Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s in-house recording label, releases Sherman Irby’s Inferno by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Irby, the lead alto saxophonist of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, cleverly interprets Dante Alighieri’s epic poem from “The Divine Comedy” to create a sweeping work that takes listeners on a lyrically swinging tour of the underworld’s nine circles. Sherman Irby’s Inferno will be available exclusively on all digital platforms on January 17, 2020.
In the epic composition—recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater in 2012—the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra all-star improvisers give life to the colorful denizens of hell and casts the late, legendary baritone saxophonist and founding member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Joe Temperley as the voice of “Dante.” Sherman Irby’s Inferno both stands alone as an irresistible musical narrative and sheds new light on Dante’s classic; this unique exploration of the epic poem captures its timeless quality and ingeniously places it in conversation with the jazz canon.
TRACK LISTING:
All movements composed by Sherman Irby
1. Overture: Lost
Solo: Joe Temperley (baritone saxophone)
2. Movement I: House of Unbelievers
Solos: Ted Nash (flute), Victor Goines (clarinet), Chris Crenshaw (trombone)
3. Movement II: Insatiable Hunger
Solos: Walter Blanding (tenor and soprano saxophone), Vincent Gardner (trombone)
4. Movement III: Beware the Wolf and the Serpent
Solos: Sherman Irby (alto saxophone), Elliot Mason (trombone), Wynton Marsalis (trumpet)
5. Movement IV: The City of Dis
Solos: Walter Blanding (soprano saxophone and oboe), Ted Nash (flute)
6. Movement V: The Three-Headed Serpent
Solos: Ali Jackson (drums), Victor Goines (tenor saxophone), Ted Nash (alto saxophone), Kenny Rampton (trumpet), Marcus Printup (trumpet), Dan Nimmer (piano)
7. Movement VI: The Great Deceiver / Finale: The Shores of Mount Purgatory
Solos: Carlos Henriquez (bass), Dan Nimmer (piano), Joe Temperley (baritone saxophone)
PERSONNEL:
THE JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA WITH WYNTON MARSALIS
REEDS
Sherman Irby (alto saxophone, clarinet, and flute)
Ted Nash (alto saxophone, clarinet, and flute)
Victor Goines (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and clarinet)
Walter Blanding (tenor saxophone)
Joe Temperley (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet)
TRUMPETS
Ryan Kisor
Marcus Printup
Kenny Rampton
Wynton Marsalis
TROMBONES
Vincent Gardner
Chris Crenshaw
Elliot Mason
RHYTHM SECTION
Dan Nimmer (piano)
Carlos Henriquez (bass)
Ali Jackson (drums)
SPECIAL GUEST:
Joe Temperley (baritone saxophone)
About Blue Engine Records
Blue Engine Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s platform that makes its vast archive of recorded concerts available to jazz audiences everywhere, launched on June 30, 2015. Blue Engine Records releases new studio and live recordings as well as archival recordings from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s performance history that date back to 1987 and are part of the R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library. Since the institution’s founding in 1987, each year’s programming is conceived and developed by Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis with a vision toward building a comprehensive library of iconic and wide-ranging compositions that, taken together, make up a canon of music. These archives include accurate, complete charts for the compositions – both old and new – performed each season. Coupled with consistently well-executed and recorded music performed by Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, this archive has grown to include thousands of songs from hundreds of concert dates. The launch of Blue Engine is aligned with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s efforts to cultivate existing jazz fans worldwide and turn new audiences on to jazz. For more information on Blue Engine Records, visit www.jazz.org/blueengine