A wide variety of styles and moods
Eric Brinkmann | Palo Alto, CA United States | 10/06/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Alexander von Schlippenbach is a more restrained group than his Globe Unity Orchestra. There are more composed-out sections and though some of the playing is quite free, other soloists play more traditionally. All of the soloists are of a high order, however. They include Benny Bailey, Willem Breuker and Kenny Wheeler. Two of the compositions are by guest Misha Mengelberg. His "Reef und Kneebus" is particularly interesting. It is a three movement suite of traditional dances, incorporating many different stylistic elements, from free, over-blown sections to serial passages and bluesy parts. Overall, I'd say that there is a lot of interesting music on this CD, certainly for anyone interested in modern jazz."