LUSH MUSIC - New Project Stray Horns

LUSH MUSIC ( CVLD268 )

Author : Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington
Performer : New Project Stray Horns

Available in: HD File, CD

Traces

1 Upper Manhattan Medical Group (Billy Strayhorn - arr. Fiorenzo Zeni) - 5:21
2 Chelsea Bridge (Billy Strayhorn - arr. Roberto Spadoni) - 6:48
3 Half The Fun (Billy Strayhorn - arr. Giorgio Beberi) - 4:49
4 Dolls (Roberto Spadoni) - 4:37
5 Star Crossed Lovers (Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn - arr. Roberto Spadoni) - 5:26
6 Johnny Come Lately (Billy Strayhorn - arr. Paolo Trettel) - 5.30
7 Lush Life (Billy Strayhorn - arr. Fiorenzo Zeni) - 5.39
8 Take The “A” Train (Billy Strayhorn - arr. Luigi Grata) - 3:39
9 Isfahan (Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn - arr. Fiorenzo Zeni) - 4:41
10 Rain Check (Billy Strayhorn - arr. Luigi Grata) - 5:08
11 Blood Count (Billy Strayhorn - arr. Renzo De Rossi) - 5:06

Total Time: 56:49

Notes
In recent years, studies and insights into the figure, role, and art of Billy Strayhorn have increasingly led scholars and musicians to appreciate his personality, freeing it from the shadow of the immense figure of Duke Ellington, with whom he was a close collaborator for almost thirty years. The centenary of his birth - in 2015 - has given new impetus and stimulus to in-depth studies on the art and great musical qualities of Stray, as he was known by the orchestra's musicians. Ellington, who had a profound human and artistic relationship with him, never hid his admiration and gratitude, expressing it thus in his famous autobiography Music Is My Mistress (1973): "Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine."
His work with Ellington took the form of composer, arranger, and pianist (both in the studio and live), bringing a certain transparency to the orchestration of the leader's complex harmonic language and—with some of his compositions—a classical tone. In addition to collaborating on the large-scale works of masterpieces such as Such Sweet Thunder, A Drum Is a Woman, The Perfume Suite, The Far East Suite, Anatomy of a Murder, and The Nutcracker Suite, he wrote a series of songs that became hits for the orchestra, including "Take the "A" Train" and "Chelsea Bridge."
In this album, the NP Stray Horns ensemble, born within the activities of the New Project Association active between Trento and Bolzano, encounters Strayhorn's music, reinterpreting some of his masterpieces, from the youthful and celebrated Lush Life to his last work, recorded posthumously a few months after his premature death in 1967 by Ellington himself, Bloody Count.
The project was conceived as a collective effort, with many of the musicians contributing by arranging the original works, creating a kaleidoscope of sound in which the African-American composer's music has been reinterpreted with respect, but also with a certain adventurous spirit that often characterizes jazz reinterpretations.