I don’t see how she does it, but everything conductor/arranger/composer/Minnesotan Maria Schneider touches feels and sounds important and creative. This latest effort, dedicated to the farm land of Minnesota, is a sonic adventure into the rural Midwest, and it’s done with sublime joy. Her orchestra still includes Steve Wilson, Donny McCaslin, Marshall Gilkes and Frank Kimbrough, but productions like these are team efforts, and everyone contributes to the potluck of harmonies and solos.
The soft and folksy “Walking By Flashlight” has charming harmonies as Scott Robinson’s alto clarinet glimmers along the pastoral colors, while flutes hover over the spacious woodwinds on “The Monarch and the Mildweed” before Gilkes’ trombone and Greg Gisbert’s flugelhorn give off radiant glows. A sing songy “Arbiters of Evolution “ features McCaslin’s tenor going outside and in, while the title track feels like a Midwestern read of “Appalachian Spring” as the slow horns create a tuft around Kimbrough’s piano and Lage Lund’s guitar. Dark foreboding sounds sound like a storm is brewing on”Nimbus” as agitated rhythms mix with bass clarinet, piano and bass before Clarence Penn’s drums and Steve Wilson’s alto create a thunderstorm that finally clears. A militarized and Mahler-esque “Lembranca” closes this journey as the closing song takes you through a Minnesota State Fair of various moods, sounds and smells, finally exiting through the galloping 4H section. A wonderful excursion that is both nostalgic and future directed.
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