Search - Ann Millikan :: Ballad Nocturne

Dream-like jazz

Filippo Focosi | Italy | 04/19/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ann Millikan is a very interesting composer, who began as a jazz player and later became an accomplished classical composer. Her jazz roots are evident in the first piece of the cd, named Ballad Nocturne. As the title suggests, it is a sort of smooth jazz ballad, tinged with nocturne atmospheres, due to a very crafted, impressionistic orchestration and to a very fluid development of themes. I think it would be appropriate to describe this piece as a kind of "dreamlike jazz", a label which we could attribute as well to Ned Rorem's Lions (a Dream) (just to give an example). The same dream-like quality is exhibited also in the other two pieces of the cd, but with significant differences. In fact, while Thrilas de Sombra is darker and a little nostalgic, Landing inside the inside of an animal, while beginning in dark moods, soon incorporates south American rhythms and colours, which bring the piece to an energetic climax culminating in a joyous conclusion."