Kelman, All About Jazz, April 2004~ John Kelman, All About Jazz, April 2004John Kelman, All About Jazz, April, 2004
... Challenging... full of captivating melodies and rhythms... Clever without being coy... remarkable for its ability to sound focused despite itself.
Mark Keresman, Primetime, May, 2004
... a plush, kaleidoscopic crazy-quilt that playfully, intrepidly skewers all manner of Americana... as it pays loving tribute to it.
Album Description
Brian Woodbury's "Variety Orchestra" is a sparkling new CD of melodic post-modern jazz compositions. The music is built around a one-of-a-kind line-up combining a driving jazz rhythm section, Latin and Big Band horns, and the down-home Americana of pedal steel, banjo, fiddles & accordion. This mix is peppered with tabla, new music violin, tone rows, NYC bar band, Satchmo cornet growls, and a 15th century brass chorale.