Description

1998 Charlie Mariano fulfilling a long & dearly cherished wish: finally get the chance to play with a symphonic orchestra.

Name: Charlie Mariano - Not Quite A Ballad (CD)
SKU: WEEC647008
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5 (192 reviews)

In November 1998 Charlie Mariano celebrated his 75th birthday on stage with the Würzburg Philharmonic, thereby fulfilling a long and dearly cherished wish: finally get the chance to play with a symphonic orchestra. That occasion was the springboard for various new arrangements, which now appear here for the first time on CD. Two years later a second artistic collaboration in Würzburg took place: this concert resulted in the current recording. A decisive element in the successful communication between the symphony orchestra and jazz musicians was the presence of the New On The Corner Trio, which has been organising jazz productions with the Würzburg Orchestra on a regular basis since 1994, including a CD recording with Benny Bailey. Thus we hear four of the titles here in an arrangement for quartet. Charlie`s italien roots, and the fact that he often heard arais at home in his younger days are the reason for the arrangements from the aria ”Vesti la giubba” from I Pagliacci, and from Albinoni`s Adagio which we hear here. Some listeners may well prefer Charlie`s alto sax to many an italian tenor!
The Next Last Wave, the original compositions by Peter Fulda is in fact already available on CD in various versions (big band, piano solo, piano trio), but this is a first-time recording of the version for quartet and symphony orchestra. Charlie Mariano`s years of involvement with the music of the Indian subcóntinent are reflected in the large-scale Yagapriya by the Indian composer Ramamani, in an arrangement by Peter Fulda. The first half of this work is a gigantic tampura or free improvisation by thew soloist over a changing ”bordun” in the orchestra. The second half is rhythmically defined, but in 7/4 time. The notes are all pitched within one single, unchanging scale. The conductor of these recordings, Jonathan Seers, puts it simply this way: ”This is where ”world music” is created in the best sense of the word”.