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GENRE: Jazz/Violin
COMPOSER: Carl Saunders

Vol. 6 also serves to reintroduce violinist Ben Powell, a player whose budding reputation as a world-class jazz artist has been eclipsed in recent years by his status as a first-call studio musician and muse for heavyweight Hollywood composers such as Alexandre Desplat, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri and Hans Zimmer (he did all of the violin work on the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack). While the jazz scene could certainly use a virtuosic violinist with his expansive toolkit, Powell isn't looking to get back into the jazz fray. This project is more a neon-lit marquee on a road not taken than a preview of Powell's coming attractions.

Saunders however is still in the early stages of excavating fruitful decades of composing. Summit Records launched the ongoing New Jazz Standards project in 2014 with an acclaimed album showcasing the nonpareil jazz flute pioneer Sam Most. In what turned out to be his final recording, the 82-year-old Most delivered a bravura performance gracefully navigating the intricate harmonic settings. Each new New Jazz Standards edition has followed a similar template, with a prodigiously gifted artist choosing from Saunders' Songbook. Trombone great Scott Whitfield, piano legend Roger Kellaway, guitarist Larry Koonse, and sparkling pianist Christian Jacob have all plunged into Saunders' music. Taken together, the series makes an incontrovertible case for his seemingly indefatigable gift for musical invention.

"Ben does an overwhelmingly beautiful job playing all the string parts. His ability to balance jazz and legit is incomparable. His time is impeccable, his solos are imaginative and his phrasing of the string parts is so naturally conceived and played. Ben Powell is the real deal." -Carl Saunders

"NJS Volume 6 is the combination of one of the world's greatest rhythm sections, a selection of Hollywood's most formidable musical arrangers and two years of recording..." -Ben Powell

Track Listing

Sales Points

• For fans of REAL, great jazz played by world-class musicians with impeccable reputations...

Press Quotes

'...Saunders' compositions demonstrate originality and harmonic ingenuity.'

     —Arts Journal

'Every time I receive a copy of an album in the New Jazz Standards series, I know I'm going to be in for a treat--and I haven't been wrong yet.

     —CD Hotlist

As to Saunders' themes, they are consistently bright and charming...there's no doubt that Saunders has a keen ear for captivating melodies and the ability to arrange them in a tasteful and harmonious musical context.'

     —All About Jazz

Trumpeter Carl Saunders is one of the jazz world's great technicians, a composer and improviser...Each of the Saunders compositions light up the universe, bright stars on the horizon. To me, they sound like jazz standards.

     —Dee Dee McNeil, Musical Memoirs