Cellar Music Group is pleased to announce the October 20th, 2023 release of Antoine Drye with Strings’ Retreat To Beauty (Oblation Vol 3.: Providence!), marking an exciting new musical direction for NYC-based trumpeter Antoine Drye.

On this seminal release, Drye joins forces with esteemed orchestrator Isaac Raz and an ensemble of over twenty musicians. Retreat To Beauty takes its cues from landmark orchestral recordings within the Black American musical idiom, paying particular attention to the iconic Clifford Brown with Strings.

The album delivers breathtaking lush arrangements of jazz standards and original material, giving a deft modern twist to a classic orchestral jazz sound.

Drye is joined by a deeply adept rhythm section comprised of pianist Sullivan Fortner, bassist Ben Wolfe, and drummer Donald Edwards. The ensemble sound is augmented by David Bertrand and Myron Walden on flutes, John Ellis on clarinets, trumpeter Charlie Porter, trombonists Willie Applewhite and David Gibson, french horn players Patrick Milando and Alexandra Cook, Becca Patterson on tuba, violinists Christina Courtin and Trina Basu, cellist Marika Hughes, violist Jessica Troy, bassist Brandi Disterheft, as well as vocalists Kim Kimistri Kalesti and AC Lincoln.

Three actors on the first track, Vondie Curtis Hall, Sebastian Stoller, and David Stoller, set the tone for the album with a delightful tableau of a father bringing his daughter to hear a jazzy orchestra for the very first time.

1. Dada takes Lilykenz to a show! (1:14)
2. 37 (5:22)
3. Isfahan (4:50)
4. Friend (4:52)
5. When It’s Sleepy Time Down South (3:28)
6. Oblation (4:51)
7.The Peacocks (7:21)
8. Reflections (3:56)
9. Send In The Clowns (3:47)
10. Laura (3:33)
11. Goodbye (4:58)

The new recording opens on the short, but very sweet, and aptly titled Dada takes Lilykenz to a show! and the sheer elegance of 37 and then we get given the delicious Isfahan, the ornately sculptured Friend and then comes the dutifully succulent When It’s Sleepy Time Down South and the emboldened Oblation.

The flourishing The Peacocks is up next and is itself backed by the veritably shimmering Reflections and then we get a yearning Send In The Clowns, a prosperous, the CD rounding out on a sweeping Laura, closing on a delightfully elegant Goodbye.

Rarely does an album successfully marry tradition and innovation, meeting the sounds of yesteryear with the tastes and sensibilities of the modern day – this is only one of the impossible feats that Drye and Raz accomplish with Retreat To Beauty.

Equally rare is an album that successfully encapsulates the raw thrill and energy of hearing a live orchestral jazz performance while retaining the crystal clarity and nuance of a studio release.

Retreat To Beauty (Oblation Vol 3., Providence!), the third installment in Drye’s long standing Oblation series figures around ‘providence’, referring to a divine guidance. ‘Oblation’ refers to the act of offering in a spiritual manner – like so many classic albums before it. Across the project, Drye delivers his melodic refrains with urgency and an unerring soulfulness, befitting the album’s dedication.

Official Purchase Link