Harrison, Joel - The Wheel CD (Mega Blowout Sale)
SKU
10-Innova 220
Joel Harrison: composer, guitarist
Todd Reynolds: first violin
Christian Howes: second violin
Caleb Burhans: viola
Wendy Sutter: cello
David Binney: alto saxophone
Ralph Alessi: trumpet, flugelhorn
Lindsey Horner: bass
Dan Weiss: drums
“The impulse for this multi movement suite came from a longstanding determination to make music that equally represents improvisation and notation. I wanted to assemble a body of work that contained the intimacy, complexity, and beauty of acoustic concert music and merge it with the raw, grooving spontaneity of jazz. Though by no means a new idea, I felt that it was an area still ripe with possibility.
Two classic ensembles join forces from their respective worlds: string quartet and jazz quintet. Rather than writing jazz music and then pasting on the strings, like icing on a cake, I started by writing string quartet music with Appalachian, African, and modern classical sensibilities. The improvisation stems from a bedrock of notation, and comes in a variety of forms, from more typical solos over changes, to duo improvising, to free ensemble ‘blowing.' Hopefully there are seamless transitions between the soul and spontaneity of improvising and the structure of written notes, resulting in a kind of music that truly IS both worlds, and does not just borrow from them." – Joel Harrison
“Nothing in his expansive output approaches the episodic grandeur of The Wheel however. A five part suite written for a combined string quartet and jazz quintet, Harrison's long-form work succeeds where many similar experiments have faltered.” – Troy Collins, All About Jazz
- LabelInnova
- UPC726708622022