Michael Leonhart Orchestra at Jazz Standard

Jazz Standard welcomes the electrifying Michael Leonhart Orchestra (MLO) back to our bandstand for another evening of genrecrossing bigband modernism. In 2019, the MLO released its second album, Suite Extracts Vol. 1 (Sunnyside), featuring widely disparate compositions (including songs by Fela Kuti, Howlin Wolf and Ornette Coleman) curated into suites that formed anarchic yet coherent thoughts on many of the leaders chief musical passions. Suite Extracts Vol. 1 featured notable guests Chris Potter, Nels Cline, Donny McCaslin, John Ellis, Erik Friedlander and many others in the context of a vibrant and unclassifiable 20piece ensemble...

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Jazz Standard welcomes the electrifying Michael Leonhart Orchestra (MLO) back to our bandstand for another evening of genrecrossing bigband modernism. In 2019, the MLO released its second album, Suite Extracts Vol. 1 (Sunnyside), featuring widely disparate compositions (including songs by Fela Kuti, Howlin Wolf and Ornette Coleman) curated into suites that formed anarchic yet coherent thoughts on many of the leaders chief musical passions. Suite Extracts Vol. 1 featured notable guests Chris Potter, Nels Cline, Donny McCaslin, John Ellis, Erik Friedlander and many others in the context of a vibrant and unclassifiable 20piece ensemble. Theres a certain abandon and freedom in all the material, says Michael Leonhart of his latest release. A lot of it has a backbeat, which the first album really didnt. This album is more muscular in many ways. It reflects what were doing live: less of the pastoral, transcendent mood pieces, the sonic baths, and more of the groove interaction.

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