12" 180gr black vinyl in 3mm spine sleeve.
Composer/saxophonist Claus Waidtløw releases the big band album The Seasons on March 19th 2021, available on LP/STREAM. Waidtløw collaborates with renowned drummer Jorge Rossy, danish bassist Daniel Franck and big band Aarhus Jazz Orchestra (AJO).
As in Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Waidtløw's newly written work is inspired by the change of seasons and consists of 4 movements. Each movement relates to one season and strives to capture the mood in this particular part of the year.
Each movement features one of AJO’s strong soloists. Waidtløw, who was a member of AJO for a number of years, focuses in this way on some of the excellent soloists in the orchestra. At the same time, a thread is drawn for Vivaldi's 4 violin concerts - the 4 solo violin concerts become 4 solo concerts, for 4 different soloists.
In recent years, Claus Waidtløw has established himself as one of Denmark’s leading composers in jazz, which was confirmed at the Danish Music Award 2016, where he received the award as Danish Jazz Composer of the Year. Waidtløw is one of the most sought-after saxophonists in Denmark. He has appeared on 60+ albums and has played with a wide range of jazz stars, including Toots Thielemanns, John Scofield, Bill Stewart, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Christian McBride, Kurt Elling, Eddie Gomez, Jeff Ballard and David Kikoski.
Aarhus Jazz Orchestra has been a solid component of the big band scene in Denmark for more than 40 years, and has been pushing the boundaries of what big band music can be. Recently collaborating with the musical robot Shimon in 2019 in We, Robots, and won a prize at Danish Music Awards for the groundbreaking collaboration with big band and cutting edge tech.
The music also features drummer Jorge Rossy, one of the big names on the international jazz scene and has played regularly with i.a. Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Lee Konitz and Chick Corea.
About the work, Claus Waidtløw says:
“Many are inspired by nature and composers from the classical world have written large works around the seasons, but within the rhythmic world, to my knowledge, not many have taken this theme on a larger orchestral context."