With The
Thompson Fields, composer, arranger and bandleader Maria Schneider celebrates a
long-awaited reunion with her vaunted jazz orchestra, a homecoming nearly a
decade in the making. Featuring eight
new original works by the leader, The Thompson Fields makes brilliant use of
Schneider's 18-piece jazz orchestra, a long-standing ensemble that spotlights
such first rank players as Donny McCaslin, Rich Perry, Frank Kimbrough and Lage
Lund. The performances reveal an ever-deepening
relationship between Schneider and her musicians, many of whom she has worked
with over a quarter of a century. The
album follows a momentous year that found Schneider's recent album Winter
Morning Walks garnering three wins in the classical category of the 2014 GRAMMY
Awards, making her one of the rare musicians to win GRAMMYs in both the jazz
and classical categories. The CD is powered by ArtistShare and available
exclusively at MariaSchneider.com.
Schneider
has long been known for her autobiographical music, and with The Thompson
Fields, she goes further, sharing a deep relationship to southwest Minnesota,
her childhood home. Although the music
reflects her love of native landscape, birds, and prairie, Schneider delves not
just into her own roots, but also into what "home" means in broader
terms.
The album
opens with "Walking by Flashlight," a poignant expression of an early
morning walk as depicted by poet, Ted Kooser in Winter Morning Walks. "I think this may be the only time that
alto clarinet was ever featured on a big band album," Schneider
claims. "Alto clarinet has long
been relegated to use almost exclusively in wind ensembles, but Scott Robinson
elevates this instrument to a place of very tender expression. I can actually hear Kooser's poetry in
Scott's expression of the melody."
Now reorchestrated as an instrumental work, this song was also featured
in Scheider's GRAMMY-winning song cycle, Winter Morning Walks.
Schneider's
most recent work,"The Monarch and the Milkweed," features Marshall
Gilkes on trombone and Greg Gisbert on fluegelhorn. Inspired by the beauty and abounding life
found in Minnesota native prairie, this piece is specifically dedicated to the
monarch. "This butterfly is one
example of a creature we love and are inspired by, but that depends upon
certain dwindling aspects in the environment - in this case, the milkweed -
without which the monarch will go extinct.
Four generations of monarchs and over 3,000 miles of flight from Mexico
complete its life cycle, with milkweed as the only plant it can eat. The piece is inspired by these
incomprehensible, complex cycles and interrelationships in nature, reflecting
on how they largely depend upon attraction and beauty, and ultimately now how
they depend on our appreciation and valuation of beauty," Schneider
explains.
The title,
"Arbiters of Evolution," refers to the remarkable mating rituals and performances of the birds-of-paradise
species native to New Guinea. Schneider
sets up each solo section for McCaslin and Robinson to conjure up their own
highly evolved and spectacular performances.
This work was inspired by Maria's love of birds and the environment and
her involvement with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
The title
piece, "The Thompson Fields," was inspired by a beautiful
multi-generation farm near Schneider's home in Windom, Minnesota. Pianist Frank Kimbrough improvises bitonally
in a unique harmonic environment that creates an evocative depiction of the
view from the Thompson silo overlooking bean fields billowing in the wind. "From the vantage point of the silo, I
felt the wind carrying all the intersecting stories of my youth, along with the
stories of a whole community," Schneider says. "I felt a convergence of past and
present generations and tried to put that magic into this music."
"Home"
also speaks vividly of the open landscape that is home for Schneider. She dedicated the piece - first premiered at
The Newport Jazz Festival - to George Wein, one of the most influential forces
in the discovery and development of jazz musicians. "Even though this music is highly
personal to me, the concept of home is universal. Wherever we are first rooted, or whatever
place gives us our sense of 'home,' not only nourishes our life, but nourishes
those with whom we share it. George's
home, the Newport Jazz Festival, has been a home for jazz for musicians and
audiences for decades. Jazz has been
well nurtured within George's loving home, and he most certainly helped to
nourish my development, and the development of countless others." This work features the universally admired
voice of Rich Perry on tenor sax.
"Nimbus"
evokes the drama of the Midwestern sky and weather. Schneider elaborates, "One can see the
Midwest prairie landscape as unspectacular, but we certainly dole out high
drama when it comes to weather. For
instance, seeing a ominous roll cloud looming on the horizon simultaneously
instills one with awe and an instinctual fear.
Given this imagery, it is fitting that saxophonist Steve Wilson be
featured on this piece because he can play with such intensity, bringing a
captivating power and presence to his solos through his rock solid sense of
groove, his surging sound, and his unexpected but thoroughly satisfying
lines."
"A
Potter's Song" is dedicated to Laurie Frink, who has played with
Schneider's band on every recording. Frink's death in 2013 was a great loss to
the music community. A fellow
Midwesterner, Frink was not only highly regarded as a trumpet player, having
played with Gerry Mulligan, Benny Goodman, Mel Lewis and many others, she was
also among the world's most in demand trumpet and brass teachers. But the title of this work came from Maria's
additional admiration for Laurie's skillful ceramic work. Gary Versace's accordion, which has been a
mainstay in Maria's orchestra since she first wrote for him on Concert In the
Garden, creates beautiful and lyrical lines over Schneider's winding,
ever-evolving harmonies, and highlights the influence of Brazilian music on
Schneider's compositions.
"Lembrança"
is a dedication to the universally loved Brazilian musician, Paulo Moura, who
gave Schneider the once-in-a-lifetime experience of hearing his old samba
school rehearse in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of his youth. The work includes layers of powerful
Brazilian percussion played by Rogerio Boccato alongside drummer Clarence Penn.
Featuring an exuberant trombone solo by Ryan Keberle, as well as a lyrical and
tender bass solo by Jay Anderson, the piece conjures up the experience of
standing in a dark street in the crevasses of Rio, hearing the power of a samba
school rehearsing in the night.
"Watching
Paulo proudly standing there, looking thoroughly at home and grounded in that
powerful experience on a very ordinary street in Rio, was something I fully
understood," Schneider says.
"I feel the same way when I climb atop a silo in Windom and view
the landscape that is home to me. I
can't help but feel tremendous emotion and gratitude, looking back in time,
remembering all the forces that shaped my life and so many lives that I
know."
Schneider's
deeply personal statement carries into the visual realm with this beautiful
package. The stunning photographs by
Briene Lermitte were all taken on and near the Thompson farm this past August. Uniting with Cheri Dorr's elegant design,
the album's graphic elements allow Schneider to share another level of personal
connection with those who listen to her music.
Schneider
continues to involve her fans in her music on an even broader level. Four of these eight works were commissioned
directly by individuals through ArtistShare.
Schneider has used the new means of production since her first
ArtistShare album release in 2003.
"The relationship I have with these people is deeply meaningful to
me," Schneider states. " They make it possible for me to create and
record music, and I've come to know many of them quite well. I cannot overstate how deeply important they
are to my life. I could no longer do
this without them."
Over a
decade ago, the ground-breaking company ArtistShare broke the mold when it
demonstrated, through Schneider's successful example, how music could be funded
and released. ArtistShare crowd-funded
before "crowd-funding" was a word, and Schneider's first ArtistShare
album, Concert In the Garden, not only won the first GRAMMY with Internet-only
sales, but heralded the crowd-funding era..
Over the following thirteen years, Schneider has developed a growing
concern for intellectually property rights.
This brought her to engage with lawmakers, the Library of Congress, and
others to protect the rights of music creators.
These efforts have included testifying before the Congressional
subcommittee on intellectual property in April of 2014, and speaking out against
Spotify and streaming on CNN. Schneider
is often quoted in national articles on music creators' rights and the perils
of current streaming services.
