8 MP3 Songs in this album (46:10) !
Related styles: Jazz: Avant-Garde Jazz, Jazz: Modern Big Band, Mood: Quirky

People who are interested in Bob Brookmeyer Kurt Weill Steve Lacy should consider this download.


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One is always tempted to begin any deliberation of Nicholas Urie's creative virtues by first alluding to his age, mid-twenties, but then, in short order, one appreciates that pitfalls diminution of actual value... Rimbaud, Mozart, Tony Williams, Sugar Chile Robinson... you see where this is going... at very best unfair and extraneous...genius having no control over the timing of its chronological imperatives.

Suffice it to say that Nicholas Urie is literally and musically wise beyond his years, and that the proofs of that pudding are as impressively evident on this most recent recording, as they were on his first âExcerpts From an Online Dating Service.â

For openers his choice of musicians for My Garden is impeccable: Jeremy Udden, soprano saxophone; Douglas Yates, alto and clarinet; Kenny Pexton, tenor; and Brian Landrus, bass clarinet; Albert Leusink, Ben Holmes, and the amazing John Carlson on trumpets; trombonists Alan Ferber and Max Seigel; Frank Carlberg, piano; Michael Sarin, drums, John Hebert on the contrabass; and vocals by the incomparable Christine Correa.

The written texts for this CD are culled from the poems of the late, southern-California-based poet/novelist Charles Bukowski, and are interpreted with unerring precision by the uniquely gifted Indian-American vocalist, Christine Correa.

Correa invests Bukowski's words (and sentiments) with a cool and measured detachment that opens up their range of âmeaningsâ for the listener to determine for him or her self... it is cagey, self effacing and perfectly attuned to Urie's orchestral and compositional agendas.

At the core of the ensemble is a stellar rhythm section made up of Frank Carlberg, piano, Michael Sarin, drums, and John Hebert, bass that operates at once as an âorchestraâ in itself while providing a simpatico pulse and undersurge to the full band: their âthunderâ stealing no one else's; the kind of sonic alchemy that only close friends and regular collaborations can effect.

Master drummer Michael Sarin's close reading and free interpretations of the rhythm score are reminiscent of Tony Williams's paralleling Underconcerto on Miles Davis' classic Columbia recording âFilles De Kilamanjaroâ, underscoring the sense of trust in which all great band leaders hold their personnel.

Carlberg and Urie's friendship stretches from Urie's days at the New England Conservatory where Carlberg was an early and enthusiastic mentor/supporter of Urie's talent and vision. His playing on âMy Gardenâ is a clear indication of both his delight and (in the best sense) pride in Urie's compositional evolution...swinging and surging and urging it on!

The tri-vocal narrative that introduces track 1 âWinter: 44th yearâ is contributed by Urie's father, the photographer Walter Urie, Carlberg and Hebert, and is set against (and under) a canonic drone/wash of saxes, bass and drums: âI am Sad Like a Dead Angelâ... Bukowski at his direst best.


âRound and Roundâ starts with Correa almost serially intoning, accompanied by Yatesâ alto, âYou Have my Soul and I Have Your Moneyâ, leading into a rhythm section break featuring Carlberg's dazzlingly swinging Fender Rhodes solo that seems to adumbrate the prevailing soul/money conflict of the lyric. When Correa returns with the full band in tow, the pace builds to a kind of controlled frenzy for the final measures... burnin'!

âMy Gardenâ, the CD's sonic center and counterpoise, quiets the proceedings down a little. Correa's exposition of the melody, set against a muted trumpet accompaniment, segues into a brilliant solo excursion by Carlson, thrillingly punctuated by Carlberg on the piano. Trombonist Alan Ferber compliments Carlson's colorations with some pretty elegant chromatisms of his own all to the effect of softening Bukowski's usual edginess with a lilting counter-irony.

In âFor Crying Out Loudâ the rhythm section states the plaintive theme of this quintessential Bukowski gem. Correa enters lugging the lyric, with great weariness, along the ragged selvage of the poem-song's harmonic edges, the ensemble commiserates with the narrative with wailing trumpets and lachrymose saxophone outbursts all ending with Hebert's arco-bass soliloquy.

âLionessâ, at first listening, appears a perfectly choreographed free improvisation, which it is, most emphatically, not... but Urie's compositional eclat sure makes it sound like it is... the whole band... Full Tilt! I kept hittin' the repeat button, as will you - âput on your lion mask and wait.â

In âFinalityâ, the perfect closer, Carlson's fluttery soarings and the controlled intensity of Kenny Pexton's tenor solo leads into Correa's mid-range, half-sung, half-spoken exploration of the text, lush and insistent against the perfervid exhilarations of Urie's remarkable ensemble.

With this project, Urie honors Charles Bukowski's significant achievements in postmodern American poetry by wedding it to some of the most intriguing, scintillating and innovative big band music in the contemporary jazz landscape.

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1985, Nicholas Urie was a recipient of the first annual ASCAP Young Jazz Composerâs Award at the age of 17. He left Los Angeles to study composition with Bob Brookmeyer in Boston, receiving both bachelors and masters degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music.

Urieâs music has been heard internationally at festivals and concerts in Syria, Spain, England, Germany, Holland, Denmark and the United States. An active conductor, Urie has led both large jazz ensembles as well as full symphony orchestras performing works that range from straight ahead jazz to contemporary classical music.

Urieâs music has been performed by a wide range of musicians including Bob Brookmeyer, Vince Mendoza, Kurt Elling, Chris Speed, Bill McHenry, Dave Samuels, Christine Correa, Dominique Eade, Joe Martin, Bob Moses, the Metropole Orchestra, the Klüvers Big Band, the NDR, A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, the Berklee Chamber Orchestra, and the Clazz Ensemble among others.

His debut CD âExcerpts from an Online Dating Serviceâ earned wide critical acclaim. âUrie does not simply blow off the dust of the large jazz ensemble, he sandblasts it off with Uranium.â ⯠C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz. âRemember his name â judging by the music and scope of Excerpts From An Online Dating Service, Nicholas Urie has a great future.â ⯠Richard Kamins, Hartford Courant. âIf Kurt Weill had lived in the internet age, he may well have conjured something like composer Nicholas Urieâs âExerpts from An Online Dating Service.â â DownBeat.