Gunther Schuller: Journey Into Jazz

BMOP/sound's latest release is the first compilation album of Gunther Schuller's works for the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet. Creator of the "Third Stream," Schuller is a master of weaving the structural complexities found in contemporary classical music with the improvisational elements of jazz. Reminiscent of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf," "Journey into Jazz" is the story of Eddy Jackson, a boy who learns to play jazz. Schuller himself narrates the work, which was written by famed jazz critic and author Nat Hentoff. In contrast, "Variants" and "Concertino" offer an exploration of the wholly original sound of jazz quartet and orchestra.