Impressive big band celebrating great writing with the 'voice' of one of today's most important saxophonists, R. Perry

'Two or Three Birds With One Bird' - Karns is fascinated by 'happy melodies.' Happy melodies are often considered to be naïve or un-hip. One of his favorite arranging techniques is to take a melody we would normally consider as un-hip and set it in a way that challenges those expectations. This is the case here.

'An Eye on the Future' - Karns wrote this lullaby for his son the day he found out that he and his wife were going to be having a baby. Rich's beautiful sound perfectly captures the hopes and fears any new parent has.

'The Thursday Club' - Karns has always been a fan of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. This is an homage to the great Jazz Messengers tunes like Moanin', One By One, and Dat Dere.

'Like Someone In Love' - When you consider the lyrics, we assume this to be a happy song. Love is not always a happy emotion; it is complex and ever-changing. Here the band taps into the more complex aspects of love. This can be heard in Karns' reharminization of the melody and Rich's understated yet sophisticated melodic interpretation.

'The Law of Contagion' - Unlike the previous four tunes, this piece integrates Rich with the band. The first theme is based on the half/whole diminished scale, and alludes to Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta.

'Without a Song' - This arrangement is about the ideals of freedom, love, and justice. The original lyrics to this song featured the racist line 'A darkie's born, but he's no good no how, without a song.' This line was changed by Billie Eckstein in his famous 1946 version where 'A darkie's born' was changed to 'A man is born.' This transformed the meaning of the song to signify concepts of racial justice and freedom.

'Crowd Control' - Last year a colleague bet Karns that he could not write in a modern big band style while conforming to the constraints of composers from the 1920s. This piece is based on Don Redman's 1926 composition 'The Stampede.'

Track Listing

• Two or Three Birds With One Bird
• An Eye on the Future
• The Thursday Club
• Like Someone in Love
• The Law of Contagion
• Without a Song
• Crowd Control

Additional Details

Label: Summit Records

Genre: Jazz

Language: English

Run Time: 52 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 03/10/17

UPC: 099402694924