Customer Reviews

Serendipity 18

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bob Florence's new music and arrangements for this album beautifully celebrate the excellent musicians in his band. It's amazing how he handles so many instruments playing at once without producing a big-band-smear sound; instead, the extremely active counterpoint of the various parts continually surprises the listener, and the result is very exciting, brightly-colored music. The title track is especially compelling.

This album and Bob Florence's previous album "Earth" are two of the greatest Big Band albums of the nineties. This man is the same league as Ellington, Kenton and Basie. The Limited Edition Band is one of the best I have ever heard. They play with passion and a discipline that is simply marvelous. Listen to Stanley Turrentine's compostion "Sugar", especially the way the brass and the reeds play off against one another. "Bimbosity" is pure genius, both in the playing and in composition. This piece would make Benny Goodman dance--there is one musical surprise after another in this composition. You cannot overlook the piano playing of Florence, it is not sparse nor is it overblown. It fits perfectly within each composition. Every serious Big Band enthusiast must have this album in his/her music collection!! You will find yourself searching the internet for other Bob Florence recordings after listening to this one. I give this 10 stars!!!

Bob Florence is an eminently listenable composer and arranger, and on all of the discs of his that I own he produces at least one show stopper. My admiration and respect for his talent notwithstanding, however, I can't say that I've ever listened to any of his work without grabbing the remote to move to the next track fairly quickly. There is a good deal of excitement in his stuff, but that derives more from energy and drive than it does from inventiveness and sensitivity. The logical comparison is to one of his friends, Bill Holman, to whom he dedicated the song "Willis" on his "Earth" album. I liked the title cut, "Sugar," and "Evelyn," but there is not the same sort of interplay of well-textured layers of sound that one feels in the work of Bill Holman, who manages to sustain my interest in the most diverse of his choices.
Don't take my carping too much to heart--he is enjoyable, and I might be too sensitive to what he doesn't do instead of listening for what he does do, which is respectable and noteworthy. If you want to get to know this fellow, "Earth" and "With All the Bells and Whistles" are better places to start.

this a great orchestra and I think they are the progressive Jazz Orchestra of the 90s,Great Stuff!!!

The new Bob Florence is much too frantic for me. I have an old LP called Pet Project that Bob did back in the 70's (?) that is one of the finest albums I have ever heard. It was a take off on tunes that Petula Clark made famous like Downtown and I Know A Place. It is some of the finest writing and musicianship. Doesn't sound as much like big band as it does orchestra band or whatever. Clean, pure, liquid, fun. Never get tired of hearing it. Wish I could find it on CD. The front line is playing every instrument in the book from contra bass clarinet to piccolo. The ensemble sound is truly amazing with no grating soloists trying to hog the scene. Other bands that gave a similar sound and were actually just as good were Billy May's band and the Sauter-Finegan Band. Oh, well, you can't bring back front row sax sections like that anymore. They were too versitile, just like the comedian/singer/dancers of the past like Red Skelton, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Steve Allen. What happened to their likes, anyway?

Bob Florence and his AMAZING big band deserve every inch of that Grammy this CD won. In my book, there are not enough stars to rate this one; every track is the bomb!!!

If this CD is not in your library, it should be.