| Jazz |
As I have been telling you for some time now, 2024 is the year of composers, some like the excellent Micah Thomas who, despite working with jazz-influenced themes, cannot hide their classical music training. This is precisely what makes this work so captivating, achieving a wonderful blend of both worlds. *Mountains* marks Thomas’s first work for a large ensemble, offering a vast and emotionally rich listening experience that explores the depths of musical storytelling. This exploratory project brings together Thomas and some of the most inventive figures in modern jazz, including trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, trombonist Caleb Smith, bassist Kanoa Mendenhall, and drummer Kweku Sumbry.
All these artists, who are individually leaders in contemporary jazz whose albums we discuss with each release, bring a particularly interesting quality to this project.
*Mountains* is the result of a residency commission in 2022 by The Jazz Gallery in New York. This album was recorded live during four evocative performance sets at this iconic venue on June 16 and 17, 2023. The energy of the live atmosphere of this New York cultural incubator is felt in every track of this illustrious release. Thomas states: “With *Mountains*, I wanted to create a collection that offers a cathartic and monumental experience for both the musicians and the audience. It’s about capturing the incredible family-like feeling and overflow of spirit that only a large group of musicians can create.”
As I mentioned earlier, this album is also connected to classical music composition. This grand orchestral tableau is divided into four sections:
– “Life” Inspired by imaginative flights over landscapes, this piece offers a complex musical journey reflecting the diversity of organic structures.
– “Processing” A dramatic narrative reflecting the episodic and nonlinear nature of grief.
– “Hide” and “The Mountain” These pieces explore intense personal emotions and the extended metaphor of a journey through the wilderness.
– “Divine” Inspired by Alice Coltrane’s orchestral music and the idea of finding something divine through artistic creation.
Here, we have an example of what modern music composition for large ensembles can be. There is undoubtedly an intellectual pursuit where literature is never far from the notes, and the notes are never too distant from literature. It’s as if jazz is playfully teasing contemporary classical music, with a strong mastery of melodies and arrangements. This album is anything but trivial; it is the result of deep reflection. Therefore, it is an elitist, thoughtful, and powerful album, which will only appeal to those of you, dear readers, who are comfortable with complex works. It also represents a cultural evolution in the art world, as jazz, through many composers worldwide, is becoming institutionalized with projects like this, marking a renewal of creativity. Once again, this is an album we will classify among our “Essentials.”
Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, September 10th 2024
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