Search - Claus Ogerman, Michael Breck :: Claus Ogerman Featuring Michael Brecker

Viennese Density

Jared Hoke | Marine on St. Croix, MN | 03/05/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ogerman is a long-standing arranger of jazz/pop albums, and can always be counted on for great harmonic inventiveness. Like other Viennese musicians of the past, such as Erich Korngold, or even Gustav Mahler, his ouvre is firmly rooted in the classic Germanic harmonic tradition, and like them (and others like Richard Strauss) he continually stretches the harmonic envelope as far as possible. Michael Brecker is one of the few of today's younger players who can make musical sense, on the spot, of charts as dense and complex as these. It is exhilerating to listen to and follow, but eventually, I find myself growing weary of trying to divine a harmonic pattern or shape to some of this. At the same time, some of the charts also fall into a TOO-predictable "two bars of this chord, two bars of that chord, two bars of the next...." etc, with no real overarching shape to give it meaning. But if you like harmony as rich as a "Sacher-torte", you'll love this. And it's always great to hear Michael Brecker play. No question: he's the best there is."