Dave Douglas - Little Giant Still Life (2017)

Little Giant Still Life is an exhilarating new album from trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas featuring five brass players and drums. Much of this music was inspired by the American painter Stuart Davis and the music explodes with the same bright colors and excitement of Davis’ works.

Combining the acclaimed talents of brass ensemble The Westerlies – known for their work with Fleet Foxes, their repertoire of original compositions, and interpretations of the music of Wayne Horvitz – and the soulful young drummer Anwar Marshall (Fresh Cut Orchestra, Kurt Rosenwinkel), with Douglas’ inspired compositional vision, the album is full of grooving, swinging, lyrical new jazz.

What makes Little Giant Still Life special is the communal music making that the six musicians are able to generate. The sextet unfurls a new view of jazz brass band music with sophistication and heart.

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"Dave Douglas has evolved into one of the giants of jazz. He's willing to take chances and expands familiar concepts, while possessing a signature sound and style amid all his technical gifts. On this release he charts a brass and drums course with the New York-based 4-man horn section and recording artists The Westerlies, along with ace drummer Anwar Marshall (Kurt Rosenwinkel, Fresh Cut Orchestra).

Due to the all-brass framework I occasionally experienced a bit of listening fatigue, yet the radiant themes with Douglas' sinuous arrangements yield gratifying results. On the opener "Champion," the musicians' pumping notes are supported by Marshall's crisp and precision-oriented beats, as the band intertwines a bluesy spirit with blustery phrasings and hard-hitting intervals. Moreover, there are an abundance of crests and sinuously executed passages on this album as the ensemble operates in perpetual motion while reengineering primary motifs along the way.

Marshall provides muscle and a pliant impetus throughout, as Douglas often contrasts and counterbalances The Westerlies' tightly organized unison lines. However, the blues element underscores many of the leader's lyrical soloing jaunts such as "Little Giant Still Life," where the band maps out a memorable hook with an upfront demeanor. Here, Douglas' raspy accents and down and dirty choruses offset pieces like "Bunting," which offers a little free-form mayhem and soaring crescendos.

The musicians tender a mesmeric sequence of musical events, constructed on odd-metered and near-flawlessly executed unison lines, but "Swing Landscape" is rather laidback as the trumpeter's soloing includes shades of gospel and trad jazz applications. Indeed, the hornists mix it up in rather spry fashion during the bridge. And the circuitous "Colonial Cubism," combines bustling bop with old school jazz frameworks. Hence, it's a piece that projects an alternative view. Consequently, Douglas and associates are supreme change agents by offering a disparate outlook on many of the roads previously traversed, implemented with gilded hues and the utmost synergy." ~ Glenn Astarita, allaboutjazz.com

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"Little Giant Still Life is an exciting new meeting between the acclaimed emerging talents of The Westerlies – known recently for their work with Fleet Foxes, their repertoire of original compositions, and interpretations of the music of Wayne Horvitz, Duke Ellington and others – and the young Philadelphia-based drummer Anwar Marshall (Fresh Cut Orchestra, Kurt Rosenwinkel), all under the compositional vision of trumpeter-composer Dave Douglas. The music contained herein is grooving, swinging, lyrical, and something distinct in Douglas’ 50+ recordings as a leader of original music, and as director of the Greenleaf Music record label, which he founded in 2005.

Much of the music on Little Giant Still Life was inspired by the American painter Stuart Davis, and the music explodes with the same bright colors and excitement that characterize much of Davis’ work. Elaborating on the influence, Douglas notes, “I like the explosive nature of Davis’ work — bright colors, big shapes, images bouncing off each other. Also, the fact that jazz inspired so much of his work was meaningful for me. The song ‘Swing Landscape’ is a good example of Davis refracting what he is hearing in the music for visual use. It’s only natural for musicians to see the work and refract right back!”

While Davis’ mark is felt strongly throughout the album, Douglas’ fledgling relationship with his collaborators are of equal importance. Douglas met The Westerlies – trumpeters Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler and trombonists Willem de Koch and Andy Clausen – at a Chamber Music America event. The five first played together when The Westerlies opened for Douglas’ quintet at Seattle’s Earshot Jazz Festival. The band sat in on the tune “Barbara Allen” (an old spiritual) and realized that a more serious collaboration was bound to happen. Mulherkar reflects: “Dave started writing tune after tune for us and him to play together, and when we finally got together again everything came together pretty quickly.”

With the addition of Marshall, the ensemble was complete. Douglas notes, “The Westerlies are dream players for a composer. They really get inside the music and internalize it. They are also great ensemble improvisers — that is, their tendency is to solo all together, rather than one by one. I love that about them.” Referring to the drummer, Douglas says, “Anwar has a deep groove and real feel for the big landscape of the music; he understands peaks and valleys, and plays with superb empathy. It has made him the perfect player for this project.”

All members of The Westerlies grew up enthralled by Douglas’ sonic universe. Mulherkar and Hensler are first-rate trumpeters, especially when blending their sounds with Douglas’. Mulherkar, speaking for the group, says: “Working with Dave is a dream come true. He has been an influence on each of us individually and as an ensemble – I remember listening to his records growing up, transcribing his solos, and seeing him whenever he’d come through Seattle; he was (and is) a trumpet hero of mine.”" ~ greenleafmusic.com

Dave Douglas, trumpet

The Westerlies:
Riley Mulherkar, trumpet
Zubin Hensler, trumpet
Andy Clausen, trombone
Willem de Koch, trombone

Anwar Marshall, drums

Track List:
01. Champion 05:58
02. Arcade 04:33
03. Men and Machine 03:26
04. Little Giant Still Life 05:14
05. Percolator 04:10
06. Your Special Day 03:22
07. Bunting 02:39
08. Swing Landscape 07:16
09. The Front Page 05:36
10. Colonial Cubism 03:58
11. Codetta 03:32
12. Worlds Beyond the Sky 03:27

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