Orchestre National de Jazz: Shut Up and Dance
Tobias FischerFrom the title you might deduce either A) weirdo indie techno, or B) epic hipness fail by old dudes. Actually it’s neither, this large-scale prog-jazz project;
It could be more rightly assumed that the word ”dance” really means “play” in this context, as the scope of these ten mini-concertos allows for some cutting loose by this jazz orchestra, a project backed by France’s Ministry of Culture (do we even have something like that in the US?). Noises are allowed, so there are circuit-bendings and organic glitches, such as a ping pong ball dropped into piano wires.
Overall the feel is proggy, a la John McLaughlin, Weather Report, etc., although percussion plays a major role (“Racing Heart, Heart Racing” is a bizarre sort of careering zydeco) and the curve balls tend to get a lot of English on them (the coda of “Flying Dream” finds the full-blown horn section cooking up something out of a 60s action TV drama).
By Eric Saeger
Homepage: Orchestre National de Jazz
Homepage: Bee Jazz Records
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