PEGGY LEE BAND: Sounds from the Big House

Peggy Lee Band

Sounds from the Big House

© 2002 Peggy Lee (778224144823)

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Free Jazz Improvisation

notes

Peggy Lee, cello
Brad Turner, trumpet and flugelhorn
Jeremy Berkman, trombone
Tony Wilson, electric guitar
Chris Tarry, bass
Dylan van der Schyff, drums, percussion, electronics, trumpet,
with guests Robin Reid, marimba and Francois Houle, clarinet

Second release from the extraordinary ensemble. Lee’s compositions kick, simmer and sing, and confirm her as a major talent of what Muhal Richard Abrams called contemporary creative music. The seamless improvisations which colored the first recording so vividly and which erased the lines dividing inside and out playing are here too. This is a must for those that enjoyed the debut (also on SPOOL)

Produced by Peggy Lee and Shawn Pierce. Recorded and mixed at the Factory, Vancouver, B.C., (April 2002) by Shawn Pierce for Maximum Music.


What the Critics are Saying:

...the real point is that if this is avant-garde jazz music , it's the kind of avant-garde jazz music anyone can love. Lee can play "out" with the best of them, and since she's one of the world's finest improvising cellists, she often does. But as a bandleader, she's more concerned with striking a balance between sonic exploration and a more traditional melodic approach, and to that end she has constructed a group that can do anything. ... Passionate virtuosity and committed versatility like this are hard to come by, but if you've got this CD you'll always have some close at hand....Alex Varty, the Georgia Straight

The Vancouver-based cellist leads a sextet through an edgy program navigating a course between 21st century jazz and avant-garde chamber music on Sounds From the Big House. The orchestrations are superb, exploring a panoply of timbres, moods and rhythmic feels.... There are some fine solos, with the leader and Berkman sounding particularly inspired. Drummer van der Schyff''s splashy, expansive percussion propels even the more abstract passages with a potent pulse, and Wilson cranks out distorted skronk one moment, post-Frisell Copland-esque Americana the next...Bill Barton, Coda

Peggy Lee
Upon arriving in Vancouver in 1989, Peggy Lee has participated in numerous creative projects. She is a member of Talking Pictures and the Tony Wilson Sextet. As well, she performs with the NOW Orchestra, who have made their musical presence felt through their work with Barry Guy, Rene Lussier, Koch, Shutz & Studer, and Butch Morris. Lee also works with Standing Wave, a new music ensemble dedicated to performing new written works, principally by Canadian composers. Other performance collaborations include work with electo-acoustic composer Paul Dolden, trumpeter Dave Douglas and pianist Paul Plimley. In addition to her SPOOL recording with Dylan van der Schyff (These Are Our Shoes), Lee has also recorded with Talking Pictures, Vinny Golia, the NOW Orchestra with Barry Guy and with Rene Lussier, Carlos Zingaro, and François Houle's John Carter Project, which features Dylan van der Schyff, Mark Dresser and Dave Douglas.

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  • author: Tamara Turner, CD Baby

    "Free jazz" isn't always the most easily received off-spring of the genre. If it's "avant garde" and improv based, largely playing with dissonances and juxtapositions, the craft of clashing and the musicality of spontaneity, no matter which direction it goes, who can decide what's really "good" or not? The Peggy Lee Band consistently delivers this kind of far-reaching jazz that answers that question with its palpable integrity and musicianship which can be sensed in the most spazzed out, extraneous melodic tangents as well as their more ballad-like fusion hybrids. Even with the room made for chaos and intentional disorganized creativity, there is a solid core of artistic intelligence, of centered and focused expression, coming from an inspired and directed place. Go out on a limb and let your musical vocabulary be expanded and your ears' palate cleansed by this dynamic group.

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