Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra

Mists: The Music of Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra
Studio album by Various artists
Jack Cooper
Released August 22, 2014
Recorded April 4–6, 2014
Brooklyn, New York
Staten Island, New York
Genre Jazz, Big band, instrumental
Length 55:59
Label Planet Arts Recordings
Producer Thomas Bellino (exec. prod.)
Luis Bonilla (main prod. for recording session, contractor, mix down)
Douglas Purviance (assoc. prod.)
Various artists
Jack Cooper chronology

The Chamber Wind Music of Jack Cooper
(2010)		 Mists
(2014)		 Time Within Itself
(2015)
Planet Arts Recordings 101420

Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra is a jazz album produced by Planet Arts Recordings and released in August 2014.[1] The recording is centered on Charles Ives' art song arranged for 17 piece jazz orchestra by composer Jack Cooper; this is a Third stream approach to jazz made more widely know by earlier band leaders and composers such as Paul Whiteman, Gunther Schuller, George Russell and Don Sebesky. Noted Ives scholar Gayle Magee writes,"These recordings preserve the essence of (Ives) classics...while offering a fresh, modern reinterpretation for Ives fans and jazz enthusiasts alike."[2] The album was named as one of the Top 10 Jazz CDs for 2014 in the Chicago Tribune by music critic Howard Reich and also peaked at #8 in radio airplay in the Roots Music Report for top albums in Canada for October 26, 2014.[3]

Background

Hearing Ives for the first time

Jack Cooper grew up in a musical household in the greater Los Angeles area. His mother (Georgie Cooper) was a professional keyboardist, and numerous musicians visited their house to rehearse and give recitals; his Godfather (Robert Voris) was one of those.[4][5][6] Voris was one of the first vocal soloists (baritone) with the William Hall Master Chorale in the late 1950s and at one point recorded a LP of classical art song with his mother in October 1963, just 5 months after Cooper was born.[7] Many works were recorded for the LP to include Charles Ives songs. The Ives titles recorded on the master tapes were The Greatest Man, Serenity, Evening and Charlie Rutlege. This sound became normal for Cooper to hear at home. Cooper heard Ives' songs performed for about 10 years until both his mother and Voris were too busy to perform regular recitals together any longer.

Ives music played in school

During the 1980s Cooper heard and played a great deal of Charles Ives works in music school such as the Country Band March, The Unanswered Question, The Camp-Meeting, and his symphonies. He went onto work professionally as a full-time jazz musician for about 6 years and then entered the University of Texas at Austin to do a doctorate in music composition.[8] By that time he had a great deal of experience as a professional staff writer doing jazz orchestra works. Along with Ives, a great love of his is writing for large jazz groups such as what Fletcher Henderson, Ellington, Basie, Gil Evans, etc. had composed. At one point while living in New York he studied with the jazz composer Manny Albam; Albam was very encouraging later in the pursuit of the Ives jazz orchestra project.

Ives songs made into dissertation

Cooper first attended classes at the UT Austin in late 1995; one of those was with musicologist Elliott Antokoletz.[9] In Antokoletz' book Twentieth Century Music (Prentice Hall), Chapter 7 is devoted to music in the United States and specifically Charles Ives is analyzed for 10 pages.[10] Elliott Antokoletz uses Ives' The Cage as a key departure point. The Cage ended up becoming the first of the Ives works Cooper arranged for jazz orchestra; an experiment on how to use more disparate 'Americana' material to arrange and orchestrate rather than typical 'tin pan alley' songs. Cooper's arrangements preserve Ives' work while undergoing a transformation to a jazz aesthetic, "...(the) unexpected places we hear in jazz, and wanna' hear in jazz."[11]

In 1997 Cooper undertook a dissertation project to find music suitable for jazz orchestra that would push the boundaries of how to orchestrate in that idiom.[6][12] It was a new, Third Stream approach of melding a prominent American classical composer with the idiom of full 17 piece jazz orchestra. Charles Ives music was decided upon due to the composer's distinctly American style and approach to melodically and harmonically challenging material. The first three works used in that dissertation were The Cage, The Last Reader and Tom Sails Away; the work is listed as a noted text in both "Charles Ives: A Guide to Research" and "A Charles Ives omnibus".[12][13][14][15] Cooper's orchestrations of The Cage and Tom Sails Away were also recorded on CDs by university jazz ensembles. These would later become studio demo recordings for record labels.

Charles Ives big band recording

(l-r) Andy McKee, Douglas Purviance, Luis Bonilla, and Michael Marchione listening to playback at Systems II Recording Studio in Brooklyn, N.Y. on April 4th, 2014 for Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra CD.

In 2000 the idea came about to do an entire CD of Charles Ives works for jazz orchestra to be completed with the Summit Jazz Orchestra in Munich, Germany.[16] Due to lack of funding the project fell through but the whole album of eight of Ives songs arranged for a jazz orchestra had been completed by Cooper. Although there were setbacks, a meeting with Bob Brookmeyer during this time was very encouraging with the lengdary composer giving his approval of Cooper's scores.[17] Executive producer Thomas Bellino with Planet Arts Recordings become very interested in the recording project and approached Cooper for the permission to produce the CD late in 2002. An initial grant from the Aaron Copland Fund For Recorded Music was obtained for $10,000 but numerous difficulties with copyrights and production costs had to be worked out which prolonged the recording timeline.[18] Finally in November 2013, Jack Cooper met with long time friend and musical collaborator Luis Bonilla and the project moved ahead with Bonilla as producer, contractor and musician. The CD was then recorded by a full jazz orchestra (live, no overdubs) on April 4, 2014 with extra recording of two solos by trumpeter Terell Stafford completed on April 6. The remainder of the funding needed ($18,750) was obtained through the crowd funding site Indiegogo during a highly successful campaign during 25 days in June 2014.[1][6][19][20] As part of that fundraising initiative a category of pledges was developed to lend an important educational aspect to production and support of the project. A donor gave $3000 (part of the Indiegogo) in order to have Cooper visit the University of Northern Iowa campus on April 8-10, 2015 and work with the jazz ensemble in the School of Music. Five of the Mists/Ives jazz orchestra works were performed as well as a new work that was commissioned from Cooper for the group.[21] The recording has gained notoriety among composers to include Scott Healy who has a three part series of extensive blog entries outlining the significance and provides analysis of the Ives adaptations.[22]

The Individual Works from MISTS

Mists

Of all eight Ives original songs, Mists is the shortest with The Cage a close second.[23] The implications are a great deal of material was developed based on only a very few melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas. References can be heard to Dee Barton's writing he did for Stan Kenton and some of Thad Jones writing for his own jazz orchestra; a mix of the two.[24] A comparison can be made to Beethoven's Sinfonia Eroica being so complex but only using a simple Eb major triad; Mists consists of only two whole-tone scales, a small chord stream, and a simple major triad to end. The arrangement was developed from only little musical material.

The Last Reader

The Last Reader is a more tradition setting that was one of the less complicated Ives arrangements to complete.[25] It is set in three-quarter time. The arranger borrows Ives' idea of having two groups playing at once in harmonic and rhythmic conflict; this is on the front and back of the arrangement. The song itself is one of Ives' longer ones and is rich in harmonic material; Cooper's work is a huge exercise in new chord colors achieved for a large jazz ensemble using Ives' language.[26]

The Children's Hour

From the outset Cooper leaves The Children's Hour alone as much as possible.[27] It is a complete piece that Ives based on the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem; the harmonic and rhythmic language of Ives needed to be kept intact. Ives' original worked very well but is put to a Ahmad Jamal, Poinciana type of jazz feel. The Children's Hour was also inspired by the music of Manny Albam, whom Cooper had studied with in New York during the early 1990s.

Tom Sails Away

The longest and most complex of all Ives' works chosen for the recording was Tom Sails Away.[28] The harmonic and rhythmic ideas used are jazz and fusion but the formal layout is borrowed strictly from classical music, modified from the 14th century French Rondeau poetry form. It is transformed into a huge Rondo due to Ives' use of separate vignettes to tell the story contained within the entire song.

The Camp Meeting

The Camp-Meeting shows up in Ives' catalogue in several forms.[29][30] Regardless of which you are familiar with, the opening and closing of the work have a traditional American brass band sound. The middle of the arrangement is converted into a bossa nova and again was an exercise in new harmonic concepts taken from Ives' work.

Trumpet section for Mists, l-r Jim Seeley, Nick Marchione, John Walsh and Scott Wendholt

Watchman

Ives had a love for American hymns and transforming them into his own work. Watchman! is originally a Christmas hymn written by Boston choirmaster Lowell Mason in 1830.[31][32] Undoubtedly this is a hymn Ives played as an organist in Danbury, Connecticut in the late 1800s; he made it his own. His mixing of tonalities is recognizable throughout the work; Cooper uses Ives' devices and makes this into a more uptempo jazz waltz.

At the River

Again Ives fondness for religious hymns shows up in (Shall We Gather) At the River.[33] It resonated for Cooper because of hearing his mother play this for church services on the organ (Cooper was her page turner many times as a child). Like Ives, Cooper wanted a feeling of familiarity and newness all at once --- having the hymn tune, though familiar, emerge as a new idea; more striking and 'swinging' rather than its original context.

The Cage

The Cage is the very first of the eight written; ironically, many consider this to be the Tour De Force of the recording.[34] This contains many influences to generate compositional ideas from such a small but important Ives work. All the way from Bob Brookmeyer to Arnold Schoenberg and all in between; many other composers can be traced in the arrangmement. The small piece morphs into a 24 measure minor blues and then moves away leaving the listener hanging much like the philosophical question asked in the original Ives tune...'is life anything like that?'

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Charles Ives, all selections arranged and adapted for jazz orchestra by Jack Cooper. 

No. Title Length
1. "Mists"   6:14
2. "The Last Reader"   7:30
3. "The Children's Hour"   8:08
4. "Tom Sails Away"   8:08
5. "The Camp Meeting"   6:51
6. "Watchman!"   5:01
7. "At The River"   6:16
8. "The Cage"   7:56

Recording Sessions

Recorded at Systems Two Studio in Brooklyn, New York and Lighthouse Recording in Staten Island, New York.

Personnel

Musicians

Production

Promotion

November 12, 2014 premiere of Mists CD in New York City at the Cutting Room

The first unveiling of the Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra CD was to a Memphis NARAS chapter audience on June 26, 2014 at the Stax Museum.[35] The track played that evening was Watchman! and received a very favorable reception. The official CD release for the recording happened on August 22, 2014 and publicity was handled by Two for the Show Media. The music from the entire CD was performed live for a CD premiere concert in New York at The Cutting Room on November 12, 2014.[36][37][38][39]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Chicago Tribune
Baltimore Sun (syndicated)		 Highly favorable[40][41]
Top 10 Jazz Recordings
for 2014[42][43]
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis) [44]
Jazz Journal
United Kingdom		 [45]
London Jazz News
United Kingdom		 Highly favorable[46]
The 100 Best Albums of 2014
Ted Gioia		 HONORABLE MENTION[47]
The Roots Music Report's top 100 Jazz Album Chart for 2014 Top 100 Jazz Albums[48]
LA Jazz Scene
Scott Yanow		 Highly favorable[49]
All About Jazz [50]
[51]
Best Recordings
of 2014[52]
#10 of top 12 read
reviews of 2014[53]
#1 of top 12
"Most Recommended"
reviews of 2014[54]
Jazz Society of Oregon Highly favorable[55]
Midwest Record Highly favorable[56]
JazzTimes (2) Highly favorable[57][58]
JazzLife Magazine
Japan		 Highly favorable[59]
BBC Radio 3
United Kingdom		 Jazz Line-Up
Playlist[60]
Jazz Weekly Highly favorable[61]
O's Place Jazz Newsletter [62]
JazzScan Highly favorable[63]

"Mists" not only does justice by Ives but emerges as one of the most beautiful large-ensemble jazz recordings of the year to date."

~Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune (syndicated)

Jack Cooper has taken eight of Ives' art songs, arranged and orchestrated the pieces for his 17-piece big band, and essentially reinvented the music. The result is a unique set of post-bop treatments of Charles Ives' music...

~Scott Yanow, LA Jazz Scene[64]


"Jack Cooper's band and project are outstanding. Charles Ives' early-20th-century art-songs have been transformed into a 21st-century big band format with excellent arrangements and exciting improvisations."

~Frank Tirro, author of Jazz: A History and Living With Jazz: An Appreciation[1]

"Jack Cooper is and incredible musician, composer, and arranger! When I got the call to record 'Mists: Charles Ives Music for Jazz Orchestra' CD, I knew this would be a challenging experience adapting Ives' music to Jazz. Jack's intricate arrangements incorporate his extensive studies of Ives' music along with his knowledge and history of Jazz."

~Vince Cherico, drummer/percussionist for the Grammy winning Arturo O'Farrill Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra[1][65]

"I always suspected that Charles Ives had the makings of a great jazz composer. Now Jack Cooper has shown just how jazzy Ives can get. This is a fun, exciting recording and one of the most creative big band projects of the year."

~Ted Gioia, author of The History of Jazz[1]


"In this CD Jack Cooper presents innovative, exciting arrangements of several of Ive's most popular songs for jazz orchestra. These recordings preserve the essence of classics like 'Mists,' 'The Cage,' and 'At the River' while offering a fresh, modern reinterpretation for Ives fans and jazz enthusiasts alike"

~Gayle Magee, President, Charles Ives Society, author of Charles Ives Reconsidered[1]

"Jack Coopers Charles Ives project is not only interesting but filled with great playing, great charts and great soloing. Check out this important work for large jazz ensemble!"

~Mark Taylor, Composer/Arranger, former staff arranger for the Stan Kenton Orchestra[1]

"Jazz arrangers have always searched for material with which to define their individual style and approach to writing for large ensembles. Jack Cooper has revisited one of America's iconic composers, Charles Ives, and crafted outstanding big band arrangements of Ives' music, performed with great elan by top New York jazz musicians."

-Dave Slonaker, Composer/Arranger, 2014 Grammy Nomination - Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album[1]

"...what a gorgeous CD! I love the charts and arrangements. I have always been drawn to Ives, since I was a teenager - now I think I know why. There are certain harmonic elements to Ives that lend themselves very naturally to jazz. Candidate for "record of the year" in my book!"

~Brad Stone, award winning jazz D.J. and programmer with KJSJ Jazz Radio, Producer/programmer/host, "The Creative Source"

"Jack Cooper's Mists gets my pick for big band album of the year. Adapting the work of Charles Ives to jazz orchestra, these songs are simply breathtaking."

~WDCB, 90.9 FM New Release Spotlight[66]

Charts

Year Chart Type Song/AlbumPeak Position Chart Date
2014 Roots Music Report - Jazz Albums Album Mists: Charles Ives
for Jazz Orchestra		 18 November 4, 2014[67]
Roots Music Report - Top Albums (Canada) 8 October 26, 2014[68]
JazzWeek Airplay Reporting 59 October 6, 2014[69]

Release history

Region Date Label Format
Canada[70] October 28, 2014 Planet Arts Records CD, digital download
United Kingdom[71]
Japan[72] August 22, 2014
United States[73]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Indiegogo, Mists: The Music of Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra funding campaign, June 3–27, 2014
  2. ↑ Magee, Gayle. Charles Ives Reconsidered University of Illinois Press, 2008
  3. ↑ Reich, Howard. Chicago Tribune, music column, December 3, 2014, also syndicated and was published in the Baltimore Sun, the Capital Gazette, and the Virginia Gazette
  4. ↑ Robert Voris with the Belle Canto Choir as soloist
  5. ↑ biograghy for Georgie Cooper an Discogs
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Musical Tribute: Jazz Foundation, professor honor Charles Ives with CD. Don Wade, Staff writer, The Memphis Daily News, VOL. 129, NO. 157, August 13, 2014
  7. ↑ Festival of Song LP, Robert Voris and Georgie Cooper, recorded October 26, 1963
  8. ↑ Cooper had toured as a saxophonist, woodwind specialist and staff arranger with the United States Army Jazz Knights from 1989-1995
  9. ↑ Elliott Antokoletz, University of Texas at Austin
  10. ↑ Antokoletz, Elliott. Twentieth Century Music Prentice Hall. Inglewood Cliffs N.J. 1996.
  11. ↑ WKNOFM/NPR radio, A Great American Modernist Gets Jazzed by Christopher Blank, April 21st, 2014
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Cooper, Jack T. Three Sketches for Jazz Orchestra Inspired by Charles Ives Songs. University of Texas at Austin, 1999. Thesis (D.M.A.) OCLC 44537553
  13. ↑ Alumni Biographical page (jazz), The University of Texas, Butler School of Music
  14. ↑ Magee, Gayle. Charles Ives: A Guide to Research. Psychology Press. pp 85.
  15. ↑ Burk, James Mack. A Charles Ives omnibus. Pendragon Press, 2008. pp 840.
  16. ↑ Jazz Orchestra at All Music Guide
  17. ↑ Brookmeyer visited the University of Memphis March 1–2, 2002 as a guest artist and had a long conversation with Cooper about the Mists/Ives scores
  18. ↑ Aaron Copland Fund Awards $500,000 in Recording Grants by Amanda MacBlane, May 29, 2003. $10,000 grant awarded to Planet Arts Recordings to record "Mists: The Music of Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra" in 2003
  19. ↑ Crowd-funding campaign for local jazz CD hits all right notes, Rob Robertson, Staff writer - Memphis Business Journal, July 9, 2014, 2:49pm CDT
  20. ↑ Musicians turn to crowdfunding for projects, Tennessee Jazz and Blues Society (Nashville), June 16th, 2014
  21. ↑ Performance by UNI Jazz Band One and Jack Cooper on April 10th, 2015
  22. ↑ Scott Healy composition and arranging page, Tom Sails Away Analysis, March 23, 2015
  23. ↑ Mists, Charles Ives, original version from 1910
  24. ↑ Dee Barton's composition Turtle Talk from the Grammy winning recording Adventures In Jazz is used as a reference work for the arrangement of Mists
  25. ↑ The Last Reader, Charles Ives, original version from 1921
  26. ↑ Cooper has acute Chromesthesia and does a great deal of composing and arranging through this phenomenon.
  27. ↑ The Children's Hour, Charles Ives, original version from 1902.
  28. ↑ Tom Sails Away, original version from 1917
  29. ↑ Charles Ives catalogue of works, The Charles Ives Society.
  30. ↑ The Camp-Meeting, Charles Ives, original version from 1920
  31. ↑ Watchman, Lowell Mason.
  32. ↑ Watchmen!, Charles Ives, original Ives version, 1924
  33. ↑ At The River, Charles Ives, original version, 1916
  34. ↑ The Cage, Charles Ives, original version, 1906
  35. ↑ Memphis NARAS membership celebration and listening party for new releases
  36. ↑ Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra premiered at The Cutting Room on November 12th, 2014
  37. ↑ VIMEO of "At The River" from the Mists premiere on November 12th, 2014 in New York City at the Cutting room
  38. ↑ Richens, Mark. 'Night Notes' column, The Memphis Commercial Appeal, Nov. 18th, 2014 (Jack Cooper's 'Mists' ensemble in New York)
  39. ↑ Richens, Mark. 'Night Notes' column, The Memphis Commercial Appeal, Dec. 2nd, 2014 (video of Nov. 12th CD premiere included)
  40. ↑ Reich, Howard. Chicago Tribune, jazz review, September 22, 2014, also syndicated and was published in the Baltimore Sun, the Capital Gazette, and the Virginia Gazzette
  41. ↑ Reich, Howard (syndicated). Baltimore Sun, jazz review, September 23, 2014
  42. ↑ Reich, Howard. Chicago Tribune, music column, December 3, 2014, also syndicated and was published in the Baltimore Sun, the Capital Gazzette, and the Virginia Gazzette
  43. ↑ ARCAMAX Entertainment Today section, full text of article, Reich, Howard. Chicago Tribune, music column, December 3, 2014
  44. ↑ "Listening Log: Otis Clay & Johnny Rawls, ‘Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra,' John Kilzer," Mark Richens, Commercial Appeal, October 13, 2014 review
  45. ↑ Jazz Journal, MISTS CD/jazz review, May, 2015
  46. ↑ Griffith, Frank. London Jazz News, MISTS CD/jazz review, December 30, 2014
  47. ↑ Gioia, Ted. The 100 Best Albums of 2014
  48. ↑ Roots Music Report's Top 100 Jazz Albums for 2014
  49. ↑ Yanow, Scott. LA Jazz Scene, MISTS CD/jazz review, December 2014
  50. ↑ All About Jazz, review by C. MICHAEL BAILEY, September 21, 2014, note: 5 out of 5 stars on AAJ is rare.
  51. ↑ All About Jazz, review by JACK BOWERS, September 23, 2014
  52. ↑ All About Jazz, C. MICHAEL BAILEY, December 16, 2014, note: given 5 out of 5 stars on AAJ.
  53. ↑ All About Jazz, C. MICHAEL BAILEY, December 16, 2014, note: given 5 out of 5 stars on AAJ in this review.
  54. ↑ All About Jazz, C. MICHAEL BAILEY, December 16, 2014, note: given 5 out of 5 stars on AAJ in this review.
  55. ↑ Fendel, George, Howard. Jazz Society of Oregon, CD review, November, 2014
  56. ↑ "Midwest Record Review, 09/19/14, CHRIS SPECTOR, review".
  57. ↑ Vaughn, Brent. 20th Century Classical Meets 21st Century Jazz Orchestra JazzTimes review, September 18, 2014
  58. ↑ Gregg, Dave. Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra JazzTimes review, September 12, 2014
  59. ↑ JazzLife Magazine review, December, 2014, page 98
  60. ↑ "Watchman" chosen for the BBC Radio 3 playlist, November 1st, 2014
  61. ↑ Harris, George. Jazz Weekly, MISTS CD/jazz review, January 2, 2015
  62. ↑ D. Oscar Groomes. O's Place Jazz Newsletter , MISTS CD/jazz review, February, 2015: "Mists is a collection of works by Charles Ives arranged and orchestrated by Jack Cooper and performed by the DoAM Ensemble. DoAM is the Documentation of American Music Initiative, a recording series by Planet Arts. This is a strong performance highlighted by "Tom Sails Away", "The Camp-Meeting" and "Watchman". The rhythm section is exceptional with pianist Randy Ingram, bassist Andy McKee, Vince Cherico (d) and Alex Wintz (g). They inject solos along the way with the brass to make this session sing!"
  63. ↑ Bang, Ric. JazzScan, MISTS CD/jazz review, March 10, 2015
  64. ↑ Yanow, Scott. LA Jazz Scene, CD/jazz review, December 2014
  65. ↑ Columbia University blog article on Vince Cherico and the MISTS CD
  66. ↑ WDCB.FM, New Releases Spotlight: Week of October 20, 2014, posted: October 20th, 2014
  67. ↑ "Weekly Top 50 Jazz Albums Chart!". Roots Music Report. Retrieved 2014-11-04.
  68. ↑ "Weekly Top 50 Canada Album Chart!". Roots Music Report. Retrieved 2014-10-26.
  69. ↑ "JazzWeek Radio Airplay charting".
  70. ↑ "Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra (2014)".
  71. ↑ "Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra (2014)". Amazon UK.
  72. ↑ "Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra (2014)".
  73. ↑ "Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra (2014)". Amazon.com.

External links