Jay Fields

After years of playing avant-garde jazz and post-bop music, Jay Hoggard returned to the straight-ahead bop-oriented tradition with this CD. On "Put on a Happy Face," a swinging "Blues Bags," and a medium-tempo version of Thelonious Monk's "Ruby, My Dear," Hoggard emulates Milt Jackson a bit. He also sounds quite comfortable playing Afro-Cuban jazz on "Aguacate" and his solos on the two other swinging originals is very much hard bop, although never overly predictable. Pianist Geri Allen, sounding more conservative than usual, is nevertheless still a stimulating soloist and accompanist, with bassist Ed Rozie and drummer Frederick Waits keeping the music swinging and moving.

Maria Schneider Orchestra - The Thompson Fields (2015) {ArtistShare AS0137}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 415 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 188 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 46 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2015 ArtistShare / Maria Schneider | AS 0137
Jazz / Experimental Big Band / Post-Bop / Modern Big Band / Progressive Jazz

There's a wealth of information to be found inside the beautiful packaging that accompanies this release, but a brief Theodore Roosevelt quote may be the most telling piece of text to be found there. It reads: "There is nothing more practical in the end than the preservation of beauty, than the preservation of anything that appeals to the higher emotions in mankind." That really says it all about this artist and her work, for there is nobody more capable of harnessing emotions in music and projecting and preserving the beauty and power of the natural world in sound than Maria Schneider. She's demonstrated that time and again, and she does it once more on this awe-inspiring release.