Customer Reviews

Emperor March: Live at the Blue Note

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There are 16 members in this band, making it larger than the standard big band and giving the music plenty of muscle. With a big band this size, much is required from the engine room to keep it swinging and fortunately Reggie Workman (bass) and Gene Jackson (drums)are up to the task. Tolliver's arrangements are interesting (I like the way he harmonizes flutes and trombones, for instance) without being overly busy or academic. So there's plenty of room for soloists.... standouts include Marcus Strickland on the opener, Stanley Cowell, the great Billy Harper on a ballad feature.... In short, this is a wonderful CD and we're fortunate this band was documented in concert for posterity.

One disc approximately 61 minutes,digitally mastered. The sound is clean and there is good separation between the instruments. This is a nicely presented package. The disc is housed in a tri-fold cardboard holder (which has it's pros and cons) which when unfolded shows a diagram of the entire band as they were set up on stage for this recording. Another plus is that each musician's name is shown in their respective positions on stage. This gives the listener a better feel for what was recorded that night. All compositions are by Tolliver with the exception of one,"I Want To Talk About You" by Billy Eckstine. Four of the tracks are in excess of ten minutes,which give the compositions (and the band) time to really stretch out to it's full potential. The booklet gives some details as to how this band came into being and Tolliver's struggle to keep such a large concern going. Luckily,fans in the U.S. took to this music from the beginning and Tolliver is at last getting a chance to hear his big band compositions in America.

As is sometimes the case Tolliver's music was much more appreciated in Europe than in America until now. For several years Tolliver has been writing compositions for larger groups and in Europe he found his music not only being heard but revered. Most of the musicians are relatively unknown,but that means little when you hear this disc. This is pure big band music the way it's supposed to be played. The arrangements are a blend of traditional and modern big band styles.

Tolliver's band includes twenty musicians,including several trumpet players. Tolliver himself plays solo on the first track and leaves the rest to his very capable unit. This disc is a good companion to the Blue Note Records disc (With Love) Tolliver released in the recent past. If your taste runs to this type of music played with great brio and finesse,then this is for you. Hopefully Tolliver will be able to keep this band going in the future for the benefit of us all.

Certain jazz musicians work on the front lines of performance and writing for many years and never receive their just due insofar as recognition. Hank Mobley and Woody Shaw, during their lifetimes, come to mind. Others, such as Joe Henderson, are fortunate enough to have a benign coalescence of recording label and circumstance congeal at some point in their career to achieve that recognition - as Henderson did before his passing and Shirley Horn experienced in her later years; and we have seen a lot more attention to the music of Horace Silver over the past several years. Now's the time for Charles Tolliver.

Tolliver has been a strong composer and soloist dating back to the sixties, when he performed with artists such as Jackie McLean, Lee Morgan, Gerald Wilson and Max Roach. He went on to form the Strata East label with pianist Stanley Cowell, although this was at a time when straight-ahead jazz began to suffer from the effects of jazz/rock fusion undermining the acoustic setting through much of the 70s. Lately, however, Tolliver has come to prominence with the 2007 release of "With Love" on Blue Note and now the compelling release of another big band session "Emperor March". This is exciting, well-arranged and brilliantly played music from an organization including Tolliver, former Strata East artists Stanley Cowell and Billy Harper, a trumpet, trombone and reed section, and the herculean work of bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Gene Jackson supporting the affair.

Billy Harper delivers a typically brusque yet engaging treatment of "I Want To Talk About You"; the attractive melody and arranging of flutes and brass on the title track is framework for extended soloing; the offbeat melody of "In The Trenches", punched by the band, yields straight-ahead solos, and "Toughin'" hearkens to Tolliver's work with Gerald Wilson back in the Pacific Jazz years with a Spanish flair to its racing theme that again leads to exciting solos. "Emperor March" is first class big band material from one of this music's great artists.

Magnificent modern big band album! If one thought that Charles Tolliver's 2007 Blue Note Records studio big band recording "WITH LOVE",

which was justifiably Grammy nominated (and should have won) was somehow a one-off success, this just newly released Half Note Records live recording of his big band "EMPEROR MARCH" (July 2008) at the famous Blue Note Jazz club in New York City is at the very least as good, and as stunning. He truly is the 'real deal'. Besides being one of the great trumpeters in Jazz, he has now unquestionable established himself as one of the all-time great composers, arrangers, and orchestrators in the idiom. Wonderful solos from all. Great Charles Tolliver!

Charles Tolliver conducted a Big Band of his own at a live club date in Manhattan. The concert was recorded on CD. If you like Big Band,

you will like this CD. The Band plays a live version of Tolliver's composition, "On the Nile".

His new cd is just fair to so so. His cds before this when were far better. Id pass up this new 2009 cd.