Song & Wind Aarhus Jazz Orchestra, Jakob Buchanan, Marilyn Mazur, Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir & Carsten Seyer-Hansen

• 1 Song & Wind, Pt. 1: Prelude 03:58
• 2 Song & Wind, Pt. 1: Songs in the Air 07:33
• 3 Song & Wind, Pt. 1: Postlude 05:02
• 4 Song & Wind, Pt. 2: The Stones Make Sand Slow 09:23
• 5 Song & Wind, Pt. 3: If You Want to Hurt Someone 09:01
• 6 Song & Wind, Pt. 4: You Have Only Seen How I Begin 08:42
• 7 Song & Wind, Pt. 5: Rain Falls 05:25
• Total Runtime 49:04

Info for Song & Wind

Song & Wind ist das vierte große Orchesterwerk von Jakob Buchanan, das er für das Aarhus Jazz Orchestra unter der Leitung von Carsten Seyer-Hansen geschrieben hat. Diesmal in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir und Marilyn Mazur und mit Texten von Iain S. Thomas.

In Song & Wind gibt der Kopenhagener Knabenchor den elegischen Melodien Buchanans eine Stimme, die von den warmen Blech- und Holzbläserklängen des Aarhus Jazz Orchestra umarmt und ergänzt werden. Zusammen mit Marilyn Mazurs starken, persönlichen und farbenfrohen Perkussionsbildern hat Buchanan eine einzigartige musikalische Begegnung geschaffen:

Der Knabenchor singt über Sehnsucht, Zweifel und Verlust. Über Schmerz und über Zeit und Ewigkeit. Inspiriert wurde ich durch das Werk des südafrikanischen Dichters Iain S. Thomas und die Gedanken und Gefühle, die mir als Ehemann und Vater, der auf ein langes Leben zurückblickt, durch den Kopf gehen.

Die kleinen existenzialistischen Gedichte von Iain S. Thomas drücken in hohem Maße etwas von dem aus, was in meiner Gedankenwelt und in vielen der Diskussionen über das Leben, die ich mit meiner Frau Nanna führe, vor sich geht.

Gemeinsam haben wir die Gedichte für Lied & Wind ausgewählt.

Die Natur ist jedoch völlig unabhängig von der Gedankenwelt des Menschen - sie ist einfach da. Die Musik ist an den Orten entstanden, an denen ich lebe: in einer Landschaft aus Erde und Feldern auf Mols vor den Toren von Aarhus, geprägt von all den kleinen Hügeln und inmitten der starken Winde vom Meer, die uns umgeben. Es ist auch auf unserem kleinen Bauernhof in Kornhult, Schweden, entstanden - umgeben von der Dunkelheit des Kiefernwaldes, dem Moos und der Vogelwelt.

Marilyn Mazur wird in die Musik eingeladen, weil sie als musikalische Zauberin in der Lage ist, alles in ihrem Spiel zu formen und unterzubringen - und so sowohl Mit- als auch Gegenspiel in der Musik zu schaffen.

Chor der Königlichen Kapelle Kopenhagen
Aarhus Jazz Orchestra
Jakob Buchanan, Flügelhorn
Marilyn Mazur, Percussion
Carsten Seyer-Hansen, Dirigent

Jakob Buchanan
was born in Viby, Jutland. He was raised in Rosenhøjby his Danish mother and British father. He was the first jazz student ever to be accepted at soloist class of the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, Denmark. A position from which he has been able to work closely with familiar artists while also creating unexpected con-stellations. His early works were composed for a jazz sextet and released on his first two albums ‘Dreamfactory’ and ‘i’. Since 2008, Jakob Buchanan has been playing and touring with his quartet for longer periods. Percussionist Marilyn Mazur and guitarist Jakob Bro have been members of the Jakob Buchanan Quartet from the beginning.

Bassist Jonas Westergaard replaces pianist Simon Toldam on the latest quartet album ‘Some People & Some Places’. The album was nominated in two categoriesat the Danish Music Awards Jazz 2014: ‘Jazz Album of the Year’, and ‘Jazz Composer of the Year’. For his album ‘Requiem’, Jakob Buchanan won the Danish Music Awards Jazz 2016 ‘Release of the Year’ and ‘Composer of the Year’, and in 2015 the Jazznyt Award.

Jakob Buchanan teaches trumpet and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark and has toured in allScandinavian countrys, Germany, France, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Poland, America, Canada, and Russia. With Marilyn Mazurs Special 4 and the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra. The Requiem: Alarge-scale work which combined elements from the Latin mass for the dead with European choral tradition, Nordic orchestral music and improvisation. In 2001, Jakob Buchanan became the first jazz musician at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus to take part in the soloist programme, previously reserved for classical students.

Today he teaches composition in the rhythmic department: ‘In Aarhus, you are part of a diverse environment, where jazz is close to classical music, because the Academy has merged the courses. I have always loved the great works and, when I was a student, I could find a way of sneaking in and attending conductors’ rehearsals with strings and orchestras. I studied Russian for acouple of years at the university, and there I discovered Russian avant-garde art from the beginning of the 20th century, including the painter Malevich, who worked with points, lines and surfaces. When I listen to Bach, Tchaikovsky,

Mahler or James Macmillan today, I can find myself listening for the points, the lines and the surfaces of the music. It can be a new way to experience how works are composed.’ Since Requiem, which also saw the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with choral and orchestral conductor Carsten Seyer-Hansen, several orchestral projects have seen the light of day. In 2017, as mentioned, it was

The Voices from Rosenhill written to celebrate Aarhus 2017 –European Capital of Culture. In 2019, Songs To The Green Land for big band, choir and soloists was performed in Aarhus and Copenhagena co-writng project w. Norwegian drummer Helge Andreas Norbakken. Buchanan has also written and recorded with guitarist Jakob Bro a work for choir and instrumental soloists,that have not yet been published. And a new commission awaits it’s releasea piece for Aarhus Jazz Orchestra and the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir under the direction of Carsten Seyer-Hansenand featuring Marilyn Mazur on percussion. Jakob Buchanan has quietly become a new and exciting voice in Danish orchestral music.

Booklet for Song & Wind