At Attempt at Serenity
Your Word Alone
2nd and 7th (Brooklyn Vignette No.5)
Brownieland (Brooklyn Vignette No.1)
Pre-Systems
Robins in Snow
Views from the Inside
Inter-Systems
Sunset Park, Sunset Park (Brooklyn Vignette No.2)
Sky, Good
Systems Two (Brooklyn Vignette No.6)
Verrazano Bikeride (Brooklyn Vignette No.3)
JC Sanford Orchestra
Recorded January 2013, Systems Two Recording Studio, Brooklyn, NYC [68:15]
JC Sanford, alumnus of the Alice Coltrane Orchestra and other prestigious ensembles, directs his own band in this vividly interpreted set, through which
runs the spine of (the majority of) his Brooklyn Vignettes. Oddly No.4 of the six is missing. There are twelve tracks, each reflecting an
interesting facet of his musical mind. At Attempt at Serenity opens with overdubbed Buddhist chanting, a recitation leading abruptly to a powerful
contra-alto clarinet solo from Kenny Berger, and then the calmer, more stoic sound of Matt Holman’s trumpet. The march gradient of Your Word Alone offers a rather bipartite pleasure – with violin over slinky accompaniment and then a rich soprano sax solo from Dan Willis over
more insistent support.
The first Brooklyn Vignette is called Brownieland and it’s notable that, whilst Sanford extends a long solo to the accordion of Jacob Garchik,
there’s no sense of musette about it, no pastiche, instead a restrained but purposeful sense of colour and structural integrity. Sanford himself takes two
solos, one elegant and refined on the piece called Robins in Snow, from a sound track, and again on Verrazano Bikeride (Brooklyn Vignette No.3) where percussion is given its head in an opus replete with ornery time signatures. The title track is
a 15-minute piece saturated with subtle colouration – especially winds – but also with the accordion’s rhythmic side to the fore. Sanford’s palette takes
in introspective and pugnacious, quasi-classical – with fugal suggestions - and hints of Copland in a piece to which the word kaleidoscopic does scant
justice. The thing is that it works, perky themes and evanescent voicings and all.
It’s a feature of this disc that Sanford marries solo voices with a big band mass, jazz with classical and reconciles expressive states, diffuse or overt
sound colours, whilst promoting richly textured solos such as the aforementioned contra-alto clarinet. He is a master of opening up angular brittleness and
running with it (Systems Two (Brooklyn Vignette No.6) and bringing strong harmonies to the party. No question that this is one exciting disc.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
WHIRLWIND
