Gently

I discovered this album while listening to a San Francisco Bay area Jazz station. I didn't know the name Bob Mintzer at the time, and had not yet become acquainted with his dazzling resumé as a composer.

What caught my ear was the purity of the Big Band vibe that came from a single piece, "Gently," the title track. I could hear that this group nailed the true spirit of the soulful, swinging Big Band sound in all its complexity and lightness, elegance, and truth.

Were it not for the pristine digital recording mix, I would certainly have believed I was listening to a piece from the middle fifties; something blessed by the caresses of the passing angel of Duke Ellington, perhaps, but not strictly speaking. Then I detected a time jump into an era reminiscent of the horn section in Nat Adderley's late 1960's gorgeous sessions which clearly inspired much of the bopping scores heard in those superb early 1970's TV shows and movies - Lalo Shifrin style.

I initially purchased the album expecting to never hear another track like the one that caught my ear, but lo and behold, to my surprise, I fell head first into a full album whose treasures took me beyond all my highest expectations. Every track burst with unpredictable extensions of all the goods that the teaser I first heard intimated. Bob Mintzer's Big Band is a dream come true. It's not only music like they don't make anymore, it's also music they never quite made before... Music that's anchored in a tradition which is hard for me to name, but which I know, with infinite certainty, belongs to a universe of total melodic integrity, beyond the conscious, intellectual mind.

I became lost in Gently. Unable to stop playing it in loops, for days on end.

Gently is a true tribute to a spirit of an era in our psyche which exists outside of time, yet, is very real in the collective understanding we hold of our cultural history.

It makes little sense to try and describe the tunes on this album, but it seems important to mention that the journey wraps with a delicate and tapering, deeply soulful, perhaps even mournful quartet, that breathes softly, like an old man sitting on a porch watching a gathering storm.

This album is a journey.  I hope I encouraged you to take it for a spin. You will not be disappointed!

What an attractive concept for a big band session! Mintzer’s note booklet essay talks about how we are living in a loud world, and how big bands can be unbelievably loud when playing at full tilt. He feels that at this stage in his life he better appreciates the subtle approach and decided on a gentler instrumentation - using clarinets and flutes in place of saxes, muting the brass and added French horns in a couple numbers. He says he discovered that often the more softly playing music had greater clarity and energy than the loud sounds, or to quote: “The band actually sounds louder when it plays softer.”

The warm and more classically leaning sound reminded me of the Claude Thornhill Band (he was the first to integrate French horns into his sound), as well as some of the arrangements of Gil Evans, Don Sebesky and Claus Ogermann. Of course, if this session was recorded at the technical level of that recent Count Basie mono reissue on Classic Records - a crude in your-face sound that was OK for high-impact Basie - the subtlies would be lost completely.

After working with Mintzer’s bands for 18 years, Tom Jung knows exactly how to capture the sounds of all 20 players in Stereo and Multichannel DSD with the utmost transparency and realism. The eight tracks include a number of Mintzer originals plus a Thad Jones classic and a very lush Body and Soul. The album puts the sax section back in the spotlight for the closing track, which is an arrangement of a movement from a Saxophone Quartet Mintzer composed earlier for an ensemble at the University of Kentucky.

Bob Mintzer’s latest big-band release (and 12th album for DMP) is an experiment in volume, or lack of same. He has assembled a 20-piece organization to prove a point stated in his liner notes: “Big bands can be unbelievably loud…the sax section sits in front of the brass typically. When the brass section plays loud it can sound like your head is inside a jet engine.” Mintzer should know. He’s been sticking his head as well as his reeds and flutes in that jet engine since the early ’70s.

Which is why he leads off with the title tune, a pianissimo swinger, substituting flutes and clarinets for saxes and keeping the brass and rhythm hushed while he, on tenor, and trumpeter Scott Wendholt make solo statements without clutter or competition in the background. The same gloved approach is taken for the bossa nova “Timeless.” Thanks to Peter Erskine’s drums and Jay Anderson’s bass, there is no loss of propulsion, however, and with two French horns added to the woodwinds mix, certainly no loss of color.

The longest track, “Body and Soul,” is a fine stretch-out vehicle for Mintzer, who guides his tenor through some Gil Evans lushness with inventive changes. There is also a quiet, introspective movement from Mintzer’s Quartet #2 for Saxophones (he has also composed a number of jazz etudes), but honestly, the most successful tracks are “Who’s Walkin’ Who?” and “Bright Lights” because they build in, yes, volume!

But don’t misconstrue, Bob; go forth gently. It’s a noble experiment.

The Bob Mintzer Big Band has been a part-time affair for the past 18 years, but somehow the orchestra always manages to sound like a regularly working band.

The premise behind Gently was to have the Mintzer Big Band playing at a lower volume, with lyrical arrangements by the leader, along with a greater use of muted brass and flutes. However the orchestra still romps in places and the tempos vary.

The big band (which boasts impressive musicianship) features solos from Mintzer on tenor, trumpeters Scott Wendholt, and Michael Mossman, trombonist Michael Davis, pianist Phil Markowitz, altoist Pete Yellin and others, with drummer Peter Erskine driving the ensembles. The solo improvisations grow logically out of the arrangements, showing that Mintzer is expert at writing for specific soloists.
Among the high points are the title cut (a harmonically advanced medium-tempo blues), "Body and Soul," Thad Jones' "Don't Ever Leave Me," and "Who's Walking Who" (one of Mintzer's six originals). The closing "Saxophone Quartet #2" is a complete change of pace, part of a suite that Mintzer wrote for four saxophones backed by Erskine.

There are times when the Bob Mintzer Big Band sounds a bit like the orchestras of Gil Evans, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis, or Don Sebesky, but in general it displays its own personality thanks to the writing and solos of Bob Mintzer. Fans of modern big bands who enjoy hearing thoughtful music will want this set.

Bob Mintzer, who is known to favor fiery Latin rhythms and big-band charts with an abundance of punch and power, has a softer side too. One that is laid bare on this understated but no less invigorating new release, his fourteenth (or fifteenth? I've lost count) on the dmp label.

'I think I've... reached a point,' Mintzer writes, 'where I can appreciate the subtlety factor in music and in life, where I would just as soon be gently caressed rather than smacked with a large stick.' With that in mind, Mintzer says, he designed his latest album as 'a gentle approach to big-band instrumentation, using clarinets and flutes in place of saxophones; muted brass; the addition of French horns on two numbers, and writing for the band in a range and style [that] projects a soothing, warm sound.'

The climate is especially sultry on Mintzer's ballad feature, Johnny Green's 'Body and Soul,' which he calls 'every tenor's measuring stick' (except for Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras, of course), while the reed section (deftly backed by drummer Peter Erskine's improvised counterpoint) is front and center on the gossamer 'Saxophone Quartet #2' (middle movement), written for Miles Osland's talented undergrads at the University of Kentucky.

Less heated tempos, however, don't necessarily denote an absence of warmth; Mintzer's concept, gentle as it is, can still stir one's blood, thanks to his seductive charts, shapely solos by such old hands as trumpeter Scott Wendholt and Michael Phillip Mossman, alto saxophonists Pete Yellin and Charles Pillow, soprano Lawrence Feldman, tenor Bob Malach, baritone Roger Rosenberg, trombonists Larry Farrell and Keith O'Quinn, pianist Phil Markowitz and bassist Jay Anderson, and unremitting support from the ever-reliable Erskine.

'Timeless' unveils a bossa-style Brazilian fa'ade, while 'Who's Walkin' Who' (inspired by Mintzer's labrador retrievers, Davis and Yosemity) is a softly ambling blues and 'Bright Lights,' written in '92 for his small group, the Yellowjackets, a funky shuffle that opens calmly and builds to a less-than-muted climax. "This one was hard to play soft,' Mintzer writes, 'but I think we got it.' They did.

'Gently,' inspired by Gil Evans, is an unassuming 4 / 4 swinger (with more perceptive work by Erskine) that uses woodwinds and cup-muted brass to state its theme, Thad Jones' 'Don't Ever Leave Me' a winsome ballad that Mintzer says he's always wanted to record. Gently is a conspicuous change of pace for the usually upbeat Mintzer, but one that underlines his structural resourcefulness and never fails to please. Easily recommended.