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An Ambitious Big-Band Reworking of Seven Rosenwinkel Compositions

Kurt Rosenwinkle and OJM - Our Secret World
Kurt Rosenwinkel has always given us music that has conveyed a sense of masterful story- telling & breathtaking imaginative reach. His significance to the ever-evolving jazz tradition in fact transcends the oft-cited lineage of jazz guitar in much the same way that Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter both impacted colleagues much beyond the scope of their respective instruments. For what has perhaps distinguished Kurt more than anything is his one-of-a-kind compositional voice – full of mystery and power, marked by an effortless marriage of high complexity and simple, undeniable emotional appeal. These qualities, hallmarks of Kurt’s output from the beginning, are apparent perhaps as never before on a new big band release, Kurt Rosenwinkel & OJM: Our Secret World.
In recent years, Rosenwinkel has had several opportunities to play his music with a number of different big bands, from a Nonet at the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland to the famous Concertgebouw Orchestra in The Netherlands, and he grew tantalized by the expanded textures that a large ensemble could offer his far-reaching compositions. Then in 2007 Rosenwinkel got a call from the Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos (OJM), a Portugal-based big band with an impressive track record of collaborative projects, ranging from Portology with Lee Konitz and Ohad Talmor, over Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos Invites Chris Cheek, featuring the acclaimed American saxophonist, to performances with Maria Rita – the highly successful and critically acclaimed daughter of Elis Regina. Continue reading