Search - Jim McNeely :: Nice Work

As conductor for the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, Jim McNeely's taken the big ensemble to great heights--and many such heights are captured on Nice Work. McNeely contributes four lengthy compositions here, with an additional arrangement of George Gershwin's "Nice Work if You Can Get It" to end the CD. His work is big on contrast and texture, spinning narrative yarns out of the dialogues between horn sections, for example, while guitarist Anders Chico Lindvall holds the floor with grooving strums on "Pete's Feet." McNeely's an exceptionally gifted bandleader (consider his work with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra on Lickety Split and the Thad Jones Legacy or on McNeely's own phenomenal tentet CD, Group Therapy), driving the DRJO to chugging force through Nice Work and scripting ingenious twists on "I Got Rhythm" (on "... and Rhythm") as well as a succession of serenely lyrical work gone haywire and then back to tranquility on "Rough Night." This is a dynamite session for anyone interested in the big band continuum and its countless possibilities. --Andrew Bartlett