The Re-(w)Rite of Spring

When Mobtown Modern Music Series curator Brian Sacawa invited Darryl Brenzel to adapt Igor Stravinsky’s radical orchestral ballet “The Rite of Spring” for a modern 17-piece jazz big band, no one really knew what was going to happen. There were, after all, riots at the piece’s 1913 Paris premiere. Fortunately, when Brenzel’s creation was unveiled at Baltimore’s Metro Gallery on May 12, 2010, the audience kept their seats in rapt attention, consumed by a work as boldly unconventional as Stravinsky’s original.

Brenzel — recently retired from the Army Jazz Ambassadors — tackled each of the original piece’s 14 sections as its own piece, building off Stravinsky’s original harmonies and melodic material but adapting them and creating space for improvisation by the band’s members, some of the finest instrumentalists in Baltimore/DC area. In Brenzel’s hands, the work stretched and grew. Moving fluidly from big band swing to Afro-Cuban grooves to flamenco rhythms and even down and gritty James Brown funk, the group covers a tremendous swath of large band styles, far beyond primeval Russia. There are echoes of Ellington, Mingus, Evans and Maria Schneider, even as Brenzel’s own unique voice asserts itself.

This recording of the Mobtown Modern Big Band’s performance almost didn’t make it into your hands. This was, after all, conceived as a performance, not a studio session. But once the tape was spun back, it was clear that the results of this magical evening were too good to only share with bandmembers. Innova Recordings is proud to present it in all its wild, boundary-hopping glory, a testament to the enduring strength of Stravinksy’s original, the flexibility and creativity of this rewrite, and the skill of the band itself in carrying it off.