Palermo, Ed - The Great Un-American Songbook Vol. III
SKU
Sky Cat 195269042059
Another musically brilliant and brilliantly humorous batch of surprising and unlikely (but once you hear them, absolutely PERFECT) musical mash-ups from The Ed Palermo Big Band!
“While pundits and experts debate whether the United States of America has entered an age of decline as a world power, New York saxophonist, composer, arranger, bandleader and inveterate troublemaker Ed Palermo makes an incontrovertible case for un-American ascendance. With The Great Un-American Songbook Volume 3: Run for your Life, he turns his attention to the music of the nation’s former colonial overlords. Focusing on material by Lennon and McCartney (and several acts that followed in The Beatles’ footsteps), one of jazz’s finest working big bands delivers another batch of reverently irreverent arrangements with enviable precision and improvisational aplomb.
Best known for his celebrated recordings and performances interpreting the ingenious compositions of Frank Zappa, Palermo has documented his Zappaphilia on numerous Cuneiform Records albums such as 2006’s Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance and 2009’s Eddy Loves Frank. But he’s always cast a wide musical net. On the uproarious 2017 double album The Great Un-American Songbook Volumes 1 & 2, Palermo tackled an expansive roster of songs by a wide array of legendary British bands, including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, King Crimson, Traffic, and Jethro Tull.
Featuring largely the same stellar cast of players, the 16-piece Ed Palermo Big Band takes another trip to swinging London on The Great Un-American Songbook Volume 3: Run for Your Life. In many ways, Palermo is revisiting the music of his youth by transforming it via the craft, artistry and left-field imagination that have made him a singular figure in the world of jazz. “I grew up with this music, and like the Zappa stuff there’s a huge element of nostalgia for me,” he says. “But with the skills that I attained through all these years arranging all different types of music I revisit songs that I still love, but interpreting them my way."
Palermo’s way can best be described as medley virtuosity, as he turns each piece into a Rubik’s Cube maze of musical connections. Kicking off with “Within You Without You,” Palermo nods at George Harrison’s Indian raga fascination with McDaniel’s electric sitar drone before crossing the globe and adding a galloping samba groove. An extended quote from the 1966 hit by the Hollies, “Stop Stop Stop” lays perfectly on the Brazilian beat. He creates an even thicker mélange on “Run for Your Life,” which features a riveting Ben Kono tenor solo based on the chord changes of Cedar Walton’s jazz standard “Ugetsu” (aka “Fantasy in D”). And don’t miss the eight bars lifted from Zappa’s “G Spot Tornado.'”
- LabelSky Cat
- UPC195269042059