ROB MCCONNELL & BOSS BRASS: ATRÁS DA PORTA

ROB MCCONNELL & THE BOSS BRASS
Vou reproduzir o que escrevi quando postei o álbum dos "Singers Unlimited" com Rob McConnell: "Quase enfartei ao assistir a um concerto deles em Los Angeles. O Boss Brass produz um som inacreditável, mistura da quela sonoridade suave, sofisticada e delicada dos grupos de jazz "west coast" (me lembra muito os "Giants" do Shorty Rogers e o som do também canadense Maynard Ferguson) com ousadas "firulas" Kentonianas e delicadas sutilezas de Michel Legrand. Se analisarmos a formação da banda, notaremos que a mistura de trumpetes, flugelhorns e trompas, além da beleza da sonoridade, tem muito mais fluidez e menos estridência do que um naipe de trumpetes.
(Talvez o grande "macete", o "busilis" do Mc Connell esteja na descoberta desta sonoridade.) The Boss Brass é, certamente, uma das melhores formações instrumentais de jazz da atualidade e, ao lado da big-band de Maria Schneider, dos eternos "Airmen of Note" e da Chico O'Farril Big Band, são o que de melhor existe no planeta."

(*) NOTA: o produtor do álbum, FERNANDO GELBARD, músico e compositor argentino, radicado na Califórnia, é grande amigo do nosso querido amigo CARLOS ALBERTO VIANNA, do O QUARTETO. Os dois vivem trocando figurinhas e o Gelbard sonha em relançar os álbuns do QUARTETO nos U.S.A; só não o fez porque a gravadora fez exigências absurdas para ceder as matrizes e os direitos. É tristemente inexplicável essa atitude da gravadora que - como se diz no popular, "não f*** nem sai de cima" e nem mesmo se lembra de que o QUARTETO um dia existiu. Quando alguém se interessa pelo
material, faz exigências absurdas. Felizmente, nem tudo está perdido porque alguns blogs de altíssima qualidade ajudam a preservar a memória da grande música sepulta nos "arquivos mortos" das gravadoras.

(**) GELBARD é o autor das músicas "Flowers'(2), "Jo-jo's dance" (3) e "Didi"(7).
(CB)
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ROB MCCONNEL
Robert Murray Gordon (Rob) McConnell (born February 14, 1935, London, Ontario) is a Canadian jazz valve trombonist, composer, arranger, music educator and recording artist. Rob McConnell took up the valve trombone in high school, and began his performing career in the early 1950s, performing and studying with Don Thompson, Bobby Gimby, and later, with fellow Canadian Maynard Ferguson. In 1968 he formed The Boss Brass, a big band that would become his primary performing and recording unit through the 1970s and 1980s. In 1988, McConnell took a teaching position at
the Dick Grove School of Music in California, but gave up his position and returned to Canada a year later. In 1997 McConnell was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and in 1998 was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Since that time he has remained active, touring internationally both as a performer and educator, running clinics around the world and performing as both a leader and a guest artist. McConnell assembled the original Boss Brass from Toronto studio musicians. The instrumentation of the band was originally 16 pieces, consisting of trumpets, trombones, french horns, and a rhythm section, but no saxophones. McConnell introduced a saxophone section in 1970, and expanded the trumpet section to include a fifth trumpet in 1976, bringing the total to 22 members. Over the years, Rob McConnell & The Boss Brass became one of Canada's most popular jazz ensembles, performing live and recording for Concord Jazz and a variety of other labels. The newly formed Rob McConnell tentet has been quite successful. Mel Tormé has said, of his first recording session with the Boss Brass in 1987, "Making this record was one of the two or three greatest musical experiences in my long and checkered career."
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ALBUM COMMENTS;
About this title: Virtually every release by Rob McConnell's Boss Brass is easily recommended to fans of straight-ahead and swinging big bands. Put out by the Canadian Innovation label, this release is a bit unusual in that five of the songs are by Latin American composers, two of which were arranged Jorge Calandrelli; in addition,
the 22-piece orchestra plays "Easy to Love," "Autumn In New York," and "Bye Bye Blues." Although the material might be a bit different than usual, the band's distinctive sound is unchanged, and there is plenty of solo space for the usual top-notch players -- altoist Moe Koffman, guitarist Ed Bickert, flugelhornist Guido Basso, and Eugene Amaro on tenor. An interesting set that finds the big band showing a lot of flexibility.
(By Scott Yanow, All Music Guide)
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MINHA OPINIÃO: Apesar de NÃO SER O MELHOR album de Rob McConnell, ainda assim é estonteante, prá dizer o mínimo. A qualidade dos arranjos, dos solos e a performance da banda são excepcionais; tudo o que Rob McConnell gravou é polvilhado de ouro em pó. (Imaginem o que senti, extasiado, vendo/ouvindo essa maravilha ao vivo e de pertinho, bem ali na "fila do gargarejo" em L.A.)
(CB)
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ROB MCCONNELL & BOSS BRASS: ATRÁS DA PORTA
Label: MCA Impulse
Original # MCAD-42123
Year 1985:

THE BOSS BRASS:
Ao longo de sua trajetória a banda teve várias formações. Desafortunadamente, não consegui encontrar a lista completa dos 22 músicos presentes nesta gravação. Alguns dos solistas e arranjadores estão identificados em cada faixa. Aceito colaboração dos amigos, no sentido de completar a ficha técnica.
(CB)

TRACKS/FAIXAS:

1. EASY TO LOVE 5:13
(Cole Porter)
Soloists: Moe Koffman, Steve Wallace - Arranged by Rob McConnell
2. FLOWERS 5:22
(Fernando Gelbard)
Soloist: Jimmy Dale - Arranged by Rob McConnell
3. JO JO'S DANCE 4:57
(Fernando Gelbard)
Soloists: Rob McConnell, Ed Bickert - Arranged by Jorge Calandrelli
4. ATRAS DA PORTA 5:43
(Francis Hime)
Soloist: Guido Basso - Arranged by Jorge Calandrelli
5. AMOR ATE O FIM 8:44
(Gilberto Gil)
Soloists: Eugene Amaro, John MacLeod - Arranged by Rick Wilkins
6. AUTUMN IN NEW YORK 7:10
(Vernon Duke)
Soloist: Jerry Toth - Arranged by Rob McConnell
7. DIDI 4:55
(Fernando Gelbard)
Soloist: Moe Koffman - Arranged by Rob McConnell
8. BYE BYE BLUES 6:32
(Bennett/Lown/Grey/Hamm)
Soloists: Rob McConnell, Eugene Amaro - Arranged by Rob McConnell

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