LUSH MUSIC - New Project Stray Horns

LUSH MUSIC ( CVLD268 )

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

Tracks

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


Stefano Menato, alto sax / clarinet
Fiorenzo Zeni, tenor sax / clarinet
Giorgio Beberi, baritone sax / bass clarinet
Paolo Trettel, Trumpet / Fluehorn
Christian Stanchina, trumpet
Luigi Grata, trombone
Roberto Spadoni, guitar
Stefano Colpi, double bass
Renzo De Rossi, piano
Vittorio Marinoni, drums

24bit/88.2kHz original recording made at MagisterArea Studio, Preganziol - Italy
on March 26 & 27, 2015

Production: Velut Luna
Executive Producer: Marco Lincetto
Recording, Mixing and Mastering Engineer: Marco Lincetto
Photo of the Band: Marco Lincetto
Design and Layout: ???
Sales Manager: Patrizia Pagiaro

Notes
In recent years, studies and insights into the figure, role and art of Billy Strayhorn have increasingly led scholars and musicians to value 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 into the art and great musical qualities of Stray, as he was called by the musicians of the orchestra. Ellington, who had a very deep 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 activity in the Ellingtonian group took place in the roles 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 colouring: in addition to having collaborated on the large-scale works in masterpieces such as Such Sweet Thunder, A Drum Is a Woman, The Perfume Suite, The Far East Suite, Anatomy of a Murder, The Nutcracker Suite, he wrote a series of songs that became hits of the orchestra among which Take the "A" Train and Chelsea Bridge stand out.
In this album the NP Stray Horns ensemble, born within the activities of the New Project Association active between Trento and Bolzano, meets Strayhorn's music, rereading some of his masterpieces, from the youthful and very famous 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 work, in which many of the musicians involved contributed by arranging the original pages, giving life to a kaleidoscope of sound in which the music of the African-American composer was reinterpreted with respect, but also with a certain spirit of adventure that often distinguishes jazz reinterpretations.