PREVIEW
Maria Schneider and Edmonton Jazz Orchestra
Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m.
Triffo Theatre
MacEwan University
11110 – 104 Ave.
Tickets: $35 regular, $25 students. Reserve at yeglive.ca
Five-time Grammy Award winner Maria Schneider knows the unimaginable joy of creating music with people from all over the world.
The internationally acclaimed jazz composer and bandleader delights in moving her listeners with original compositions that reviewers have called “majestic, magical, heart-stoppingly gorgeous.”
As a collaborator and advocate for musicians everywhere, she also sees the value of working with others outside her immediate frame of reference.
To this end, Schneider will warm up our cool, dark winter conducting the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra (EJO) on Wednesday, Jan. 31 at MacEwan University’s newly built Triffo Theatre.
“What I really enjoy most about her is her orchestral writing. It’s nuanced, delicate, and subtle, and she has an extreme use of dynamics. There are lots of textures in the music and she’s has a beautiful energy,” said EJO first trombonist Allen Jacobson.
The former St. Albert resident first saw her conduct at a New York Jazz Club when she was getting started in the 1990s. A mid-westerner from Windom, Minnesota, Schneider first learned to play classical piano.
After that, she studied music and composition at three universities including the Eastman School of Music with the great jazz composer Gil Evans. He showed her how classical writing and jazz could interface, and his influence made her focus on jazz.
Schneider assembled an 18-piece jazz orchestra, and by 1994 they released their first album, Evanescence, a tribute to her legendary teacher.
Her last album, the 2015 release of The Thompson Fields, reveals just how supple her jazz orchestra can be. The title refers to a farm owned by some family friends in Minnesota, near where Schneider was raised.
It’s a place that has less than spectacular country, but it’s home, and Schneider loves it deeply. From the liner notes, her music pictures the landscape and its wildlife, images forever ingrained in her heart and soul.
One of the works Schneider will conduct for EJO is Walking by Flashlight, a reflective, solemn chart. It was originally recorded on her 2013 Winter Morning Walks album and re-tracked on The Thompson Fields.
EJO is also rehearsing several charts from Evanescence – two lively works titled Wrigly and Gumba Blue. And in the contemporary sounding Dance You Monster to My Soft Song, Jacobson is charged with a trombone solo guaranteed to stretch his musical muscles.
Latin music is always a favourite with audiences and Schneider has selected several formidable charts including a steamy tango.
“This will be one of the best jazz concerts of the season with the finest local jazz musicians playing it. If people want wonderful energy and a worthwhile experience this mode of expression is here to enjoy,” Jacobson said.
The world of jazz attracts many female singers, but few are composers and bandleaders. Maria Schneider is one-of-a-kind.
“She respects musicians greatly and there’s a great respect for her music. She’s really a groundbreaker in all this, and I can’t recall any other woman of her calibre composing this type of music. She’s thoroughly accomplished and writes beautiful music for all instruments.”
