The Boston-based JCA Orchestra includes an impressive roster
of veteran musicians from the Boston area including woodwind players Allan
Chase (Rashied Ali, John Zorn), Jim Hobbs (Anthony Braxton, Fully Celebrated
Orchestra), Hiroaki Honshuku (Mike Stern, Dave Liebman), and Phil Scarff
(Natraj); trumpeters Mike Peipman (Artie Shaw and Woody Herman Orchestras),
Gary Bohan (Klezmer Conservatory Band), and Forbes Graham (Para Quintet);
trombonists Bob Pilkington and David Harris; tuba player Bill Lowe (Muhal
Richard Abrams; Henry Threadgill; Frank Foster); bassist John Funkhouser; and
pianist Mina Cho, just to name a few. Rebecca Shrimpton, whose supple and
entrancing voice has graced the work of such luminaries as Joe Lovano, Steve
Lacy, Oliver Lake, and George Lewis, makes the apocryphal sound beguiling with
her elegant rendition of Katz's intricate, circuitous melodies.
The project was born when someone at Katz's local bike shop
told the composer that Einstein had once declared the three greatest inventions
of the modern world to be "the three-masted sailing ship, the
refrigerator, and the bicycle" - music to the ears of the avid cycler. As
it turns out, Einstein never said any such thing, but the idea still got Katz
started expressing his love for bicycling in musical terms.
The title track recounts a Zen koan in which a master asks
his students why the ride their bicycles, praising each one's practical
responses but genuflecting before the one who answers, "I ride my bicycle
to ride my bicycle." Katz could be praised for his equal commitment to
writing music for its own sake, evidenced beautifully by this track as it
progresses from moody abstraction to an Ellingtonian growl of a fanfare, a hip
Zen groove, Impressionist balladry, and a soulful, fluid guitar solo from the
leader himself.
The centerpiece of the CD is comprised of
"Wheelworks," an eight-movement suite dedicated to the often
inaccurate words of wisdom of one of the 20th-century's greatest thinkers. The
wide-ranging piece veers from the urgent "Any Intelligent Fool"
through the pensive, shape-shifting disclaimer "What Did Albert Einstein
Say?"; the angular "Riding a Bicycle," with its tempestuous free
section featuring baritone saxophonist Dan Zupan, tuba player Bill Lowe, and
trumpeter Gary Bohan; Mina Cho and pedal steel guitarist Norm Zocher breaking
the tension of "Under the Cloak of War"; the martial third-stream
march of "Sticks and Stones"; the stealthy, aptly-named "The
Mysterious"; the light-footed sway of "We Are the Dancers"; and
finally the Copland-tinged hope of "A Better Teacher."
The JCAO exits on "SamiBadGal," a lush, heartfelt
eulogy for a six-toed cat, before Katz ends the proceeding with a wistful
arrangement of Thelonious Monk's "Monk's Mood" for the JCA Sax
Quartet: altoists Jeff Hudgins and Daniel Ian Smith, tenor Phil Scarff, and
bari Dan Bosshardt. The wordless piece offers one of the album's most eloquent
statements, originally uttered by one of the jazz world's finest minds and here
restated with grace and passion.
A composer of more than 70 pieces for jazz orchestra,
Darrell Katz is a co-founder of the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, which
has been a fixture on Boston's creative music scene since its first performance
in December 1985. Dedicated musicianship, innovative programming and fresh
compositional concepts make JCA concerts and CDs colorful, adventurous,
high-energy events. Katz's work has appeared on all eight of the big band's
previous albums. (The JCA also released a sax quartet album).
The recipient of
numerous grants, including the Massachusetts Artist Fellowship in composition,
a Jazz Fellowship Grant from the NEA, and grants from Meet The Composer, The
Aaron Copland Fund, The New England Foundation For The Arts, Katz "has
forged an identity as a progressive and creative orchestrator of new music in a
way that few can claim," says Michael G. Nastos in All Music Guide. Katz
was the organizer of the Julius Hemphill Composition Awards (1991-2001). He has
a Master of Music Degree from New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Music
from Berklee College of Music, where he been a faculty member since 1989.
"One cannot help but admire Katz and the JCA for their dedication and
commitment to creative music," says Jazz Review.com.
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