The second album from alto saxophonist
Remy Le Boeuf's big band
Assembly of Shadows, 2021's
Architecture of Storms is an enveloping production showcasing his kinetic improvisation and deeply textured compositional skills. The album is the follow-up to the group's Grammy-nominated 2019 eponymous debut and once again displays their progressive, cross-pollinated approach to modern creative jazz.
Le Boeuf is a sophisticated soloist whose dynamically engaging compositions and arrangements benefit from his choice of bandmates here, including his rhythm section featuring pianist
Martha Kato, bassist
Matt Aronoff, and drummer
Peter Kronreif. We also get masterful contributions by soloists like trumpeter
Mike Rodriguez, tenor saxophonist
Dayna Stephens, trombonist
Natalie Cressman, and others. While much of the album evokes a seemingly improbable combination of the '60s modernism of
Stan Kenton with the languid
ECM expressionism of
Keith Jarrett,
Le Boeuf also weaves in more contemporary influences, reworking singer/songwriter
Justin Vernon aka
Bon Iver's "Minnesota, WI" and revealing his own knack for contemporary indie folk on the original "The Melancholy Architecture of Storms" which he co-wrote with poet
Sara Pirkle and which features vocalist
Julia Easterlin.
Architecture of Storms is an album of dazzling and nuanced modern creative jazz that conjures cinematic landscapes, both real and imagined. ~ Matt Collar
![Waltz for Debby [1962]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0888072323261_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "Waltz for Debby [1962]")
