(Hard Bop) [WEB] Bill Mobley Meets Strings Orchestre d'Auvergne - Black Elk's Dream - 2013, FLAC (tracks), lossless

"Black Elk's Dream" is a live jazz album led by trumpeter/arranger Bill Mobley, which features not only a cast of great improvisers but includes the virtuosic string playing of the Orchestre d'Auvergne. This inclusion allows Bill Mobley to create more lush orchestrations of his forward-thinking jazz conception. The result is beautiful, cinematic, and above all, personal.
The album opens with "The Dream Team," composed by Xavier Felgeyrolles, whom people may know as the owner of Space-Time Records and producer for many of their albums. Listeners will be impressed with his skill as composer, and Mobley's orchestration adds depth to this song to create a warm and exciting welcome to this program of music.
We are then treated to two arrangements of jazz standards, both "Four" and "The Touch of Your Lips." Mobley's treatment of the two standards allows the orchestra to reveal his reharmonizations, not just during the melody, but during the solos. One standout during this earlier part of the album is the shout chorus on "Four," which not just quotes other Miles Davis melodies, but builds on them as new compositions in themselves.
Although by this point, listeners will enjoy what they have thusfar heard, it is the rest of the album that I think of when I think of this album as a whole. The reason for this is the original compositions, which seem designed for the instrumentation Mobley has to work with. Ever subsequent has one thing in common: they are epic.
The two-part "Black Elk's Dream" has a variety of moods: pensive, suspenseful, mournful, and thrilling. The use of the string orchestra evokes powerful cinematic imagery, and the piece is made up of separate but related sections. Billy Kilson is featured in a drum solo over a quiet but brooding vamp, and pianist Manuel Rocheman showcases his depth in his solo during the second section. As the piece concludes, the audience will feel they have just listened to one powerful story.
"Alexander the Great" is a boastful piece, which sounds like the theme for a grand arrival. Manuel Rochman and Stephane Guillaume deliver exciting solos over the song's first section. After a brilliant interlude melody, we are then suddenly transported to the uptempo second half of this song, which Billy Pierce handles with ferocity. The interplay between the band and Pierce is spectacular. The orchestra does not get a break here, though, as Mobley has written some great background figures for them to take us out of this section and recap the first theme.
"The People Who Live on Hope Street" is a two-part contribution of master composer/pianist Donald Brown (who guests as the the pianist for this track). The piece opens with one astounding sequence, which restarts several times but develops a little further each time (and increases in intensity), until we are transported to a more suspenseful section, and then suddenly the tempo picks up and leads to a dark but incredibly funky vamp figure that is the foundation of the solos. The strings provide a stirring background at first, and then they disappear and allow the rhythm section to interplay freely with the soloists. Donald Brown's solo is one of the highlights of this album. Known for his harmonic arsenal, Brown's solo here is intense, sometimes jagged, furious, and pure art. Billy Kilson solos next over the vamp, and it is fantastic.
The second part of this piece is different in mood, a demonstration of Donald Brown's R&B knowledge. This section is funky, but also hopeful in its tone. Bill Mobley and Stephane Guillaume deliver lyrical solos, we are then given melodic material from the first section to close out this unforgettable track and album.
In summation, I must say the highlights on this album are amazing ones. Mobley has done an excellent job of making use of the Orchestre d'Auvergne, the improvising is great and inspired, and the original compositions are stunning. Highly recommended!
-- by Renato B.