WDR BIG BAND

JAGGED EDGES ELEGANT LINES – THE MUSIC OF AYN INSERTO

Summit Records

Ayn Inserto, conductor/composer.

It was twenty-five years ago, when Singapore-born, Boston-based composer Ayn Inserto established the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra.  The idea was to form a musical group to bring her innovative music charts alive. Ayn Inserto is celebrated as being one of the most creative composer/arranger voices in today’s modern big band music.

This is Inserto’s first new album in eight years.  It developed after she received a call from the world-renowned WDR Big Band inviting her to present an evening of her compositions, along with four newly commissioned pieces. Those four new compositions developed into a suite. Inserto named this piece of music, “Suite for Sean Jones,” her friend and fellow master musician, composer, educator and trumpeter.  It includes four parts: 1) The Artist, 2) The Educator, 3) The Husband and Father and 4) The Human Soul. She has captured this dynamic trumpeter’s warmth, eloquence, introspective nature and funny spirit in this suite of music.  During the suite, Jones brings his fiery trumpet talent and outshines the spotlight.

The famed German-based WDR Big Band opens with Inserto’s dynamic and dramatic original composition, “Eshel Sketch.”  Right away, I can hear how her music relates to the album title of “Jagged Edges, Elegant Lines.”  It’s reflected in the way she structures her music.  Her compositions and arrangements live in the tension between those two ideas: jagged edges and elegant lines.

In their very first song, her complex arrangement and abstract rhythms create tension and release, counter melodies, and energy that builds and sucks me into the moment. At the end, after the horns hotly scream, the piano of Billy Test whispers an unexpected 8-bar ending that calms the moment and surprises this listener.

This composition is followed by “La Danza Infinita,” a beautiful, rich ballad, originally recorded by the Colours Jazz Orchestra back in 2015.  The WDR Big Band brings it alive in their own lovely way.

I enjoyed the bluesy, sexy arrangement of “Vinifera” that refers to a European grape species and features Ben Fitzpatrick’s tenor saxophone solo.  Many delicious wines are made from the Vinifera grapes. This is one of my favorites on their album, where every composition strikes a chord inside my spirit.

“Mr. Jones and Company” blasts on the scene fragmented, with unexpected breaks and dissonant horn parts that still harmonize and punch. The melody dawns like a new day or a sunrise.  Inserto’s writing is always full of surprises.  The live audience shows much appreciation throughout this concert with exploding applause.

“BJ’s Tune” was arranged by Ayn Inserto but composed by Sean Jones. It is the only ‘cover’ tune on the WDR Big Band album. This Jones composition moves directly into the suite Inserto composed for Jones and was commissioned by the WDR Big Band. Her delightful suite of music may be my absolute favorite part of this album.

Perhaps Jennifer Wharton said it best in the liner notes when she wrote, “What emerges across the album is a jaggedness that is never random, and an elegance that is never fragile.”

Ayn Inserto is a young, groundbreaking composer who is emerging as a very preeminent voice of her generation.

WDR BIG BAND: Ayn Inserto, conductor/composer. RHYTHM: Billy Test, piano; Hans Dekker, drums; John Goldsby, bass. SAXOPHONES: Johan Horlen, Pascal Bartoszak, Ben Fitzpatrick, Paul Heller & Jens Neufang. TRUMPETS: Wim Both, Rob Bruynen, Andy Haderer, & Ruud Breuls. TROMBONES: Ludwig Nuss, Raphael Klemm, Tim Hepburn & Mattis Cederberg. FEATURED GUEST: Sean Jones, trumpet.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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