Music for our time

The sun came out for a couple of days this week, and the birds started singing: a reminder towards the end of a long winter that nature survives, however threatened. And so must hope, whatever we hear in the news. It’s a good time to listen to Maria Schneider’s new piece, which is called “American Crow” and comes with a message from its composer:

We’re living through a crisis of listening, shaped by increasingly curated perspectives that widen the space between us. Jazz teaches us something different — that listening, responding, and collaborating are at the center of its beauty. I believe those same qualities lie at the heart of a healthy democracy. In that spirit, as we mark the 250th year of America’s democracy, these are the values I wanted to share through music.

You can hear the piece above, or as one of two compositions that make up the Schneider orchestra’s new EP. “American Crow” functions as a kind of concerto for the marvellously expressive trumpet of Mike Rodriguez. The other piece, “A World Lost”, is a fine feature for Jeff Miles’s equally impressive guitar. Both performances are full of Schneider’s beautifully personal manipulation of the standard big-band format, with the addition of an accordionist, Julien Labro, and the use of Scott Robinson’s contrabass clarinet and George Flynn’s contrabass trombone to deepen the emotional range.

Mike Rodriguez’s presence here reminds me that he was also a member of the late Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra. With “American Crow”, as with her previous album, Data Lords (2020), Maria Schneider seems to have quietly picked up Haden’s baton. Some protest music needs to scream in order to make its point. This is at the other end of the spectrum: a protest music that, by making its point through a demonstration of humanity, is no less eloquent.

* The Maria Schneider Orchestra’s American Crow EP is available here: https://www.artistshare.com/Projects/Experience/1/539/1/Maria-Schneider-American-Crow-A-Narrative-in-Notes-and-Frames