Monday, February 21, 2011

Disney Jazz and Miller's Symphonic Project - Bob Stewart

From the outset, it was inevitable that two of the major creative forces of the 20th century would find a productive way to overlap and inspire each other. Jazz-with its boundless appetite for new sounds and original melodies-and Disney, that bottomless font of images, words and songs, churning out fresh musical gems with uncanny consistency over the years. That Disney came of age at the end of the 1920s had a lot to do with it, a time when jazz and popular songs lived in close proximity. Ever since, the sound, rhythms, and feel of jazz have always informed Disney's creations. On the new CD -- "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" -- artists like Roy Hargrove, Dave Brubeck, Regina Carter, Dianne Reeves and Joshua Redman explore a baker's dozen of classic Disney ditties.

Bassist/composer/producer and two-time Grammy winner Marcus Miller has been a student and a leader, creator and an interpreter, a master and a mentor in the art form of music from his teen years to the present. He continues this legacy with "A Night in Monte Carlo", a live audio document of an amazing concert he was commissioned to perform in 2008 in the "rich man's playground" of Monaco-a performance of music of his choice, much of his from his own pen, featuring his arrangements for symphony orchestra. It features Miller leading both his quartet and the Monte Carlo Philharmonic, with special guest Roy Hargrove on trumpet.

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