{"id":20335,"date":"2021-01-31T05:30:02","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T10:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20335"},"modified":"2021-02-02T09:37:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T14:37:34","slug":"album-review-smithsonian-jazz-masterworks-orchestra-bernstein-reimagined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/31\/album-review-smithsonian-jazz-masterworks-orchestra-bernstein-reimagined\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra &#8212; Bernstein Reimagined"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-20336\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/sjmo_bernstein.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/sjmo_bernstein.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/sjmo_bernstein-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/sjmo_bernstein-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Established in 1990, the 17-member Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra is the orchestra-in-residence at the National Museum of American History. Though it\u2019s primarily a live act, since its formation the Orchestra has released at least six albums. The newest is <em>Bernstein Reimagined<\/em>, in which the Orchestra (under the baton of conductor and alto saxophonist Charlie Young) delivers big band arrangements of classic works from the pen of composer Leonard Bernstein.<\/p>\n<p>These pieces were originally designed for the stage, so they\u2019re sweeping and evocative. And though they were often written to help emphasize the onstage and\/or onscreen visuals, in the hands of the SJMO, it\u2019s clear that they stand on their own as well. Selections from the 1949 Technicolor musical <i>On the Town<\/i> and one written for (but cut from) the 1950 musical <i>Peter Pan<\/i> are among the highlights, but Bernstein\u2019s 1955 \u201cSymphonic Suite from <i>On the Waterfront\u201d <\/i>is the centerpiece of this set.<\/p>\n<p>Each of the ten pieces features at least one soloist; \u201cMeditation #1\u201d from Bernstein\u2019s 1971 slightly controversial <i>Mass<\/i> and the <i>On the Waterfront<\/i> suite have three, and \u201cTimes Square Ballet\u201d from <i>On the Town<\/i> has four. And while in their original forms, these pieces weren\u2019t really jazz, they translate remarkably well to the form. As Flavio Chamis writes in his superb liner notes for the CD, \u201cThis project falls directly between [symphonic jazz and jazz symphonies] and becomes a third thing all its own, that sheds light on both. That sums up <i>Bernstein Reimagined<\/i> better than anything. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Established in 1990, the 17-member Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra is the orchestra-in-residence at the National Museum of American History. Though it\u2019s primarily a live act, since its formation the Orchestra [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,42,49,65],"tags":[4417,4416],"class_list":["post-20335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instrumental","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-review","tag-leonard-bernstein","tag-smithsonian-jazz-masterworks-orchesatra","cat-40-id","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20335"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20478,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20335\/revisions\/20478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}