Monumental in creative ambition, imaginative scope, and
artistic achievement – not to mention sheer scale – Generations is the
breathtaking debut of the Brian Landrus Orchestra, a 25-piece all-star ensemble
stocked with a stunning array of the most inventive musicians in modern music.
These adventurous virtuosos have congregated to realize the extraordinary,
sweeping music of composer, baritone saxophonist and low woodwind master Brian
Landrus, whose work combines a lifetime’s worth of wide-ranging listening and
playing into an arrestingly bold, radiant and singular vision.
Far from a standard big band project and unlike any
orchestral jazz ensemble that’s come before it, the Brian Landrus Orchestra
incorporates inspiration from classical music, hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz,
reggae and world music – with “inspiration” being the key word. In Landrus’
inventive hands these diverse genres are deconstructed and absorbed, emerging
in startling and unrecognizable ways to conjure a dramatic and thrilling sonic
landscape.
The title Generations carries multiple meanings for Landrus
– including influences that span centuries from Bach to Ellington to Motown to
Led Zeppelin to J Dilla; the family members that inspired Landrus and his
music, from his father to his children; and the generations of musicians who’ve
come together to breathe life into these deeply personal compositions. The drum
chair alone features a four-decade difference in age, from the legendary Billy
Hart to rising star drummer Justin Brown.
The awe-inspiring ensemble also features Jamie Baum, Tom
Christensen, Darryl Harper, Michael Rabinowitz, Alden Banta and Landrus himself
on woodwinds; Debbie Schmidt, Ralph Alessi, Igmar Thomas, Alan Ferber and
Marcus Rojas on brass; harpist Brandee Younger and a string section featuring
Sara Caswell, Mark Feldman, Joyce Hammann, Meg Okura, Lois Martin, Nora Krohn,
Jody Redhage and Maria Jeffers; vibraphonist Joe Locke; and bassists Jay Anderson
and Lonnie Plaxico. The Orchestra is conducted by bandleader JC Sanford, who
has also held the baton for the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and the Alice
Coltrane Orchestra. Landrus co-produced the album with fellow composers Robert
Livingston Aldridge and Frank Carlberg.
Landrus comes to the project with a wealth of experience
both as a leader and as a performer with some of the world’s most distinctive
artists from a variety of genres: he’s toured the world in superstar Esperanza
Spalding’s band and played in Ryan Truesdell’s prize-winning Gil Evans Project
as well as working with the likes of Bob Brookmeyer, Rufus Reid, Danilo Perez,
Frank Kimbrough, Gary Smulyan, Maria Schneider, The Temptations, The Four Tops,
Martha Reeves, George Garzone, Bob Moses, Louis Nash, Nicholas Urie, Jerry
Bergonzi, Ayn Inserto, Alan Ferber, Uri Caine and Ralph Alessi, among others.
Generations is the culmination of a long-held dream for
Landrus, whose previous releases – both with his Quartet and the aptly-named Kaleidoscope
– were vibrant but necessarily scaled-down interpretations of the saxophonist’s
formidable ambitions. “I’ve had these colors in my head for as far back as I
can remember,” he says. “I would always have to strip down what I was hearing
into its raw form to use what I had available to me.”
A full-scale orchestra project began to seem more within
reach once Landrus, who holds two master’s degrees (in jazz composition and
jazz saxophone) from New England Conservatory, entered a PhD program in classical
composition at Rutgers University. Studying the scores of the world’s greatest
composers, he was compelled to allow his vision free rein, leading to the
multi-hued, densely inventive music of Generations. Of course, such a mammoth
undertaking is easier to fantasize than to achieve, but a combination of
passion, risk-taking and determination allowed Landrus to bring the orchestra
to fruition.
Landrus’ compositions incorporate his encyclopedic
influences in ground-breaking, original fashion. The merger of hip-hop and jazz
for instance, has become a common one; but you’ll hear no easily identifiable
grooves or beats in Landrus’ music. Instead, the composer spent years
transcribing dozens of hip-hop tracks, with an especial concentration on the
work of pioneering producer J Dilla, and then parceled those rhythms into the
strings. The result is an unconventional but invitingly complex weave of sounds
and textures that converge in deft, surprising forms.
“Growing up listening to Motown and hip-hop and everything
else that I loved and played with, those influences were going to creep in
regardless of what I did,” Landrus says. “I just had to try to put them
together as well as I could and try to imagine how it could all work. It’s a
puzzle to get it to fit together properly, but it gives the music a different
color that I’ve never heard before, familiar but new.”
The centerpiece of the album, and its launching-off point,
is the “Jeru Concerto,” a four-movement feature for the composer’s baritone
named for and inspired by his son Jeru – the namesake of bari master Gerry
“Jeru” Mulligan and not yet born when Landrus began writing the piece.
Propelled by the throaty churn of the orchestra’s low voices, the first
movement envelops Landrus’ sinuous lines in lushly wafting strings and buoyant
percussion; a solo turn for the leader initiates the gentle second movement,
while the third mingles tension and tenderness, perhaps an illustration of the
nervous anticipation that ushers any newborn into the world. The final
movement, penned after Jeru’s birth, explodes with an infectious joy unable to
contain a father’s pride.
Landrus’ family is also at the core of several other pieces.
His daughter lends her name to “Ruby,” who recognized her inquisitive spirit in
the music as he was writing it. The haunting “Every Time I Dream” depicts a
love that proved elusive for years until finally becoming embodied. Landrus
pays tribute to his father with “The Warrior,” which depicts not a ferocious
fighter but a man of gentle strength and stoic perseverance.
“Orchids” began as a dream, an atmosphere evocatively
suggested by the combination of Brandee Younger’s harp and Joe Locke’s vibes.
The love story gradually builds to an ecstatic crescendo, but ends on an
ambiguous note – like many dreams and, sadly, many romances. “Arrow in the
Night,” its title taken from a Buddhist saying regarding evil people who lurk
in the shadows, came to Landrus fully formed, its mesmerizing, slow surges like
broad, intense brush strokes. “Human Nature” evolves from the solitary to the
communal, maintaining a spiritual urgency throughout as the unsung title lyrics
are passed from instrument to instrument. The rhythmic intricacy of “Arise” was
inspired by a dance collaboration and imbibes elements from Electronic Dance
Music (EDM) and Latin jazz, though as always in transformative ways.
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