Concert in the Garden is the fourth studio album by American jazz composer Maria Schneider. The album was released in 2004 by ArtistShare and won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 2005.
In 2019, the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Background Schneider's three previous albums were nominated for Grammy Awards, but the previous one, Allégresse, was released four years before Concert in the Garden. The delay has been attributed to the financial difficulty of recording with large groups, which are required for the music that Schneider writes.
Compared to previous albums, this album is more classical than jazz, with a greater influence of Brazilian, Spanish, and flamenco music.
Reception The JazzTimes review was mostly positive, stating, "Three Romances" and "Buleria, Solea y Rumba" "are revelatory in their complete realization", but the solos on the title track "are not strong enough to provide sufficient contrast to the piece's slow, hovering progress".
The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the album a maximum four stars and added it to the book's Core Collection. It stated that the title-track was “a slight disappointment”, but overall the album was "the great achievement of her career so far."
Legacy The album was inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2019. In its citation, the Library of Congress stated that, alongside its musical merits, Concert in the Garden's release on ArtistShare, the first ever commercial crowdfunding website (the album was the site's first fan-funded project), as well as becoming the first-ever Grammy-winning album to be sold on the Internet instead of in stores, marked it as a trailblazer in music distribution, opening the door for ways "to respond to fan-driven demand for styles of music not otherwise readily available, while offering artists greater control over their work."
Track listing
Personnel
Maria Schneider – conductor Charles Pillow – alto and soprano saxophones, clarinet, flute, oboe, English horn Tim Ries – alto and soprano saxophones, clarinet, alto and bass flutes Rich Perry – tenor saxophone, flute Donny McCaslin – tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet, flute Scott Robinson – baritone saxophone, flute, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet Tony Kadleck – trumpet, flügelhorn Greg Gisbert – trumpet, flügelhorn Laurie Frink – trumpet, flügelhorn Ingrid Jensen – trumpet, flügelhorn Keith O'Quinn – trombone Rock Ciccarone – trombone Larry Farrell – trombone George Flynn – bass trombone, contrabass trombone Ben Monder – guitar Frank Kimbrough – piano Jay Anderson – double bass Clarence Penn – drums Jeff Ballard – cajón and quinto cajón on "Bulería, Soleá y Rumba" (stereo right) Gonzalo Grau – cajón on "Bulería, Soleá y Rumba" (stereo left) Gary Versace – accordion on "Concert in the Garden" Luciana Souza – voice on "Concert in the Garden" and "Bulería, Soleá y Rumba". Voice and pandeiro on "Choro Dançado" Pete McGuinness – trombone on "Pas de Deux" and "Dança Ilusória" Andy Middleton – tenor saxophone on "Pas de Deux" and "Dança Ilusória"
References
External links Maria Schneider.com - Concert in the Garden