For those unaware, multi-Grammy Award-winning producer Ryan Truesdell has spent the last three years scrupulously curating a new project that is finally ready to be shared with the world.

Synthesis: The String Quartet Sessions is an epic, 3-CD collection pairing 15 of today’s leading large ensemble jazz composers with the timeless and venerable instrumentation of the string quartet.

The just-released album features nearly three hours of new music commissioned by Truesdell specifically for this project and the experience and influence of the composers Truesdell assembled span several decades.

Joseph Borsellino III, John Clayton, Alan Ferber, Miho Hazama, John Hollenbeck, Christine Jensen, Asuka Kakitani, Oded Lev-Ari, Jim McNeely, Vanessa Perica, Rufus Reid, Dave Rivello, Nathan Parker Smith, and Ryan Truesdell all wrote new works and Truesdell also included a never-before-recorded composition by Bob Brookmeyer.

In truth, this wondrously artistic ensemble journey is musically breathtaking from start to finish. For the body of this large gathering of jazz composers have really come to their most creative fore here on The String Quartet Sessions, of that you can be well assured.

Having all be asked to write string quartets, all uniquely their own ways, and with no correspondence between them, the end result could have been a swirly mess, but throughout these three CDs, what we instead get is a most remarkable jazz-leaning with classical influences feel that both warms the heart and soothes the soul.

Unique enough that it enables everyone to find their own musical corner of each disc, what composer, arranger, and producer Ryan Truesdell has done is round up 15 large ensemble jazz composers to create 17 brand new works for string quartet which then unleashes a revolutionary collection of nearly 3 hours of genre-breaking material upon the masses.

Lovingly encompassing a rather delightful mix of music that rides the gamut of both classical and jazz, albeit at times with some heavier leanings into one over the other, and yet at all times the music is fascinatingly endearing, engrossing and above all, seductively pleasurable to the ears.

With Truesdell himself having composed for the album, some of my own personal favorites include Copycat and Playground for String Quartet 2, Ropes & Ladders by Oded Lev-Ari, and Truesdell’s very own Suite for Clarinet and String Quartet (which features Anat Cohen and John Clatyon’s Tidal Wave).

Most of the composers have chosen to stick within the traditional quartet formation of two violins, viola and cello, but several feature soloists within this context, including Christine Jensen whose lovely Tilting World features violin soloist Sara Caswell.

Synthesis challenges old perceptions of the traditional string quartet, extending the limits of its capabilities and drawing fresh, revolutionary sounds from the strings while exploring a new genre of music cultivated at the intersection of jazz, classical, world, and contemporary music.

Anat Cohen – clarinet, Sara Caswell – violin, Joyce Hammann – violin, Lady Jess – violin, Lois Martin – viola, Orlando Wells – viola, Jody Redhage-Ferber – cello, Noah Hoffeld – cello, Jody Redhage-Ferber – cello, Jay Anderson – bass,John Hollenbeck – drums / marimba / piano.

www.ryantruesdell.com

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