TRACKS:
1. SOMEWHERE BETWEEN STASIS AND ANTI-STASIS
2. SYCOSIS AND PSYCHOSIS
3. INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN CATTLE
4. THE BURNING HOUSE
5. SIMULACRUM
6. LIGHTING AN OBSCURE WORLD
GUEST SOLOISTS:
ALEX SIPIAGIN trumpet
DICK OATTS alto saxophone
FRANCISCO TORRES trombone
JOHN ESCREET piano
JOHN RILEY drums
MUSICIANS:
BRYN VAN VLIET lead alto saxophone, woodwinds
FRANK TALBOT alto and tenor saxophones, woodwinds
DAVE WILSON alto and tenor saxophones, woodwinds
ROGER MANINS tenor saxophone, woodwinds
LOUISA WILLIAMSON tenor saxophone, woodwinds
ANDRE PARIS baritone saxophone
COLIN HEMMINGSEN bass clarinet
JON PAPENBROOK lead trumpet
MIKE BOOTH trumpet
JACK HARRÉ trumpet
DAVE LISIK trumpet
HENRY SHERRIS trumpet
FRANCISCO TORRES lead trombone
ANTHONY WILLIAMS trombone
RODGER FOX trombone
PATRICK DI SOMMA bass trombone
NICK GRANVILLE guitar
JOHN ESCREET piano
HAMISH SMITH bass
JOHN RILEY drums
RECORDED, EDITED, AND MIXED BY DR. DAVID LISIK AT THE NEW ZEALAND SCHOOL OF MUSIC,
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON.
MASTERED BY MIKE MARCIANO IN NEW YORK CITY
DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY DAVE LISIK AND RYAN BRAKE.
REVIEWS
DOWNBEAT - DANIEL MARGOLIS
Endeavour Jazz Orchestra New Zealand: Solipsis, The Music of Ryan Brake
☆☆☆☆
The concept behind the Endeavour Jazz Orchestra New Zealand is laudable. The ensemble was created primarily to feature the best young jazz composers in New Zealand, and it features many of the island nation’s best jazz musicians playing alongside some of the world’s top jazz artists — Alex Sipiagin on trumpet, Dick Oatts on alto saxophone, Francisco Torres on trombone, John Escreet on piano and John RIley on drums.
Normally that’d be enough plot line for an hour of exceptional jazz. But the Endeavour Jazz Orchestra New Zealand’s first project has another angle. Solipsis — Music Of Ryan Brake bills itself as inspired by elements of the critically acclaimed 2008 film Synedoche, New York. The 14-year-old movie stars the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director staging an increasingly elaborate production with no real sense of time; its development twists on for years. The titles of the six movements of Solipsis reference things said or seen in the film. The first is a big one, “Somewhere Between Stasis And Anti-stasis,” which sums up the unreality of the film overall. The more than 20 musicians (the majority of them horn players) on hand in the orchestra start the proceedings with a cheerful chorus and then start walking around with the arrangement before showcasing a beautiful yet dizzying solo from Escreet, who’s consistently on fire throughout the album.
“Sycosis And Psychosis” refers to a scene in the movie in which Hoffman’s character Caden Cotard explains to a child the difference between the two — one is a skin condition; the other a troubled mental state — as it’s clear while he acknowledges he has the former, he also has the latter. On the track here, the orchestra stages a slower number with Escreet and guitarist Nick Granville thoughtfully mirroring each other, then members of the ample horn section do the same before seizing the composition’s line to twist it around for a while, and then hand it back to the guitarist and pianist. The song then takes a time-out for a languid guitar solo and another notably complex, expressive piano solo. For all the talent enlisted here, Escreet and Granville may be the project’s true stars.
“Infectious Diseases In Cattle,” a phrase Cotard considers as the title of his play at one point, starts in a hurry and then cuts the tempo ever so slightly to give the horn players some room. “The Burning House,” a visual element repeated throughout Synedoche, New York, highlights Brake’s skills with composition, particularly arrangement, before coming to an abrupt halt (he seems to like ending a song that way).
“Simulcrum,” another title Cotard considers, is a slower, moodier number that builds in drama and boasts some of the best horn solos here, especially from trombonist Francisco Torres.
The album’s closer, “Lighting An Obscure World,” yet another title Cotard considers, wastes no time in bringing together all the musicians on hand for a full-ensemble jam. Over the course of the 12-minute track, the players try virtually everything, even exploring a Latin feel before allowing space for an unaccompanied piano solo.
This is the Endeavour Jazz Orchestra New Zealand’s inaugural release. Let’s hope more are on the way.
ELSEWHERE - GRAHAM REID
Endeavour Jazz Orchestra New Zealand: Solipsis, The Music of Ryan Brake
Although this country has had a lineage of big bands and a few jazz orchestras, the economies of touring and recording have meant our albums have mostly been of smaller groups.
This one in the age of digital releases however – recorded by Dave Lisik at the NZ School of Music at Victoria University in Wellington – is a no-holds-barred, widescreen blockbuster with a large ensemble of horns which includes some familiar names: Roger Manins, Colin Hemmingsen, Mike Booth, Lisik himself, Rodger Fox and Nick Granville among them.
The guest soloists here are Dick Oatts (alto sax), Alex Sipiagin (trumpet), Francisco Torres (trombone), John Escreet (piano) and John Riley (drums) . . . although special mention should also go to guitarist Granville for his slow build solo on Sycosis and Psychosis.
Dedicated to mostly recording the music of New Zealand composers, here the EJO have charts by Ryan Brake (now Dr Ryan Brake of Victoria Uni) who writes beautiful challengingly scores for this big ensemble: check out the track entitled – I kid you not – Infectious Diseases in Cattle which swings like busy, urban Ellington caught up in irritating gridlock horn-honk NYC/AK traffic but which then eases towards some cool West Coast jazz (Upper West Side/Morningside off-ramp) where Oatts picks it up and takes it to a sophisticated club where an approving Paul Desmond is in the audience.
There's enormous vibrant energy here – The Burning House is like a snappy soundtrack to an early Sixties detective drama
And right at the end Lighting An Obscure World gets into the space between a jazz orchestra and a tough post-bop intrusion (Escreet ripping the material to idiosyncratic and furiously abstract shreds) before it, some what weirdly, returns to some mad central melodic space.
Whatever it is Ryan Brake writes, and however these players explore it, he's doing something very different in the canon of Aotearoa New Zealand jazz.
And we're the better – if perhaps a little more terrified -- for it.