{"id":25874,"date":"2023-08-25T05:30:40","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T09:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25874"},"modified":"2023-08-23T10:07:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T14:07:29","slug":"album-review-chuck-owen-and-the-wdr-big-band-renderings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/25\/album-review-chuck-owen-and-the-wdr-big-band-renderings\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Chuck Owen and the WDR Big Band \u2013 Renderings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-25875\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/chuck_owen_renderings.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/chuck_owen_renderings.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/chuck_owen_renderings-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/chuck_owen_renderings-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>It\u2019s more than a bit remarkable that the big band format has sustained into the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century, no less into 2023. But indeed it has, and much of the credit for that durability is owed to <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/02\/hundred-word-reviews-for-november-2021-five-new-jazz-releases\/\">Chuck Owen<\/a>. Working here with the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/tag\/wdr-big-band\/\">WDR Big Band<\/a>, he has returned with <i>Renderings<\/i>, a vibrant, vital and often thrilling set of eight tracks. The music swings, swooping and diving in an exciting manner.<\/p>\n<p>As is so often the case in recent history, this project\u2019s creation timetable was affected by the pandemic, but here it is. And worth the wait it most certainly is. The unifying concept here &#8211; -as best explained in Owen\u2019s liner essay \u2013 is to focus on creating unique arrangements for existing material. While Owen\u2019s a composer of note, for <i>Renderings<\/i> he\u2019s working primarily with compositions by others.<\/p>\n<p>If your tastes run toward the big, bold, brassy arrangements of Lalo Schifrin, Don Ellis and the like, you\u2019ll find much to savor in <i>Renderings<\/i>. The arrangements don\u2019t rival Ellis\u2019 work in terms of complexity, but they\u2019re accessible in the extreme, offering up power, nuance, humor and emotional content. The titles hint at the vibe: \u201cOf Mystery &amp; Beauty,\u201d the wonderfully evocative \u201cArabian Nights,\u201d the rich and soulful \u201cThis Love of Mine.\u201d Select tracks feature delightful solos on organ, violin and more; there\u2019s a great deal of variety in these tracks. The unifying character is tunefulness, though. Big band jazz is alive!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s more than a bit remarkable that the big band format has sustained into the 21st century, no less into 2023. But indeed it has, and much of the credit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,42,49,65],"tags":[4676,4182],"class_list":["post-25874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instrumental","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-review","tag-chuck-owen","tag-wdr-big-band","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\/25874","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=25874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25876,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25874\/revisions\/25876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}