World renowned jazz pianist Jim McNeely joins the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble in an album of big band music. This album showcases his writing and arranging skills along with his incredible musicianship.
MUSICIANS:
Bob Lark, director
Jim McNeely guest piano soloist on tracks 3,4,7 & 9
Trumpets & Flugelhorns: Dan Jonas (lead), Justin Surdyn, Joe Clark, Hiroyuki Takami, Bobby Goodrich
Trombones: Bryant Scot (lead), Ryan Kienstra, Andrew Zelm, Jared Lantzy (bass)
Saxophones: Dan Nicholson (lead alto & soprano saxophones, flute), Rick Deja (alto & soprano saxophones, flute), Anthony Bruno (tenor saxophone & flute), Drew Pierson (tenor saxophone & clarinet), Rich Carlson (baritone saxophone & bass clarinet)
Rhythm:
Ben Dockery (piano)
Scott Hesse (guitar)
Justin Thomas (vibraphone)
Cory Biggerstaff (bass, tracks 1,2,5,6 & 8)
Amalie Smith (bass, tracks 3,4,7 & 9)
Vocalist: Milton Suggs (track 5)
Artist(s)/Title:
DePaul University Jazz Ensemble featuring Jim McNeely: That Being Said
Jim McNeely, the guest piano soloist in this collection of performances by the ensemble, has worked with the DePaul program since 1992, conducting master classes for its students and sitting in with their bands.
In this encounter with the DePaul ensemble under Lark's direction, McNeely is featured as the piano soloist in three of his own compositions and his moving arrangement of Thelonious Monk's best-known ballad. It is a tribute to the student arrangers whose work appears under the same roof as McNeely's that a high quality of writing is consistent through the album, whether the charts are by him, the late Frank Mantooth or talented students like Scott Hesse, Mike Pinto, Dan Jonas and Dan Nicholson.
The layered textures, shifting lines, implied rhythms and profound harmonies in McNeely's writing are among the deepest satisfactions in jazz arranging. His charts here have those qualities in full measure. Music that speaks eloquently for itself does not require track-by-track analysis.
