Sarah Chaksad Orchestra – Windmond (2016/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:04 minutes | 897 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Neuklang
There are also clichés in diehard jazz circles, which are at the most disproved, but nevertheless persevere. One of them thinks that the woman in Jazz has at best a meaning as a singer or as a pianist, but not on a wind instrument. Another sees the big band as a relic of the past, an antiquated Format that younger musicians can no longer be interested in.
Sarah Chaksad, born in 1983, refuted both. She is a saxophonist and has been leading her own orchestra for more than three years, for which she also writes the compositions and with which she now presents a first Album: nine Songs with her own handwriting and completely from today. After flute and piano lessons, the saxophone was at the center of her ultimate interest early on. Already at the tender age of nine Sarah Chaksad started with the Instrument, which is rather atypical for age and gender, and almost logically the enthusiasm for Jazz was aroused. As a maturer, the young musician wrote compositions that were premiered with the choir of the Kantonsschule Wohlen. A successful Bachelor project in Bern was followed by a songbook with compositions for children, accompanied by a CD. While still studying for her master’s degree in Basel, she gathered a group of friends around her, a Large Ensemble for which she composed all the pieces – The Sarah Chaksad Orchestra was born. The following year, the young bandleader played her master’s degree concert at the bird’s eye in Basel.
If you think of old recordings or the Sound of an American College Big Band in orchestral Jazz, you are wrong about the Sarah Chaksad Orchestra: although this orchestra is also based on Tradition, on the one hand the compositions are today and on the other hand the band members are not only above-average orchestra musicians, but also individually excellent soloists. Chaksad’s music is much closer to European models than American ones. As a Swiss, George Gruntz with his Concert Jazz Band and Mathias Rüegg with the Vienna Art Orchestra have demonstrated what is possible in terms of powerful, rich Sound and individual expression with a large formation consisting of outstanding soloists.
This is where the Songs of Sarah Chaksad, which were recorded in the studio in spring 2016, follow. She does not serve the compositions to her musicians completely tailor-made, but designs her measure in the same way that it receives its final Note with the personal arrangement, individually colored by each band member. Thus, the composer has a whole Palette at his disposal, which she knows how to use wisely: she lets it pop in the Tutti and contrasts various combinations and fine nuances, in which she lets the musicians shine soloistically, she leads voices in parallel, but at times deftly also contrapuntal. So we hear a Combo that swings, creates Balladesk depth, but also sometimes with an almost rocking piece that sounds wide awake and reveals amazing maturity. (Steff Rohrbach, June 2016)
Tracklist
1. Sarah Chaksad Orchestra – Halo
2. Sarah Chaksad Orchestra – Today We Got a New Angel
3. Sarah Chaksad Orchestra – Blessed
4. Sarah Chaksad Orchestra – Waterfall Intro
5. Sarah Chaksad Orchestra – Waterfall
6. Sarah Chaksad Orchestra – Look Back and Laugh
7. Sarah Chaksad Orchestra – The Insensitive Lady
8. Sarah Chaksad Orchestra – Windmond
9. Sarah Chaksad Orchestra – As a Child
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