{"id":8447,"date":"2017-06-30T17:42:45","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T00:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=8447"},"modified":"2017-07-02T15:24:45","modified_gmt":"2017-07-02T22:24:45","slug":"recent-listening-broadbents-developing-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2017\/06\/recent-listening-broadbents-developing-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: Broadbent’s Developing Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alan Broadbent<\/strong>, Developing Story<\/em><\/a> (Eden River Records)<\/p>\n

\"\"Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s title composition is in concerto form, although it is not described as a concerto. His piece combines jazz and classical sensibilities in a flow that evolves with logic rarely achieved when genres are blended. Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s booklet notes identify the orchestral beginning as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153forte introduction.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Robustly, it lives up to the promise of strength before a flute, then an oboe, quietly state a five-note theme and Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s piano begins telling the story promised by the title.<\/p>\n

The other members of his trio, bassist Harvie S and drummer Peter Erskine, join him as the London Metropolitan Orchestra unfolds the beauty of his orchestration. The second movement is an elegant waltz dedicated to the composer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wife, Alison. Its swelling strings and woodwinds, the clarity and brilliance of LMO trumpeter John Barclay and Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relaxed piano improvisations create calm that for the moment eclipses the memory of that forte<\/em> beginning. The energetic third movement incorporates an incisive Erskine drum solo highlighted by cymbal splashes as dramatic as the trumpet and horn exclamations leading to the collaboration of Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s piano and orchestration before the piece subsides.<\/p>\n

The remainder of this generous album presents Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playing and arranging\"\" of six classic compositions from the bebop era forward, beginning with the 1946 Tadd Dameron ballad \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If You Could See Me Now.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The arrangement has resourceful uses of flutes and horns, a few seconds of delicious piano counterpoint and a lovely bass statement from Harvie S over the closing chords. French horns and tympani announce John Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Naima\u00e2\u20ac\u009d before Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arpeggiated solo piano statement of the melody. The arrangement has a trumpet fanfare, a section of fanciful dancing woodwinds and\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfollowing a peaceful interlude\u00e2\u20ac\u201done massive orchestral chord leaving no doubt that the piece has ended. Broadbent gives Miles Davis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue In Green\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a full orchestration accompanying his piano, a section of unaccompanied solo piano and the quietest imaginable conclusion.<\/p>\n

Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lady In the Lake\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is one of the compositions he wrote for Charlie Haden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Quartet West during the period when they explored film noir themes. His piano solo incorporates a bit of tremolo, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another peaceful ending. His treatment of Davis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Milestones\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has enormous energy, with emphatic passages by the orchestra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trumpets and later, by flutes, strings and low instruments. Broadbent develops in the piece a rhapsodic character that Davis may not have known lay hidden in it. In his notes, Broadbent points out that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Children Of Lima\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is essentially as recorded when he wrote it as a member of Woody Herman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s band and they made it part of an album with Herman and the Houston Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n

Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work here discloses cogency, connections and satisfactions that deepen with repeated hearings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alan Broadbent, Developing Story (Eden River Records) Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s title composition is in concerto form, although it is not described as a concerto. His piece combines jazz and classical sensibilities in a flow that evolves with logic rarely achieved when genres are blended. Broadbent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s booklet notes identify the orchestral beginning as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153forte introduction.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Robustly, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}