By Ed Blanco comments: |
Review: Two Different Days is the latest and in my opinion, the best of Rob Parton's Jazztech Big Band CDs. The music is straight ahead modern big band style. Performed by a seventeen piece orchestra comprised of Chicago based musicians that together define what the modern big band jazz ensemble is today. This is one group of musicians that really set the charts on fire on this CD.
Two Different Days takes off from the very first number "Soon," a George Gershwin composition and Don Schamber arrangement, that seems to set the tone for this high flying CD. While there are few original compositions, there are many notable standards such as "Speak Low," "Take the A Train," and "How Deep is the Ocean". Schamber's arrangements turn these tunes into some hot cooking big band sounds that will surely find one replaying the tracks in the CD player of your car, your home and in your brain! Thomas Matta's arrangement of "On a Misty Night",a Tadd Dameron writing, is one musical score that highlights the Jazztech band's wonderful brass section that features a scorching sax solo by tenor sax man Mark Colby. Colby's sax solos are simply sublime. You hear his work throughout this enjoyable CD and is again prominently featured in the tune "Blue Getz Blue," originally written for the master, Stan Getz, and here supremely interpreted by Colby.
Not to be outdone, Rob Parton's lead trumpet leaves his mark on many of the tracks but none so eloquently and with such class as in "She's Gone," a sweet song penned by Chuck Mangione. "She's Gone" finds Parton on flugelhorn backed up by twenty six members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera to produce one beautiful jazz love song that goes directly to the heart.
This thirteen track CD is an energizing and explosive, in your face, proof that modern big band jazz is very alive and kicking, garnishing new interest and fans every day. As Parton himself writes in the liner notes of this CD,"Much has changed in the area of modern big band...it is indeed an exciting time for American jazz". We will certainly hear much more from Rob Parton and this big band in the future.
Tracks: 1.Soon, 2.On A Misty Night, 3.Speak Low, 4.How Deep is The Ocean, 5.Take The A Train, 6.I'm Getting Sentimental Over You, 7.Blue Daniel, 8.Never Will I Marry, 9.My one and Only Love, 10.Bernie's Tune, 11.Blue Getz Blue, 12.Two Different Days, 13.She's Gone
Record Label Website: http://www.seabreezejazz.com
Artist's Website: http://www.rparton.com
Reviewed by: Edward Blanco
Style: Big Band | Published: November, 2004