Transformers:the Vince Dicola

Begin Again, Hersch's new Palmetto release featuring the Cologne-based WDR Big Band, arranged and conducted by six-time Grammy winner Vince Mendoza, serves as both an expertly curated overview of the pianist's oeuvre and a singular new entry in his expansive discography. The album features nine of Hersch's original compositions, plucked from throughout his various projects and preferred formats, including one previously unrecorded piece.

The collaboration heard on 54 had its origins back in the 90's when Vince Mendoza asked John Scofield to play on his first album. John has since been featured on two of Vince’s records and his guitar sound and improvisational skills work well within Vince’s concept. When Mendoza assumed directorship of The Metropole Orchestra, he and Scofield decided to collaborate again with a primary focus on Mendoza’s arrangements of Scofield compositions as performed with The Metropole Orchestra. "Vince is one of the most creative arrangers today and his sensibilities are perfect for my compositions," says Scofield. ''in addition to Vince’s arrangements, 54 features another pair of Scofield tunes transformed by likeminded arrangers Jim McNeely and Florian Ross. Two classic Mendoza compositions are included to complete the repertoire. ''I love playing in this lush setting. This orchestra is unique to any other I know of in its ability to play with a natural jazz feeling," says Scofield. "It’s a thrill to hear my tunes expanded by the orchestral arrangements and Vince’s tunes are modern masterpieces that I truly enjoy interpreting. The other soloists in the Orchestra are excellent as well."

The first and third of the three albums Vince Guaraldi and Bola Sete made together - Vince Guaraldi/Bola Sete & Friends (1963) and Vince Guaraldi & Bola Sete Live at El Matador (1966) - are combined onto one disc on this CD reissue. Actually, Sete only plays on two of the seven songs ("More" and "O Morro Nao Tem Vez") on the latter album, but no matter. Their collaboration could not be pegged as a peak in either man's careers, and did not particularly inspire either to forms or feelings they didn't achieve on their own. Nevertheless, they made pleasant, lightly swinging music together, often with a jazz-samba lilt, though at an easy enough pace that the music could fit comfortably into lounges. Vince Guaraldi/Bola Sete & Friends is certainly the more samba-oriented of the pair, not only because Sete is aboard for every cut, but also because the arrangements have more of a Brazilian feel…

The Latin side for Vince Guaraldi means a brush with both the Brazilian and Caribbean strains of Latin jazz, garnished now and then by an outboard string quartet and graced by four of his own delightful tunes. On Brazilian numbers like "Corcovado" and Brazilian-treated tunes like "Mr. Lucky" and Guaraldi's lovely "Star Song," Vince has drummer Jerry Granelli deploy his distinctive brushes-and-rim-shots bossa nova beat. Jack Weeks supplies bittersweet string arrangements as he tries to grant Guaraldi's wish for a "Villa-Lobos sound," which he does, more or less. Other tunes, like Guaraldi's own happy-go-lucky "Treat Street," "Whirlpool," and Nat Adderley's "Work Song," are treated to gentle cha-cha rhythms…