Bremen to Bridgewater

A beautifully raucous big band sound, McGregor and his band are direct musical descendants of Ellington via Gillespie and Mingus. There is a lot of wonderful group improvisation, and as wild as it gets the band still acknowledges it's bebop roots. Everyone here is an incredible soloist but the most important part is that you can tell they're all having a hell of a lot of FUN.. definitely surprising considering all the shit these guys had to put up with. This set is a collection of live recordings from a few different periods, and the music here more than makes up for the less than perfect fidelity.

* Asterisks are starting points... all tracks are worth playing
disc 1
1. Alternates between free improv and ensemble fanfare
*2. Incredibly catchy march-like theme
3. Swingy big-band Monk style theme
4. Continuation of last piece, starts with trumpet solo, funky theme comes in at end
5. Still continuing from last piece, starts with group improv
6. Short crazed concert-closing fanfare
*7. Sloppy (In a good way!!) calypso groove
*8. Great catchy closer
9. Speedy solo vehicle, the best sound quality of the lot
10. Funky swing

disc 2

*1. upbeat love song, tender melody but still the big band cacophony
2. Monkish harmonies in the theme, then straight swing solos
3. playful interlocking theme then a great sax duel
4. Speedy dark bebop, much like the title
5. Ellingtonian start then builds from there
6. almost classical harmonies in theme, march-like