The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band visited Scandinavia a couple of times and was a sensation. Later when Mel Lewis and Thad Jones had some difficulties Thad got an offer from the Danish Radio Big Band where his first season was (1977-78). Thad Jones wanted to play his own music and played as many as ten radio broadcasts per year at the Montmartre Club. At the same time he also started up his own big band, Eclipse, with his own repertoire, based at Jazzhus Slukefter in the Tivoli Garden.
Michael Mantler’s Cerco Un Paese Innocente (I search for an innocent land) pays tribute to the father of modern Italian poetry, Giuseppe Ungaretti. Subtitled “A Suite of Songs and Interludes for Voice, Untypical Big Band and Soloists,” this seamless construction feels anything but untypical in the comforting plush of its instrumentation and attention to soundscape. The present recording is also significant for bringing Copenhagen-born vocalist Mona Larsen back together with the Danish Radio Big Band, who debuted her as soloist in the seventies to wide renown.