As a music supervisor for ITV America, composer Josh Green recently was awarded ASCAP’s Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. Here, he’s put together a wild and wooly 12 piece band that includes a string quartet for a white knuckler ride of originals.
Hints of Carl Stallings quirkiness team up with rocking electric guitar on ”Boy & Dog in a Johnnypump” while a combination of Mahler living in the Left Bank jump around Nathan Kochi’s accordion on “Soir Bleu.” .” A three part “Telepathy and Bop” segment includes eerie strings, tensile drums and veering sax all swirling and lilting around each other like singles checking each other out at a mixer. Jay Hassler’s bass clarinet and Chris Misch-Bloxdorf’s trombone fit into a Spike Jones groove on “The Lauer Faceplant” while Charles Pillow’s tenor creates a balmy mood on “”La Victoire” and Todd Groves’s EWI adds to exotic sweat on “Reverie Engine.” The ideas pop in and out like the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, with some sticking for awhile and others lasting at least long enough until the next one is thrown against the wall. Lots of ideas-any chance to see it in concert?