Trumpeter and musical polymath Michael Leonhart displays his broadly eclectic brand of large ensemble jazz, orchestral compositions, and experimental rock on 2022's The Normyn Suites. A tribute to the life and death of his beloved dachshund Normyn, The Normyn Suites is an expansive production that weaves together all Leonhart's broad musical influences, including post-bop jazz, funk, classical soundscapes, and neo-psychedelia. A gifted jazz trumpeter since his teens when he won a 1992 Grammy for best high school musician, Leonhart has spent the majority of his career pushing across genre boundaries. He has toured and recorded extensively with Steely Dan, released both jazz and avant-garde rock albums, and worked with such diverse artists as Vinicius Cantuaria, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Antibalas, and others. He brings all of this broad experience to bear in his work with the Michael Leonhart Orchestra, an ever-evolving group that includes a long list of instrumental luminaries, including players like saxophonist Chris Potter, trumpeter Keyon Harrold, drummer Joey Waronker, and many others. Prominently featured here are several guest artists, including Elvis Costello, who brings his gruff charisma to "Shut Him Down." A hooky Afrobeat-infused track, the song also includes wry contributions by saxophonist Joshua Redman and rapper JSwiss. Costello pops up later to deliver a spoken word piece against a moody space guitar backdrop supplied by fretboard mavericks Nels Cline and Bill Frisell. The majority of the album is made up of Leonhart's two suites for his dog. The first draws inspiration and form from the five-stage grief cycle first outlined by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her 1969 book On Death and Dying. There's a cinematic quality to the suite that feels atmospheric and mood-setting, as if Leonhart is scoring a film about his relationship with his dog. The opening "Denial" goes from sad piano and choral vocals à la Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown soundtracks to a funky big-band romp. Later, on "Catharsis," Leonhart frames guitarist Frisell's twangy desert tones in hypnotic and shimmering orchestral post-rock. The second Normyn Suite features yet more evocative moments, including a movement called "Waking from Sedation" with organist Larry Goldings that sounds like a love theme from a '60s Italian romance or an Ennio Morricone movie. Throughout all of this, Leonhart plays numerous instruments, not the least of which is trumpet. Interestingly, toward the end of the album he shifts gears away from his orchestra and onto his small group organ jazz project with saxophonist Donny McCaslin. His aptly named tunes "Kenny Dorham" and "Wayne Shorter" deftly evoke the spirit of the trumpeter and saxophonist they are named after, all the while showcasing Leonhart's superb, '60s-style hard bop trumpet chops. Sprawling and ambitious, The Normyn Suites is an engaging album of genre-bending mood music that leaves you contemplating Leonhart's expansive creative voice and the dog that inspired him.
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