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Reviews

Anders Koppel — Mulberry Street Symphony
(Bandcamp Cowbell UTR 5028, 2022, 2CD)

by Jon Davis, Published 2022-11-14

Mulberry Street Symphony Cover art

Having recently suffered through a most unpleasant melding of jazz with strings, I will now tackle Anders Koppel’s Mulberry Street Symphony, which combines a jazz trio with a full orchestra. I am happy to report that Koppel is vastly more successful at this task. While I can’t say I’m 100% on board with every part of this double CD set, on the whole it works. The orchestra is integral to these tunes, not tacked on as sweetening or coloration. The jazz contingent consists of Benjamin Koppel (alto sax), Scott Colley (bass), and Brian Blade (drums); the other side features Martin Yates conducting the Odense Symphony Orchestra. I encountered Benjamin Koppel and Scott Colley together recently on a pair of Benjamin’s releases, and Brian Blade is a veteran with hundreds of credits on his CV, running from Chick Corea, Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Bob James to Joni Mitchell, Jane Siberry, and Emmylou Harris. Koppel, Colley, and Blade recorded a trio album together back in 2014, and have worked in various combinations with others as well. For this set, they’re playing a suite of music composed by Anders Koppel, Benjamin’s father, who is best known as a founding member of the pioneering Danish band The Savage Rose. The seven tracks of the suite proper were inspired by photographs by Jacob Riis documenting the plight of immigrants in 1890s New York City. Anders is no stranger to orchestral writing — this suite is listed as the “32nd of my symphonic works” in the liner notes. I’m often reminded of music that might have appeared on the soundtrack of a film from the early 70s, maybe by Quincy Jones; there are also a few passages that bring up the orchestral parts of Days of Future Passed, mainly in the way xylophone is used. Benjamin’s sax ranges from playing composed melodies to some free sections where the trio takes the spotlight — the trio’s parts were only sketchily notated, allowing the players to perform in the improvisational mode they excel at. The suite was performed twice in October of 2017 with two different orchestras, of which Odense was the second, and then recorded live in a studio. One extra track is not part of the suite, a rendition of “Puerto Rican Rumble,” a Benjamin Koppel original, which was played in the lobby of the concert hall after one of the performances with Anders joining in on organ. This is evocative music, presenting a range of differing moods, and is a surprisingly enjoyable foray into the challenging realm of orchestral jazz.

Filed under: New releases, 2022 releases

Related artist(s): Benjamin Koppel, Anders Koppel

More info
http://benjaminkoppel1.bandcamp.com/album/mulberry-street-symphony

 

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