NEW YORK TIMES: From a Composer’s Resurgence, a Masterpiece Rises
NEW YORK TIMES: From a Composer’s Resurgence, a Masterpiece Rises
BY ZACHARY WOOLFE
“All these are stimulating, but there’s a uniquely complex freshness to the Wild Up recording, on New Amsterdam. It opens with more exuberant energy than the other versions. Beefy saxophones and horns add richness, and with denser percussion, the overall effect is of a jungle or aviary, a swirling bustle — but in a dewy, pastoral key. With more expansive opportunities for solos than usual, there are wailing-sax connections to the free-jazz tradition, and Eastman’s stirring late piano quotation of the hymn melody ‘Slane’ evokes Ives. After solemn, almost medieval harmonies, the ending is a glittering ice storm of bells.”