Search - Russo, Bill :: The World Of Alcina

Magic

John F. Frois | Mt. Sheridan, Queensland Australia | 09/04/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The World of Alcina by Bill Russo

Bill Russo had been active in the field of jazz for many years. He headed his own groups in Chicago, where he was born and spent the years from 1950 through 1954 with the Stan Kenton Orchestra for which he wrote a great deal of its most important music.

The re-issue of the above on CD is a great bonus for me and I sincerely hope that the rest of his early work will also be reissued on CD in due course.

Bill Russo's music is magic evoking profound feelings of nostalgia for an era long gone.

His orchestra is a school for listeners. It taught a new way of jazz in its days (late fifties/early sixties). The lyrical and delicate is stressed, formal divisions are important and are clearly indicated, and the improvising soloist and the orchestra player must work within the music, rather than against it. These characteristics were not often found in jazz of the day (1960)and the listener must open his/her ears.

The above is one of three ballets Bill Russo has written and contains a lot of classical elements. Great music!

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