Do You Ride?

Darrell Katz and the JCA Orchestra the centerpiece of the new disc is Wheelworks, an eight-movement suite consisting of settings of things that Albert Einstein did and did NOT say about the learning, knowledge, love and war, and exquisitely sung by the voice of the JCA, Rebecca Shrimp ton, who, over the years, has proven to have such great skill at bringing musical ideas and text to life. Why Do You Ride?(Leo Records)is the group's 10th CD. Arriving on the cusp of the JCAO's thirtieth anniversary year, Why Do You Ride? shows off Katz's deft ability to juggle off-kilter modernism with electrifying dynamic shifts and a tumult of jazz-history reference points in his vivid, smash-cut big band arrangements, all combined for this excursion with his love for cycling and his less-than-thorough internet research standards. The results are executed by an expert ensemble that tempers virtuosity with a liberal dose of irreverence, precisely navigating hairpin turns while maintaining just enough danger to make you believe you just might go off the cliff into total chaos.