Album Reviews

Maria Schneider Orchestra, The Thompson Fields

There is nothing more poverful than a jazz orchestra, and that a fact proven by Maria Schneider. Maria Schneider is an American composer and big-band-leader. The Thompson Fields is the newest long awaiting project that came with a big bang, thanks to the power of the orchestra and Maria’s talent. It’s clear that Maria’s heart and soul were poured in to every moment. The title refers to a farm owned by some family friends in the South-West corner of Minnesota, near where Schneider was raised herself.

The Thompson Fields starts with the tender and lovely “Walking by Flashlight”, an arrangement of a song featured on Maria’s three-time grammy winning classical album, “Winter Morning Walks”. “The Monarch and the Milkweed” was inspired by beauty of life forms on the native prairie of Minnesota, and specifically the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly and its dependence on the milkweed plant for survival. Across these eight tracks, the Maria Schneider Orchestra puts ornithological ideals into play (“Arbiters Of Evolution”), works with nebulous themes and foreboding thoughts (“Nimbus”), takes a trip into Brazilian territory (“Lembranca”). Also pays tribute to one of its own dearly departed members through  “A Potter’s Song”.

The Record Label is ArtistShare, and these are the 8 tracks that make this album complete:

1. Walking By Flashlight
2. The Monarch And The Milkweed
3. Arbiters Of Evolution
4. The Thompson Fields
5. Home
6. Nimbus
7. A Potter’s Song
8. Lembranca

Deeply moving, you will play it again and again, and hear something new and fresh on every turn. Some of the passages evoke tears.