20th May 2014: RELEASE DAY for JC Sanford Orchestra’s ‘Views from the Inside’ + press update: 4 Stars from The Observer, Scotsman & more

Out now, Views from the Inside, by JC Sanford and his 15 piece orchestra.

  Click here to pick up a copy or digital download.

And this just in, check below for the highlights:

4 Star review from The Observer

4 Star review from The Scotsman & Bebop Spoken Here

As well as some radio play on WMUA & Jazz after Hours

JC’s album has deservedly had some amazing things said about the album, here’s some highlights below:

“Sanford draws on a wealth of large-scale influences ranging from swing bnads to contemporary classical music, though without creating a patchwork. Somehow his stylistic swerves flow effortlessly into one another, often melding into strange but beautiful hybrids. The ensemble not only brings strong musicianship but eclectic instrumentation, greatly expanding the leader’s already imaginative palette.”
4 Stars, Downbeat Magazine

“Adventurous, exciting, mysterious and oddly accessible has Views From The Inside charting a new direction for large ensemble improvisational music. Compelling music with muscle, a cerebral mind-gasm of sound. Easily one of the best releases of this young year.”
5 Stars, Critical Jazz

“Many young jazz composers today find that the old “big band” format has worn so threadbare that they can do nothing with it. As a result, we occasionally get something new like this – often perplexing, but exciting and quite unignorable. Sanford’s orchestra, with its motley assemblage of instruments and electronics, can set your teeth on edge at one moment and draw you into a sweet harmonic wonderland the next. The soloists, notably trumpeter Matt Holman, percussionist Satoshi Takeishi and Sanford himself on trombone, are very impressive, but their excellent playing is much enhanced by the dazzling environment.”
4 Stars, The Observer

“Hugely ambitious.”
The Listening Post

“The wind, reed and brass players draw on a plethora of instruments alongside strings, accordion, vibraphone and percussion (and our own Aidan O’Donnell on bass). Sanford makes full use of this expansive range of sound and colour, and his intelligent and creative compositions offer a constantly changing sequence of melody, mood and tempo. A suite of five Brooklyn Vignettes are interspersed through the programme, while the lengthy title track forms an impressive centerpiece.”
4 Stars, The Scotsman

“A very impressive debut by JC Sanford. Sanford is equally skilled as an arranger-composer and a trombonist.”
Jazz Inside New York Magazine

“The ensemble playing is of the highest quality, Sanford’s writing always interesting and with fellow travellers such as the critically acclaimed Darcy James Argue, the future of the big band – jazz or other – makes for interesting times.”
Bebop Spoken Here

“A thought-provoking album that poses as many questions surrounding the way ahead for a progressive jazz ensemble as it answers.”
Marlbank

“A well played date for those looking for something expansive and wide ranging.”
Midwest Record

ABOUT THE ALBUM: (CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO TRACKS)

Views from the Inside is the stunning new album from the multi-faceted trombonist, composer & conductor JC Sanford and his 15-piece orchestra. A multiple-award winning composer and 2 X Grammy-nominated artist as a member of the John Hollenbeck ensemble, Sanford’s wide-ranging compositional palette is deeply rooted in the traditions of the jazz and classical worlds yet pushes both boundaries to create a landmark recording of the new jazz orchestra renaissance, featuring bold sonorities, unexpected colors and arresting sonic textures.

The JC Sanford Orchestra features many of New York’s marquee creative musicians brought together to form a completely unique ensemble featuring non-traditional instrumentation. Neither a big band nor conventional chamber group, the orchestra is a hybrid ensemble that has resulted from Sanford’s extensive experience over the years composing for a variety of instruments in a multitude of contexts, media and genres. Featuring five brass, 4 woodwinds (including double reeds), cello, violin, and an unconventional rhythm section featuring double bass, vibraphone, accordion, and percussion rather than drum set, the timbres alone have yielded some very unique moods and engaging compositional results.

The album shimmers with an eclectic mix of music written by Sanford over the last ten years, from the epic, through-composed pieces, to the shorter, Brooklyn-inspired ‘vignettes.’ Sanford explains, “I found myself, inspired by my influences of Bob Brookmeyer, [with whom Sanford studied with extensively] Jim McNeely and Maria Schneider, writing mainly longer, extended, multi-sectional works. I decided since I so often like to hear brief works, I should be able to write some that are satisfying and that tell a story, but short stories, rather than epic journeys. I thought the best way to do this would be to programmatically describe places around Brooklyn that had influenced & affected me deeply, more of a snap shot or memory than a diatribe. I feel they behave as a glue, holding the entire album together.”

Throughout the album, myriad textures and colors abound. Programmed electronics fuse seamlessly with shimmering brass lines; epic moments of free improvisation evolve into to rapturous full-orchestra refrains; dense, cluster-harmonies give way to spacious violin and trombone improvisations; quirky odd meters shift into deep swing or flowing conducted rhapsodies. Views from the Inside unleashes Sanford’s wild and infectious imagination resulting in an exciting musical adventure that both invigorates and challenges the listener while assuring that we live in exciting musical times where genre-labeling holds no weight.

It’s an album stocked with notable melody and inviting performances. Sanford, inspired by such diverse influences as Richard Strauss, Charles Ives, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel, makes certain that a sure sense of song and expressive drama is never lost amongst the intriguing tonal colors and surprising harmonic and rhythmic structures. All of this marking Views from the Inside out as a truly landmark recording, solidifying Sanford’s international reputation as one of the most compelling of contemporary composers.

The JC Sanford Orchestra features: JC Sanford – composer, conductor, trombone; Satoshi Takeishi – percussion; Jacob Garchik – accordion; Tom Beckham – vibraphone; Meg Okura – violin, electronics; Will Martina – cello, electronics; Aidan O’Donnell – double bass; Dan Willis – oboe, piccolo, flute, soprano sax; Ben Kono – English horn, bass clarinet, clarinet, flute, alto saxophone; Chris Bacas – clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone; Kenny Berger – contra-alto clarinet, bassoon, alto flute; Taylor Haskins – trumpet, flugelhorn, harmonizer; Matt Holman – trumpet, flugelhorn; Mark Patterson – tenor trombone; Jeff Nelson – tuba, bass trombone; Chris Komer – French horn; Asuka Katitani – conductor (on ‘Robins in Snow’ & ‘Verrazano Bikeride’).