Earthworks Underground Orchestra

Album review

This well-rendered, joyfully rocking, jazzy and coolly swinging -- not to mention crazy and from the outer limits -- live date (recorded at N.Y.C.'s Iridium Jazz Club in 2004) serves as a celebration of the marriage of both idioms, as well as a 20th anniversary party for the legendary Yes and King Crimson drummer's famed Earthworks band. The expanded orchestra concept began as a joint-force venture between the Earthworks repertoire and woodwind player Tim Garland's London-based, nine-piece Underground Orchestra. With Garland taking on the formidable arrangement duties, the material -- a cross-section of classic and new Earthworks pieces -- is infused with fresh energy and remarkable depth. The set launches with the fluttering jam "Libreville," which swirls staccato flute and trumpet runs (by Steve Wilson and Alex Siplagin, respectively) over jazzy piano and odd-metered, calypso-based bass and percussion. "Pigalle" is likewise a seductive, jump-for-joy free for all, while "Speaking in Wooden Tongues" goes through various phases of fusion, world music, and avant-garde, all the while allowing for extensive jazz improvisations (particularly by Wilson). Some tracks like the ballad "It Needn't End in Tears" are easier for listeners who prefer understandable melodies, but artsier-minded fans might enjoy stumbling through the chaos of the final track, "The Wooden Man Sings, and the Stone Woman Dances," to get to the more structured sections.

© Jonathan Widran /TiVo