THE MYSTERY by TIM GARLAND, CHICK COREA, NORTHERN SINFONIA.......................................I'd be surprised if this doesn't appear in quite a few 'Best of…' lists at the end of 2007. This is a genuinely fine record featuring some wonderful arrangements of original pieces from Garland and tunes by Chick Corea and Thelonius Monk. As 'composer-in-residence' at Newcastle University, Garland had access to the Northern Sinfonia. That's quite a train-set to give a boy! With this and its predecessor If The Sea Replied, its been a gift well-given. The breadth harmonically, rhythmically and melodically in this music is impressive, as is its emotional range. The spread between the two movements of 'Who Is Father Time?', written for a dance company, is quite magical from the slow, stately passage of the minutes to the sense of years racing by. And the way the staccato improvisation between Garland and Chick Corea opens out into a fully-fledged orchestral score on the title piece is absolutely commanding. But then the arrangements of three Monk tunes - 'Trinkle Tinkle', 'Ruby My Dear', 'Evidence' - into a single suite based (I think) on their harmonic progressions rather than their melodies is astonishing, as is Garland's 'Fantasy On Crystal Silence', one of his boss's tunes. This is vital, essential music for anyone interested in the future of jazz composition. Third Stream, you bet! |
