Meditations On The War For Whose Great God Is The Most High You Are God

FAT CAT BIG BAND: Meditations on the War...
Smalls, 2009

MODERN JAZZ – Guitarist/composer Jade Synstelien’s 11-piece band presents appealingly quirky original material that slips neatly into the big band tradition without being retro, reverent or kitschy. Don't be scared off by the esoteric title; this is fairly straightforward, but quite interesting, stuff. The tunes all get right to the point with tight arrangements and crisp, short solos.

This is one of two discs released simultaneously. Both are good, but I prefer this one (the other is Angels Praying for Freedom).
Soloists are listed on the back of the booklet.

* * * * | Fo’s Picks: 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10

1. 3:29 – solo guitar into lopsided swing; chatty muted trumpet & guitar solos
2. 4:54 – relaxed tempo: breezy head; trombone solo starts serious, eases up
3. 2:37 – uptempo, swings but from a strange angle, solos get tossed around
4. 2:42 – catchy cascading theme, alternately slow & fast: no solos
5. 2:48 – fast & scrambly with annoyed political vocal [FCC clean despite title]
6. 4:20 – laid-back ballad, slow-dance feel disrupted by oddball guitar solo
7. 6:22 – forceful and exotic, with wordless vocal wail; densely layered sound
8. 3:24 – relaxed, flowing, but with a little charged undercurrent
9. 3:03 – upbeat swing, cute/catchy theme: nice alto sax solo
10. 3:54 – gentle start, spins out to a confusion of parallel melodies, returns
11. 3:52 – happy good-time bounce, melts down in the middle

[ Fo ] 05/17/09