Fred Hersch, WDR Big Band & Vince Mendoza
Release Date: 07 June 2019
Label: Palmetto Records
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 753957219529
Genres: Jazz Contemporary
Description
Begin Again, Hersch's new Palmetto release featuring the Cologne-based WDR Big Band, arranged and conducted by six-time Grammy winner Vince Mendoza, serves as both an expertly curated overview of the pianist's oeuvre and a singular new entry in his expansive discography. The album features nine of Hersch's original compositions, plucked from throughout his various projects and preferred formats, including one previously unrecorded piece. Mendoza's impeccable orchestrations—robust yet refined, essential yet understated—manage to bolster Hersch's striking gifts for melody and expressivity while also showcasing the remarkable abilities of the Grammy-winning WDR band, which DownBeat recently described as "one of Europe's finest large jazz ensembles." In Ellingtonian fashion, Mendoza has through experience gained a deep understanding of the WDR's members as distinctive voices (not to mention masterful doublers), and he applies these timbres in brilliantly coloristic ways. On Begin Again, that also means granting well-deserved solo opportunities to thoughtfully expressive players like the alto saxophonists Johan Hörlén and Karolina Strassmayer, the tenor saxophonist Paul Heller, the trumpeters Ruud Breuls and Andy Haderer, the trombonists Ludwig Nuss and Andy Hunter, and the drummer Hans Dekker.
Tracklisting
Fred Hersch
Tim Hagans
Matt Wilson's Arts And Crafts
Hersch,Fred
Matt Wilson Quartet
Fred Hersch Trio
Fred Hersch
Matt Wilson
Anthony Ferrara
Alex Norris
Makiko Hirabayashi
Steve Johns
Andrew Rathbun
Adam Fairhall & Johnny Hunter
Eivind Austad Trio
David Ferris Septet
