Rod Levitt - Dynamic Sound Patterns of the Rod Levitt Orchestra

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Music reviews of Dynamic Sound Patterns of the Rod Levitt Orchestra

Music Review: wonderful music, sadly unknown
Rating: 5 Stars

Taking Ellington as his starting point, Levitt composed melodic, harmonically advanced and downright fun (and often funny) music and got seven of his colleagues in the Radio City Music Hall pit band to play it. None of these guys are "name" musicians, with the possible exception of trumpeter Rolf Ericson who played with Duke for a time. No matter- the group interplay and solos are wonderful. There was a lot of doubling in this band, and Levitt made use of the coloristic possiblities. He also had that knack for making 8 musicians sound like 20 if he wanted to. "Dynamic Sound Patterns" indeed- The first tune goes from a rough-voiced trombone call to slightly spooky 3/4 flute & bass unison passage to some swinging ensemble passsages & solos within the first 2 minutes. The rest of the album is similar- constantly shifting and yet somehow cohering. These guys obviously played together a lot and really liked playing what Levitt wrote, and what he wrote was obviously just for this particular set of musicians.

This was Levitt's first LP, a Grammy nominee for 1962's best Jazz album. This reissue is his first full album to make it to CD. Be warned: If you buy this there is good chance you will soon be searching for vinyl copies of the RCA albums (start with "Solid Ground" if you do).

Considering the obscurity of this record, you really have to wonder how much other brilliant music is lying around relatively unheard, buried under the hype given to lesser artists.

Jazz CDs

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