Palermo, Ed - A Lousy Day In Harlem CD
SKU
SC 88614
"...one of the greatest musicians and arrangers in the world."-Christian McBride
What’s the most unlikely thing a jazz big band can do? Why, expertly cover the incredibly demanding music of Frank Zappa and make it seem as easy as a warm knife cutting butter.
What’s the most unlikely thing the Ed Palermo Big Band can do? I suppose it would be doing as close to a ‘straight jazz’ album as possible! And that’s what this is. There are great and inventive versions of standards by Duke Ellington, Gigi Gryce, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, there’s a modern standard by Egberto Gismonti (good choice!) and there’s originals by Ed and others and it’s all great.
“In a radical departure, jazz’s state-of-the-art orchestra – The Ed Palermo Big Band – has recorded a thrilling program of…jazz! An ingenious arranger, composer and alto saxophonist, Ed Palermo has spent much of the past three decades earning international renown with a series of albums transmuting fervidly loved rock songs by Frank Zappa, Todd Rundgren, and their British brethren into supremely imaginative vehicles for improvisation with his 18 piece jazz big band. With A Lousy Day in Harlem, he unleashes his talent-laden ensemble on a gorgeous array of music by Ellington, Monk, Coltrane, Egberto Gismonte, and his own finely wrought originals. Slated for release on Sky Cat Records, the album captures a master arranger and jazz big band leader at the top of his game, putting his own unmistakable stamp on canonical compositions. Firmly in the tradition, the project reveals that Palermo’s nonpareil gift for recasting beloved tunes encompasses jazz too.
“The thing about this record is, I wanted it to be jazzier,” says Palermo. “We play a lot of jazz in my band, but I’ve been doing Zappa and British Invasion stuff for years and I’ve had these other types of music in my book, jazz tunes that had been close to my heart for decades. I finally felt ready to record these tunes – tunes I’d composed, and tunes I’d arranged. It felt like the right time to show the world another side of the band.’”
- LabelSky Cat
- UPC888295866149