Ezra Weiss - Persephone - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

23 year-old composer/pianist Ezra Weiss presents an album that features some of the finest musicians on the scene today playing a set of completely original compositions - tunes that draw from the tradition but push forward at the same time. The 9 tunes on this CD display a fresh sense of melody and harmony, a close attention to detail, and a deft approach to arranging, all of which are brought to life by Weiss' stellar supporting cast Antonio Hart on alto saxophone, Michael Phillip Mossman on trumpet, Kelly Roberge on tenor saxophone, Leon Lee Dorsey on bass, and Billy Hart on drums.

A bold, inspired figure in the contemporary jazz arranging scene. DOWNBEAT. Portland-based composer/pianist Ezra Weiss has composed and arranged for many albums, musicals and multi-media events and released six albums as a bandleader over the last 16 years, but had yet to present his own large ensemble recording. InchWe Limit...Inch marks that debut while offering a timely, impassioned statement concerning the times we live in, addressed to his young children. Through emotionally expressive compositions performed by a stellar ensemble, with his own narration interspersed between, it's both a loving message passed down from father to children as well as a profound and deeply felt plea for togetherness and empathy. The brilliant 17-piece big band includes such distinctive soloists as saxophonists John Nastos, Rob Davis, Renato Caranto and Mieke Bruggeman; trumpeters Farnell Newton, Derek Sims and Thomas Barber; trombonists Stan Bock and Jeff Uusitalo; and flutist John Savage. The album was recorded live in the resonant Alberta Abbey, a historic church turned performance space in Portland, Oregon.

Gioachino Rossini was only 20 when he was commissioned to compose La scala di seta. It is one of four farsa comica operas which fed popular demand for this genre in Venice in the early 19th century and was wildly successful with it's original audiences. Assisted by the silken ladder of the title, the diverting romantic intrigues of the narrative revolve around secretive assignations and obtuse misunderstandings, by no means helped by the presence of the slow-witted manservant Germano, in one of Rossini's most successful comedies.