Fusing the structure of classical and the spontaneity of jazz takes a translator who knows both sides intimately and can forge orchestrations and arrangements that borrow from both sides. It's no surprise then that the terrifically-talented Vince Mendoza, perhaps the finest arranger working in jazz today (and a damned fine composer as well), would fashion yet another genius jazz/classical expression with the sprawling, aspirational political statement, "Concerto for Orchestra," that's at the center of Freedom Over Everything. A collaborator with talents as diverse as Bjork, Elvis Costello and Diana Krall, Mendoza is also composer-in-residence with West Deutsche Rundfunk, Conductor Laureate of the Netherlands Metropole Orkest and a six-time Grammy winner who has guest conducted both the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonic Orchestras. As his press kit so aptly puts it: "Mendoza is uniquely suited to address these challenges with the ability to speak in the language of the composer and the language of the improviser."
With his creative process sparked by a commission from the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and the unsettling events surrounding the 2016 American presidential election, Mendoza has said that the resulting five movement concerto, finished after the 2020 death of George Floyd, is "a reflection not only of what I was witnessing but what I hoped would occur." The result is a flashy, innovatively arranged big band jazz piece with orchestral accompaniment, that engages the orchestra and has jazz solos that both honor and update the concerto's historic form. A major source of inspiration throughout are the rhythmic and melodic aspects typically found in African American music and improvisation
Opening with a brass fanfares interspersed with tense, troubled solo string parts, "American Noise" the first movement of the Copland-esque "Concerto for Orchestra" then settles into a mid tempo jazz piece where string and woodwind sections answer each other before an electric guitar solo by CNSO's guitarist Lukáš Chejn. The piece finds its voice in the third movement "Hit the Streets," an obvious nod to the crowds protesting in the streets of America at the time, which cleverly uses Oleg Sokolov's marimba to provide a rhythmic counterpoint to the rapid back and forth between orchestral sections that in its last-minute builds into a driving, cinematic wash of strings backed with a jazz drum kit. That's followed by "Meditation" with guest Joshua Redman improvising a relaxed velvet-toned solo before being joined by oboes and violins which bloom to a ravishing early climax after which Redman returns for another solo that winds down quietly. The fifth movement "Justice and the Blues (feat. Antonio Sanchez)," inspired by Dr. Cornel West, opens with trumpet before French Horns ease in behind carrying a stirring, haunting theme (a Mendoza specialty). His fondness for Philly Soul accounts for the transition to a wicked electric bass groove from bassist Derrick Hodge that's followed by a prescient rap monologue from The Roots' Black Thought: "I understand man is as man thinketh?/ And knowledge is a power we just can't relinquish/ In this senseless cold and offensive world/ You're either with the evolution or against it." The album is completed by the gorgeous art song "To The Edge of Longing," composed around Rainer Maria Rilke verses that become a tender melodic showpiece for violinist Alexej Rosík and soprano Julia Bullock. For an overall sound which is focused on great depth and crisp detail, props go to Jonathan Allen, formerly the chief engineer at Abbey Road who was responsible for the recording, mixing and mastering of this album. An outward expression of ongoing political and social turmoil, this futuristic work by a musical visionary, is propelled by complex rhythms and interlaced with sophisticated and genuinely affecting melodies. The intimacy in Freedom Over Everything is balanced by the intensity of the music which makes its scope universal. © Robert Baird/Qobuz