Search - Gerald Wilson :: Theme for Monterey

Theme for Monterey
Gerald Wilson
Theme for Monterey
Genres: Jazz, Pop, Broadway & Vocalists
 
  •  Track Listings (7) - Disc #1

Los Angeles-based bandleader Gerald Wilson has been a perennial favorite for decades, earning a litany of composition awards and three Grammy nominations. He's also been a recurring fave of the Monterey Jazz Festival, appe...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Gerald Wilson
Title: Theme for Monterey
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Mama Records
Original Release Date: 5/4/1998
Re-Release Date: 3/24/1998
Genres: Jazz, Pop, Broadway & Vocalists
Styles: Swing Jazz, Traditional Jazz & Ragtime, Bebop, Oldies, Vocal Pop, Traditional Vocal Pop
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 734956102128

Synopsis

Amazon.com
Los Angeles-based bandleader Gerald Wilson has been a perennial favorite for decades, earning a litany of composition awards and three Grammy nominations. He's also been a recurring fave of the Monterey Jazz Festival, appearing in 1963 as one of Jimmy Lyons's pet projects and then again leading a Jimi Lunceford tribute band in 1975 and, in 1976, offering a commissioned 20th-anniversary piece, the "Happy Birthday Monterey Suite." So this musical homage to the festival on its 40th anniversary has a long history. Wilson's 45-minute suite is built around a 40-bar ascending theme that gets played at a variety of paces, from the sultry "Romance" to the speedy "Cookin' on Cannery Row." His band plays with a heap of harmonic precision, capturing each nuance as Wilson sought to demonstrate the ensemble's crack capacity for agile subtlety at any speed. This is music that speaks dually to long-form composition and to the task of taking the complexity of orchestration and distilling it into potent doses. To demonstrate Wilson's distilling ability beyond his large-scale works, check out his takes on "Summertime" and "Anthropology" premiered at the Library of Congress as they began archiving the bandleader's works. --Andrew Bartlett
 

CD Reviews

A master musician
stephan meeks | dallas | 05/19/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"You cannot get any better than the arrangements/ orchestrations of Gerald Wilson. His work is complex and academic yet sweet and soulful."
For a concept CD this one blows smooth sounds.
stephan meeks | 01/15/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)

"In the era where big bands have made a big comeback in popularity, Gerald Wilson Orchestra in this CD represents just about the best jazz has to offer. They provide the ebb and flow of fascinating harmonics and rhythmic patterns that ultimately give the suite a focus and continuity. This concept album truly exceeds the expectations I had and blows some beautiful stuff."