Coming About

Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Maria Schneider | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 18, 1996)
• Original Release Date: June 18, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Enja
• ASIN: B000005CC5
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,185 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. El Viento

2. Love Theme From 'Spartacus'

3. Scenes From Childhood: Part 1. Bombshelter Beast

4. Scenes From Childhood: Part 2. Night Watchmen

5. Scenes From Childhood: Part 3. Coming About

6. Giant Steps

7. Waxwing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Band Jazz at its best, with a strong sense of form., August 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Coming About (Audio CD)

What an achievement. Without exaggerating, I'd say that this is the world's most interesting Big Band of our time. While this music is not "revolutionary" in the sense of neglecting tradition no matter what the cost (Schneider seems to take more of an evolutionary approach, building on what she learnt form Gil Evans and others), it's certainly unique - both in its sense of form and in its musical substance. "Scenes From Childhood", one of the highlights of the album, is a typical example: A musical "movement" (in the classical sense of the word) which at the same time provides highly individual landscapes (or rooms, as Schneider puts it) for the soloists to develop their ideas. Furthermore, there is a strong tension between Schneider's becoming abstract/formal on the one hand and the strong emotional, concrete imagery remaining on the other. Jazz has been said to be one of the few original American artistic genres of the twentieth century, ! and Maria Schneider prooves that it is well and alive.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big band music redefined, May 21, 2003

By 

Joel Di Bartolo (Flagstaff, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coming About (Audio CD)

My name is Joel DiBartolo and was the bass player on the "Tonight Show starring Johny Carson" for almost 20 years. As you can imagine, I had the pleasure and often the dis-pleasure of playing big band arrangements (charts) for and by a wide variety of performers. Tommy Newsom and Bill Holman, amomg others, wrote many arrangements of both standard songs and original songs for the band. By the time the Carson version of the "Tonight Show" went off the air in May, 1992, I was convinced that writing music for a collection of 16 - 18 musicians had become passè. Hearing Maria Schneider's music changed my life.She is, wihtout a doubt, the best contemporary big band writer and arranger on the scene today.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big band music redefined, May 21, 2003

By 

Joel Di Bartolo (Flagstaff, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coming About (Audio CD)

My name is Joel DiBartolo and was the bass player on the "Tonight Show starring Johny Carson" for almost 20 years. As you can imagine, I had the pleasure and often the dis-pleasure of playing big band arrangements (charts) for and by a wide variety of performers. Tommy Newsom and Bill Holman, amomg others, wrote many arrangements of both standard songs and original songs for the band. By the time the Carson version of the "Tonight Show" went off the air in May, 1992, I was convinced that writing music for a collection of 16 - 18 musicians had become passè. Hearing Maria Schneider's music changed my life.She is, wihtout a doubt, the best contemporary big band writer and arranger on the scene today.