UP FROM THE SKIES
McNeely's arrangement of the Jimi Hendrix title track that opens the disc clearly demonstrates his ability to preserve the band's distinctive personality while exploring fresh sounds.
Russ MustoAll About Jazz
read moreAs usual, McNeely’s work is harmonically and texturally rich, the kind of music that offers something new on efavor of inventive, sophisticated composition for jazz orchestra.
David FranklinJazzTimes
read moreCARNEGIE HALL JAZZ BAND
In the music's massed detail, one heard all points along the scale from corny to beautiful; the latter was represented by Jim McNeely's startling arrangement of ''I'm Getting Sentimental Over You.'' It began with one long, cloudlike note held by muted trombones and flutes, from which the melody trickled forth; the thick, soft brass arrangements of the piece, and its brief sequential passages for lone instruments, made a well-recognized tune exotic.
Ben RatliffNew York Times
read moreMr. McNeely's ''Future Past'' was about two ways big-band composers responded after be-bop: with the contained, chamber-music-tinged, misty pieces of Gil Evans and the muscle-flexing but harmonically far-reaching arrangements of Oliver Nelson and Thad Jones.
Jon ParelesNew York Times
read moreBut none of this truly gave a warning of what would happen when the soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman came out to perform "Let's Dance," and then "Sing, Sing, Sing." Mr. McNeely has completely rewritten these pieces, using Gil Evans as a guide. Big, airy brass chords floated above the rhythm section. The melodies were submerged under the gauzy textures of the arrangement. And occasionally Mr. McNeely quoted a voice that might have been from the original arrangement, hard, dense harmony that contrasted with the modernism he provided.
Peter WatrousNew York Times
read moreMcNeely's recasting of "Sing, Sing, Sing" contrasted sustained trombone melodies with angular intrusions and hints from other strains of the piece, and his arrangement utilized the call/resbrass - in a cataclysmic, post-modern fashion.
George KanzlerThe Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)
read moreThe concert opened with Mr. McNeely's "Berlin Porter Overture," an extended piece that stacked song on song, with Mr. McNeely casting them differently each time. "Blue Skies," for example, became dissonant. Mr. McNeely had tempos and rhythms change for each composition, occasionally opening the tunes up to improvisations.
Peter WatrousNew York Times
read moreBut the concert's standout was Jim McNeely's arrangement of ''Matrix.'' The tune is a witty line for a 12-bar blues that Mr. Corea recorded in 1968. Thirty years later, he and Mr. McNeely kept turning it inside out: placing it in a one-chord meditation, having the band play parts of Mr. Corea's original solo as he improvised comebacks, finding new implications in the harmony.
JON PARELESNew York Times
read moreJim McNeely's arrangement of Louis Prima's ''Sing, Sing, Sing'' was close to brilliant, an imaginative mixture of strict, complicated section writing and devices that destabilized the orchestra in favor of small-band heat.
Ben RatliffNew York Times
read moreLICKETY SPLIT
Equally engrossing, the music on Lickity Split teems with myriad attitudes. As it unfolds, it details the synchronicity between McNeely's arranging talent and his prowess as a composer.
Jim MacnieDownbeat
read moreAs boldly as its title suggests, "Lickety Split: The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra Plays the Music of Jim McNeely" (New World) takes our notions of how a jazz big band can and should sound and shakes the living lickety out of them. In fact, the last time the orchestral language of jazz received such a welcome jolt may have been when the famed Miles Davis-Gil Evans album "Miles Ahead" was released--and that was way back in 1957.
Larry KartChicago Tribune
read moreThis is certainly one of the most sophisticated and highly drilled big bands in the country, and Mr. McNeely stokes the fire with cerebral music, full of musicians' jokes and touches that come from Lewis's palette, like an affinity for muted brass and soprano saxophones.
Ben RatliffNew York Times
read moreJim McNeely, who having served as pianist during the band's transitional 1978-84 period returned to the fold in 1996, just in time to undertake this challenging project. The band's legendary, steady Monday night gig at the Village Vanguard is now in its 31st year, thereby outlasting the entire lifetimes of Bix Beiderbecke, Charlie Christian, Jimmy Blanton and Fats Navarro and almost those of Bunny Berigan and Charlie Parker.
Jack SohmerJazzTimes
read moreJim McNeely, their pianist and composer-in-residence. A Chicago native best known for his association with Stan Getz, he has quietly become one of the sharpest composers on the scene. Touched by the far-reaching classicism of Gil Evans, a restless exploratory quality informs his pieces.
Lloyd SachsChicago Sun-Times
read moreGROUP THERAPY
OmniTone set McNeely up in the studio with an agile little big band and a chance to show off all his tuneful goods at once. McNeely, in turn, set the band loose on a host of his own wild originals and his creative rearrangements.
Aaron SteinbergJazzTimes
read moreOTHER BIG BAND RECORDINGS
Pianist/composer Jim McNeely is a glorious exception. This five-part suite recorded in Cologne by the WDR Big Band - plus bassist Marc Johnson, drummer Adam Nussbaum and chief soloist, guitarist John Scofield - bristles with invention.
Mark StrykerDayton Daily News
read moreJim McNeely is a true composer. He doesn’t string together riffs or rehash tired licks, but produces works for jazz ensemble that are highly original and technically sophisticated.
David FranklinJazzTimes
read moreRITUALS
The Stravinsky-inspired music that Jim McNeely wrote and arranged for Chris Potter to perform with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band has risen to the top of the class among this year’s contemporary large jazz ensemble releases....Rituals is a fascinating listen, a dramatic homage of breathtaking breadth and sophistication that succeeds on every level.
Ed EnrightDownBeat
read moreThe union of a composer such as Jim McNeely, at the height of his abilities, with the virtuosic powerhouse that is Chris Potter, supported by one of the world’s most accomplished bands, has a lot to live up to. Thankfully, this is an album that seems to successfully ful[l expectations and keep delivering new revelations. All it takes is a keen ear and an hour of time.
Charles ReesLondon Jazz News
read moreOther Press
McNeely was an omnipresent force at this year's conference, both teaching and performing.
International Musician
read moreEspecially fine are his exploration of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Zingaro," his chromatic stroll around the edges of "Body and Soul" and his pithy treatment of Monk's "Bye Ya" and Bud Powell's "Un Poco Loco."
Jeff BradleyThe Denver Post
read moreMcNeely plays the hell out of “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” for almost nine minutes, quietly, without repeating himself, in heartfelt single-note lines of genuine grace. Not bad for an arranger.
Thomas ConradJazzTimes
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