Here’s an idea so brilliant and yet simple in that it’s amazing no one has come up with the idea before. Pianist and composer Harald Walkate brings his The New York Second band together to interpret a series of city scaped photographs taken by Vivian Maier. Teus Nobel/tp-fh, Mark Alban Lotz/fl, Tom Beek/ts, Vincent Veneman/tb, Rob Waring/vib, Max Sergeant/dr, Lorenzo Buffa/b join with Walkate to show that a picture is worth 1000 notes.
The horns create at times a warm Gil Evansy feel on pieces like the elegiac “983 Third Avenue” with dreamy woodwinds melding with sparkling vibes and piano on “The White Dress”. Nobel is warm and romantic with Veneman on the conversant “Safety Service Comfort” and rich on a post bopping floater of “Room For Other People”. Beek creates blue grey clouds with Walkate during “View of Ile Saint-Louis” and struts soulfully on ‘The Collective Corner”. This album takes you back to the day when you’d stare at the album jacket while taking in the tunes. What a way to stare at and analyze photography!