Description
Featuring eight previously unreleased DVD live video tracks from Indianapolis and The New York Jazz Festival. This beautifully recorded and designed DVD is a must for your Jazz Music Collection.
Jazz fans of Chicago can continue to see and hear the dynamic sounds of the nationally renowned Chicago Jazz Project of Sopro Records Recording Artist's, 'Bill McFarland & The Chicago Horns'. The new DVD "Fire Horns Totally Live" features the prolific and dynamic big brass sounds of The Chicago Horns featuring band leader and producer Bill McFarland on Trombone, Hank Ford on Saxophone and Kenny Anderson on Trumpet.
Sopro Records is proud to announce the DVD release of "Fire Horns Totally Live" by 'Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns'. The long awaited jazz music DVD by 'The Chicago Horns' will surely reach down deep into the hearts and souls of jazz enthusiasts everywhere with a style unique to 'The Chicago Horns'. Trombonist Bill McFarland, Saxophonist Hank Ford and Trumpeter Kenny Anderson are making their move to become the number one horn section in America.
'The Chicago Horns' have recently garnished the respect of the critically acclaimed Chicago Tribune Arts Critic, Howard Reich along with accolades from numerous jazz radio DJ's in the greater Chicago area. During their show at the Chicago Jazz Festival 'The Chicago Horns' received a standing ovation for their performance of their single, "Harold The Great" which is their tribute of music to the late, great mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington.
They take a hot approach to jazz with blues, pop and salsa flavors in the mix. So who in blazes puts out a DVD called "Fire Horns Totally Live" and manages to deliver the heat promised in the title? 'Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns', that's who.
The three horn players' long experience in blues, pop and salsa styles has made the band's approach to jazz straightforward, catchy and as blustery as a March stroll in the Windy City.
The tunes tend to be built on riffs and phrases that are easy to grasp right away. For anyone new to jazz, this is an ingratiating DVD. The groove laid down is one that immediately engages the listener. And then there's "Mild Wind", named with eerie accuracy: The tune starts out like a soulful swinger, becoming becalmed soon after. As if to offer further song-title comment on what this band's all about, there's "Mood Swings". This is a consistent number, despite its suggestion of ambivalence, which has an almost pop-like appeal without explicit pop referents. With its suave bravado, Kenny Anderson's muted trumpet solo is just right in this context.
It's on the tune "Fire Horns" that the band gives freest vent to its powerhouse credentials. With hard-hitting but never mindless solos from the three horns, this is the kind of tune that probably provides a dependable romping vehicle for 'The Chicago Horns' every time out.
The trio, McFarland, Ford and Anderson, virtually grew up together musically. Trumpeter Kenny Anderson is well known as one of the leading salsa performers on the Chicago music scene. Hank Ford on sax, has played with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield, and Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Ladies" stage shows. And Bill McFarland, the band's leader on trombone, has played on Albert Collins' "Frostbite" album and albums with Fenton Robinson and Lonnie Brooks. He's played live with Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Otis Clay to name a few. They are absolutely one of the jazz world's leading sextets. The arrangements are clean, yet very gutsy. It has the big bold sound that DVD's like this need to become jazz collectibles. Hats off to Sopro Records and 'Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns'
It's a wonder the fixtures are still attached to the ceiling at the Green Mill Jazz Club though 'Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns' made their debut at the club, they played as if they owned the joint. And it wasn't just the group's penchant for fortissimo blasts of sound that gave their performance its air of authority.
This band's taut rhythms, its front line's muscular quality and its rhythm section's aggressiveness made 'The Chicago Horns' sound more like a small jazz symphony than the hard-hitting sextet it is.
Though the band has been playing around Chicago for the past couple of years, its front line dates back much further, with trombonist McFarland, tenor saxophonist Hank Ford and trumpeter Kenny Anderson having virtually grown up together musically.
The years they've spent in one another's company have paid off. When these three horns are playing unison lines, the force of their sound is matched only by their finesse: They phrase, shade and taper lines almost as if a single player were at work.
The most jolting performance on the DVD is a number that has emerged as the band's signature piece: "Harold The Great," a McFarland original. "Harold" refers to the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, to whom the piece is dedicated.
But this work is much more than a pious homage to a fallen hero. Rather, its volatile rhythms and raging energy recall the fire and fury that made, Washington unique as an orator and leader. More important, in the work's reliance on African horn calls and on themes more reminiscent of African chant than Western melody, the composition effectively links Washington to black leaders of African antiquity.
To hear McFarland improvising vigorously on trombone while Ford's tenor and Anderson's trumpet blared forth with glorious horn calls was to understand the communicative power of this band and this composition. The exultant melody lines, wide-open textures, peak volumes and unrepentant rhythmic drive inspire generous ovations.
The incendiary first track alone makes this recording required listening. Written by Chicagoan Bill McFarland, "Harold The Great" has become an anthem for 'The Chicago Horns' and a popular repertory piece among a variety of Chicago bands. With its incantatory backbeats, anthem-like main theme and combustive brass variations, the piece epitomizes everything that is thrilling about 'McFarland's Chicago Horns'.
Add to that the jubilant harmonies and Latin cross-rhythms of "Mardi Gras" and the heaven-storming brass lines in the title track and you have one of the most viscerally exciting Chicago jazz bands to come along in years.
You almost can't go wrong with a lineup like Bill McFarland's: a potent, hard-driving outfit that matches his throaty trombone with a beef-stew saxophonist, in this case Hank Ford or a fluent, octave-stretching trumpet ace named Kenny Anderson. This kind of three-horn sextet first appeared in the 1940's, as a bebop miniaturization of the big bands that had dominated the swing era. It disappeared for most of the next decade - in part because of the paucity of trombonists able to handle the technical demands of both - but it reached it's zenith when Art Blakely expanded his Jazz Messengers to a three-horn line in the 1960's. The Messengers offer an obvious model for McFarland's band. But so does the music of the Jazz Crusaders (and not just on those tunes where electronic keyboards replace the standard piano). Several of the songs on 'The Chicago Horns' DVD, "Fire Horns Totally Live" (Sopro Records), show the lighter swing, the comparatively relaxed melodies and the pop-soul song structure that made the Crusaders one of the most popular jazz bands of the late 1960's. Both the Messengers and the Crusaders always featured strong piano personalities, and in this respect McFarland again brags on his roots: you needn't go any further than the album's opening track, the McFarland composition (and Chicago's deceased-mayoral dedication) "Harold The Great," which depends on the crisp and imaginative piano fills by Osamu Sam Soda as much as it does on the three horns. Soda leads a sparkling rhythm section, with bassist Mike Staron and drummer Tim Davis, who dances the tightrope between timekeeping and pure energy on the tracks recorded in Indianapolis.
What this is....is real jazz....the kind of real breathing and living Chicago-style jazz that used to dominate the Windy City scene in decades past. What this is not, is the so called smooth jazz you tend to hear in shopping centers, doctor's offices and lame radio stations.
Jazz fans of Chicago can continue to see and hear the dynamic sounds of the nationally renowned Chicago Jazz Project of Sopro Records Recording Artist's, 'Bill McFarland & The Chicago Horns'. The new DVD "Fire Horns Totally Live" features the prolific and dynamic big brass sounds of The Chicago Horns featuring band leader and producer Bill McFarland on Trombone, Hank Ford on Saxophone and Kenny Anderson on Trumpet.
Sopro Records is proud to announce the DVD release of "Fire Horns Totally Live" by 'Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns'. The long awaited jazz music DVD by 'The Chicago Horns' will surely reach down deep into the hearts and souls of jazz enthusiasts everywhere with a style unique to 'The Chicago Horns'. Trombonist Bill McFarland, Saxophonist Hank Ford and Trumpeter Kenny Anderson are making their move to become the number one horn section in America.
'The Chicago Horns' have recently garnished the respect of the critically acclaimed Chicago Tribune Arts Critic, Howard Reich along with accolades from numerous jazz radio DJ's in the greater Chicago area. During their show at the Chicago Jazz Festival 'The Chicago Horns' received a standing ovation for their performance of their single, "Harold The Great" which is their tribute of music to the late, great mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington.
They take a hot approach to jazz with blues, pop and salsa flavors in the mix. So who in blazes puts out a DVD called "Fire Horns Totally Live" and manages to deliver the heat promised in the title? 'Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns', that's who.
The three horn players' long experience in blues, pop and salsa styles has made the band's approach to jazz straightforward, catchy and as blustery as a March stroll in the Windy City.
The tunes tend to be built on riffs and phrases that are easy to grasp right away. For anyone new to jazz, this is an ingratiating DVD. The groove laid down is one that immediately engages the listener. And then there's "Mild Wind", named with eerie accuracy: The tune starts out like a soulful swinger, becoming becalmed soon after. As if to offer further song-title comment on what this band's all about, there's "Mood Swings". This is a consistent number, despite its suggestion of ambivalence, which has an almost pop-like appeal without explicit pop referents. With its suave bravado, Kenny Anderson's muted trumpet solo is just right in this context.
It's on the tune "Fire Horns" that the band gives freest vent to its powerhouse credentials. With hard-hitting but never mindless solos from the three horns, this is the kind of tune that probably provides a dependable romping vehicle for 'The Chicago Horns' every time out.
The trio, McFarland, Ford and Anderson, virtually grew up together musically. Trumpeter Kenny Anderson is well known as one of the leading salsa performers on the Chicago music scene. Hank Ford on sax, has played with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield, and Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Ladies" stage shows. And Bill McFarland, the band's leader on trombone, has played on Albert Collins' "Frostbite" album and albums with Fenton Robinson and Lonnie Brooks. He's played live with Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Otis Clay to name a few. They are absolutely one of the jazz world's leading sextets. The arrangements are clean, yet very gutsy. It has the big bold sound that DVD's like this need to become jazz collectibles. Hats off to Sopro Records and 'Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns'
It's a wonder the fixtures are still attached to the ceiling at the Green Mill Jazz Club though 'Bill McFarland and The Chicago Horns' made their debut at the club, they played as if they owned the joint. And it wasn't just the group's penchant for fortissimo blasts of sound that gave their performance its air of authority.
This band's taut rhythms, its front line's muscular quality and its rhythm section's aggressiveness made 'The Chicago Horns' sound more like a small jazz symphony than the hard-hitting sextet it is.
Though the band has been playing around Chicago for the past couple of years, its front line dates back much further, with trombonist McFarland, tenor saxophonist Hank Ford and trumpeter Kenny Anderson having virtually grown up together musically.
The years they've spent in one another's company have paid off. When these three horns are playing unison lines, the force of their sound is matched only by their finesse: They phrase, shade and taper lines almost as if a single player were at work.
The most jolting performance on the DVD is a number that has emerged as the band's signature piece: "Harold The Great," a McFarland original. "Harold" refers to the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, to whom the piece is dedicated.
But this work is much more than a pious homage to a fallen hero. Rather, its volatile rhythms and raging energy recall the fire and fury that made, Washington unique as an orator and leader. More important, in the work's reliance on African horn calls and on themes more reminiscent of African chant than Western melody, the composition effectively links Washington to black leaders of African antiquity.
To hear McFarland improvising vigorously on trombone while Ford's tenor and Anderson's trumpet blared forth with glorious horn calls was to understand the communicative power of this band and this composition. The exultant melody lines, wide-open textures, peak volumes and unrepentant rhythmic drive inspire generous ovations.
The incendiary first track alone makes this recording required listening. Written by Chicagoan Bill McFarland, "Harold The Great" has become an anthem for 'The Chicago Horns' and a popular repertory piece among a variety of Chicago bands. With its incantatory backbeats, anthem-like main theme and combustive brass variations, the piece epitomizes everything that is thrilling about 'McFarland's Chicago Horns'.
Add to that the jubilant harmonies and Latin cross-rhythms of "Mardi Gras" and the heaven-storming brass lines in the title track and you have one of the most viscerally exciting Chicago jazz bands to come along in years.
You almost can't go wrong with a lineup like Bill McFarland's: a potent, hard-driving outfit that matches his throaty trombone with a beef-stew saxophonist, in this case Hank Ford or a fluent, octave-stretching trumpet ace named Kenny Anderson. This kind of three-horn sextet first appeared in the 1940's, as a bebop miniaturization of the big bands that had dominated the swing era. It disappeared for most of the next decade - in part because of the paucity of trombonists able to handle the technical demands of both - but it reached it's zenith when Art Blakely expanded his Jazz Messengers to a three-horn line in the 1960's. The Messengers offer an obvious model for McFarland's band. But so does the music of the Jazz Crusaders (and not just on those tunes where electronic keyboards replace the standard piano). Several of the songs on 'The Chicago Horns' DVD, "Fire Horns Totally Live" (Sopro Records), show the lighter swing, the comparatively relaxed melodies and the pop-soul song structure that made the Crusaders one of the most popular jazz bands of the late 1960's. Both the Messengers and the Crusaders always featured strong piano personalities, and in this respect McFarland again brags on his roots: you needn't go any further than the album's opening track, the McFarland composition (and Chicago's deceased-mayoral dedication) "Harold The Great," which depends on the crisp and imaginative piano fills by Osamu Sam Soda as much as it does on the three horns. Soda leads a sparkling rhythm section, with bassist Mike Staron and drummer Tim Davis, who dances the tightrope between timekeeping and pure energy on the tracks recorded in Indianapolis.
What this is....is real jazz....the kind of real breathing and living Chicago-style jazz that used to dominate the Windy City scene in decades past. What this is not, is the so called smooth jazz you tend to hear in shopping centers, doctor's offices and lame radio stations.