This CD is a classic, one of the all-time best examples of third stream music (a combination of jazz and classical music). Trumpeter/flügelhornist
Franco Ambrosetti's sextet is joined by the NDR Radio Orchestra Hannover, and together they perform nine of
Daniel Schnyder's very complex and continually surprising arrangements of six standards, two of his originals, and
Ambrosetti's "Close Encounter." The leader, altoist
Greg Osby, and
Schnyder himself on soprano have some superior solos, but it is the unusual charts that take honors; the transformations of
Duke Ellington's "C Jam Blues" and
Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't" are among the many high points of this essential set. ~ Scott Yanow