Hey everybody! I'm here for a little self-promotion, with some cool things you can get in addition.
For the last several years I've been working on a project I call 5+4 - I started writing music in 2019 for a "traditional" jazz quintet plus a string quartet, and I received a grant from the Greater Madison Jazz Consortium to complete that music and put on our first performance, but because of the pandemic that first performance was delayed over a year until October 2021.
Two years after that first performance, I'm pleased to announce that an album of that music will be released on Shifting Paradigm records (buy it on Bandcamp, or come hang out with me and get one from me). We recorded in January of this year, some of it at Shirk Studios in Chicago and the rest at Audio for the Arts in Madison. Joining me for this album are these wonderful musicians:
Dustin Laurenzi on tenor saxophone and clarinet
Jason Kutz on piano
Brian Courage on bass
Jon Deitemyer on drum set
Paran Amirinazari on violin
Wes Luke on violin
Kayla Patrick on viola
Lindsey Crabb on cello
I also would like to note that I'm also selling (for an extremely low price! Only $5!) a book of scores that accompanies the album, here on my website. You'll not only find sheet music for all eight tracks, but also a little bit of explanation/analysis to go with it.
You can read more about this in the score book, but here's a brief list of music that was especially inspirational as I learned to navigate this "modern jazz with strings" landscape:
Some of the "non-jazz" stuff first:
Steve Reich's Different Trains
Arvo Pärt's string music
Caroline Shaw's music, especially the Attaca Quartet's Orange
The film music of Thomas Newman, Shigeru Umebayashi, and Mica Levi
Beethoven's late string quartets
Saint-Saëns third symphony
Leonard Bernstein's On the Town
And some of the "jazz" albums:
Ambrose Akinmusire's the imagined savior is far easier to paint
Fabian Almazan's Alcanza and Rhizome
Terence Blanchard's A Tale of God's Will
Billy Childs' Map to the Treasure
Laura Jurd's Landing Ground
Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider
Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now (string arrangements by Vince Mendoza)
Maria Schneider's Winter Morning Walks
Matt Ulery's By A Little Light and In the Ivory
So much more, but those are the string sources I found most inspiring. Here's a little bit of the music: