Meeting of Minds Archive

Bob Mintzer Big Band, New York Voices – Meeting Of Minds – MCG JAZZ 

by Audiophile Audition | Jul 2, 2018 | Jazz CD Reviews

A session that is continuously changing through richness and structure Bob Mintzer Big Band, New York Voices – Meeting Of Minds – MCG JAZZ MCGJ1045 61:03****: (Bob Mintzer Big Band – Bob Mintzer – leader, tenor saxophone, flute; New York Voices – Kim Nazarian; Lauren Kinhan; Darmon Meader; Peter Eldridge) Meeting Of Minds is a re-imagining of some of the more notable compositions of the Great American Songbook of the 1930s and 1940s through the lens of the cracking big band of Bob Mintzer combined with the slick harmonization of the New York Voices. The result is an album filled with memorable and stylishly shaped music. It is no small feat combining the intricate four-part harmony of the NYV as envisioned by Damon Meader, with the multi-layered charts of the big band  mostly created by Bob Mintzer. But as the opening instrumental bars of “Autumn Leaves” gradually gives way to the integration of the NYV, it is clear that something special was underway. Cole Porter wrote many compositions associated with this era such as “I Concentrate On You” which he penned for the film Broadway Melody Of 1940. With a slight Latin lilt, the number begins with lead vocalist Peter […]