Leírás
Big Band Jazz, Christmas Songs,
Special editition 2CD kiadvány, 2024-es album.
After twenty-seven years of performing (including two CDs), and after a six-year hiatus, Ray Brown’s Great Big Band has reassembled to record one last time…the result is over 100 minutes (two CDs) of pure, authentic big band jazz!….From an 18-city tour sampling in the “The City Medley” to “America” to outrageously cool Christmas arrangements, this double CD set is quite a ride!
Five (5) Christmas tunes included. Also included: America The Beautiful and The City Medley.
When he was in eighth grade, Ray’s brother Steve played him a Maynard Ferguson recording of “Where’s Teddy,” an arrangement by Maynard’s tenor saxophonist and writer, Willie Maiden. From that moment, Ray decided he would learn to write big band Jazz just the way Willie did. Thirteen years later he found himself sitting next to him on the Stan Kenton Band playing his arrangements every night for fifteen months. Many years after that, when his own big band book reached fifty arrangements, he started the “Great Big Band.” The players’ great skill and expert musicianship performing Ray’s music have brought this album to fruition. All twenty of them hope big band Jazz aficionados everywhere will enjoy this performance. That said, this is Ray Brown’s “Great Big Band,” and, THIS IS HIS BOOK!
„Ray Brown has had a successful career as a trumpeter and arranger for the likes of Stan Kenton, Bill Watrous, Bill Berry, the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut Big Band and the Full Faith and Credit Big Band. He formed his own big band, Ray Brown’s Great Big Band, in 1994. They gigged around the Bay Area and recorded two albums before Brown disbanded in 2016. In 2022, he reformed the band to record I Could Write a Book (Summit – 821), a two-disc set containing 21 of his charts. Most of the selections are standards, including the closing five tracks of Christmas songs. The best word to describe the music on the album is exciting. Brown’s charts are superb and demanding. The players are well suited to the task of bring the music to life. The ensemble playing is tight with sparkling solo work sprinkled throughout. It is a fortunate for modern big band enthusiasts that Brown brought these players together once more to add this wonderful exclamation point to a terrific band.” – Joseph Lang for Jersey Jazz
YouTube video:
„I Could Write A Book”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCBoX0H_zE4
„It Might As Well Be Spring”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=357612PELJI
Felvételek:
CD 1.:
1 The City Medley
2 America The Beautiful
3 Spring is Here
4 You Are The Sunshine of My Life
5 How About You?
6 How Long Has This Been Going On?
7 Blues for the Two Ks
8 I Could Write A Book
9 The Shadow of Your Smile
10 Patterns
11 The Touch of Your Lips
12 The Fugue/Airegin
CD 2.:
1 It Might As Well Be Spring
2 Little Jeannette Leigh
3 Stella By Starlight
4 If I Should Lose You
5 Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
6 Christmas Time Is Here
7 The Christmas Song
8 Jingle Bells
9 A Christmas Love Song
(Barcode: 0099402821924)
