Origin Lab i

A towering cultural figure throughout the second half of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein mediated between different musical worlds, borrowing freely from jazz, blues and popular music, eventually shaping a "classical" sound that became his deeply influential signature. From his decades of working alongside Austria's most illustrious musicians, Vienna's JAM Music Lab University was inspired to celebrate his music and legacy. With the addition of drumming great Peter Erskine as a Visiting Artist in 2021—bringing along his own decades of contributions to blending popular musics at the highest levels—they handed him the task of shaping the ambitious project. With this live recording, Erskine, JAM students and faculty, and pianist/musical director Danny Grissett honor Bernstein's genius and fulfill JAM's chief mission—inspired by the jazz masters, educate and nurture jazz's next generation—and on this night, Peter Erskine, and Leonard Bernstein, led the charge.

Alan Parsons delivered a detailed blueprint for his Project on their 1975 debut, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, but it was on its 1977 follow-up, I Robot, that the outfit reached its true potential. Borrowing not just its title but its concept from Isaac Asimov's classic sci-fi Robot trilogy, this album explores many of the philosophies regarding artificial intelligence – will it overtake man? What does it mean to be man? What responsibilities do mechanical beings have to their creators? And so on and so forth – with enough knotty intelligence to make it a seminal text of late-'70s geeks, and while it is also true that appreciating I Robot does require a love of either sci-fi or art rock, it is also true that sci-fi art rock never came any better than this.