Maria Schneider helps shape a new musical landscape for major jazz bands

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When Marie-Schneider traveling to perform his music with jazz ensembles around the world, she always sends the musician’s charts weeks in advance, as she did for her concert date with the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra next week.

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“I send them forward because if the musicians don’t go over the logistical stuff and the notes and everything, you can’t access all the elements that make the music transcend. It’s not just the written notes. Many of my pieces evoke experiences like hang gliding, almost like stories.

In a nutshell, this is what strikes in the sounds of Schneider. Like all great art, his works transcend the mundaneities of life even as they celebrate the simple touchstones of everyday experience.

This passionate New Yorker had no intention of changing the landscape of contemporary jazz. She was just writing what she knew.

“I never tried to wear another hat to become something. Even when my music has touches of Brazil or flamenco influences, it comes from loving and listening to this music for so long that it started seeping into my writing by osmosis.

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Nowhere is this better exemplified than on the Maria Schneider Orchestra’s latest release, The Thompson Fields (2015), a brilliant canvas inspired by the American heartland and the pastoral Minnesota setting in which she grew up.

“It’s about what you grow up with. I was in Minnesota listening to (Aaron) Copeland and I had a Stride piano teacher. I listened to classical and my parents had a lot of music from the world, so it was a wide palette. When I started writing for a big band, I didn’t have that historical responsibility that a lot of jazz musicians have. I come from a small town and a landscape open and my music reflects that. There are elements of swing here and there, but that’s not the basis of my music.

Since founding her orchestra more than 25 years ago, Schneider has redefined what a jazz big band could be, delivering a rare vision of sound colors, melodic imagery and sonic space that is brilliant, beautiful, graceful and expansive, rising beyond jazz itself.

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“The evolution of the group has been an almost glacially slow improvisation; I released my music and the musicians come back with a way of playing and phrasing, of soloing, of decorating and of developing which slowly influences me. If I had 18 different musicians, I would write different music because we influence each other. Many of them have been in the band for a long time, but some changes have been good for me too, as they pushed me in a new direction.

Schneider’s artistic trajectory was already marked by greatness before his recordings won five Grammy Awards. After college, she began as a copyist, before being mentored by two jazz giants for large ensembles, Gil (Sketches of Spain) Evans and Bob Brookmeyer.

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“One of the biggest lessons I learned was, ‘Write what you know,’ because they were both so unique and I realized, ‘I have to find my own voice.’ To do that, it’s not something you decide, but you have a band and it emerges. They inspired me to find my own path. Bob inspired me to write long-form music, like a travel or DNA structure.With Gil, it was more technical, about transparency, space, nuance and expression, delicate things and beauty.

In turn, she nurtured the careers of rising stars such as Donny McCaslin and Ingrid Jensen in her band. When funds can’t fund sending her band, Schneider flies to organize her tunes with ensembles around the world (nearly 90 ensembles in 30 countries), as she will do here next Wednesday.

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She looks forward to working with the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra.

“It’s fun to work with a new group. You meet new creative vocals and a new rhythm section and everything takes a different direction. It’s always unique to me, so I really enjoy doing it.

Notable collaborations in recent years allude to his versatility and the respect Schneider enjoys in disparate musical worlds. Working with David Bowie on the extended single Sue (Or in a Season of Crime) in 2016 took the late rocker’s songforms as far as they’ve ever gone. The session also introduced Bowie to his latest bandleader, saxophonist McCaslin.

Schneider admits that not all Bowie fans were ready for such an abstract song.

“David said when our collab came out, ‘I really expected 50% of people to hate it, 25% to like it, and 25% to accept it because it’s Bowie.’ But in the end the response he got was that about 50% loved it and only 25% hated it. He was happy with that. I think his last album Blackstar was absolutely spectacular, one of finest things he has done.

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A more recent sequel created for classical singer Dawn Upshaw titled Winter Morning Walks confounded notions of a contemporary art song, winning three Grammys on its own.

Since Schneider’s orchestra began overturning traditional notions of large jazz ensembles with its debut album Evanescence in 1994, seven gripping performances have captured the attention of critics and fans alike. This writer’s experience with the OSM at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2009 was a highlight of this event.

Coping with the changing winds of the music industry and new digital music distribution systems has made Schneider a fierce fighter for public awareness and “artist’s share” – the name of the music cooperative. artists who publish their recordings.

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She testified before Congress, appeared on CNN and was preparing for a panel discussion on issues such as property rights on the day of our conversation. By questioning how music is accessed on YouTube, Spotify and other services, she addresses a broader question of corporate control.

“Just like the tobacco companies, these companies have studied what is addictive because they want you on their site so they can collect data on people. That’s where the money and the power. That’s the point. What you’re giving up for this is all your private information. Unfortunately, record companies have dragged musicians into this because they’ve partnered with Big Data.

She says she’s “beginning to have hope”.

“Most people don’t seem to care, but I think they’re starting to wake up to shows like Black Mirror. People are fed up with certain aspects of Facebook, and the last (US) election was a wake-up call about how we are being influenced by algorithms on the internet.Cracks are starting to show in this shiny veneer and even young people are starting to rebel against it.

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Besides the beauty of her music, it all inspired Schneider to write a piece called Data Lords, and she says her next recording will be “a bit dark”, admitting, “The influence of David Bowie can’t be ignored in that. .” His biggest concern is finding the time to write and to accommodate the demands of concerts and clinics.

“I’m more of a person who sits and feels what comes. When I get to something that I really like, I find myself almost daydreaming like the music is almost film music. Sometimes it’s funny that I’m a musician, because I’m a more visual person and I translate that a lot into music.

Overview

Marie-Schneider

With the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra

Or: Triffo Theater, MacEwan University (11110 104 Ave., in Allard Hall)

When: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday January 31

Tickets: $35, $25 for students, on yeglive.ca or at the door