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do something different
contemporary summer 08
Maria
Schneider
+ Portico Quartet
Wed 9 Jul 7.30pm
www.barbican.org.uk/contemporary
Free programme

Maria
Schneider
+ Portico Quartet
Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra:
Maria Schneider composer/conductor
Steve Wilson, Charles Pillow,
Rich Perry, Rick Margitza,
Scott Robinson reeds
Greg Gisbert, Jon Owens,
Laurie Frink, Ingrid Jensen trumpets
Keith O’Quinn, Ryan Keberle,
Marshall Gilkes, George Flynn
trombones
Toninho Ferragutti accordion
Carle Vickers trumpet & saxophone
Daniel Hofmann saxophones
Jonathan Bradley trumpet
Guitar Jack Wargo lead guitar
Rudy Copeland Hammond B3
Keith Ladinsky keys
Stoney Dixon bass
Mandale McGee drums
Portico Quartet:
Jack Wyllie soprano/alto saxophone
Duncan Bellamy hang/percussion
Milo Fitzpatrick double bass
Nick Mulvey hang/percussion
The glorious musical achievements of the
great improvisers from Louis Armstrong and
Sidney Bechet onward have tended to
obscure the fact that jazz has always been,
to some extent, an arranged music –
notably in the work of Jelly Roll Morton and
soon after in the work of Ellington, Don
Redman, Basie et al. Even the bebop
revolution of the 1940s was quickly codified
by a new generation of arrangers such as
Gil Fuller, George Russell, John Lewis and
Gerry Mulligan.
Maria Schneider © Dani Gurgel
Subsequently the continued research into
the holy grail of combining arranging and
improvisation undertaken by Ellington, Billy
Strayhorn, Gil Evans, Charles Mingus and
others produced some of the high points of
1950s and 1960s jazz – by which time the
use of the recording studio had widened the
scope of arranging, as producers became
sound architects in the broadest sense. This
was the key role that Teo Macero played in
giving shape and focus to the music of Miles
Davis in his Columbia years.
Now, when jazz improvisers seem to have
few new worlds left to conquer, it is
arrangers, composers and producers who
are creating some of the most interesting
new music as jazz enters its second century.
The Maria Schneider Orchestra is in the
vanguard of this shift.
If poetry is, as Wordsworth put it, emotion
recollected in tranquillity, then perhaps jazz
arranging is something to do with

Orchestra is simply one of the most
interesting gigs on the planet. The
remarkable soloists who have blossomed in
the contexts created by Schneider include
Ingrid Jensen (trumpet and flugelhorn), Rich
Perry and Donny McCaslin (tenor
saxophone) and Scott Robinson and Steve
Wilson on various reeds.
One of Schneider’s many UK fans is
composer, arranger and trumpeter Guy
Barker. ‘You can’t really label it, it’s pure
music that she creates,’ suggests Barker. ‘The
fact she has a line-up that resembles a big
band is almost incidental - the music that
pours out is incredibly well-constructed and
composed, and doesn’t follow the form of a
normal big band – it’s more symphonic.’
Maria Schneider © Jimmy & Dena Katz
improvisation recaptured in tranquillity.
Except that in the New York jazz world there
is precious little tranquillity to go round, and
holding a large band together and
composing for it can be a Sysiphean struggle.
It’s an achievement normally associated
with larger-than-life figures with more than a
tendency towards authoritarianism.
Schneider comes from a more easy-going
tradition of bandleading – from Ellington
via her mentor Gil Evans – and in her live
performances her complete focus on the
musicians is eagle-eyed but sympathetic, as
if she is determined to draw out every ounce
of their own creativity. The subtle, delicate and
integrated sound the orchestra makes under
her direction is one of the most exhilarating
achievements in contemporary music.
It’s a musical and managerial achievement
that has many journalists reaching for clichés
like ‘feminine wiles’ - but is probably more
to do with the fact that the Maria Schneider
‘Her music becomes ingrained in all the
musicians who play it, and they carry the
responsibility of getting her musical message
across. And, without exception, they do it
brilliantly.’
Born in Minnesota in the US Mid-West,
Schneider arrived in New York City in 1985
after studying at the University of
Minnesota, the University of Miami and the
Eastman School of Music (where she won
the Down Beat student award for
composition in 1984). She immediately
sought out trombonist and arranger Bob
Brookmeyer to study composition, and at
the same time became an assistant to Gil
Evans, working on various projects with him.
The Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra came
into being in 1993, when Schneider took the
risk of paying 17 musicians to turn up on a
Monday night at the Greenwich Village club
Visiones. In the fine New York tradition, this
group became one of the resident big
bands to watch and provided Schneider
with the canvas on which to paint her music.

track Cerulean Skies and was
named ‘Jazz Album of the Year’
from New York’s Village Voice, as
well as many other critics’ awards
around the world. It was also one
of just two albums to receive a
five-star review from Downbeat in
2007.
Portico Quartet
Their residency lasted five years.
Since then, the orchestra has performed at
festivals and concert halls across Europe as
well as in Brazil and Macau. Her commissions
include: El Viento for the Carnegie Hall Jazz
Orchestra; Bulería, Soleá y Rumba for Jazz
at Lincoln Center; Aires de Lando for the Los
Angeles Philharmonic Association and
Cerulean Skies for Peter Sellars’ New
Crowned Hope Festival.
Schneider has had a distinguished recording
career as well. Her debut recording
Evanescence was nominated for two 1995
Grammy Awards; her second and third
recordings Coming About and Allégresse
were also nominated for Grammys. With
Concert in the Garden, released only through
her website (through the artist-owned
ArtistShare label), she finally won a Grammy,
the 2005 Award for ‘Best Large Ensemble
Album’ – becoming the first Grammy-winning
recording artists with internet-only sales.
Her newest fan-funded ArtistShare
recording, Sky Blue, released in July 2007,
has also gathered an impressive collection
of awards and nominations. It won a ‘Best
Instrumental Composition’ Grammy for the
Portico Quartet
This fresh-sounding quartet has
married the traditions of Philip
Glass and Steve Reich with
contemporary jazz, and
introduced a new sound – the ‘hang’, a
mellow-sounding hand drum with seven to
nine notes which carries many of the
group’s melodies. The Portico Quartet’s
debut, Knee Deep In The North Sea, was
Time Out’s number one Jazz, Folk & World
album of 2007.
‘Portico's hooks are undeniably attractive -
partly through the band's seductive melodic
instinct, and partly through the warm and
liquid sound of the Hang percussion’ –
The Guardian
© Alex Webb 2008
Produced by the Barbican in association
with Serious
Barbican Jazz
There will be an interval in tonight’s concert.
Smoking is not permitted anywhere on the
Barbican premises. No cameras, tape recorders
or any other recording equipment may be taken
into the hall.
100%
This programme is printed on
100% recycled materials.
The Barbican is provided by the City of
London Corporation as part of its contribution
to the cultural life of London and the nation.

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