Addo Archive

Kirk MacDonald Jazz Orchestra – Common Ground – Addo

by Audiophile Audition | Apr 1, 2017 | Jazz CD Reviews

Kirk MacDonald Jazz Orchestra – Common Ground [TrackList follows]  – Addo AJR032 (2 CDs), 91:04 ****: This is a band that has an expressive command of some very challenging material. It doesn’t seem to be all that long ago, although perhaps it was, there were a number of significant jazz orchestras in Canada including Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, Dave McMurdo’s Jazz Orchestra both in Toronto, Vic Vogel’s Le Jazz Big Band in Montreal and Tommy Banks Big Band in Edmonton. With changing times, fashion, and economics it is a challenge to maintain a jazz orchestra on a consistent basis. Kudos go to Kirk MacDonald for keeping this formation together for their third recording Common Ground. All of the compositions on this release were written by Kirk MacDonald with arrangements by trumpeter Joe Sullivan. Although Sullivan was born in Ontario, he has worked and lived for the better part of his career in Montréal. He is currently an Associate Professor at McGill University where he directs the University’s Jazz  Orchestra as well as playing in his own sextet ad big band. Sullivan’s arrangements of MacDonald’s compositions are lengthy affairs in the manner of tone poems, with multilayered harmonics and […]