THE ANDREW SCHILLER QUINTET - SONORAN

Sonoran is the second album from bassist/composer/bandleader Andrew Schiller featuring an adventurous quintet of like-minded musicians. The artist explores the limits of his unique writing style in this evocative nine-part suite, written as a contemplation of the Sonoran Desert landscape, a setting that he called home for most of his childhood. A diversely beautiful region located across the American Southwest and Northwestern Mexico, the area has historically and recently become subject to contentious debates on political borders. The desert, though, does not abide by man-made boundaries and drawing a line through the region, physically or figuratively, cannot break the connectedness of people and cultures sharing the same harsh and astonishing environment.

Sonoran is a cinematic suite embodying some of the unique elements of the desert-the blistering heat of an inescapable sun, the surreal mountain ranges with jagged rock formations, needled flora and venomous fauna, and hauntingly vast stretches of barren earth. The composition is built on contrasting and interlocking themes, bridged together by the exploratory improvised dialogue from members of the quintet. By experimenting with techniques in counterpoint, harmonic layering, and motivic development, Schiller blends jazz stylings with folk melodies, contemporary classical, third stream, and avant-garde.

The album's title track Sonoran simmers with an intertwining ostinato of alto saxophone and bass clarinet, introducing a swelling unison melody shared by tenor saxophone and arco bass. Tension increases gradually during the harmonic progression of the piece, and dissipates at the arrival of four sustained chords followed by a pause. An accelerated bass line introduces a flurry of full-group improvisation, which evolves into the piece's climax, a howling chant played together by three horns.